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


Aquaticdreams
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We are looking at doing either the full day Spencer Ambrose Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break excursion or the half day Celebrity Coastal Cruise to the Pitons. The Spencer Ambrose tour offers a lot more, however, there wouldn’t be any time to walk around the town. We usually like to do some shopping and see the quaint towns when in port. Is walking around Castries worth taking a shorter tour? I’d hate to pass up the Ambrose excursion that gets such glowing reviews only to find out there’s not much to see near the port. Any feedback is appreciated!

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We are looking at doing either the full day Spencer Ambrose Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break excursion or the half day Celebrity Coastal Cruise to the Pitons. The Spencer Ambrose tour offers a lot more, however, there wouldn’t be any time to walk around the town. We usually like to do some shopping and see the quaint towns when in port. Is walking around Castries worth taking a shorter tour? I’d hate to pass up the Ambrose excursion that gets such glowing reviews only to find out there’s not much to see near the port. Any feedback is appreciated!

There's not much to see around the port. Castries is not a quaint small village but rather a bustling working capital city with little in the way of tourist attractions in the immediate area.. Even those of us who live hear avoid it when we can, there's just little there.

A few things would be the small Cathedral, food market, lighthouse (not walkable to lighthouse though)... The food market is about 5-10 minute walk from port and worth a half hour walk through or so. Cathedral is a little further into town, and usually locked up in the afternoon unless there's a funeral...

Spencer's is a great tour, I'd recommend going with that, as you'll see much of the beautiful Coastline and of course the gorgeous Jalousie beach and Pitons!!

Enjoy.

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I agree with ReedPrincess-- go with Spencer. Even though it rained on and off the entire day, we had a great time. The trip over to and back from the Pitons was very enjoyable and pretty. Jalousie Beach was nice and the food/drinks were good.

 

ReedPrincess-- it there a bar or restaurant near the port that we could go to after our excursions. (Sorry OP, not trying to hijack). Thanks.

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I agree with ReedPrincess-- go with Spencer. Even though it rained on and off the entire day, we had a great time. The trip over to and back from the Pitons was very enjoyable and pretty. Jalousie Beach was nice and the food/drinks were good.

 

ReedPrincess-- it there a bar or restaurant near the port that we could go to after our excursions. (Sorry OP, not trying to hijack). Thanks.

There's bars/restaurants within both port areas if you just want a quick drink or snack. More at Pointe Seraphine (single story port area) than at La Place Caranage (two story port area). At LPC, you need to head upstairs for the couple bars, restaurants - Chef Robby's has pretty good food, including local food choices and drinks... At PS - there's Pink Papaya and Rum Therapy plus a couple snack bars..

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I agree with the others with going with Spencer Ambrose. We did the full day Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break tour with them in 2013 and really enjoyed it. We met with the tour between 8:15 and 8:30AM and were on our way at 8:45AM. The trip over was about 45 minutes, but that included 2 or 3 stops on the way where they pointed out a few things of interest, including a stop where we were able to see both of the Pitons from the water for photo ops. We were at the beach by 9:30AM and had first pick of the free loungers over on the snorkeling side. The other side is the resort side. Jalousie Beach is GORGEOUS. A buffet of home cooked food was served for lunch (very good) and they also included unlimited beverages (bottled water, coke, diet coke, Piton beer, and rum punch). We had about 5 hours at the beach which allowed plenty of time for snorkeling/swimming, the lunch, time for walking the beach for pictures, and time to just relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery from the loungers. Spencer and his group (several are family members) interacted with our group and really made all of us feel welcome. At around 2:15PM, we all met back at the little pier for the trip back. On the return trip there were several stops at points of interest and more photo ops. We were back at the ship at around 3:45PM, which left plenty of time for us to browse the shops at the cruise center before we had to be back onboard our ship. We enjoyed the day so much that we booked again with Spencer in 2015 for their "Land, Sea, and Beach Adventure", this time getting back to the ship at 3PM and really enjoyed that tour as well. Next time we get back to St. Lucia (hopefully soon), we plan on doing the Jalousie/Sugar Beach break again. We really enjoyed the snorkeling both times we were there. We've snorkeled at other places we've been to, and so far, the snorkeling at Jalousie Beach is the best we've seen. There are so many different fish, lot of colorful coral, and even basket sponges. The price is very reasonable for all that is included.

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There's bars/restaurants within both port areas if you just want a quick drink or snack. More at Pointe Seraphine (single story port area) than at La Place Caranage (two story port area). At LPC, you need to head upstairs for the couple bars, restaurants - Chef Robby's has pretty good food, including local food choices and drinks... At PS - there's Pink Papaya and Rum Therapy plus a couple snack bars..

 

Thank you!!

And OP-- have a great time on Spencer's tour.

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We used Spencers for the beach break. Everyone was very friendly, the staff always made sure you had a drink and they are super friendly to chat with. The beach is amazing! Snorkeling wasn't bad either. They have free lounge chairs on the left side of the beach which is where Spencer sets up or you can go to the sugar beach resort and pay $50 a chair for the fancy padded ones. A gentlemen came over on a canoe full of fruits and coconuts and was making amazing drinks! 15 bucks for two big cups. On the ride back they show you some of the other resorts and cities along the water, they also nose into a bat cave which was neat. They get you back to the ship with a few hours to spare so you aren't rushed at all. They are one of the few tour companies i would use again.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Yes we did ! No problem and he was at the dock exactly where he told us. Not one problem during the day. Everything want like clock work ! Send me e-mail and i will send video 's of excursion ! Bob

 

 

 

Hi Bob, can you also send me the video? I booked an excursion with Spencer’s for March while sailing on the Grandeur. I love looking at peoples photos and videos!!

Crazybus@aol.com

 

Evelyn

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Not yet. Sometimes there’s a size restriction, so if they don’t come through, is there a link that can be shared, or just a subset of pics?

Sorry for the trouble.

Susie

Hey Bob,

Photos did not materialize. Is there a shareable link to the video?

Many of hanks,

Susie

lsk@virginia.edu

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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!

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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

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