MY VALOR ADVENTURE!!! (TAKE 2, had issues with photobucket) With a lot of pictures..

[skidawg79]

ST. LUCIA!!!

Today was our one and only booked tour during this trip. With such a port intensive trip, we didn’t want the vacation to feel so “scheduled”. We looked at Carnival’s excursions and weren’t overly impressed, so we took to TripAdvisor and found Cosol Tours. Look it up, they get rave reviews…for good reason.

We woke up early and went to the buffet as we didn’t want to get stuck in the dining room when we needed to be off the ship and with our tour by 8:30 (told us to meet at 8:15am). As always I took a few pictures before we got off the ship.

Upon getting off the ship, if you couldn’t find Cosol tours….you had your eyes closed. Right as you entered the cruise termina, there were people with signs. We gathered in the middle of the cruise terminal, Cosol introduced himself and started to devide people up into their vans. Originally it was only going to be Emily and I on this tour. However, the friends we made from Texas (Rona and Toby) asked us the day before if they can join. We were not sure if they were booked, so we told them when we were meeting them and sure enough by the time we got off the ship, Toby had already spoken with Cosol and told them that they could join. So as the 4 of us were standing there, the girl who challenged Emily to the chugging contest in Barbados (Kelsey) and her boyfriend walked up next to us and suddenly we became 6! The six of us were put in a with 4 other people and we were on our way. It was very easy and very organized. The vans were air conditioned and very comfortable.

We got our first interaction with our tour driver, Babtist, and he was just plain awesome. He was entertaining, talkative, informative and made the tour worth every cent. Our first stop on the tour was a lookout to look down on the ship….

[skidawg79]

One thing to note about St. Lucia, it is a very depressed island. Much of the Island makes their money off of tourists and selling their handmade necklace’s and bowls, so they can be somewhat pushy at times. I personally didn’t have an issue with any of them, but there was a “situation” later in the tour that I will get to.

Right next to the lookout was the Governor’s house. As we were standing there, the gates opened up and out walks a guard, as he’s walking closer Kelsey was being really friendly and starts waving at him, I mean waving like you’re seeing a long lost friend for the first time in like 10 years. I look at her and was like, “I don’t think he’s here to say hi” lol. Well as it turned out, the governor was on his way home and he asked us to clear the driveway. So on to the next stop! Next stop on the tour was the banana plantation…..

(I cant get my banana picture to load, maybe ill add it later)

We learned a lot about bananas, even if we were only there for a few minutes. A few things that surprised me were that banana trees only grow bananas once in their lifetime, then they chop the tree down and grow another one. It only takes 6 months for a banana tree to grow to full size and 9 months to produce banana’s. 1 tree can produce 100-200 bananas. So there is your banana lesson for the day ;-). Also, these bananas were really sweet, seemed sweeter than what we get back here in Pittsburgh.

We then went to another lookout, when we got there there was a local playing some Bob Marley, “We be Jammin’”. All I can say….he was trying… so I tipped him anyway.

Next they took us to a place in the hills to have some breakfast. There was about 8-10 tables of all different kinds of local food for us to sample. Most of it was very good and here is where we had our first chance to try the rum punch and Piton Beer…

Our view from where we had lunch. Baptist told us that it was the end of the dry season which is why a lot was brown. In a month or so (June) they start getting more rain and everything turns green. Nevertheless it was still beautiful….

[skidawg79]

Have a thing for work tonight. I'll try to finish up st Lucia when I get home tonight.

[jtxo]

Loving your review and pictures! We did this route with her last year, and it was the best cruise ever. Your pictures are making me want to book it again.

Thanks for sharing!

[LHARTWICK]

skidawg79: Was there any shade available at The Boatyard beach? We sail on the Valor in October. Still trying to decide what to do in Barbados. We've been there several times before, but not to The Boatyard. Thanks!

[babsee101]

Great review! Thanks for making this new thread. I am so glad I did not miss your awesome photos!

[skidawg79]

skidawg79: Was there any shade available at The Boatyard beach? We sail on the Valor in October. Still trying to decide what to do in Barbados. We've been there several times before, but not to The Boatyard. Thanks!

 

There were plenty of umbrella's, but we were also the only ship in port. With other ships, I could see them running out if you don't get there semi early. There was also a covered bar/restaurant area to escape the sun. There really wasn't any areas that were shaded by trees, but like I said, they had a lot of umbrella's.

[skidawg79]

ST. LUCIA CONT…..

Back from my work conference, have to get up at 7am tomorrow for about a 15 hour day so I’m going to make a post or two and call it a night. So Im going to backtrack a min, here is a pic of the governor’s house; I forgot to post it before….

