phantasmist

We just returned from the Carnival Miracle a few days ago and hands down Cosol's tour was the best excursion we've done in all 6 cruises. Certainly everyone will have (and is entitled to) their own opinion, but here was our experience:

Our driver's name was Bumpy (named for the way he walked as a child, not the way he drives ;)) and he was a fantastic tour guide. He gave us plenty of time at each stop for pictures. Yes, some of the stops were short but we never felt rushed. Bumpy even carried a machete in his van to clear any roadside weeds that blocked our view! He was in frequent contact with Cosol to make sure we were on schedule with the rest of the vans.

The food was surprisingly good. Breakfast was a buffet of local foods such as fried "piton fish" (my fiancé hates fish and he could not stop raving about how good this was), fish cakes with banana ketchup (which was good but did not taste like banana or ketchup to me), banana bread, coconut cake, and about 10 other items prepared by an island woman. Lunch was the fresh baked "drumstick bread" which is so named because it is the shape and size of a turkey leg. It was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, and still hot from the oven. We put cheese into the slice in the side and it melted into a delicious treat. I'm not sure what kind of cheese it was but it tasted like white cheddar maybe?

And as others have said, the blue van followed our caravan to provide ample drinks at every stop. Cosol's homemade rum punch was really good and different from any other I've tried (and in response to another poster, no I did not get drunk or buzzed, and I still think this was the best excursion we've ever taken.) There was also Piton beer, several kinds of soda, and water. Cosol joked that if there were any drinks left in the coolers at the end of the day then we each had to pay $20.

We did encounter locals at every stop trying to sell souvenirs, but a simple "no thank you" was all it took for them to move along. We did not find them to be pushy.

Many bathrooms on the island do charge $1, however Cosol informed the entire group of this before we left the port and gave us time to use the free bathrooms there. He and Bumpy also pointed out the free bathrooms at our various stops. I used the bathrooms at both Jalousie Beach and the volcano and they were free. However, if you need more frequent bathroom breaks, you may end up paying for them.

I personally found Jalousie Beach between the Pitons breathtaking. I would not call the side Cosol Tours uses the "crappy" side, although I do agree that there were a lot of rocks in the water. However, there were fish everywhere and the snorkeling was nice. The beach does not offer many amenities but Bumpy made sure we took extra drinks with us from the blue van.

If you suffer from motion sickness, this may not be the tour for you simply based on the mountainous terrain of St. Lucia. If you have small children, this may not be the tour for you because a good portion of your time is spent driving and/or looking at scenery. But for most cruisers this is the ideal excursion. At dinner after we left St. Lucia, all of our tablemates wished they had done the tour with us. And whenever we return to the island, we will do the tour again.

Beware rogue rainforest mongooses (mongeese?) in Puerto Rico:

It was only about 5 million degrees in Roatan. We're Floridians and we were dying. Then this girl came strolling down the beach selling empanadas from her head...

Feeding iguanas at the iguana farm on Roatan:

Leaving Miami:

About 20 Iguanas in a tree in St. Thomas: