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Spencer Ambrose or Celebrity excursion to the Pitons - need help deciding please!!


Aquaticdreams
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We are not too much "excursion people." We actually go more for the ship than the ports of call. We tend to just get off the ship and find a van and go on a tour for a few hours, then go back to the ship for lunch! Or if it's Grand Turk or Half Moon, we just park our fannies in a lounger for the day! But 3 years ago we went to St. Lucia and I was BEYOND excited to finally see the Pitons "in person." I have seen SO MANY PICTURES of them. So on a whim I booked Spencer and it was the BEST DAY we have ever had. I would give anything to go back to St. Lucia just to do that excursion again. We just booked Pride Journey for 1/2019 and guess where we are going!!! ST. LUCIA! :D(y) You can be sure I'm gonna book with Spencer again. Op, glad that you had a great day with him. And an aside to Holly: JOIN US!!!!! :D:D

 

Hi Karen! I can't say for certain yet, but that one IS a possibility. :D We're also looking at a Glory Journey cruise to the southern/eastern Caribbean in 2/2019 (a 12 day). We are seriously thinking this over due to an unfortunate situation that happened while we were away last year. My husband and I went to Hawaii for 2 weeks this past September and we had 4 cats at the time. After we booked, I thought out pet sitting, which was a concern because one of our "boys" was tossed from a car when he was a 6 week old kitten, thus he had a deep fear of strangers. Long story...neighbors who normally watched them for us were familiar to him. He wouldn't approach them, but he'd come out and eat the wet food and they could account for him (to make sure he was fine) every day. Another neighbor (friend of mine, total stranger to our one boy) watched them. We also had my husbands sister/BIL come over a few times to see if they could see him and also check on the house. None of them saw him until 2 days before our return when our neighbor found him, deceased. Since the others ate his wet food when neighbor fed them, he only had access to the feeder with dry food. I'm sure he was terrified. Our vet believes it was a urinary blockage, treatable IF caught on time, fatal within days. We were heartbroken and what should have been a great vacation w/great memories ended up a nightmare. We *think* the other three would be fine, so we're trying it out with weekends to our hometown in PA and a several day trip to NOLA this spring to celebrate a good friend's 50th birthday. So we're going to have to see how it goes since right now, I'm not comfortable leaving them. But if all goes well, with no "hiding" and no other issues, we are considering. Fingers crossed. Would love to cruise with you one of these days. :)

 

You mentioned that your tour with Spencer was the BEST DAY you ever had...we felt the same way after our first trip to St. Lucia. Booking with him again on our 2nd visit was a no brainer. Next time we get back, we're definitely booking the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" again.

 

Holly

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Oh, Holly, how awful for you and I can totally understand your hesitation going away again. We had something similar this past cruise (1/7-1/21/18) We have a very very old German Shepard. She is a total love. I actually booked this last cruise on 1/21/17 because she was failing so bad that DH was going to take her to vet to put down. I begged and pleaded for "one more day" and miraculously she rallied. The next day I booked this year's cruise thinking there is no way she will still be with us. Well, guess what? She is!!! We had no one to be with her and there was no way she would be able to handle being in a cage at the vet (especially for TWO WEEKS) and I tell you, DH and I had many sleepless nights over this. We were actually thinking of NOT GOING on the cruise! Finally our BFF said he would stay here with her. He works days but at least she would not be alone at night and on weekends. It was all I could do to leave her but I vowed not to think about anything "bad" while we were away. Got home 1/21 and she is FINE. Still old and feeble and living day to day, but FINE. So when I just booked next year's cruise DH said no way Jade will be with us and I said, we said that LAST YEAR lol. ANYWAY, I totally get you. I will keep my fingers crossed you can work something out. This was our 2nd Journeys cruise and they are WONDERFUL. Would be hard for us to do anything else now! 1/6-1/20/19 from Baltimore. So sorry again about your kitty. What a heartbreaker. :loudcry:

