Cosol Tours ever been late?

My husband and I will be in St. Lucia in April (Crown Princess). I have read great things about Cosol tours and would love to give him a try, but this is our first cruise and I am nervous about using an independent. Has anyone ever had a problem with being late for departure using Cosol or any other independent? What happens if you are late? Please convince me that I should not worry about booking a Cosol tour! (Our departure time is 5:00 pm)

This is what he does for a living. He is very aware of what cruise ships are in port and what time each leaves. He had us back by 3:30 and was very knowledgeable about when our cruise ship left. I would not worry a bit.

We have booked his tour for Monday 01/14/08 while were sailing on the Carnival Miracle. I'll leave a review here when we return. I have only heard good things about his tours.

Passion Junky, thank you for the reassurance. I will probably go ahead and book, and try not to worry, but that is what I do best! lol

Bob and Linda...enjoy your cruise and I would love to hear from you when you return.

I am still curious what happens if you are late for departure. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

I am still curious what happens if you are late for departure. Anyone have any experience with this?

If the ship has sailed then you contact the Harbour master or the port agent listed in the Newsletter and they can help get you to the next port of call at your expense.

Take your daily newsletter ashore or at least the contact person's info.

When we do private tours we ask to be back 1 hr prior to departure.

I understand exactly how you feel. On our first cruise I was very nervous about booking an independent tour, but after reading about others positive experiences and how much money we could save we decided to book on our own. Always have been back to the ship in plenty of time.

You MUST do your homework though,and follow a few rules.....

Book only with well recomended tour operators.

Stay on ship's time.

Be sure your driver knows which ship you are on and what time you want to be back to the ship.

When in doubt as to the safety of a particular port book through the ship.

Take ID and copy of the ships daily paper.

Be careful not to go too far from port, if an excursion requires a 2 or 3 hour drive to reach, book with the ship.

I'm sure others can add to this.

After 4 cruises we have only booked 2 or 3 excursions through the ship. So far so good! People do miss the ship, but most of those seem to be people that spent a little too much time at a place like Carlos and Charlie's and lose track of time.;) As LHT28 said, if you miss the ship you are on your own ($$) to get to the next port so when they say be back on board at 4:30 to sail at 5:00, be back at the ship no later than 4:00. I like to have the ship in sight an hour before we sail.

If you do your research you will be fine. And just for the record, we did take Cosol's tour and we were back in plenty of time. And, it was one of the best excursions we have ever done! :) Can't say enough good things about this tour.

Happy sailing!

I wouldn't worry about Cosol getting you back on time. Most of the folks on our tour heard about him from Cruise Critic and he was aware this fact. I'm sure he knows that word would spread quickly if anyone missed the boat and that it wouldn't be good for business. I think he leaves some "wiggle room" in the schedule in case there are unforseen delays. When we did the Cosol tour, the streeets of Castries flooded resulting in massive traffic jams. It probably took us an extra hour or so to get back to the ship because of this. Still, we were back at least 2 hours before our ship left.

Passion Junky, thank you for the reassurance. I will probably go ahead and book, and try not to worry, but that is what I do best! lol

 

Bob and Linda...enjoy your cruise and I would love to hear from you when you return.

 

I am still curious what happens if you are late for departure. Anyone have any experience with this?

Napanee

Which sailing are you on in April? We have a very active roll call for the April 5 sailing and many of us have already reserved one of Cosol's people for the day. If you are on our voyage, hop on over to our roll call and get in on some of the excursions we booked!

I just returned from the Crown Princess today. In fact, I'm at the airport waiting on my plane to go home. I just want to assure any of you that a wondering about the cosol tours. It is a very good tour. He charges $50 per person for the tours. You pay at the end of the tour. He is very prompt on his times. We were told to meet him at 8:20 and we did. We left just a few minutes later. He directed us to a van that is airconditioned. He carries 12 people max per van. We had a huge group of CCer's on this trip (50) so he had to use 2 back up vans for a total of 9. Read his website for his information on the tour. We did everything he said. We were not rushed. HE got us back in plenty of time for our 5:30 pm departure. He is very customer wise. He does not wish to get any negetive remarks for any CCer's. It is this board that grew his business. His only advistment is this board and word of mouth. SO go and feel safe. It is a great tour.

