St. Lucia Spencer Ambrose Land and Sea Adventure

Looking to do this excursion on St. Lucia. What can you tell me about it? Is there enough time to do this? It says the duration is 6-7 hours? Is it worth it? Would you suggest something else?

Thanks.

Spencers tours are very well organized...however, that being said, we did the West Coast Island Delight and were moderately disappointed as we did not get the beach time we had hoped for. Those that we met that did the one you mention were much happier. For us, 2 hours plus BOTH WAYS in a van, while lovely sightseeing, got monotonous. So, go with the Sea and Land, I do think it will be your best bet! Enjoy!

Spencers tours are very well organized...however, that being said, we did the West Coast Island Delight and were moderately disappointed as we did not get the beach time we had hoped for. Those that we met that did the one you mention were much happier. For us, 2 hours plus BOTH WAYS in a van, while lovely sightseeing, got monotonous. So, go with the Sea and Land, I do think it will be your best bet! Enjoy!

Same for us by the time we got to the beach we were told we had about 30min to eat and enjoy the beach before we had to head back. 30min is not enought time to eat, change, go into the water and then change again. :( Was not happy with the tour at all. He tried to say it was because Carnival ship gets in late, well being a tour operator he should know that Carnival has a later port arrival and should let his clients know there will be hardly any or no beach time.:(:mad:

We toured with Spencer in 2010. His entire operation was fabulous, but we did the West Coast tour, and paid the extra $$ for the water taxi transfer back to the pier from the beach, this allowed us much more beach time. We saw a lot of the "off the beaten path" parts of the island, and experienced a tremendous amount of local flaire and hospitality as well as history and a personal side of island life that you can not get any other way.

I hope this helps and you enjoy St Lucia.

I would never ever use Spender.

We had a large group (hi Tracy) and we got a late start because it did not occur to him to check when the ship was arriving.

Than his girl who did our tour wasted lots of time taking us around and we barely had time to get to the Pitons.

Than Spencer told me to get on this boat and as it turned out this boat went back to the port while my wife was elsewhere. Luckily the boat had a cell phone so was able to get a message to my wife that we would meet back at the port.

One other thing I would mention. The roads here are very windy and lots of bumps and most of the people in our bus were suffering from various degrees of car sickness by the time we got to the Pitons.

Worst mistake I ever made was booking Ambrose. Had to make a few new rules for myself after that... like never booking a non-ship sponsored boat tour.

Short story, was the most disorganized excursion I've ever booked, and one of his boats broke down - we narrowly made it back to the ship. I understand that boats can have mechanical problems, but the way he handled it totally ticked me off. On top of that, we were given some mis-information. DH and I always call it our worst day ever on a cruise.

Thats right. Spencers tour guide say botanical garden and waterfall had opened after hurricane few months before.

She was wrong. How does tour guide on small island not known this?

Looking to do this excursion on St. Lucia. What can you tell me about it? Is there enough time to do this? It says the duration is 6-7 hours? Is it worth it? Would you suggest something else?

 

Thanks.

DON'T DO IT!!!

We booked a tour with Spenser Ambrose. It was the worst tour we have taken in all of our cruises. It was very disorganized. The buses left the port an hour later than we were supposed to, so we could not see all the sites as promised. The first part was fine, but things went south at lunch. Not enough food nor places to sit. Then half the people went to the beach and the other half went to the volcano. We chose the volcano. I admit-it was very cool. After we were done, our bus drove to a meeting point for the other bus. Every 10-15 minutes we asked when we would go back to the ship. We were told "soon" each time. After an hour of sitting in a parking lot, we demanded to be taken to the ship. Our driver had to call Ambrose to get permission. We finally did go back. The beach people didn't arrive back to the ship for another two hours after that. So, besides the fact that we would have waited a really long time in the parking lot had our driver not returned us to the port, we could have gone to the beach for a little while after all.

When we got back, we talked with people who took a tour with Cosol. They said it was the best tour ever. All that night, we talked with people who had done Cosol. Not a single negative word was said. Those of us on the Ambrose tour were quite unhappy about the unprofessional tour we took.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Amazing how many people have reported a bad experience with Spencer. Would think he would get better over time but guess not.

At the beginning of our tour, when our guide asked us what time our ship was scheduled to leave I knew it was going to be an interesting day. Not being a big (or little even, for that matter) snorkeler, I didn't mind the day...just getting back with 20 minutes to spare was a bit on the nerve-wracking side. The next day, in St. Kitts, our guide had a full calendar of ships, complete with arrival and departure times.