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Holly, just looked up the Glory cruise. That sure is an awesome itinerary! Doesn't have St. Lucia, but those ports of call are amazing. And it leaves from Miami. We don't mind leaving from Baltimore because we like the convenience of driving rather than flying to the port, and Pride has the retractable roof on one of the pools, so it's okay in the winter,but the first 2 and last 2 days on the ship are COLD. :(:eek:

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Oh, Holly, how awful for you and I can totally understand your hesitation going away again. We had something similar this past cruise (1/7-1/21/18) We have a very very old German Shepard. She is a total love. I actually booked this last cruise on 1/21/17 because she was failing so bad that DH was going to take her to vet to put down. I begged and pleaded for "one more day" and miraculously she rallied. The next day I booked this year's cruise thinking there is no way she will still be with us. Well, guess what? She is!!! We had no one to be with her and there was no way she would be able to handle being in a cage at the vet (especially for TWO WEEKS) and I tell you, DH and I had many sleepless nights over this. We were actually thinking of NOT GOING on the cruise! Finally our BFF said he would stay here with her. He works days but at least she would not be alone at night and on weekends. It was all I could do to leave her but I vowed not to think about anything "bad" while we were away. Got home 1/21 and she is FINE. Still old and feeble and living day to day, but FINE. So when I just booked next year's cruise DH said no way Jade will be with us and I said, we said that LAST YEAR lol. ANYWAY, I totally get you. I will keep my fingers crossed you can work something out. This was our 2nd Journeys cruise and they are WONDERFUL. Would be hard for us to do anything else now! 1/6-1/20/19 from Baltimore. So sorry again about your kitty. What a heartbreaker. :loudcry:

 

Thank you for your kind words. Is your email still the same from when we emailed back and forth? I don't want to break CC's policy and get off topic.

 

 

Holly, just looked up the Glory cruise. That sure is an awesome itinerary! Doesn't have St. Lucia, but those ports of call are amazing. And it leaves from Miami. We don't mind leaving from Baltimore because we like the convenience of driving rather than flying to the port, and Pride has the retractable roof on one of the pools, so it's okay in the winter,but the first 2 and last 2 days on the ship are COLD. :(:eek:

 

If we decide to do one of those two, it will be a very tough call. Some friends that we got to know through our Valor reviews (she did one shortly after mine) were actually on Liberty (the cruise out of San Juan) with us, so we got to meet and are still in touch. They're booked on Glory for the Journey cruise. On the plus side for the Glory cruise, we would be getting to 4 new islands (St. Croix, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Tortola) and one almost "new" (Martinique). We were in Martinique in 1992 on our honeymoon cruise but that was so long ago it would be like a new island for us. The only downside is no St. Lucia. The plus for the Pride out of Baltimore would be driving; 2 new islands (Antigua, Grenada); and the rest are ones we really love. The duration would practically be the same, even though Glory is only a 12 day, we'd be taking an extra day, maybe 2 considering time of year, to fly down ahead of the cruise. But we will see how things go with the other three cats this May. At least in NOLA, we are an easy flight home if necessary. If one of our boys was not seen by our neighbor on a certain day, I'd fly home, since they do tend to hide when something is wrong.

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Holly, email me, yes, it's the same email. OP, sorry for the highjack!

 

Karen, I just spent about a half hour looking through all the email addresses and past emails. I forget when we were corresponding but now that I think about it, it may have been on the last computer we had. When updating to this one, the email addresses we had were not saved. I'll give you my email, it's: dgieh at comcast dot net

 

Again, OP, so sorry for the hijack.

