Celebrity West Side Treasures by Catamaran

[Banana15]

Has anyone done this excursion or have an idea of who the excursion company may be? I am trying to determine what the excursion involves since the description on the Celebrity website is super vague. 

[reedprincess]

13 hours ago, Banana15 said:

Has anyone done this excursion or have an idea of who the excursion company may be? I am trying to determine what the excursion involves since the description on the Celebrity website is super vague. 

It involves a coastal sail, lunch and a swim, likely at Anse Cochon or Marigot Bay.  No snorkeling or swim around the Pitons. 

Possible vendors would be Endless Summer, Carnival Dialing, SeaSpray, Hackshaw's, Exodus..  

What details are you not clear on, maybe we can help?

Edited December 5, 2019 by reedprincess

[Banana15]

1 minute ago, reedprincess said:

It invokces a coastal sail, lunch and a swim, likely at Anse Cochon or Marigot Bay.  

Possible vendors would be Endless Summer, Carnival Dialing, SeaSpray, Hackshaw's, Exodus..  

Thank you! 

[Banana15]

3 hours ago, reedprincess said:

  

What details are you not clear on, maybe we can help?

I am just trying to figure out how the day is typically spent. If it's just a quick pass of the Pitons and then just sailing around or if there are several stops. That sorts of thing. 

[reedprincess]

5 hours ago, Banana15 said:

I am just trying to figure out how the day is typically spent. If it's just a quick pass of the Pitons and then just sailing around or if there are several stops. That sorts of thing. 

Stop at Pigeon Island and stop at another beach for swimming, likely about 40-60 minutes, tops - not at the Pitons, but a different area either Marigot or Anse Cochon, and  lunch aboard.  It'll likely just be a sail around the Pitons as described, but you can see them for a long ways down the coast and back up.  

[Cindy1972]

On 12/5/2019 at 3:23 AM, Banana15 said:

Has anyone done this excursion or have an idea of who the excursion company may be? I am trying to determine what the excursion involves since the description on the Celebrity website is super vague. 

Hi, did you go on this trip? Any further details. It looks good. Thanks

[Banana15]

4 hours ago, Cindy1972 said:

Hi, did you go on this trip? Any further details. It looks good. Thanks

No, my sailing isn’t until March, but we actually decided on Mystic Man tours instead. I believe it’s similar, but not through Celebrity. 

[reedprincess]

7 hours ago, Banana15 said:

No, my sailing isn’t until March, but we actually decided on Mystic Man tours instead. I believe it’s similar, but not through Celebrity. 

Great choice!!

[njsweetie]

Hello, we are scheduled to do this excursion on the Summit in February. I thought I read somewhere that there is an opportunity to snorkel if you so choose. Can anyone confirm this? It’s a long tour, 6 hours I think, so it would be nice to have an option for snorkeling at some point.

[garubes1985]

We are also doing this excursion in February on the Celebrity Reflection.  I will try to post a more accurate description of this excursion.  It states on the Celebrity site that you also sail around the base of the Pitons.  I hope this is true, as that is the primary reason we booked it!  If anyone has actually done this excursion, we'd love to hear the details!

 

 

[jean87510]

Im doing this tomorrow, January 16th. Ill post when I return.

[jean87510]

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen problem at excursion desk, Celebrity put me on the wrong excursion (island delights) which i had absolutely no interest in and happily was reimbursed. We paid papa boat tours $65 a person at the pier and we went with 36 other people to snorkel at Anse chastenet and have lunch which was $15 a person. The reef unfortunately is slowly getting worse each time I return to St. Lucia at Anse Chastenet. There's still fish but its slowly dwindling. I really did not like that amount of people but they never stay in as long as us so it was all good.

Edited January 17, 2020 by jean87510

[njsweetie]

3 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen problem at excursion desk, Celebrity put me on the wrong excursion (island delights) which i had absolutely no interest in and happily was reimbursed. We paid papa boat tours $65 a person at the pier and we went with 36 other people to snorkel at Anse chastenet and have lunch which was $15 a person. The reef unfortunately is slowly getting worse each time I return to St. Lucia at Anse Chastenet. There's still fish but its slowly dwindling. I really did not like that amount of people but they never stay in as long as us so it was all good.

Thanks for checking back in. We will probably stick with West Side Treasures. Even if no snorkeling, it goes to the Pitons and also Pigeon Island which looks interesting. Enjoy the rest of your cruise :).

