We don’t often do day trips when we are in Europe so thought while we were traveling slightly further afield we would give the Tunisia pirate ship trip a chance.
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We booked through the activity guy at the hotel – Zied. They only take cash which he didn’t tell us till after we had booked and told the kids so I had to walk to the nearest cash machine with him and hand over 630TND. Didn’t look dodgy at all handing over this wad of cash!
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We were sold it as a half day trip including the opportunity to see dolphins in the wild, swim out at sea, watch live pirate stunt shows, with soft drinks and a BBQ lunch included.
A summary of our Tunisia Pirate Ship trip
8.15 am We had to be in reception ready to leave so we had a quick breakfast.
8.45 We were picked up by the coach which did around 4 more pick ups after us and had already done a few before so the coach was quite busy. It seemed they also over booked as around 6 people were left standing on the coach even though we moved Holly and Oscar onto our laps to free up a couple of seats.
9.20 Arrived at the marina and boarded the boat.
9.50 We departed the marina – it was ROUGH, I suffer from sea sickness but thankfully managed to hold it together, not everyone was so lucky but we will get to that later.
9.55 a 5 min ‘stunt’ display which included them climbing the netting and sliding back down and then they came round with headscarves and taking photos with everyone. (10 TND per headscarf and per photo approx £2.50(as of 21/4/25), which they are quite insistent on you having and will put it on the kids heads before telling you, you have to pay)
Out at sea
10.30 We stopped absolutely no-one had any idea what was going on and one of the entertainment crew disappeared off on a speedboat to the main land. All the announcements are in multiple languages and the speakers are so bad you can’t hear a thing!
We were told we would see dolphins so thought perhaps this is what we were stopped for , but no dolphins were seen unfortunately.
Tried to get drinks and told they aren’t free even though we were sold it as drinks and food included which was disappointing as we would have just brought some with us. They did have a water dispenser on the lower deck so at least we has something.
The bar was also cash only and we didn’t have any on us. So buying drinks / ice cream wasn’t an option. But it did also mean I didn’t have to buy headscarves and photos!
10.35 The pirates stepped out onto the top deck and did 3 party dances with everyone up there.
10.45 they dropped the ladders so you can swim its barely off the coast. You could also jump from the first or second deck. We didn’t take part as everyone said the water was freezing cold. And the boat was rocking so much I was too worried about the kids getting pulled under it.
Lunchtime.. at 11am?
11.00 Food is served – unsurprisingly this also wasn’t as advertised, we were told it would be a BBQ and well… this is what we were served, I guess the meat was BBQ’d? We also got an orange each. Holly and Oscar were very happy with their food as they basically live off spaghetti and pasta.
11.30 The crew member reappeared clutching a bag (which we now know were the printed photos they wanted to sell!) and we started to head back
11.50 There was a dance show. None of them were in costume which was a shame as it was just basically 3 random men hopping about at this point. One of them was even wearing a football jumper (boo to PSG!) It was ok but just being in costume would have made it better.
12.00 The danger show – This is where it got a bit interesting but also a bit inappropriate for the smaller children.
First he balanced someone on his back with a face mask made of nails, then he did it with a sword to his throat and finally with the sword in his eye socket. I couldn’t watch, even though I am sure he is very well practiced with the thought of it going wrong and the swaying of the boat was all too much for me! I did record it though so I could screen shot it in all it’s glory for you all to enjoy and the video will be available on tiktok.
12.30 We arrived back at marina – on the way back they had come round asking for tips, which we had expected but we didn’t have any cash and they did get abit aggressive about it.
12.35 back on the coach – We didn’t seem to take as many people back as the coach wasn’t as full heading back.
13.50 Arrived back at the hotel starving and thirsty and headed straight for lunch!
I’d probably skip the next few photos if you aren’t a fan of vomit …
Both the mens and womens toilets sinks were filled with sick and unusable. Thankfully I had taken some hand soap and just used the water from the dispenser to wash my hands. None of the toilets had seats on either (Gaz confirmed the mens toilets were the same with both the blocked sink and lack of seats!) They also ran out of toilet paper before we stopped for the swim.
Someone had also been sick over the side and across one of the bench seats which wasn’t cleaned even though it happened early on in the trip.
When you exit the marina there are so many people trying to sell you things and grab you.
We had a lady with 2 small children trying to give us roses (the child actually put one in my bag and I quickly whipped it out and gave it back!)
There were also 4 different bird people trying to get you to pose for photos with their birds before asking you for money.
In summary…
The kids had the best time on, Oscar is so happy he’s been on a ‘real’ pirate ship and loved all the music and dancing. He also quite liked just looking out over the water and spotting other boats.
As an adult it was very stressful and disappointing but thankfully I didn’t do it with high expectations!
Cost
Adults were £35 and under 12’s half price. They did only charge us 3 adults and 3 children even though Lottie is technically an adult so it was slightly cheaper being £157.50/630 TND in total
I wish we had gone through Get Your Guide as they do a similar trip which is advertised with soft drinks and snacks although the pick up locations are slightly limited. I would say take some drinks and snacks just to be safe if you do go!
Anyway back to the holiday we have lots more planned!
ChrissyJ xxx
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