We have done 2 "captain only" charters and before we went on our first one, we had the exact same questions. As the above poster said, sometimes they joined us, sometimes they didn't. We didn't invite them to every meal on shore, like maybe just drinks/appetizers. We were lucky and really enjoyed being around both captains, but it's also just nice to be with the friends you're vacationing with. They didn't ever let us take the dinghy by ourselves <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" /> It seems most professional crew would "know" how much to be around. However, one of my co-workers had a captain that didn't seem to know his boundries and drove them crazy <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> . That being said, I feel like you just tell them what you're thinking. It's your vacation, not theirs!