Spencer Ambrose

[PeterPan]

As a side note - watch out for the rum punch. It's quite good (and strong). ;)

[sandinmypants]

Thanks for the replies!

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

I am going to be one of the very few ever to have negative comments about the Spencer Ambrose Tour but it was very mixed up from the start.

St. Lucia was one of the islands we looked forward to visiting the most & I researched for months before choosing Spencer Ambrose.

Spencer 's brother Small & his cousin John met us at the pier & said Spencer was unavailable that day. They told us that fees to the National Forest had gone up so we had to pay an additional $3 each. Not a big deal but we already had an agreed on price for the tour.

We left in an air conditioned van promptly at 8:30 as we were supposed to. My DH & I sat in the back & could not hear everything John said especially when we were going over bumpy roads. I asked him once to speak up but we caught most of what he said.

We felt rushed throughout the whole tour. John kept saying we are going to make a quick stop here & he meant QUICK! John is a very nice guy but also very intense & he seemed stressed that day. He seems very intelligent & knowledgeable though.

We had a banana (very sweet) at the banana plantation & we had Johnny cakes at one of the stops that was delicious. We had access to cokes, water or beer in the van but the rum punch was in a bottle that we took to the beach with us & we had one bottle of rum punch for eight people. Our lunches were not ready when he went to pick them up & he was upset.

My DH & I & another couple had E-mailed Spencer earlier & said that we wanted to take the water taxi back to give us more time at Jalousie Beach & not have the 90 minute van ride back. My understanding was that we would go to the falls & the Botanical Gardens before we went to the beach but we stopped to go to the beach & have a picnic there before we went to the falls so I asked John & he said nobody told him we wanted to take the water taxi back & again he was very upset. The four of us that wanted to do the water taxi back were disappointed but decided to just make the best of it. John did offer to load everybody up & go to the falls first but that would have taken up more of our time since we were already at the water taxi to go to the beach & we were getting hungry.

John told us to take whatever we wanted to drink to the beach as we would not be taking the cooler. He went to get our lunches in styrofoam boxes & we all got in the water taxi.

Jalouise Beach is very beautiful but when we got there the few chairs that are available for public use were all taken (most of the beach area is for the resort although you can walk down the whole beach) & John & Small pulled out some chairs & we sat 2 & 3 to a lounge chair with no tables & tried to eat our lunches. The food was pretty good but we were crammed in a very small area. I took pics & will try to post some when I do a review of the cruise.

We had less 30 minutes at the beach after lunch before we headed back. We stopped at the falls for a few minutes & I went in the pool & under the waterfalls which was fun.

It seemed like we were in a race to get back. John stopped at one place to get bread that was good but we were not given the option of peanut butter or cheese that I had read about. He also gave us a piece of coconut cake to split.

We loved St. Lucia & the scenery was beautiful. The drive-in volcano was amazing to see. I would love to go back & maybe we just caught Spencer's tour on a bad day but I wish we had done something else.

We saw friends that went on Cosol's tour at the beach (they were already there when we got there) & they raved about it! They could not believe we were eating lunch in our little hovel & they took pictures. I went with Spencer because it seemed like a smaller operation than Cosol but we were dissappointed with our day.

The rest of our trip was amazing though despite the tropical depressions & flooding & we loved all the islands. I will try to post a review later.

[barbaraanne]

I am going to be one of the very few ever to have negative comments about the Spencer Ambrose Tour but it was very mixed up from the start.

St. Lucia was one of the islands we looked forward to visiting the most & I researched for months before choosing Spencer Ambrose.

Spencer 's brother Small & his cousin John met us at the pier & said Spencer was unavailable that day. They told us that fees to the National Forest had gone up so we had to pay an additional $3 each. Not a big deal but we already had an agreed on price for the tour.

We left in an air conditioned van promptly at 8:30 as we were supposed to. My DH & I sat in the back & could not hear everything John said especially when we were going over bumpy roads. I asked him once to speak up but we caught most of what he said.

