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Harbor Lights / Carlyle Bay Beach Break - VERY poor !


dcyonce
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My wife and I did Celebrity’s “Carlyle Bay Beach Break” on Barbados. It would have to be one of the very worst excursions we have ever done with Celebrity. Celebrity should be ashamed !!

 

The beach area was extremely crowded. Elbow to elbow with 6 to 7 rows of chairs with about 100 chairs per row. The most crowded beach excursion we have ever witnessed.

 

b298c7172b1edfe87acd6c36ab3bf9dc.jpg

 

Our Celebrity excursion also included lunch. Lunch was disgraceful (see the picture below). Lunch was a couple flour balls with some fish flavoring and a dried out piece of banana bread that the birds had been picking over. Definitely not up to Celebrity’s usual excursion lunch !

 

7d19d698e5894ab49d80fabb82607393.jpg

 

Stay away from Harbor Lights / Carlyle Bay Beach Break in Barbados !

 

 

 

 

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How much was this? I hope you showed pictures to celebrity

 

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I think this excursion was $54 per person. A reasonable price.

 

We have done many shore excursions with Celebrity. They are usually very good to excellent. This one was definitely the one very bad exception. We did let the Michaels Club concierge know about the poor excursion and received a voice message from Jeremy, Head of Shore Excursions. We have not spoken to him yet, but will this afternoon.

 

My wife reminded me of one quite comical indicator that this was going to be a bad experience ... when we arrived, we were greeted with orange juice ... which turned out to be Tang ! We had a good laugh and reminisced about when we were kids drinking Tang for breakfast, but we should have seen the signs and left Harbor Lights right then.

 

Also, when we did decide to leave, the woman at the front desk wouldn’t let us leave until she called a “special cab” for us. We were on to them at this point ... I walked right out the front door and onto the street and flagged down a cab in just a few seconds. The woman at the front desk told my wife to “Get him back in here. You have to take our cab. They going to charge him more.” It was another part of their scam ... the cabbie I flagged down was $10 for the ride back to the port. We found out later from other guests that the “Harbor Lights cab” was $10 per person and loaded everyone together in a van.

 

 

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For your next trip it is easy to do beach clubs on Carlyle Bay on your own - no reason to book through the ship. As mentioned a taxi is about $5 per person each way, or you can walk it in about 15-20 min. Boatyard, Pirates Cove, etc. are regularly discussed on this board.

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For your next trip it is easy to do beach clubs on Carlyle Bay on your own - no reason to book through the ship. As mentioned a taxi is about $5 per person each way, or you can walk it in about 15-20 min. Boatyard, Pirates Cove, etc. are regularly discussed on this board.

 

 

 

Yep !

I think we have learned our lesson.

Next time we will do our research and book it ourselves.

 

 

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I think this excursion was $54 per person. A reasonable price.

 

We have done many shore excursions with Celebrity. They are usually very good to excellent. This one was definitely the one very bad exception. We did let the Michaels Club concierge know about the poor excursion and received a voice message from Jeremy, Head of Shore Excursions. We have not spoken to him yet, but will this afternoon.

 

My wife reminded me of one quite comical indicator that this was going to be a bad experience ... when we arrived, we were greeted with orange juice ... which turned out to be Tang ! We had a good laugh and reminisced about when we were kids drinking Tang for breakfast, but we should have seen the signs and left Harbor Lights right then.

 

Also, when we did decide to leave, the woman at the front desk wouldn’t let us leave until she called a “special cab” for us. We were on to them at this point ... I walked right out the front door and onto the street and flagged down a cab in just a few seconds. The woman at the front desk told my wife to “Get him back in here. You have to take our cab. They going to charge him more.” It was another part of their scam ... the cabbie I flagged down was $10 for the ride back to the port. We found out later from other guests that the “Harbor Lights cab” was $10 per person and loaded everyone together in a van.

 

 

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Omg. I'm doing day pass at Hilton which includes lunch and one drink for $55 or nothing for $40 a person which we are doing as we will bring our own drinks/Water bottles and get lunch from cuz fish shack. I'll report on my day when we get back in April. Good from 9a to 6p. Pool plus beach and non motorized water sports. We've done boatyard and I liked it but wanted to try something with pool and beach.

 

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Omg. I'm doing day pass at Hilton which includes lunch and one drink for $55 or nothing for $40 a person which we are doing as we will bring our own drinks/Water bottles and get lunch from cuz fish shack. I'll report on my day when we get back in April. Good from 9a to 6p. Pool plus beach and non motorized water sports. We've done boatyard and I liked it but wanted to try something with pool and beach.

 

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Please let us know how you liked the Hilton.

 

We have done various day passes on the islands before, but haven’t had a chance to visit the Hilton on Barbados.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
Please let us know how you liked the Hilton.

 

We have done various day passes on the islands before, but haven’t had a chance to visit the Hilton on Barbados.

 

 

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Could you elaborate on the day passes you have done on prior visits? This is what we are

considering and would love some suggestions.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

We had a very similar experience with the same Celebrity Excursion off of Celebrity Eclipse in early February. It was pitiful and Celebrity should be ashamed that they have done nothing about it. I went and complained and was made to feel worse for it. The staff person was condescending and took offense to my complaints arguing back on every point. I came away feeling victimized and very unhappy. I was promised a call within 24 hours which never happened. I did not pursue it further because I am not confrontational and I don't like to complain. It ruined my day when I spoke with them the first time and I did not want to let it ruin another day so I let it go.

 

I would also add that the Celebrity excursion write up came across as a "resort" type property with good snorkeling. Neither were true. We also did not/could not eat their lunch. For $54 per person you got a 2 mile bus ride there and back, a crowed beach at a dumpy bar facility with a welcome "punch", 2 worn beach chairs and a broken umbrella. The value was at best $15 per person. We were delayed leaving port and we had to be back on the bus by 12:30 - less than 3 hours.

 

Don't get stung like we did - the tour is exactly as the OP reported. I hope they were more successful at getting a refund.

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  • 4 weeks later...

We too have done the Hilton excursion a number of years ago. Very similar pricing and the drink and lunch included was a deal! Our travelling friends did the pay as you go and it certainly cost them more than $15 for a drink and lunch! Might do this next February when we stop on the Silhouette!

 

snow bunny

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok I'm at hilton Barbados right now. Husband and I got off celebrity summit and took cab here. $15 total. Day pass is 9a to 6p. Includes towels and non motorcycle watersports. Got day pass through Caribbean day pass. Chose one without drink or lunch. Did a snorkeling excursion with barbado blue which is a dive shop located right at hilton. $25 a person for 2 hours. I paid ahead of time via PayPal. Cost of daypass was $40 a person. $15 deposited per person beforehand and the rest paid when we arrived. Pool and beach are very nice. I did get a drink here and it was delicious. We ate fish cutters at cuz fish shack for lunch. Just a very nice day. No one harassing to buy anything.

 

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