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Got back last night. We did end up doing the excursion with Spencer. We had signed up for the full day Sugar Beach Break but asked to switch to the island and beach tour combo instead while on the boat because it sounded so good! They let us do this with no problem. We were a little hesitant to go with a private tour company at first but Spencer’s tour was absolutely amazing! He and the crew were excellent and had us back in plenty of time. The power boat was a fun way to go. We had a blast and it was the best day of our cruise!! The volcanic mud baths and waterfall were fantastic, the beach surrounded by the pitons was picturesque and the food they served was local and excellent. They did a great job narrating and telling us all about the sights along the way. Can’t say enough good things about this tour and the crew and highly recommend them. Thanks for your suggestions, glad we took your advice!

 

 

 

I will be doing this on our cruise in March. Right now we are just booked for the beach but I know we can add the mud baths. How strenuous was it to get to the mud baths and waterfall? How much time did you have when you got back to the port? I would like to do a little shopping before we get back on the ship.

Thanks!!

 

 

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We just did the Land, Sea and Beach tour with Spencer last week and while we had a decent time, it's not a tour I would book again. We were only in port from 8-4 instead of the more typical 8-5, so it felt a bit rushed (not the operator's fault, just something to keep in mind).

 

Our tour started with a speedboat ride straight to the town of Soufrière, which is where the volcano and mud bath portion of the tour happens. We were told that we'd stop at points of interest on the boat ride back, which was true, but we also stopped several times along the way there to drop off people who were doing different tours (like the snorkel only tour, etc.). This took up a fair amount of what theoretically could have been beach time. However, the scenery was beautiful so this ride was fairly enjoyable.

 

Anyway, in Soufrière we loaded into a van and headed to the volcano, dropping people at the mud baths along the way. The volcano "tour" is really just a short walk with a guide along a breezeway built over a section of the volcano - I would say it's a walk of no more than 50 yards, with a couple of sets of stairs. Our guide was knowledgeable but there's really not much to see there, and I felt like our driver was killing time so that the mud bath folks wouldn't be rushed.

 

Anyway, after the volcano we stopped briefly at a waterfall, which was VERY crowded with other tours and really nothing more than a pool about 20' in diameter with a small fall under which no more than one or two people could stand at a time. We didn't want to ride back to the boat wet, so we just browsed the vendor tables outside.

 

At this point we were starting to get hungry, which also contributed to some queasiness from the windy road up and down the mountain. Unfortunately, we had another drive back to the boat plus another wait at the pier for someone plus another short trip in the speedboat before arriving at Sugar (Jalousie) Beach for lunch.

 

The beach was PACKED when we arrived and there are very few chairs for those on tours. We found one near where they were setting up lunch but couldn't do more than drop our stuff on it because of all the hungry people swarming the buffet. Btw, "buffet" is a term that is used loosely here. The woman setting up the food served each person one tiny, dessicated chicken leg/thigh and two slices of leathery fried plantains, then directed us to help ourselves to pasta salad, rice, lentils and a couple of other carby side dishes, none of which were good. Requests for additional chicken were refused (not that anyone would really have wanted more after tasting it). I wasn't expecting a gourmet spread, but this was very meager given that it was a full day tour where there was no opportunity to purchase any additional food. If you have food allergies or dietary restrictions, forget it. Also, the only drinks available aside from water were weak rum punch, beer and sugary sodas.

 

Once we finished lunch, we had about an hour to swim and snorkel. The snorkeling was only okay - some interesting coral and lots of sea urchins, but not too many fish. The swimming area was very small but did have a great view of the Pitons. I'm not one to lie around on a beach but those who wanted to had a hard time finding space.

 

The boat ride back was scenic and informative but at that point we were just ready to be done, not to mention hungry and a bit nauseated. We got back to Castries just about 30 mins before all aboard, so no time to do anything else.

 

Unfortunately for us, this tour also came directly after a truly fabulous catamaran tour in Barbados, so we couldn't help but compare the experiences and Spencer's tour just didn't measure up. We loved what we saw of St. Lucia and plan to go back when we can explore on our own, but we wouldn't do this tour again.