We felt rushed throughout the whole tour. John kept saying we are going to make a quick stop here & he meant QUICK! John is a very nice guy but also very intense & he seemed stressed that day. He seems very intelligent & knowledgeable though.

We had a banana (very sweet) at the banana plantation & we had Johnny cakes at one of the stops that was delicious. We had access to cokes, water or beer in the van but the rum punch was in a bottle that we took to the beach with us & we had one bottle of rum punch for eight people. Our lunches were not ready when he went to pick them up & he was upset.

My DH & I & another couple had E-mailed Spencer earlier & said that we wanted to take the water taxi back to give us more time at Jalousie Beach & not have the 90 minute van ride back. My understanding was that we would go to the falls & the Botanical Gardens before we went to the beach but we stopped to go to the beach & have a picnic there before we went to the falls so I asked John & he said nobody told him we wanted to take the water taxi back & again he was very upset. The four of us that wanted to do the water taxi back were disappointed but decided to just make the best of it. John did offer to load everybody up & go to the falls first but that would have taken up more of our time since we were already at the water taxi to go to the beach & we were getting hungry.

John told us to take whatever we wanted to drink to the beach as we would not be taking the cooler. He went to get our lunches in styrofoam boxes & we all got in the water taxi.

Jalouise Beach is very beautiful but when we got there the few chairs that are available for public use were all taken (most of the beach area is for the resort although you can walk down the whole beach) & John & Small pulled out some chairs & we sat 2 & 3 to a lounge chair with no tables & tried to eat our lunches. The food was pretty good but we were crammed in a very small area. I took pics & will try to post some when I do a review of the cruise.

We had less 30 minutes at the beach after lunch before we headed back. We stopped at the falls for a few minutes & I went in the pool & under the waterfalls which was fun.

It seemed like we were in a race to get back. John stopped at one place to get bread that was good but we were not given the option of peanut butter or cheese that I had read about. He also gave us a piece of coconut cake to split.

We loved St. Lucia & the scenery was beautiful. The drive-in volcano was amazing to see. I would love to go back & maybe we just caught Spencer's tour on a bad day but I wish we had done something else.

We saw friends that went on Cosol's tour at the beach (they were already there when we got there) & they raved about it! They could not believe we were eating lunch in our little hovel & they took pictures. I went with Spencer because it seemed like a smaller operation than Cosol but we were dissappointed with our day.

The rest of our trip was amazing though despite the tropical depressions & flooding & we loved all the islands. I will try to post a review later.

 

Thank you for this very informative opinion! We are trying to decide which tour to do in St. Lucia and am thinking maybe we should do Carnival's land and sea, but was thinking of Spencer's too. It's good to read something that goes into detail, whether positive or negative, thanks.

[aggie1]

Cool Breeze Cruiser - I totally agree with you. We went with Spencer Ambrose in St.Lucia on 10/13/10. First we were given Neptune as our driver in a small van seating 8. Van was totally uncomfortable and his driving made most of us nauseous. Same thing happened, stopped at stops for short periods, bananas, some kind of cakes, snake man and then to the volcano. To me that was a joke and charged us all $3 more even though half of us stayed in the van. After that took water taxi to Jelousie beach and had our take-out lunch on beach. Stayed about 45 min and then water taxi back to village. We chose to take van back and had to hitch a ride with Small in his van, which was much nicer and he is a better driver. Did get to stop at waterfall and it was a lot of fun. Stopped for bread at a bakery and then back to the port. Also our e-mails from Spencer stated that water taxi back to port was $15. Neptune tried to charge them $20. I had heard so much good about Spencer ambrose and was greatly disappointed. For an all day tour, 20 min. at waterfall was the highlight of the tour and no botanical gardens. I would not recommend Spencer Ambrose unless he changes something!!

[kimberley]

That makes my mind up then!

[flcruzer03]

Oh dear...we are booked with Spencer for next week....sure hope this isn't a trend with him...

[PeterPan]

Spencer's tour is pretty "site intensive". You travel down the East coast and back. There are many things to see, so the stops are not long by necessity. The roads are fairly narrow and tend to do a lot of rise/fall and twisty turny.