[njsweetie]

I was curious about this excursion before my 2/8/20 cruise on the Summit and now I have done it so I am posting about it for others.  This was an excellent excursion!!  Really packed in SO much!  The best excursion of our cruise! The outfit that the Celebrity used was Carnival Sailing (not related to Carnival cruise line).  We boarded the catamaran a short walk from the ship.  The crew was fantastic.  I would suggest not doing what we did by sitting in the back by the motor as I could not hear the narrative while sailing along the rugged coast to Pigeon Island.  I wish these catamarans would put a few more speakers in because this is not the first time I've had trouble hearing.  It maybe took about 30 minutes (I did not time it) to get to Pigeon Island and the bay which was was lovely and picturesque.  The boat had snorkeling gear for those that wanted to snorkel off the shore.  You could opt for just hanging out at the beach and/or snorkeling or you could hike on your own on a marked trails.  I would highly recommend the hike up to Fort Rodney!  Be warned it is pretty steep and not that easy.  Would not recommend in flip flops.  I did not have hiking shoes but I had some soled water shoes that surprisingly did the trick.  Once we got to the top the views were spectacular!  One of the crew, Elijah (Eli for short), approached us and took pictures of us together then asked if we wanted to hike even higher up, which we did.  This was rigorous over many rocks and very steep.  Even more unbelievable views from the top!  Since we would not have done this without Eli's help, we gave him a good tip.  The catamaran ended up being there longer than an hour so we even had a chance to take a dip in the beautiful ocean when we got down to the beach.  Then we did a long sail down the coast to the Pitons and had an excellent lunch prepared by the crew. Can't remember what we had but it was great and plentiful.  By now the rum punch was out, very strong and good!  We viewed the Pitons, took pictures, then went to a spot for a swim and snorkel off the boat if you chose.  We snorkeled.  While I was snorkeling, someone named Sunshine approached me in a kayak.  I was confused because I though he was with the boat, but he was not.  He said he would take me to see the fishes.  I held on back of the kayak looking down in the water with my mask and saw amazing fish, schools and schools of them.  Then we picked up my fiance and he got to see too.  I found out later that this guy comes from the village and tries to make some money by giving these little tours.  We gave him some money.  We then sailed into beautiful Marigot Bay on our way back to the cruise ship.  Rum punch flowing and music.  This was such a great tour although I felt like we in particular took advantage of the extra's by taking the long hike with Eli and 'seeing the fishes' with Sunshine.  These guys work hard so I was happy to give them some money for being our personal tour guides.

[JimandCarmelinaLuv2Cruise]

How many people are on this excursion?

Edited November 21, 2022 by JimandCarmelinaLuv2Cruise

[Islander500]

On 2/24/2020 at 12:43 PM, njsweetie said:

I was curious about this excursion before my 2/8/20 cruise on the Summit and now I have done it so I am posting about it for others.  This was an excellent excursion!!  Really packed in SO much!  The best excursion of our cruise! The outfit that the Celebrity used was Carnival Sailing (not related to Carnival cruise line).  We boarded the catamaran a short walk from the ship.  The crew was fantastic.  I would suggest not doing what we did by sitting in the back by the motor as I could not hear the narrative while sailing along the rugged coast to Pigeon Island.  I wish these catamarans would put a few more speakers in because this is not the first time I've had trouble hearing.  It maybe took about 30 minutes (I did not time it) to get to Pigeon Island and the bay which was was lovely and picturesque.  The boat had snorkeling gear for those that wanted to snorkel off the shore.  You could opt for just hanging out at the beach and/or snorkeling or you could hike on your own on a marked trails.  I would highly recommend the hike up to Fort Rodney!  Be warned it is pretty steep and not that easy.  Would not recommend in flip flops.  I did not have hiking shoes but I had some soled water shoes that surprisingly did the trick.  Once we got to the top the views were spectacular!  One of the crew, Elijah (Eli for short), approached us and took pictures of us together then asked if we wanted to hike even higher up, which we did.  This was rigorous over many rocks and very steep.  Even more unbelievable views from the top!  Since we would not have done this without Eli's help, we gave him a good tip.  The catamaran ended up being there longer than an hour so we even had a chance to take a dip in the beautiful ocean when we got down to the beach.  Then we did a long sail down the coast to the Pitons and had an excellent lunch prepared by the crew. Can't remember what we had but it was great and plentiful.  By now the rum punch was out, very strong and good!  We viewed the Pitons, took pictures, then went to a spot for a swim and snorkel off the boat if you chose.  We snorkeled.  While I was snorkeling, someone named Sunshine approached me in a kayak.  I was confused because I though he was with the boat, but he was not.  He said he would take me to see the fishes.  I held on back of the kayak looking down in the water with my mask and saw amazing fish, schools and schools of them.  Then we picked up my fiance and he got to see too.  I found out later that this guy comes from the village and tries to make some money by giving these little tours.  We gave him some money.  We then sailed into beautiful Marigot Bay on our way back to the cruise ship.  Rum punch flowing and music.  This was such a great tour although I felt like we in particular took advantage of the extra's by taking the long hike with Eli and 'seeing the fishes' with Sunshine.  These guys work hard so I was happy to give them some money for being our personal tour guides.

