We travel to Aruba twice a year and never miss an opportunity to sail/snorkel with Albert and Joanne on the Black Pearl. This 3-hour sail cruise includes extremely comfortable lounge seating and is limited to 20 guests! They serve complimentary drinks (don't miss the "house" drink), two stops for snorkeling and delicious home-made sandwiches! This is an extremely enjoyable late afternoon activity complete with a beautiful sunset!! Don't miss it! Joanne and Albert are wonderful hosts!!

I chose this tour based on the website's description. It is exactly as advertised and it met all our expectations. Moreover the owners and staff convey a very friendly, "we felt like family", experience. Joanne and Albert were great. It was not just the wind, the sails, the island, the snorkeling, the custom rum drinks, the gourmet sandwiches, the lounge/beach chaise chairs, the small group of 20 people with similar expectations, but the staff made it a cohesive totally relaxing and peaceful experience. My wife and I are 57 and my 2 sons,are 21 and 26 and we enjoyed the experience.

We visited Aruba on Jan 13,2011 aboard the Celebrity Millennium. Our time in port made it impossible to enjoy a sunset cruise so I did the next best thing and booked a private cruise with Capt. Albert and Joann and I am most happy that I did. I rounded up another 8 couples via our roll call on cruisecritic.com and reserved our spot with my credit card . After arriving in Aruba we disembarked promptly, met up and took the bus to Eagle beach ($4.60 round trip per couple) and made our way to the dock where the Black Pearl awaited us. We had a most relaxing and fun time and must say that although the snorkeling was just "okay" the trip itself was a delightful time. I really enjoyed all the room aboard the boat which allowed us to get to visit with each other comfortably. Captain Albert and Joanne clearly enjoy what they do and it shows in their gracious attitudes and insistence in learning each our names. In short, I encourage those of you who might be cruising to Aruba to take advantage of the opportunity for a private sail on the Black Pearl --- I know that we will when we return.

Everyone who has been on the Black Pearl for the afternoon snorkel and sunset sail has described the friendly, low key approach to hospitality, the comfortable, shaded lounge seats on the boat and the wonderful drinks and food served at your personal seat. What I can add is this: if you are on the cruise ships and the time works for you---GO on THIS day sail! Everyone we talked to who did something else was jealous of our experience and value for the $$. We took the city bus to the Marriott Surf club (RT for 2.30) and the bus driver helped us get the right stop. Here's the hard part: we walked through the Marriott Pool property to find the pier and it is a little difficult to find the opening to the beach. On the return trip back to the bus stop, we walked by the Mumba Beach bar and directly to the street without passing on the Marriott property. I don't know if there is a good way to describe how to get to the pier, but allow a little extra time to find the place, because the boat leaves on schedule!
We went to Broken Wall and Boca Catalina to snorkel and there was plenty of time to explore. It gets windy in Aruba so take a jacket or sweatshirt for when the sun sets.
We had beautiful weather on our trip and that also made for a perfect trip. We were only a few feet from a sailboat with the Dutch version of "Bachelor" The sunset was gorgeous and was captured by Albert who sent us a digital video of our trip. How is that for personalized service?
We will go again if we ever get back to Aruba. Hope this helps if you're trying to find a good tour for Aruba.