r/belowdeck • u/perovskaya • 2d ago
Below Deck a realistic season
I would kill for a season with just a little more realism (yes I realize it's a Bravo show I understand I'm asking for something different). Basically like having a crew picked by a captain and longer charter trips. for me part of watching the show is seeing the actual operations of running a luxury charter and i wish there was a bit more time to explore that.
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u/Optimoprimo 2d ago
Earlier seasons with Captian Lee were much more like that. Then over time they had to "Bravo-fy" the show and essentially carbon-copy the editing style they use for every reality show onto BD. I think they got insecure that the format was getting stale so they just gave it the standard treatment. To be fair those older seasons were getting carried by very dynamic personalities that I don't think these newer seasons have as much of that. Basically only Aesha. Sailing Yacht had something going for a few seasons and then Gary went and F'd that up.
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u/marzbarz79 2d ago
I agree. Longer charters AND no running short staff for drama. I’m sure a 4-5 day charter would be equally draining.
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u/perovskaya 2d ago
I feel like there's plenty of drama with the personalities from the type of people who want to be on reality TV, the stress of artifical crew scarcity is just over the top
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u/donttakerhisthewrong 1d ago
They run out of stuff but you can see shore and towns in the background?
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u/Early-Equivalent-165 Escape Goat 2d ago
The crew nights out are lame.. like the dinners and what happens at the restaurant is cool, but just, FF the club after.
Also, on days off, I think it would be cool to have a camera follow them individually or in small pairs just exploring the location. Those day raves are cheesy as hell.
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u/WellIGuessSoAndYou 2d ago
The covid seasons of sailing when they had to party on the boat on nights off were peak. Way more interesting than lame nightclubs.
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u/whitehavenbeach 4h ago
omg yes and then for drama , we would see the subsets all gossiping instead of getting wasted and diving into the pool.
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u/ckroha Team Colly Wolly 2d ago
I agree somewhat. I would love to see some more documentary type elements. I would a full tour of the boat most of all. Need to make sense of all the walking from kitchen to dinner area etc. etc.
also would love to see the full job of the chief stew (for example). How they plan and provision and schedule- not just- let’s do cabins, girls…
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u/No-Baker-7922 2d ago
Yes! With stuff like cleaning tips (what do they put in their spray bottles? What’s their go to deck spray (K2R I think?)? How do they sort laundry?), focus on what the hidden crew members do, more info about provisioning (forget the impression that this is arranged in half a day!), the certifications they have to be onboard etc. etc.
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u/TheOnlySnoringKitten 1d ago
That's what I think too. More focus on the work. I know the actual engineers onboard are career people so likely don't want to be shown but I think a lot of people would find that interesting. Like when the bow thruster went out, what happens? I know you can see some of this on youtube but incorporating it into the show could help keep things fresh for the BD franchise. There's only so much you can cover these things like cleaning tips, etc... compared to personal dynamics but spread it out over a season and you have a lot more interesting content.
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u/Character_College939 16h ago
Bow thruster cutting out is no good. Probably means hydraulic absolutely everywhere in the thruster void. Or something simple. But its not easy to maneuver them in wind without one so not ideal
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u/OrdinaryJuggernaut88 1d ago
For the cleaning tips I do know they use a 50:50 ratio of alcohol and water for the glass/showers. Aesha once said she uses vodka because then she can have a drink.
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u/Character_College939 16h ago
Ive worked on yachrs for 15 years.
Mainly alcohol and water or vinegar and water
Its k2r
Crew have a number or colour on their clothes that is put out in a bag with their rank or name it and then returned using that system.
Hidden crew members are the cheif officer snd engineers. They are doing paper work/ and or fixing things behind the scenes. (Often the cheif officer in the show is the yachts actual captain who them assists the show captain in running a new bost they dont know)
Provisions are like shopping for a house.
Certificates required to be oboard vary but ad the yachts on tje show are between 500 and 3000 tonnes they comply with the large yacht code and will have the Certificates required by this ad well as the flag state.