Hi @njsweetieCan you tell us approximately how many people were on this excursion?  Also, if you have any pics of/on the boat, would love to see them. I contacted the company and they said they do charters between 85 and 165 passengers so wanted to get some idea.  That sounds like a lot of people!

[njsweetie]

1 hour ago, Islander500 said:

Hi @njsweetieCan you tell us approximately how many people were on this excursion?  Also, if you have any pics of/on the boat, would love to see them. I contacted the company and they said they do charters between 85 and 165 passengers so wanted to get some idea.  That sounds like a lot of people!

I do not know how many. Large catamaran. I would say it was full. Sorry no pics of boat but here are some pictures of trip. It was great!

[Islander500]

We did this Celebrity tour today and absolutely loved it. The first boat seemed to be bigger and definitely had more people (and seemed more crowded) so we were lucky to get there at the stated meeting time (instead of early) and ended up assigned to the 2nd, smaller boat.  
 

Our catamaran was from Carnival Charters. There were around 48 of us on it but it was quite spacious and wasn’t crowded at all. You had an opportunity to change locations to sit in different spots after the stops, whether on the front deck, on the trampolines, in seats under roof or in the back facing the rear. The crew was friendly and Noella, our guide, was terrific. 

Although snorkeling equipment is available for rent (note that it’s not included) the few people who snorkeled seemed to bring their own masks. I would not say this was a snorkeling-oriented trip.  It was more of a costal cruise with stops to hike or swim. 
We booked in advance so got a great discount.  It’s actually one of the best, if not the best, ship excursion we’ve ever done.  We usually book mostly private excursions but this one is a great way to use your OBC.  
Thanks for your review, @njsweetie

[Fivelinks]

21 hours ago, Islander500 said:

We did this Celebrity tour today and absolutely loved it. The first boat seemed to be bigger and definitely had more people (and seemed more crowded) so we were lucky to get there at the stated meeting time (instead of early) and ended up assigned to the 2nd, smaller boat.  
 

Our catamaran was from Carnival Charters. There were around 48 of us on it but it was quite spacious and wasn’t crowded at all. You had an opportunity to change locations to sit in different spots after the stops, whether on the front deck, on the trampolines, in seats under roof or in the back facing the rear. The crew was friendly and Noella, our guide, was terrific. 

Although snorkeling equipment is available for rent (note that it’s not included) the few people who snorkeled seemed to bring their own masks. I would not say this was a snorkeling-oriented trip.  It was more of a costal cruise with stops to hike or swim. 
We booked in advance so got a great discount.  It’s actually one of the best, if not the best, ship excursion we’ve ever done.  We usually book mostly private excursions but this one is a great way to use your OBC.  
Thanks for your review, @njsweetie

I'm booked on this one next week but am anxious about motion sickness after being told the sea is rough there. Did you experience this? Also, what did they serve for lunch and was alcohol included? Thanks! 

[njsweetie]

On 1/8/2023 at 3:30 PM, Islander500 said:

We did this Celebrity tour today and absolutely loved it. The first boat seemed to be bigger and definitely had more people (and seemed more crowded) so we were lucky to get there at the stated meeting time (instead of early) and ended up assigned to the 2nd, smaller boat.  
 

Our catamaran was from Carnival Charters. There were around 48 of us on it but it was quite spacious and wasn’t crowded at all. You had an opportunity to change locations to sit in different spots after the stops, whether on the front deck, on the trampolines, in seats under roof or in the back facing the rear. The crew was friendly and Noella, our guide, was terrific. 

Although snorkeling equipment is available for rent (note that it’s not included) the few people who snorkeled seemed to bring their own masks. I would not say this was a snorkeling-oriented trip.  It was more of a costal cruise with stops to hike or swim. 
We booked in advance so got a great discount.  It’s actually one of the best, if not the best, ship excursion we’ve ever done.  We usually book mostly private excursions but this one is a great way to use your OBC.  
Thanks for your review, @njsweetie

I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I recall that the excursion description did not mention snorkeling which was my initial inquiry on this thread. We had brought our own gear so wouldn’t have known about any additional charge or maybe that is new. I agree, best excursion to date for us!

