kimesu

Jalousie/Sugar Beach was a huge disappointment for us last week. We were on the full day tour with Cosol. The snorkelling area was small and crowded. There were a handful of beach chairs and a hundred people crowded in a small space. It was lovely to see the Pitons, but very, very crowded.

Other than that, did you enjoy the Cosol tour? We are taking that in a couple of weeks, so I'm curious...

I just want to preface this by saying I did a lot of research in advance, and heard wonderful things about all of the Spencer Ambrose tours. I also want to say that this was our particular experience on this particular day.

 

We booked this tour 6 months ago. Contacting Spencer was very easy, and through paypal, we paid our deposit. About two weeks before our tour, I contacted Spencer to confirm our tour, and received an email back right away saying that everything was OK and they were looking forwards to seeing us. I did receive another email from them right before we left for our cruise confirming our tour.

 

On the day of our arrival, after disembarking our ship, we were greeted by a representative of Spencer with a sign, immediately after the port area. We were directed to another person to collect our payment. There were several different tours running, but we were all initially kept together. Most were doing the island tour or beach break, but some of us were doing the snorkeling tour. We were led to a dock, where we were divided into groups based on our tours, and placed on boats.

 

Up until this point, everything ran very smoothly. But then...

 

We were placed on a boat with about 20 people, who were either doing the snorkeling adventure or the beach break. Directly on Spencer's website is the following about the tour:

Spencer's Snorkelling Adventure

approx. trip duration: 3- 3 ½ hours

total snorkelling time: 2 hours

boat transportation: 30-40 min

Tour Cost: $65 USD/adult

Tour Highlights: * Round-Trip Speedboat Transportation * 1-hour snorkelling at Jalousie/Sugar Beach

* 1-hour snorkelling at Anse Chastanet * Beverages included

 

 

We like to go on early morning excursions that get us back to the ship to enjoy some time while the ship is somewhat empty. That's why we booked a tour that was around 3 - 3 1/2 hours. We were also looking forward to 2 different 1 hour long snorkeling locations.

 

 

So we boarded the boat, and were off to our first stop. Within a few minutes, thick, black smoke was coming off the back of the boat, and working it's way forward into the boat. We were on a Disney Cruise, so I'll just say that there were lots of children on our boat. The smoke was quite noxious, and some of the children were getting sleepy--concerns for carbon monoxide poisoning! We were supposed to be on a "speedboat", getting to our destination in 30 - 40 minutes, but there was definitely a problem with our boat, and it took us a very long 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to Jalousie Beach.

 

 

When we arrived, the beach was packed, and there were none of the promised "free beach chairs" there. Most of the people on our boat were on the beach excursion, so they went off in search of a place to put there things. It turned out there were only 4 of us on the snorkeling excursion. I asked one of Spencer's crew members what those of us on the snorkeling excursion should be doing, and he did not even know that there were people on the snorkeling excursion. Eventually he got Spencer on the phone to talk to me, and that's where things really went downhill.

 

 

Our second stop was supposed to be at Anse Chastanet, but when I spoke to Spencer on the phone, after we had arrived at the beach and had previously been introduced to Spencer on the dock, we were informed that we would not be going to Anse Chastanet that day because the sea was too rough. He said we could just stay at the beach that day. But the four snorkelers all wished to have a morning excursion and go back to the ship. They said we could just snorkel there and we could get on a boat back to the ship in two hours. OK, but there was still no place to put our stuff, and we were not offered any snorkeling equipment.

 

 

Three of the four of us went into the water (very rocky entrance), while I waited on the very crowded beach. During that time, Spencer took another boat to the beach and I spoke to him in person. We were most concerned about the terrible trip we had to the beach, with the noxious smoke, AND that we were not being given the tour we had signed up for. Supposedly Spencer knew this before we left, but this information was not conveyed to us or his staff. Customer service goes a long way, and we received none. If Spencer had just apologized in any way, for the boat problem, or not letting us know that our excursion was going to be altered, we all would have been OK with that. But Spencer firmly denied having any control over any of the situations, and said these things just happen. Um, it's your company, with your name on the boat, and you're telling us that you're not responsible for the working condition of the boat? And you knew that our tour was going to be altered, but did not bother telling us or your staff about it in advance?

 

 

The three other snorkelers spent some time in the water and then we waited for a boat to come take us back to our ship. On this boat were the four people on the snorkeling excursion, and a family with a small child who got sick from the smoke on the ride to the beach. Our trip back was much faster, but also very rough, and myself and the small boy would up getting very sick on the trip. But eventually we made it back to our ship, about 2 hours later than we originally expected to.

 

 

Also, the rest of the people on beach excursions through Spencer's came back a few hours later on several boats. We were not on those boats, but we heard later that one of them started sinking on the way back, and had to wait for another boat to rescue them. One of the mom's who was on our original boat was thrown around on that boat, and suffered a black eye. I did not speak to her about it, but I did see her and her black eye back in the port area.

 

 

I know that any time you take an excursion, things can go wrong. I also know that most of the time everything runs smoothly. Based on our experience, I cannot recommend this company. Sure, when everything goes well, everyone is happy. But when things go wrong, it's all how things are handled. Spencer could have just apologized and we would have gone on with our day. But multiple things went wrong, and Spencer was just denying everything. It is the bad customer service that is the main reason for me recommending against this company. I did tell Spencer that I would be writing a negative review when I got back, and his only concern is that it would ruin his reputation.

 

 

Thanks for reading through this long review, just a warning to others. Our other excursions were all wonderful, so it is not just me, but the service we received.

Wow! I'm so sorry to hear that you had this experience! This was a company that we were strongly considering for our excursion, but over the last couple of weeks, I feel like the number of reviews I've read, a couple on here and a few on Trip Advisor, have had increasing mentions of issues with the boats, so we ultimately decided to book with Cosol instead. I completely agree with you that things can go wrong, and how things are handled in those moments can really define a company/person. Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us.

Thanks for the review! We will be on Adventure in February, and are also flying in the afternoon that the ship leaves. I have been a little nervous about whether we would be cutting it too close, but your review helps me feel better about our decision!