The chef slept in the crew cabin. This is not the best of cabins on a Lagoon 450 - it only has deck access via a hatch. However, she did not complain once about it. We offered to switch her around to an inside cabin because the kids were sleeping outside or in cockpit of their own choice, but she said she was just fine in the crew cabin.

The fee was $200 per day (plus a tip), which I think is higher than the Moorings fee for a chef. While this seems high, I think our total expenses were not a lot higher than other trips because the beach restaurants charge soooo much. (I do have a sheet of our expenses to go over, but I have not done it yet.) We ate dinner out once, and spent $400 on one meal (Wonky Dog). We ate lunch out once and spent a lot there too. Onboard we had no waiting for tables or slow service! I thought I would miss going out to eat more often but I really did not. We would sometimes go in for a drink at bar, but since we were having dinner onboard I think our bar bills were generally lower too.

We occasionally pitched in to help with washing some dishes, but the chef did 98% or more and helped keep the main salon more tidy than it usually is. We set the table sometimes, but with everything lined up for us, it was a trivial task.

We got along very well with her and she seemed to like us, or at least she was very good at making us feel that way. Perhaps this is an important skill for an onboard chef to have. She did say she would be happy to go on a trip with us again.

I do have a captain's license, but I don't think it's necessary to hire on crew. She was not paying us for the trip, which is generally the test. However, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice!

It was a real treat when appetizers, cocktails, or a yummy meal just appeared for us! And this happened multiple times a day!