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^^Alsmez, I can understand a bit what you experienced. Tho this tour was VERY GOOD, we too had a lot of "waiting around." We didn't and wouldn't (lol) do the mud baths, but the scenery was so beautiful that we did not mind waiting for those who did. I remember the flowers were spectacular. For some reason on our excursion we ate at a tiny shack instead of the beach. I remember posting this when we got back. The weather was gorgeous, so that wasn't a factor. It was kind of nice not to have to worry about sand, etc. I am kind of a picky eater and remember I wasn't crazy about the meal,either, but figured this was just a typical "St.Lucia buffet." I remember the potato salad was very good. After lunch at the shack we went to the beach and had no problems getting a lounger and hanging out. I think MAYBE when I book again I might opt to do just the beach....jury is out on that right now, but your experience will help me to decide. Did you have the "race" with the other boat on the way back to the ship? :eek::evilsmile:

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We just did the Land, Sea and Beach tour with Spencer last week and while we had a decent time, it's not a tour I would book again. We were only in port from 8-4 instead of the more typical 8-5, so it felt a bit rushed (not the operator's fault, just something to keep in mind).

 

Our tour started with a speedboat ride straight to the town of Soufrière, which is where the volcano and mud bath portion of the tour happens. We were told that we'd stop at points of interest on the boat ride back, which was true, but we also stopped several times along the way there to drop off people who were doing different tours (like the snorkel only tour, etc.). This took up a fair amount of what theoretically could have been beach time. However, the scenery was beautiful so this ride was fairly enjoyable.

 

Anyway, in Soufrière we loaded into a van and headed to the volcano, dropping people at the mud baths along the way. The volcano "tour" is really just a short walk with a guide along a breezeway built over a section of the volcano - I would say it's a walk of no more than 50 yards, with a couple of sets of stairs. Our guide was knowledgeable but there's really not much to see there, and I felt like our driver was killing time so that the mud bath folks wouldn't be rushed.

 

Anyway, after the volcano we stopped briefly at a waterfall, which was VERY crowded with other tours and really nothing more than a pool about 20' in diameter with a small fall under which no more than one or two people could stand at a time. We didn't want to ride back to the boat wet, so we just browsed the vendor tables outside.

 

At this point we were starting to get hungry, which also contributed to some queasiness from the windy road up and down the mountain. Unfortunately, we had another drive back to the boat plus another wait at the pier for someone plus another short trip in the speedboat before arriving at Sugar (Jalousie) Beach for lunch.

 

The beach was PACKED when we arrived and there are very few chairs for those on tours. We found one near where they were setting up lunch but couldn't do more than drop our stuff on it because of all the hungry people swarming the buffet. Btw, "buffet" is a term that is used loosely here. The woman setting up the food served each person one tiny, dessicated chicken leg/thigh and two slices of leathery fried plantains, then directed us to help ourselves to pasta salad, rice, lentils and a couple of other carby side dishes, none of which were good. Requests for additional chicken were refused (not that anyone would really have wanted more after tasting it). I wasn't expecting a gourmet spread, but this was very meager given that it was a full day tour where there was no opportunity to purchase any additional food. If you have food allergies or dietary restrictions, forget it. Also, the only drinks available aside from water were weak rum punch, beer and sugary sodas.

 

Once we finished lunch, we had about an hour to swim and snorkel. The snorkeling was only okay - some interesting coral and lots of sea urchins, but not too many fish. The swimming area was very small but did have a great view of the Pitons. I'm not one to lie around on a beach but those who wanted to had a hard time finding space.

 

The boat ride back was scenic and informative but at that point we were just ready to be done, not to mention hungry and a bit nauseated. We got back to Castries just about 30 mins before all aboard, so no time to do anything else.

 

Unfortunately for us, this tour also came directly after a truly fabulous catamaran tour in Barbados, so we couldn't help but compare the experiences and Spencer's tour just didn't measure up. We loved what we saw of St. Lucia and plan to go back when we can explore on our own, but we wouldn't do this tour again.