Back to the review! So after our great lunch and some beers we hopped back in the vans and headed out towards the drive through Volcano and mud bath. I was weary about the mud bath and wasn’t sure if I was going to do it, but when we got there Emily basically questioned my manhood (I don’t think posting her exact words would be ok with Cruisecritic monitors) so I decided to do it. My first impression when I got out of the car was,holy crap who farted…seriously, it smelled like a nice rotten egg fart. Lol We walked down a few stairs to an area to get changed and this was the process. We got into a natural hot spring “tub” then got out and they brought buckets of volcanic mud down and you rubbed it all over your body. You then let it dry, then get back in the hot spring tub and wash it off….they say it takes 10 years off of your skin. Here are some pics…

This is the hot spring “tub” and on the backside of the tub is where you rub the mud on.

Getting all mudded up..

Our van mates, notice Rona didn’t put any on her face…something we gave her a hard time about the rest of the trip…

See….they know what’s up! haha BOW DOWN TO THE MIGHTY VOLCANIC MUD KING…lol. I don’t know, we were trying to have fun waiting for the mud to dry lol.

After we the mud dried and we got all washed up it was time to check out the volcano (you can walk up to it). One last thing about the mud bath…holy crap it worked wonders on your skin. Emily and I both had sunburn on our foreheads to the point where it was peeling pretty badly (I’m always wearing a baseball cap so I tend to burn there and, well, Emily is Irish…nuf said). After washing the mud off, neither of our foreheads were peeling any longer. I don’t know what it did, but I didn’t peel the rest of the trip….

 

Anyway, here is a pic of the Volcano……

Next up…Pitons, Jalousie Beach, an almost fight with some locals and the waterfall!

[skidawg79]

The rest deserves some time and I don't have it right now. I have to get up in about 6 hours, so I'm calling it a night. again, thanks for following along!

[Sundown331]

I took that tour in April 2013 with Cosol, what a great tour.

 

The water at the mud baths was so hot I think I was cooked to medium by the time it took to get the mud off. 5 more minutes and I would've been well done.

 

Great review and love the pics .... I sooooooo want to do this cruise again.

[shawne71]

Great review and love the pics .... I sooooooo want to do this cruise again.

 

Same here. We took this cruise in January and we've already rebooked it. I could do this cruise every year!

[Jey01]

How was the weather in jan? We are thinking about jan or feb for this cruise. I'm from the south and I'm a little worried it'll be too cold to swim?

 

 

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[frayedend]

How was the weather in jan? We are thinking about jan or feb for this cruise. I'm from the south and I'm a little worried it'll be too cold to swim?

 

 

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I haven't been in January but the average sea temperature in Puerto Rico in January is 79.7. That's pretty warm and Puerto Rico is the most northerly of the ports. You should be fine.

[ragethjj23]

That is hot compared to what I've been swimming in. I'm in the outer banks and was swimming in the Atlantic where the water was 69!

[frayedend]

That is hot compared to what I've been swimming in. I'm in the outer banks and was swimming in the Atlantic where the water was 69!

 

We are in Massachusetts. Me and the kids just went in the pool for the first time yesterday and it was 69. The initial shock was pretty cold but it's definitely swimmable after a few minutes of getting used to it. :D

[shawne71]

How was the weather in jan? We are thinking about jan or feb for this cruise. I'm from the south and I'm a little worried it'll be too cold to swim?

 

 

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The weather was awesome! We swam or snorkeled at every port. Just be careful booking in January. The San Sebastián Street Festival is the 3rd weekend in January and it gets CROWDED. They block off Old San Juan to traffic and the streets fill with elbow to elbow people. Some people go in January for this reason, we wish we had researched a little better. We've booked this cruise again, except this time in March. :eek:

[ibcnusoon]

How was the weather in jan? We are thinking about jan or feb for this cruise. I'm from the south and I'm a little worried it'll be too cold to swim?

 

 

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I've been on land vacations in Puerto Rico and British and US Virgin Islands in February and the weather and water is warm.

[ReggaeRoy]

Love this review! Thanks.

[wrigley80]

The same thing happened with my pictures on photobucket. I was 572 posts into my review and I lost everything....that was very frustrating. I started a second thread with mine as well. Hopefully you wont have any more issues with your review ;)

[skidawg79]

The same thing happened with my pictures on photobucket. I was 572 posts into my review and I lost everything....that was very frustrating. I started a second thread with mine as well. Hopefully you wont have any more issues with your review ;)

 

Yeah it's frustrating! Yeah well. Hopefully all is fixed and I won't have issues with this one.

 

Been working 15 hour days the last two days at a convention for work, so I'll try to get back to the review tonight.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Jey01]

Thanks so much for the info! We've decided Feb over Jan. With our schedules there's only certain days in the month we can go, and I don't want to get caught up in a festival crowd! Sorry for hijacking ur thread!

 

 

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[Jenny in TX]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review. DH and I are hoping to do this cruise in the next year or two.

[618mom]

Love this!

[brue1451]

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