At the beginning of our tour, when our guide asked us what time our ship was scheduled to leave I knew it was going to be an interesting day. Not being a big (or little even, for that matter) snorkeler, I didn't mind the day...just getting back with 20 minutes to spare was a bit on the nerve-wracking side. The next day, in St. Kitts, our guide had a full calendar of ships, complete with arrival and departure times.

Seems like tour guide 101 is to know what time your customers need to be back. Not as if they get that many ships there.

We would never do Spencer Ambrose again!! Worst excursion ever. We all paid for boat return from pitons, but Spencer's little brother, our guide, had no proof of this. Time at beach was about 30-45 min. and the food was awful. Guide drove very fast and most on our bus got sick. Very disorganized and mis-managed. Never do spencer Ambrose!!

Funny how different people experience different things :rolleyes: We did Spencer's Jalousie Beach Break while on the Miracle in 2010. We loved it so much we booked it again in 2011 while on the Victory. We loved him for exactly what people are saying was bad....his tour was very organized, the tour guides very personable and taught us a lot about St. Lucia on our way around to Jalousie Beach. Now, we have not done his land tours so maybe that's where the issue is? Not sure, but we would absolutely book him again next time we are in St. Lucia.

We did spencers April 2011 and loved it. We did spend the entra ($20 or $25) to stay at the beach longer and come back by water instead of that LONG bumpy bus ride back (this I highly recomend). Lunch was plentyful and so was the rum punch! But Next time I would just get a water taxi to Jalousie beach and spend more time there since I have now seen the island. Just take your own snacks.

We too used Spencer in December 2011.....we did the land and sea tour....it was EXACTLY as outlined on his website's tour info. We were disappointed Spencer didn't show up, but we had his brother, who was great. Had a wonderful land tour, saw the Volcano, then spent about 1 1/2 hours at Jalousie Beach had a very tasty interesting home cooked lunch on the beach, then took a boat back, stopping at many different sites (where Dr. Doolittle was filmed, saw the "cave" where parts of Pirates of the Carribbean was filmed etc) on our way back to the ship. It was a full fun-filled day. We would use Spencer again if we ever return....just our humble opinion.

Funny how different people experience different things :rolleyes: We did Spencer's Jalousie Beach Break while on the Miracle in 2010. We loved it so much we booked it again in 2011 while on the Victory. We loved him for exactly what people are saying was bad....his tour was very organized, the tour guides very personable and taught us a lot about St. Lucia on our way around to Jalousie Beach. Now, we have not done his land tours so maybe that's where the issue is? Not sure, but we would absolutely book him again next time we are in St. Lucia.

We did the Jalousie Beach Break on 3/13/12 with Spencer and it was great would highly recommend this tour, great food and plenty to drink.

Other than a pretty pathetic lunch at the beach there was a bottle of water per person and no drinks at all.

FWIW I hated Cosol. But I dont' think you can tour St Lucia without going on long winding, bumpy roads. So perhaps it's not Cosol I hated but St Lucia.

We felt the hours spent driving was way too much riding time for us, we'd rather be out doing something, just was not our thing!!!

Carole

Spencer was great - we used him in September. If you want more beach time, ask to skip the volcano - there's not much to it, anyway. The island is understandably proud of it and it is kind of interesting, but the snorkeling at Jalousie Beach would be my pick of where to spend more time. The lunch we were served was outstanding, drinks and snacks along the way were plentiful and they stopped whenever one of us had an itch to take a photo - also knew where to find the FREE bathrooms (not all are -)

I would use Spencer again in a heartbeat and the views of the ship as we traveled back by boat were fantastic!

Other than a pretty pathetic lunch at the beach there was a bottle of water per person and no drinks at all.

Must have changed wasn't like that on 3/13/12, we drank soft drinks and water and he also had rum punch and beer for the ones that wanted it.

Must have changed wasn't like that on 3/13/12, we drank soft drinks and water and he also had rum punch and beer for the ones that wanted it.

If he wants to stay in business he would have had to.

We used Cosol. We really loved the tour except for the little beach part. We went to small part of a beach under some trees next to some private property. We had to stay on our side which had a few chairs and lots of rocks. Most of the chairs were broken. We felt like we were somewhere that we weren't supposed to be. The island is beautiful though and the Pitons, Fabulous!

Wow. Lots of good info here. I appreciate it. I am a bit concerned doing such a LONG excursion. 6-7 hours... I'd be worried we'd miss the boat! Not a deal breaker, just a concern.

We did the Jalouise Beach Break with Spencer Ambrose and we did a tour with Cosol as well. Much Prefered Cosol. Spencer had the boats way over loaded, ran out of beer and you were only allowed a small lunch plate. I won't do another Spencer tour.