 

I appreciate your honesty about the waiting part. I don't think my husband will like that so I just contacted Spencer to switch us to the Jalousie beach break as we don't want to miss any time snorkeling in St. Lucia. Having hot mud on us and going in a cold waterfall with lines is definitely less appealing than snorkeling. We love St. Lucia and the snorkeling. I just wish they added Anse Chastenet to this particular excursion.

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We just did the Land, Sea and Beach tour with Spencer last week and while we had a decent time, it's not a tour I would book again. We were only in port from 8-4 instead of the more typical 8-5, so it felt a bit rushed (not the operator's fault, just something to keep in mind).

 

Our tour started with a speedboat ride straight to the town of Soufrière, which is where the volcano and mud bath portion of the tour happens. We were told that we'd stop at points of interest on the boat ride back, which was true, but we also stopped several times along the way there to drop off people who were doing different tours (like the snorkel only tour, etc.). This took up a fair amount of what theoretically could have been beach time. However, the scenery was beautiful so this ride was fairly enjoyable.

 

Anyway, in Soufrière we loaded into a van and headed to the volcano, dropping people at the mud baths along the way. The volcano "tour" is really just a short walk with a guide along a breezeway built over a section of the volcano - I would say it's a walk of no more than 50 yards, with a couple of sets of stairs. Our guide was knowledgeable but there's really not much to see there, and I felt like our driver was killing time so that the mud bath folks wouldn't be rushed.

 

Anyway, after the volcano we stopped briefly at a waterfall, which was VERY crowded with other tours and really nothing more than a pool about 20' in diameter with a small fall under which no more than one or two people could stand at a time. We didn't want to ride back to the boat wet, so we just browsed the vendor tables outside.

 

At this point we were starting to get hungry, which also contributed to some queasiness from the windy road up and down the mountain. Unfortunately, we had another drive back to the boat plus another wait at the pier for someone plus another short trip in the speedboat before arriving at Sugar (Jalousie) Beach for lunch.

 

The beach was PACKED when we arrived and there are very few chairs for those on tours. We found one near where they were setting up lunch but couldn't do more than drop our stuff on it because of all the hungry people swarming the buffet. Btw, "buffet" is a term that is used loosely here. The woman setting up the food served each person one tiny, dessicated chicken leg/thigh and two slices of leathery fried plantains, then directed us to help ourselves to pasta salad, rice, lentils and a couple of other carby side dishes, none of which were good. Requests for additional chicken were refused (not that anyone would really have wanted more after tasting it). I wasn't expecting a gourmet spread, but this was very meager given that it was a full day tour where there was no opportunity to purchase any additional food. If you have food allergies or dietary restrictions, forget it. Also, the only drinks available aside from water were weak rum punch, beer and sugary sodas.

 

Once we finished lunch, we had about an hour to swim and snorkel. The snorkeling was only okay - some interesting coral and lots of sea urchins, but not too many fish. The swimming area was very small but did have a great view of the Pitons. I'm not one to lie around on a beach but those who wanted to had a hard time finding space.

 

The boat ride back was scenic and informative but at that point we were just ready to be done, not to mention hungry and a bit nauseated. We got back to Castries just about 30 mins before all aboard, so no time to do anything else.

 

Unfortunately for us, this tour also came directly after a truly fabulous catamaran tour in Barbados, so we couldn't help but compare the experiences and Spencer's tour just didn't measure up. We loved what we saw of St. Lucia and plan to go back when we can explore on our own, but we wouldn't do this tour again.

 

This is a pretty fair review and I thank you for it. Had been kicking around the idea of switching to Spencer, from Cosol, for the extra $60 for me and DW, so we could utilize the speedboat and maybe have less waiting, plus included lunch, but this experience you had seems like it could be typical with the waiting and drop offs, but people don't mind it because of the scenery.

