Adventure of the Seas Review 1/21/17, post drydock with pics!

Snorkeling Pics

This picture I included because it's kind of a cool perspective with our floaty go pro attachement

MORE snorkeling pics!

SO we ended up leaving the beach between the Pitons at 3pm. Now remember when I told you that it takes about 2 hours of driving each way to get to the Pitons? Well, all aboard is at 5:30....you can guess how this excursion is going to end, but I'll tell you anyhow! I only knew about that 2 hours driving each way to the Pitons AFTER the cruise, so we didn't know how long it would take to get back, but that's usually the tour's responsibility anyhow. And with all the great reviews on tripadvisor, I didn't think it would be an issue.

We get back into the van and start driving back. About 30 minutes into the drive, we stop to get a "Snack" and drink some beers. This snack is one that people rave about on tripadvisor, but it has me SO confused :confused:

The snack is this drumstick shaped french hot bread that is cut open for you to stick a hard stick of cheese in it. Yes, that is IT. It has no significance to St Lucia or the culture, it's literally bread and cheese. I guess we just didn't get it, but it's not my idea of a FABULOUS snack. A fabulous snack is 3 pieces of cheese pizza from Sorrentos...this was just strange. So after everyone ate their bread and cheese, we got back on the road.

It got to about 5:00 when people were asking the driver 'How far away are we" and he kept on saying "No worries, we get there in time" Then we hit traffic and slowed way down. 5:10 comes along. Everyone in the van is going BONKERS. One guy is even insisting that the van pull over to let him out so he can RUN to the pier, even though we are sill 1-2 miles away. We physically got out of the van at 5:15. Then, we had to PAY our driver, because they make you pay at the end, which normally would be ok, but not when you have 15 minutes to make it back to the ship! We ended up making it with 10 minutes to spare! Some vans only had 2 minutes to spare! :eek:

So overall, I WOULD have rated the whole excursion a B- if it hadn't been for the almost missing the ship. Definitely bumps to an F rating! The thing is, I think they must cut it close regularly. If all the vans leave the Pitons around 2:45-3pm, even with no traffic, that gets you to the port at 5pm, which doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room.

On the booking email I got from them, it said " We will be meeting at 9:20am and leaving at 9:30am. As soon as you get off the ship you walk into the building right in front of you, and look for the sign "COSOL TOURS".

The tour is 5 - 6 hours. You only pay cash (USD) at the completion of the tour. Confirmation reply required. You are guaranteed to be back on the ship in time."

One would then think if you leave at 9:30 am and the tour is max 6 hours, you get back to the ship at 3:30. There is no way this tour would ever get back to the ship at 3:30, even if they were cutting stops. Speaking of cutting stops, I keep wondering how the tour guide saw the time and decided to keep the "bread and cheese" stop in. If we had skipped that stop entirely, it would have saved us a lot of time.

Anyhow, I hope my review of COSOL tours helped you out. It is one of the most popular non ship tours on this itinerary, and I guess I don't understand the high rating. It was just OK, then got TERRIBLE when we almost missed the ship!

Feel free to ask me any questions about COSOL and the tour! Because of how close we cut it getting back to the ship, I didn't get to buy a souvenir but I did get a St. Lucia shirt on board the ship, and I just got confirmation that someone is going to make me a "St Lucia Pitons" mug! I'll be sure to post pictures whenever I get it!

Wow bummer you had such a bad experience with Cosol tours. In addition to being late that does seem like a lot of stops to squeeze into one day. Glad you guys made the ship though! It would be nice if they just stopped at the baths and the Pitons.

http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/bio-island/

 

check out this entry in this website.

 

And for those still reading along, http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com, is where I did a lot of my Puerto Rico planning, heaps of info on there!

i'm still reading along...ths is great. thank you for this info....

I'm so sad that the COSOL tour didn't go well for you!! We have done the tour twice and loved it, but we were also back by 4:00pm or so, so a much less stressful experience!

Glad you shared your Cosol experience. We now know what to avoid.

OMG, when you said at the start of your review that one of your tours almost made you miss the ship, I totally knew it would be Cosol! We had almost exactly the same experience on our tour!! In fact, our tour description included a stop for shopping at the very end before getting dropped off back at the ship, but we were so late that after we got our bread and cheese (which we had to eat in the van while he was driving us back- we weren't allowed out of the van at all at that stop!), we had to go straight to the ship and skip the shopping time. We were totally freaking out that we might miss the ship, and we also questioned how they can call this a 6 hour tour when we were gone for 8 hours?! I'm so sorry you also had that experience, but I guess that's just how they do things down there. They are on island time so they must just think everything always works out and no one will ever miss the ship. It kind of makes me wonder though... has one of their tours ever missed the ship and we just don't know about it here in Cruise Critic land??

Wow bummer you had such a bad experience with Cosol tours. In addition to being late that does seem like a lot of stops to squeeze into one day. Glad you guys made the ship though! It would be nice if they just stopped at the baths and the Pitons.

Yes, but oh the things you learn, the things you learn! :D All's well that ends well, right? The funniest part of the whole thing was when we were all scrambling to get out of the van, people were just throwing money at the tour guide and the the tour guide was like "Wait, I need to count it"

Like seriously? You should have collected the money before we left, and honestly, he should be glad people were even throwing him any money!