I just returned from the Crown Princess today. In fact, I'm at the airport waiting on my plane to go home. I just want to assure any of you that a wondering about the cosol tours. It is a very good tour. He charges $50 per person for the tours. You pay at the end of the tour. He is very prompt on his times. We were told to meet him at 8:20 and we did. We left just a few minutes later. He directed us to a van that is airconditioned. He carries 12 people max per van. We had a huge group of CCer's on this trip (50) so he had to use 2 back up vans for a total of 9. Read his website for his information on the tour. We did everything he said. We were not rushed. HE got us back in plenty of time for our 5:30 pm departure. He is very customer wise. He does not wish to get any negetive remarks for any CCer's. It is this board that grew his business. His only advistment is this board and word of mouth. SO go and feel safe. It is a great tour.

Jimi,

Thank you for posting your experience with the Cosol tour. Since you had such a large group (50) of ccer's can you tell me how you coordinated the group to show up at the right time and place? Or did everyone just make their way to the vans on their own? We will be tendering so that adds a little extra "fun" to the planning.

Debr

Jimi,

 

Thank you for posting your experience with the Cosol tour. Since you had such a large group (50) of ccer's can you tell me how you coordinated the group to show up at the right time and place? Or did everyone just make their way to the vans on their own? We will be tendering so that adds a little extra "fun" to the planning.

 

Debr

We were part of that group. Everyone made their reservations separately (simply e-mail cosol966@hotmail.com). Cosol was extremely organized. He instructed us where to meet the vans and had lists of everyone who had made reservations. Everything went perfectly well.

Debr, you don't have anything to worry about booking with Cosol. He depends on cruise critic and word of mouth for his business and for that reason he makes sure you have nothing but the best tour possible. We were on his tour the week of 12/15 (we were on the Crown Princess). It was alot of fun and extremely informative. He loves his home and wants everyone who visits to fall in love with St. Lucia also.

Before your cruise, you will receive an email from him confirming your reservation, cost, where and when to meet, etc. On the morning of your tour, simply meet exactly when and where he has told you. (probably in the open area around the gazebo just right of the security desk in the building.) At that time, he will check your email address off of his list and assign you to a bus.

We did have an extremely large total for his tour last week but they handled all 110+ with ease. Our van of 10 left at approx. 8:30 and returned to the pier area around 2:30 p.m.

My only advise - don't eat breakfast. Cosol has stops for you to sample wonderful fresh fruits, mango, papaya, orange, avocado, golden apple, pineapple, etc., then you stop for fishcakes and breadcakes, fresh sweet bananas, fresh bread and cheese, local beer and rum punch or sodas. I'm sure there's something I forgot, but you get the idea... we were very impressed with the tour and for sure did not go away either hungry or thirsty and that's all with him showing us the beautiful island of St. Lucia.

If you get a chance, make sure and tell Cosol and Bumpy "hi" for us.

Can't tell you how much I appreciate all of your comments. I will definitely contact Cosol and try to book a tour with him.....and Chris, we are on the April 5 sailing. I will check the roll call.

Diane

Can't tell you how much I appreciate all of your comments. I will definitely contact Cosol and try to book a tour with him.....and Chris, we are on the April 5 sailing. I will check the roll call.

 

Diane

Here is a link from our Roll Call in case you can't find it:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=391363

There is another couple in the group from just south of you guys in the Oakland Bay area. We have a great group and have already reserved many private tours (including Cosol) that you may have an interest in. Hope to see you over in our group.

Hi Napanee

I am also on the Crown on April 5th. Please do come over and hop on the website. There are a great group of people there and many things planned including dinner in San Juan the night before the cruise. Let us know if you want to join in.

Check the website that Chris gave you the link too.

Pat