 

If you do not wish to take part in the standard tour, you can customize one to your own liking (for a price).

 

You should definately be aware of what the tour really consists of, and set your expectations accordingly. We enjoyed our tour with Spencer and Small in February 2010. It was the highlight or our Southern Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas. However, I'm certain that not everyone is completely happy with their tour.

 

I believe that a tour with Cosol is very similar to Spencer. Same basic itinerary.

[1stcruiser1]

Please post when you get back to let us know how your time with Spencer was. I am also booked, but not until March. Thanks

[Indy Island Hopper]

We have toured with Spencer on two different occasions. Both times with his brother Small. We highly recommend their tour. By design the tour to the volcano and botanical garden and the piton's is time intensive. You're in the van an extended time because of the distance required to travel. We never felt rushed or hurried. Small and Spencer are very considerate and try to do everything they can to make your time enjoyable. Our second tour with them was with our teenage boys. We arranged a custom tour so that we could visit a local school and also wanted to have our boys play soccer with the local kids as well. It will be a time that our kids will always remember. We are returning to St. Lucia in December and look forward to seeing Spencer and Small again and visiting different parts of the Island with them this trip.

[flcruzer03]

Please post when you get back to let us know how your time with Spencer was. I am also booked, but not until March. Thanks

 

 

Truthfully I was NOT impressed with this tour... We were quoted a price of $65 for the tour & $15 for the water taxi...after we were over 1/2 way thru the tour Spencer told us that because the rate for one of the parks had gone up $3 it would be $68...and the water taxi was now $20 because he was using his own boat...I think it would have been nice to have been informed of the price changes BEFORE the tour...he also stated several times in his emails that he would have us back to the ship by 3:30 as he does NOT cut it close..we left Jalousie beach at 2:30 and did not arrive at the ship until 4...for a 4:30 all aboard!! They were having problems with the water taxi...the check oil alarm kept coming on...and at one point the bilge pump was not working...they finally got the pump working & we were able to go faster...but instead of making up the time and getting us back to the ship they continued on with the sightseeing spending another 20 minutes showing us where Dr. Doolittle was filemed, homes of the rich & famous etc...why he advertises it as a 30 min. taxi ride back to the pier is beyond me...

 

St Lucia is beautiful...but I didn't feel that Spencer delivered what he had promised in his emails or website...

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

Truthfully I was NOT impressed with this tour... We were quoted a price of $65 for the tour & $15 for the water taxi...after we were over 1/2 way thru the tour Spencer told us that because the rate for one of the parks had gone up $3 it would be $68...and the water taxi was now $20 because he was using his own boat...I think it would have been nice to have been informed of the price changes BEFORE the tour...he also stated several times in his emails that he would have us back to the ship by 3:30 as he does NOT cut it close..we left Jalousie beach at 2:30 and did not arrive at the ship until 4...for a 4:30 all aboard!! They were having problems with the water taxi...the check oil alarm kept coming on...and at one point the bilge pump was not working...they finally got the pump working & we were able to go faster...but instead of making up the time and getting us back to the ship they continued on with the sightseeing spending another 20 minutes showing us where Dr. Doolittle was filemed, homes of the rich & famous etc...why he advertises it as a 30 min. taxi ride back to the pier is beyond me...

 

St Lucia is beautiful...but I didn't feel that Spencer delivered what he had promised in his emails or website...

 

Sorry you did not have a good day with your tour either.

I researched for months & found so many things we wanted to do in St. Lucia until I settled on the Ambrose tour. Unfortunately like you, I don't think he delivered what he promised.

Until my tour I don't think I had ever read one negative report but in the review I posted another CC member said they had much the same experience that my DH & I did. So I wonder what is going on?

I was just disappointed that when you only have one day to explore an island & even though we fell in love with St. Lucia & would love to go back there our tour fell way short of our expectations.

[sandinmypants]

Well, we may not have the opportunity to give Spencer a try. I'm going to send him an email tomorrow to see how the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas will change his planned itinerary. We are supposed to tour with him a week from tomorrow, and it doesn't sound as if the island's roads will be fully accessible. I'm now researching "Plan B".