 

Gonna stick with Cosol and save that money and probably have just as good of a time, hell maybe even better.

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This is a pretty fair review and I thank you for it. Had been kicking around the idea of switching to Spencer, from Cosol, for the extra $60 for me and DW, so we could utilize the speedboat and maybe have less waiting, plus included lunch, but this experience you had seems like it could be typical with the waiting and drop offs, but people don't mind it because of the scenery.

 

Gonna stick with Cosol and save that money and probably have just as good of a time, hell maybe even better.

 

I haven't toured with Cosol so I can't say for sure, but I did hear a number of people on our ship mentioning that they had spent an hour and a half each way in a van to get to Soufriere with other operators. That would be a dealbreaker for me - not only do I hate wasting half my day in transit, but I get carsick rather easily. The speedboat is definitely worth a few extra bucks to me, although the lunch most definitely was not.

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I appreciate your honesty about the waiting part. I don't think my husband will like that so I just contacted Spencer to switch us to the Jalousie beach break as we don't want to miss any time snorkeling in St. Lucia. Having hot mud on us and going in a cold waterfall with lines is definitely less appealing than snorkeling. We love St. Lucia and the snorkeling. I just wish they added Anse Chastenet to this particular excursion.

 

We had a couple of people on our speedboat that had elected to do Spencer's two-stop snorkeling trip, so you may want to read more about that. Our boat stopped at Anse Chastenet in the morning to drop them off, then they rejoined us later for snorkeling at Jalousie before returning with us on the same boat. I'm not sure how they got from Anse Chastenet to Jalousie nor how long they had for snorkeling at each place, but you might do a search to see if you can find further reviews from people who did the two-stop snorkel trip specifically.

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We had a couple of people on our speedboat that had elected to do Spencer's two-stop snorkeling trip, so you may want to read more about that. Our boat stopped at Anse Chastenet in the morning to drop them off, then they rejoined us later for snorkeling at Jalousie before returning with us on the same boat. I'm not sure how they got from Anse Chastenet to Jalousie nor how long they had for snorkeling at each place, but you might do a search to see if you can find further reviews from people who did the two-stop snorkel trip specifically.

 

Is that the 3 - 3 1/2 snorkeling trip? Sounds like its longer than that. I love Anse Chastenet and Jalousie beach snorkeling. I may contact Spencer. He just switched me to the Jalousie beach one. I'm sure he won't mind. And do you think that the people who were snorkeling on the 2 stop went longer than 3 hours?

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Is that the 3 - 3 1/2 snorkeling trip? Sounds like its longer than that. I love Anse Chastenet and Jalousie beach snorkeling. I may contact Spencer. He just switched me to the Jalousie beach one. I'm sure he won't mind. And do you think that the people who were snorkeling on the 2 stop went longer than 3 hours?

The snorkeling at Anse Chastenet is out of this world and much better than sugar beach. We are going to st Lucia again in march and whatever Spencer tour we do will need to have

Anse Chastenet In it. It did take longer than 3-3.5 hrs. For us, more like about 6 or more. I think we got back to the dock around 4pm (ship leaving at 6:00pm) they asked if anyone was in a hurry to get back or spend more everywhere in the beginning. Everyone wanted the full day of fun.

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Is that the 3 - 3 1/2 snorkeling trip? Sounds like its longer than that. I love Anse Chastenet and Jalousie beach snorkeling. I may contact Spencer. He just switched me to the Jalousie beach one. I'm sure he won't mind. And do you think that the people who were snorkeling on the 2 stop went longer than 3 hours?

 

We just did this on Spencer's and had a great time. 4 of us got dropped off at Anse Chastenet and had a little more than 1 1/2 hours snorkeling time there while the rest of the group went to the mud bath. One of Spencer's guys stayed with us and took care of everything we needed. The snorkeling was great, water clear and plenty of sea life. Because there are two resorts on the beach there is a bar with food and drinks, for a price, and a gift shop.