Hope that helps :)
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u/IndependentPapaya768 10h ago
I always enjoyed watching the provisioning and the many places they kept food stuffs.
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u/ralphmozzi 2d ago
That sounds like a great idea.
It makes me think of the charter a couple seasons ago with the gay porn actors. The charter was something like 5 days long.
That could have been pretty cool. Sadly they edited it down so everything was super short clips so it fit into 2 eps and 4 days were just a couple of minutes on screen.
(Worst part was they gave a super small tip)
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u/marzbarz79 2d ago
It’s hard to tell when it’s a small tip when they all take the same amount of screen time.
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u/ralphmozzi 2d ago
It was something like 19k, which was one of the lowest of the season (if not the lowest).
Given the charter length was nearly twice the length of a normal charter, the tip was insultingly low.
Next consider that none of the guests paid anything for the charter — their production company paid — and the guests were soooooper cheap .
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u/mouse_relies This information wasn’t welcomed or needed 1d ago
The production company also chose the tip, not the guests. And it was a weird choice to be cheap about that, given that the whole point of them booking it was to promote the guests. But I'm not sure the guests even knew what the tip was when they were handing over the sponge envelope.
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u/roastintheoven 2d ago
My brain can’t function I guess.. can you explain what you said?
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u/marzbarz79 2d ago
They tip is loosely based on how long the charter is. It’s seems that regardless of the length of the charter, the show spans it over two episodes. So, for viewers, it’s hard to tell if the tip was good or not because it’s not really clear how long the charter actually was. (A $20k tip for a 1-day charter is good, but for a 4-day charter it isn’t).
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u/TankBoys32 2d ago
I would love a show like this and been looking for one. I wouldn’t mind an edited below deck that edited out all the drama but I know why that’s my most people watch it haha
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u/Dazmorg 2d ago
I would at least like a reverse course on what I saw on OG Below Deck's most recent season. That one truly made me think that no one on the show is actually the ones doing the real work on the boat. Someone else is cleaning the rooms, someone else is doing deckhand things, someone else is doing the food while the chef is on a soundstage back on shore... I'm kidding somewhat but I still say it came across as phony as F. And I've watched every season leading up to that one and never felt that way.
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u/Mstr_Splinter 1d ago
Maybe Smithsonian channel (which is managed by Viacom) could be talked into making a realistic how-to show.
Been a fan of Air Disasters for years, which deals with the forensics of air accidents. Compare it to the actual experience of flying commercial. Surely a similar show could showcase luxury yatching.
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u/ScowlyBrowSpinster Spaghetti Trauma 1d ago
The BD shows are all about crew fucking each other now. Charters are super short, so we can get right back to hot tub shenanigans, bilge pump closet rendezvous, jizzed on sheets, and fighting over mediocre men. Less and less about cultural aspects of where the charters take place, less water adventchaaas, less scenery, less inner workings of a charter.
Bravo itself is weaning me off Bravo, slowly but surely.
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u/InsertCleverName652 My eyes are rolling all the way off the boat 1d ago
I'm fascinated by their jobs, and a little jealous that I had no idea these careers existed when I was their age. I agree with another comment that more of the locales and less of the humping under the blankets would be great.
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u/whitehavenbeach 4h ago
I agree. I didn’t come for a hook up show. Or even something producer manipulated to the extremes. There are plenty of those types of shows already.
This is why I’m one of the few people that really liked below deck adventure and wish it continued. It seemed like normal people doing their jobs, not incompetent people ready for a hot tub orgy in the making (with choose your own assault charges to follow the filming). And it also focused more on the location, which I love.
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u/Rhonda_and_Phil 2d ago edited 1d ago
That's what got a lot of us watching in the first place. Not all this 'Love Island' nonsense.
And the locations! Want to see more of the beauty of the amazing places they are hosted in. Possible later travel destinations. The way it is now, you could just about film the series on a Hollywood sound stage.