[LuvToSki]

sandinmypants - please post what you find out from Spencer. We have an excursion booked for Nov 27th.

[alimithani19]

We are also booked with him on Nov 10th but I emailed him on last Friday to confirm and no response as of yet.

 

Ali

[mrpayroll]

We are also booked with him on Nov 10th but I emailed him on last Friday to confirm and no response as of yet.

 

Ali

According to his website, he has no internet after the hurricane. We are booked with him for Nov.15th. Doesn't look good from all the reports i have read.

[sandinmypants]

I would think they'll have the roads repaired within a couple of weeks. If we don't have a response from him before we leave on Saturday though, we'll need to have a backup plan - and I have NO idea what else to do!

[Host Faith]

Spencer's tour is pretty "site intensive". You travel down the East coast and back. There are many things to see, so the stops are not long by necessity. The roads are fairly narrow and tend to do a lot of rise/fall and twisty turny.

 

If you do not wish to take part in the standard tour, you can customize one to your own liking (for a price).

 

You should definately be aware of what the tour really consists of, and set your expectations accordingly. We enjoyed our tour with Spencer and Small in February 2010. It was the highlight or our Southern Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas. However, I'm certain that not everyone is completely happy with their tour.

 

I believe that a tour with Cosol is very similar to Spencer. Same basic itinerary.

 

I agree PeterPan. We did our tour with Spencer last year, and my family and friends toured with him in early September. We all had a great time with Spencer, after I researched the trip enough to know exactly what to expect on the tour, and relayed all this to my family and friends before their own tour.

 

The tour is very "site intensive," so there may not have been the opportunity to stay at each stop as long as you may have liked. I do know that Spencer is always very concerned with making sure guests return to the ship on time. The roads are very winding, so while it may look like things are a short distance away, it takes longer to get from place to place because of the twists and turns. The nauseous feeling is also discussed here on CC quite a bit, since the turns are very winding and there are many hills as well. I took dramamine before the tour and was fine. Told my friends to do the same and they were fine as well.

 

When we went with Spencer last year, we skipped the volcano since all the passengers had researched the various sites and we all agreed that it wasn't necessary to stop there. My family and friends stopped there since other guests on the tour really wanted to go. They didn't see the big deal about the volcano but it didn't put a damper on their day.

 

Eating lunch on the beach was different from our personal experience. We actually stopped at a local restaurant for lunch before heading to the beach via water taxi. There are a bunch of posts on this board regarding the chairs on Jalousie Beach- they are available for rental at a price of $20 each. We opted to sit on our towels since we knew we would not be there long anyway. I can't imagine having to eat while sitting on towels, so I can understand your frustration with that.

 

In the future, be sure to thouroughly research tours and the stops on the tours. You can also ask for quotes for customized tours. I like to compare both the regular tour and the customized tour before making my decision.

 

I do think Spencer should consider having a backup water taxi arrangement or a kit for repairs, etc, in the case they have problems with them running properly. It actually rained on our tour, and we still had a great time with him. Also be sure to communicate clearly what you would like while on the tour. If you didn't feel it was necessary to continue touring after the water taxi malfuncion, let him know that you would really like to get back to the ship as soon as possible.

 

We've had two great experiences with him. I'm sorry you did not enjoy your trip, and I can understand why you were frustrated in your experience. I know not everyone will enjoy every tour.

 

Please be sure to contact Spencer and let him know your concerns. He really appreciates your honest feedback. He retired from being a cop on the island a few years ago, and his livelihood rests on his reputation, like most other tour operators in other parts of the world. Please be sure to contact him, and let us know of his response.

[cruzlovr23]

We toured last week (Oct. 28) with Spencer and had a fantastic day. It was a very full day and we definitely felt it was a great value for the cost. We spoke with a couple who had spent a week in St. Lucia and we saw more in one day than they did their entire trip. Spencer was very flexible and even added a spur of the moment stop at a rum factory (at our request) where we tasted and were able to purchase locally made rum.:D

Enjoyed beautiful Jalousie Beach. No chairs available on our day either but we had towels to lay on and spent time in the water as well. No problem.............

