Vera2208
We rented a 10 sleeper houseboat for the week so our family (3 kids (20,15 & 5), parents and grandparents) could enjoy the beautiful lakes and beaches. I want to start by saying we had a fantastic week, boating, sunbathing, lying in the jacuzzi, sliding, tubing and jet skiing. The boat is made up of main sitting/TV area with 2 seater sofa (sofabed), flatscreen TV/DVD and satellite TV and helm, dining table (4), kitchen with bar area seating 2, 1 bathroom with shower, basin and WC, 1 half bath with basin and WC (only 1 small rail in each bathroom, no hooks for hanging wet towels, however boat does have plenty of bath towels), 2 upper bedrooms, each sleeping 2 on a full mattress and 2 lower bedrooms also sleeping 2 each. Each bedroom has a small (1.5" x 3.5') cupboard with no shelves in which you can store your clothes. The upper bedrooms then have use of the top of this cupboard for books/cups/whatever, the lower bedrooms at least have a foot wide shelf running the length of the bedroom, which provides more storage space. All bedrooms are a bit tricky for the person sleeping inside to visit the bathroom during the night! Up top there is a nice sized sunbathing area, slide, bar with 4 fixed stools, jacuzzi and covered seating, as well as the upper helm. The boat also has a BBQ. However ...Whilst overall the boat was acceptable and plenty big enough for the 7 of us, we had generator problems on a couple of occasions, one of which meant we spent the night without a/c, which was extremely uncomfortable, the toilets didn't function properly and in fact one night (at 3am!) they caused the charger to run down and set off the carbon monoxide warning system. Loud beeping causing everyone to wake up. The boat was also stated to have a 'fully equipped' kitchen but this is definitely not the case, although it does come with a large fridge/freezer, which was a boon. Whilst it has the basics required to cook and serve food, there were no serving bowls/plates for salad, no corkscrew (we had to buy one) and initially our can opener didn't work, although they brought us a functioning one and a plastic bowl. There were also no wine glasses (plastic or otherwise), not a big problem but would've been preferable to solo cups! Despite the deck having been hosed down there were cobwebs everywhere and the patio table definitely needs replacing. It is my opinion that their entire fleet is 'tired'.However, the boys that work at the marina and ferry you out of the port were helpful, cheerful and basically couldn't do more for us. Really nice lads. Whenever we had a breakdown (ie generator) we radioed in and someone was despatched in a swift boat immediately (except the night the generator went down, but it was midnight and we didn't put a call in until the morning).Would I book a houseboat again? Definitely.Would I use Port Royale again? Possibly not.Did we have a fantastic week (despite the hiccups)? Absolutely. Houseboating is a leisurely way of seeing the lakes, BBQing and chilling out and spending quality family time together. Everyone had fun on the slide, my boys fished from the beaches catching plenty of Catfish and Crawpy, but unfortunately no Bass! We soaked up the sun on deck and lounged in the jacuzzi, we BBQ'd at least twice a day and enjoyed an evening drink watching the sun go down. We also rented a power boat and did some tubing, which was excellent fun and then a couple days later we rented a jet ski, which all my boys loved. Both rented craft were also from Paradise/Port Royale and were in excellent condition. Be warned the weekends are busy busy on the lake, but during the week was lovely and peaceful. Also for those that don't know, jetskis are 'thirsty' machines!