[njsweetie]

19 hours ago, Fivelinks said:

I'm booked on this one next week but am anxious about motion sickness after being told the sea is rough there. Did you experience this? Also, what did they serve for lunch and was alcohol included? Thanks! 

I went 3 years ago and don’t think it was too choppy. Catamarans in general are smooth. But then again I don’t get seasick too easily. I suggest take a Dramamine beforehand if you are worried. When I went there was a full delicious Caribbean lunch on board prepared by crew and unlimited alcohol punch and maybe an open bar too (excursion description should have this info). Islander500 just went so could advise on her more recent trip.

 

On another note, is your profile picture at the Baths in Virgin Gorda?

[Islander500]

19 hours ago, Fivelinks said:

I'm booked on this one next week but am anxious about motion sickness after being told the sea is rough there. Did you experience this? Also, what did they serve for lunch and was alcohol included? Thanks! 

We did not. The smaller sail is up but they are mostly motoring. It was fine both sitting up front or under the roofed area.  No one got sick. 

Lunch was plentiful and actually quite tasty.  They served salad, rice and peas, mac & cheese, fish and and a very tasty jerk chicken. Non-alcoholic drinks included juices, sodas and water.  After the snorkel/swim stops, they served a tasty rum punch on the return trip.  

We were on the Carnaval (local company) blue catamaran & were in the 2nd group.  It was not the first cat (different company name) which was larger & seemed crowded from what I saw.  Maybe someone who went on that cat will also write a review? 
 

Hope you enjoy.  It was a great excursion!  

[Fivelinks]

39 minutes ago, njsweetie said:

I went 3 years ago and don’t think it was too choppy. Catamarans in general are smooth. But then again I don’t get seasick too easily. I suggest take a Dramamine beforehand if you are worried. When I went there was a full delicious Caribbean lunch on board prepared by crew and unlimited alcohol punch and maybe an open bar too (excursion description should have this info). Islander500 just went so could advise on her more recent trip.

 

On another note, is your profile picture at the Baths in Virgin Gorda?

Yes! We found that great spot and a someone to snap our pic. You will love it! 

[njsweetie]

3 hours ago, Fivelinks said:

Yes! We found that great spot and a someone to snap our pic. You will love it! 

Will be going there on an excursion next month!!

Edited January 10, 2023 by njsweetie

[mlbcruiser]

Hoping some of you who have done this excursion have the time to read through this.

 

We are looking at this excursion and desperately want to take a leisurely sail down to the pitons. We have been in St. Lucia  before, but have not been there for probably about 15 first time on a dive boat to all of the places this mentions except Pigeon  Island, and we did pass the Pitons. Our beach was Anse Chastenet where we did the diving and snorkeling. (The way back was so gorgeous! Rainbows everywhere!) Last time in St. Lucia we went on a huge catamaran with seats lined up across the deck. Had newbies with us who loved it. I don’t remember who the tour company was but I believe we booked through Princess.  We want to do something this time very similar. 
 

The big issue for us is though is my husband can walk & can go up and down stairs, he must be careful. Very steep, uneven, rocky, terrain, or more than about  20 steps with no handrail or anything to grasp poses problems. As long as he doesn’t have to do the rough, steep trails like that he’s fine. Neither of us will be hiking up to the fort or even hiking any of the trails. He is also able to walk through the sand at a beach.
 

Important main question, do people get off the cat at a dock at Anse Chastenet? I remember accessing the boat from a dock when we were there before. I do know sometimes people have to wade or swim from a boat to access a beach. Don’t want that. My husband wouldn’t be swimming or snorkeling at the stop on the way back to the ship. He doesn’t mind just staying on the boat for a while while people, swim or snorkel. He’s done it before. I’m sure he won’t be up moving around a lot while we are sailing.
 

.My concern is also any stops at Pigeon Island. Does  one has to swim to shore? Sounds like the boat is stopped there for pretty long.

 

There is another excursion on Celebrity that heads down to the pitons. Would have to check on the same issues ,  but of course it’s been fully booked many weeks out from the cruise. Not certain what type of boat. Just don’t want to end up on something where we would have to sit or lay on the trampoline. My husband would need something with a real bench or seat.
 

Some of you mention some other companies doing a similar tour. I believe they were Mystic man and Papa boat tours. Can anyone tell me what type of vessels they had on those tours? I’m telling you, we are desperate to do another trip by water down to the pitons just to see them!  
 

Sorry for the length of this but hope some of you can supply some answers. Thanks for any more information.