Returned by water taxi. Did have a minor issue with a pump component which was taken care of and didn't really create a distraction for our tour. As boat owners ourselves we know that unexpected problems can occur. We saw even more sights on the way back to ship including Marigot Bay where Dr. Doolittle was filmed along with celebrity homes. Also bat cave and "fish on the wall" (natural formation in rock that looks just like a fish) Had time to stop at a few shops before boarding. True island experience including many sights and tasting local cuisine. Spencer loves his island and was very knowledgeable and informative. Definitely recommend Spencer.

[ciera123]

We're booked with Spencer for our cruise in June. For those of you who have taken his tour, what stop(s) would you leave out so that there is less rushing? The volcano doesn't really interest us much.....:o

[lbryant]

Our group of 4 adults toured with Spencer on 10/23 and had a fantastic time. We decided to do the zipline instead of the island tour and it was amazing. Spencer was a lot of fun (lots of stories and lots of humor). He got us to the zipline before everyone else and we had the place to ourselves (for a little while...then the other tours arrived and we could see the lines starting to build). It was a great morning followed by a very fun afternoon of sight seeing, some beach time and experiencing some local cuisine (ok - I'll admit I didn't always care for the local dishes but we were there to experience the island, not chain restaurant food). Spencer loves his island and the people and it shows. I can't speak for other tours, but you can be assured that trusting your 1 day on St Lucia with Spencer will be one of the highlights of the trip.

 

I've read some of the recent negative posts and it doesn't fit with our experience at all. Spencer was always upfront, and completely honest about the costs of each option we discussed. In fact, he went out of his way to make sure we understood all the options and associated costs. Our experience was that Spencer was far more interested in building relationships with people than nickel and dime-ing them. I totally trust Spencer and his team to deliver an outstanding experience - and go ziplining -- it's amazing!

[sharkwl]

We booked the West Coast Delight tour with Spencer Ambrose and loved it! There was supposed to be 4 in our group but the other couple went zip lining and so we had the van to ourselves! We went with his brother Smalli and he was great! The boat trip to Jalhousie was awesome and the beach situated between the Grand Pitons is beautiful! A very informative tour and worth every penny! Enjoy!

[Host Faith]

We're booked with Spencer for our cruise in June. For those of you who have taken his tour, what stop(s) would you leave out so that there is less rushing? The volcano doesn't really interest us much.....:o

 

 

We left out the volcano, and felt that we were able to enjoy the other sites at a leisurely pace. We don't think we missed anything by skipping it either :D

[lcmslady]

We toured with Spencer in January 2010 and had an absolutely wonderful day. It is a stop-intensive tour and also quite a way to travel to get there.

 

We felt he was a very careful driver and a wonderful guide and person.

 

I was looking at his website this week and it looks to me like the his water taxi may be something that he recently added. We drove through the resort to the beach and then back. I know that in the past, a water taxi was available but I don't think it was his.

 

This may be something new that he's added and is having some trouble working out the kinks.

 

I'm planning (hoping) to spend the day with him again in January 2011 and am looking forward to it.

 

Sorry that some of you haven't had the best of experiences.

[Houston Pegaroo]

We did West Coast Delight tour 10/15 with his brother, Small, and had a very delightful day and arrived back at ship 1 hr. pre-departure as agreed. Small was very informative and entertaining. I do agree with other post, tho, that some changes were made from the original agreement. Our fee was also increased from $65 to $68 per person, and we were told that water taxi return would not be available for $15 pp. as agreed, but rather would be $20pp. and would require a minimum of 5 people. Since we had only 6 on our tour, all would have to agree to take water taxi. Others did not care about the extra beach time that water taxi would allow, so we did return by van. I would also recommend eliminating volcano/sulphur springs to allow more time at beach. Despite these few glitches, I would stress that we had a very enjoyable day and were very satisfied with our experience.