I'm so sad that the COSOL tour didn't go well for you!! We have done the tour twice and loved it, but we were also back by 4:00pm or so, so a much less stressful experience!

I have it booked for next month and now I don't know what to do.

I wonder why you got back so late?

Any suggestions to an alternative tour instead of Cosol?

I have it booked for next month and now I don't know what to do.

 

I wonder why you got back so late?

 

Any suggestions to an alternative tour instead of Cosol?

Because the Pitons are so far from the cruise port, if I could have a do over, would pick a cruise ship excursion. People who review COSOL who have a tiny group must make a different sort of reservation other than the 75.00pp we piad, because every place we went to was packed with people, so really no different from the cruiseline in terms of number of people, plus I think the prices the cruiseline was charging for Pitons/Sulphur Springs was 75-100.00pp, which is a small extra price to pay to guarantee to be back on the ship on time

Because the Pitons are so far from the cruise port, if I could have a do over, would pick a cruise ship excursion. People who review COSOL who have a tiny group must make a different sort of reservation other than the 75.00pp we piad, because every place we went to was packed with people, so really no different from the cruiseline in terms of number of people, plus I think the prices the cruiseline was charging for Pitons/Sulphur Springs was 75-100.00pp, which is a small extra price to pay to guarantee to be back on the ship on time

Thanks!

Thanks!

I would highly recommend Spencer Ambrose Land Sea and Beach tour. Instead of spending hours in the bus, you take a speedboat from spot to spot and see the island from a different perspective. It's not cheap at $105 pp but worth it to not have to sit in a van for 4 hours of your day. You can find them at www dot spencerambrose dot com.

Enjoy!

I would highly recommend Spencer Ambrose Land Sea and Beach tour. Instead of spending hours in the bus, you take a speedboat from spot to spot and see the island from a different perspective. It's not cheap at $105 pp but worth it to not have to sit in a van for 4 hours of your day. You can find them at www dot spencerambrose dot com.

 

Enjoy!

This sounds amazing and wish I would have done that! It sounds similar to the Adventure Antigua one I did before St Lucia!

I would highly recommend Spencer Ambrose Land Sea and Beach tour. Instead of spending hours in the bus, you take a speedboat from spot to spot and see the island from a different perspective. It's not cheap at $105 pp but worth it to not have to sit in a van for 4 hours of your day. You can find them at www dot spencerambrose dot com.

Checked the website. Interesting option. Thanks.

I would highly recommend Spencer Ambrose Land Sea and Beach tour. Instead of spending hours in the bus, you take a speedboat from spot to spot and see the island from a different perspective. It's not cheap at $105 pp but worth it to not have to sit in a van for 4 hours of your day. You can find them at www dot spencerambrose dot com.

 

Enjoy!

We have done both Cosol & Spencer Ambrose. While we had no issues with our Cosol tour we enjoyed the one through Spencer Ambrose even more. With both you do spend time on a mini bus. (how else could you get to the volcano?) Spencer Ambrose tours included more time on the water in boats and also included a lunch stop in the price. Both tours took you by boat to the beach between the two Pitons for 1-2 hours of beach, snorkel, swim time.

I would highly recommend Spencer Ambrose Land Sea and Beach tour. Instead of spending hours in the bus, you take a speedboat from spot to spot and see the island from a different perspective. It's not cheap at $105 pp but worth it to not have to sit in a van for 4 hours of your day. You can find them at www dot spencerambrose dot com.

 

Enjoy!

Thanks!

Vacation video time!

Thank you so much for the information on Cosol, we had them booked for our March trip but have cancelled and instead were able to get the Xtreme Circumnavigation Tour booked instead in Antigua. We have a very inpatient 7 year old and I was unaware that the Cosol tour involved such long periods of driving, so again thanks for that head's up and I dont need the added stress of the chance of a late arrival.

Thank you so much for the information on Cosol, we had them booked for our March trip but have cancelled and instead were able to get the Xtreme Circumnavigation Tour booked instead in Antigua. We have a very inpatient 7 year old and I was unaware that the Cosol tour involved such long periods of driving, so again thanks for that head's up and I dont need the added stress of the chance of a late arrival.

Watch the youtube video I just posted, has some great video of our time with Xtreme Circumnav tour, really was the best tour we took the whole cruise - and yes, no one needs that added stress!

Does anyone know if the Adventure is really strict about sticking to their check in times? We have to be out of our hotel in San Juan by 11:30 but our "check in time" isn't until 4? Just wondering if they would let us on the ship earlier?

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Vacation video time!

 

Great video! Thanks for sharing!!

Does anyone know if the Adventure is really strict about sticking to their check in times? We have to be out of our hotel in San Juan by 11:30 but our "check in time" isn't until 4? Just wondering if they would let us on the ship earlier?

 

 

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We were on the ship by 11:30am and we didn't go through any special line, so you'll be fine going early!

Thank you so much! We leave on Saturday and I have been following your thread for the last two weeks! So excited to finally experience the southern Caribbean!

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Thank you so much! We leave on Saturday and I have been following your thread for the last two weeks! So excited to finally experience the southern Caribbean!

 

 

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you will have a GREAT time! I wish I was back on board! But next best thing, planing my next one (Europe over labor day!_ :eek: