MinnieMouse18

Hello Sir,

My husband and 3 children along with my BIL and his family of 7 and my MIL and FIL took Spencer Ambrose tour to Jalousie/Sugar Beach while in Port off the Disney ship last winter. The day was a great day, the beach portion that was accessible to us was “ok”, snorkeling was “ok”, food was “ok”, view of Pitons was incredible and Spencer Ambrose staff were also amazing. One of Spencer’s other boats also had engine trouble that day, with black smoke and strong fumes. Our day took a turn for the worse on the way back to the marina, when the Spencer Ambrose speedboat we were on sunk. YES, you heard that right. Our boat sunk. It suddenly began to take on water and by the time we realized we had a serious problem the boat had sunk within 3-4 minutes. By the grace of God, and thanks to a nearby tour boat from another company we were all safely rescued but several of us did end up in the water waiting to be brought to safety. Waters were rough. Life jackets were either not present, and definitely not accessible in an emergency....it happens too fast. Spencer’s team acted quickly, and we are thankful to be safe. I could tell they were all very shook up, very remorseful and wanted to make the situation right. They reimbursed us 100% for all of our material and financial losses. Because they seemed so genuine and kind and shocked and wanting to make things right, I have refrained from publicly telling our story or giving any negative reviews. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin his family run business, as he assured me nothing like this has or would ever happen again. This is my first time on CC since that cruise, as I am planning for another cruise. Coming across this thread prompted me to look at The reviews on Trip Advisor that you mentioned, and it angered me. It appears his boats are still in poor condition and he has had several other breakdowns. So now I want to prevent the same thing happening to another family. We are lucky. It could have been tragic, there were 8 children on this speedboat in addition to 9 adults including the driver. Seemed overcapacity to me, but they claimed not. Ironically, 2 of the people with us were on the other malfunctioning boat on the way to the beach, and refused that boat and ended up on our boat that sunk! Thankfully everyone is ok but it could’ve been different.

So, my advice to you would be to find a different tour operator. I will likely add this on Trip Advisor too as I would hate for the same thing to happen to someone else knowing this is repeat events.

I tried to attach a photo, don’t know if it worked.

 

 

 

 

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we are booked with Spencer Ambrose later this year. I was just reading some recent reviews on TripAdvisor.

There is a repeating pattern of reported boat mechanical problems that caught my attention. There is also talk that Spencer is the only captain for his two boats at present so there is some resulting problems with crowding on the boats.

I don’t want to bad mouth someone who works very hard to run a family business, but I also have some red flags after reading these reviews. I thought I would reach out to see if there is any validity to this concern? Does anyone have some very recent experiences with Spencer who could comment to this?

Hello Sir,

My husband and 3 children along with my BIL and his family of 7 and my MIL and FIL took Spencer Ambrose tour to Jalousie/Sugar Beach while in Port off the Disney ship last winter. The day was a great day, the beach portion that was accessible to us was “ok”, snorkeling was “ok”, food was “ok”, view of Pitons was incredible and Spencer Ambrose staff were also amazing. One of Spencer’s other boats also had engine trouble that day, with black smoke and strong fumes. Our day took a turn for the worse on the way back to the marina, when the Spencer Ambrose speedboat we were on sunk. YES, you heard that right. Our boat sunk. It suddenly began to take on water and by the time we realized we had a serious problem the boat had sunk within 3-4 minutes. By the grace of God, and thanks to a nearby tour boat from another company we were all safely rescued but several of us did end up in the water waiting to be brought to safety. Waters were rough. Life jackets were either not present, and definitely not accessible in an emergency....it happens too fast. Spencer’s team acted quickly, and we are thankful to be safe. I could tell they were all very shook up, very remorseful and wanted to make the situation right. They reimbursed us 100% for all of our material and financial losses. Because they seemed so genuine and kind and shocked and wanting to make things right, I have refrained from publicly telling our story or giving any negative reviews. The last thing I wanted to do was ruin his family run business, as he assured me nothing like this has or would ever happen again. This is my first time on CC since that cruise, as I am planning for another cruise. Coming across this thread prompted me to look at The reviews on Trip Advisor that you mentioned, and it angered me. It appears his boats are still in poor condition and he has had several other breakdowns. So now I want to prevent the same thing happening to another family. We are lucky. It could have been tragic, there were 8 children on this speedboat in addition to 9 adults including the driver. Seemed overcapacity to me, but they claimed not. Ironically, 2 of the people with us were on the other malfunctioning boat on the way to the beach, and refused that boat and ended up on our boat that sunk! Thankfully everyone is ok but it could’ve been different.

So, my advice to you would be to find a different tour operator. I will likely add this on

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Yes we have taken a taxi to Chankanaab. You’ll love it there. Great snorkeling.

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There is music there, but I wouldn't call it terribly loud but it depends where you sit. As you're looking at the ocean, we sat at the far left of the beach and the music was perfect. For us, the last shuttle was 3:30, but we caught the 2pm back so we could do a little shopping in Port before getting back on ship. They run every hour. We loved Red Stripe Beach!

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For the ice skating show and Grease, do you have to sign up ahead of time or make a reservation, or is seating first come first serve?

Great review, thanks for all the info and photos. We are cruising this same ship and itinerary in a couple weeks. We have only ever cruised Disney with our kids, we are new to RCL so found your review very helpful. [emoji4]

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We have the Red Stripe Beach excursion booked on our upcoming cruise. When I signed us up, I grabbed the 0900 slot and the excursion lasts 3 hours according to the Royal Caribbean website. Is it really only 3 hours or can we stay at the beach longer? If the shuttles run every 30 minutes, can we catch a later one or are we stuck with the 3 hour time frame? Thanks!