The boat came back for the 4 of us, we picked up the group from mud bath and boated down to Jalousie beach, between the Pitons. Snorkeling again was good - water clear, plenty of fish. But we were on the public side of the beach, which was very rocky and had fewer chairs. The beach on the resort side was much nicer, but we were told it was $50 to use one of their chairs. We were on that beach for a little more than 2 hours, which included a lunch of roasted chicken and some veggies.

We had a great time and would definitely use Spencer's again. Hope this helps

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We just did this on Spencer's and had a great time. 4 of us got dropped off at Anse Chastenet and had a little more than 1 1/2 hours snorkeling time there while the rest of the group went to the mud bath. One of Spencer's guys stayed with us and took care of everything we needed. The snorkeling was great, water clear and plenty of sea life. Because there are two resorts on the beach there is a bar with food and drinks, for a price, and a gift shop.

The boat came back for the 4 of us, we picked up the group from mud bath and boated down to Jalousie beach, between the Pitons. Snorkeling again was good - water clear, plenty of fish. But we were on the public side of the beach, which was very rocky and had fewer chairs. The beach on the resort side was much nicer, but we were told it was $50 to use one of their chairs. We were on that beach for a little more than 2 hours, which included a lunch of roasted chicken and some veggies.

We had a great time and would definitely use Spencer's again. Hope this helps

I just want to add that the entire beach is "public". The resort has their resort only or pay for chairs on the "sandy" side of the beach and their free / non resort chairs on the rocky side where the Coral for snorkeling is. There is also better shade in the rocky/ snorkel side.

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I've been emailing spencer all day and he arranged for us to go with another couple who wanted the same thing to go to both beaches and have lunch. It's a full day snorkel excursion instead of 1/2 day and it's $105. I said the 1/2 is fine and he said this way we can get more time at anse chastenet then go over and meet up with everyone at jalousie. I really like this option because it's like herods old tour. Going to bat cave, Dr Doolittle beach...I love st Lucia and snorkeling. I will definitely post when I return in april.

 

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We just did this on Spencer's and had a great time. 4 of us got dropped off at Anse Chastenet and had a little more than 1 1/2 hours snorkeling time there while the rest of the group went to the mud bath. One of Spencer's guys stayed with us and took care of everything we needed. The snorkeling was great, water clear and plenty of sea life. Because there are two resorts on the beach there is a bar with food and drinks, for a price, and a gift shop.

The boat came back for the 4 of us, we picked up the group from mud bath and boated down to Jalousie beach, between the Pitons. Snorkeling again was good - water clear, plenty of fish. But we were on the public side of the beach, which was very rocky and had fewer chairs. The beach on the resort side was much nicer, but we were told it was $50 to use one of their chairs. We were on that beach for a little more than 2 hours, which included a lunch of roasted chicken and some veggies.

We had a great time and would definitely use Spencer's again. Hope this helps

 

I don't know if we were out the same day, but this is what happened when we were on the Land, Sea and Beach tour as well. A couple of snorkelers got dropped at Anse Chastenet first thing and then rejoined us (apparently by boat) at Jalousie, then we all went back to Castries together. Their tour was therefore the same length as our tour, about 6 hours. We left at 8:30-9am and got back at 2:30pm.

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My husband and I went on Spencer's Snorkeling Adventure. The crew were fabulous. They took us to 2 amazing beaches, Anse Castanet and Sugarand pointed out fabulous sites from the boat, such as the Pitons. The snorkeling was great! I highly recommend this company.

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My husband and I went on Spencer's Snorkeling Adventure. The crew were fabulous. They took us to 2 amazing beaches, Sugar/Jalousie Beach and Anse Castanet, and pointed out fabulous sites from the boat, such as the Pitons. The snorkeling was great! I highly recommend this company.

