Where do I start, and what wonderful things can I say that haven’t already been said by other passengers on this ship, my home for the week I was lucky enough to sail on her?

After reading so many of the other (spot-on) reviews about Diamant, I think one of the things unsaid might be how special and unique the crew made the passengers feel, as if the week for the crew was as novel and exciting as it was for us—yet they sail these waters and visit these islands every week! I never for one second was made to feel as if my experience—my adventure—wasn’t the single most important thing in the world to them. I didn't feel that my excitement about seeing a spotted sea eel or a puffer fish or the Southern Cross was pedestrian. Quite the contrary: Captain Phillip made the effort to make sure I saw the Southern Cross (often obscured by the hills of the islands at our nightly anchorages), which was on my personal trip wish list; and he gave me an enthusiastic “OK” sign when I waved him over to show him the sea eel I saw while snorkeling in the Tobago Cays. My sense of awe was met with understanding and enthusiasm, never condescension. All of this seems to me as much an outcome of how particularly suited this crew is for their work as how beautiful the Grenadines are (so could anyone really ever tire of them?).

And at the risk of having all of the Cruise Critic reviews of the Diamant sound like a broken record, I must confirm every complimentary word already written—about the ship, the crew, the food, the islands, the people, the beaches, the water, the breezes, the sailing, the snorkeling, the sunsets, AND sunrises, as I was lucky enough to wake up early one morning when we set sail before dawn. The captain and his crew were in perfect sync; no matter what the activity or time of day, I felt comfortable and safe and looked after. The level of personal service and attention was remarkable; from Roy watching over a shipmate and me nonstop as we snorkeled from the ship to and from a rock formation to Bolo never letting me lift a finger for anything myself, and from Marlon returning to Diamant when I even HINTED that I might like a raft to lounge on at the shore—after he had just dropped us off in the dinghy—to Philbert baking a cake to celebrate my birthday with hardly any notice our very first night on the water, I felt—I don’t know how else to describe it—like royalty or a rock star, and I’m certainly neither. Read more