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I haven't toured with Cosol so I can't say for sure, but I did hear a number of people on our ship mentioning that they had spent an hour and a half each way in a van to get to Soufriere with other operators. That would be a dealbreaker for me - not only do I hate wasting half my day in transit, but I get carsick rather easily. The speedboat is definitely worth a few extra bucks to me, although the lunch most definitely was not.

 

So I am really sad to hear this, as I just booked this exact tour for our first trip to St. Lucia in November. :( I have to agree with you the main reason we also chose Spencers was to avoid a long bus ride on winding roads (been there and done that before). Thought this would be a fun day based on all the great reviews I had read (also do a lot of research beforehand). Now I'm second-guessing my decision?? Maybe you just had an off-day per chance?? But I have to agree with you I would not have been happy if I experienced what you did on your time on the island for the price paid. I just thought this tour included a lot of the highlights for first time trip on St. Lucia. Thanks for your review and will be looking out for others experiences until closer to our cruise.

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First time booking the Gros Piton climb with Spencer Ambrose.....not a fan! We followed the meeting instructions only to find (by accident) that it had been changed. Even though this company states the tour leaves promptly at a certain time....it doesn't, at least not this day. There was a lot of hurry up and wait going on. We finally boarded a speed boat, only to disembark and board another boat. First stop was for a bag of ice...come on, you're a professional company....have a cooler(s) with ice ready to go before picking up guests. Anyway, we arrived at the 2nd beach drop for the climb. According to our tour guide (not affiliated with Spencer Ambrose), we arrived quite late and time probably did not allow us to climb to the top. Regardless, we made it to the 1/2 way mark, it was a difficult climb, but amazing. We descended and eventually met Spencer Ambrose in the boat who took us to Sugar Beach to join the rest of the guests who had booked the beach day only. Huge let down, beach crowded, not much sun and food so so....and all ice had turned to water......rum punch not the same without ice...lol. Speed boat ride on the way back was over crowded. Guides tried desperately to get us to stand up and dance.....hint, if you want a party boat on the return, put us on a boat where you can actually stand up and party....friggin ridiculous. So there, that's my experience. My advice, if you have an interest in climbing the Pitons, hire a private car so that you get to the Pitons early. If you are doing the beach day only,,,,,,,much better beaches than Sugar Beach.

Edited by smdcruiser
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First time booking the Gros Piton climb with Spencer Ambrose.....not a fan! We followed the meeting instructions only to find (by accident) that it had been changed. Even though this company states the tour leaves promptly at a certain time....it doesn't, at least not this day. There was a lot of hurry up and wait going on. We finally boarded a speed boat, only to disembark and board another boat. First stop was for a bag of ice...come on, you're a professional company....have a cooler(s) with ice ready to go before picking up guests. Anyway, we arrived at the 2nd beach drop for the climb. According to our tour guide (not affiliated with Spencer Ambrose), we arrived quite late and time probably did not allow us to climb to the top. Regardless, we made it to the 1/2 way mark, it was a difficult climb, but amazing. We descended and eventually met Spencer Ambrose in the boat who took us to Sugar Beach to join the rest of the guests who had booked the beach day only. Huge let down, beach crowded, not much sun and food so so....and all ice had turned to water......rum punch not the same without ice...lol. Speed boat ride on the way back was over crowded. Guides tried desperately to get us to stand up and dance.....hint, if you want a party boat on the return, put us on a boat where you can actually stand up and party....friggin ridiculous. So there, that's my experience. My advice, if you have an interest in climbing the Pitons, hire a private car so that you get to the Pitons early. If you are doing the beach day only,,,,,,,much better beaches than Sugar Beach.

That's the reason I didn't want to do climb from beach. I think it's longer that way. Spencer actually told me that and said it was my call to do that or another excursion. I mapped it and noted how long it was and figured I'd do it if/when staying in st Lucia. I believe when you approach on land it's about 30 minutes up that you save on walking. Of course the drive there negates the time saved. I would do this one off the ship excursion also

 

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