Is Cosol in St. Lucia as good as people say??

[welldone60]

NWLA Cruiser....We lost about 2-2 1/2 hours due to the traffic. If we had of known, we would have told our driver to not go to the Volcano & Falls. I can see where this could be a good tour, we loved the island. We did go to the the beach, but we could only stay for about 1/2 hour and had to leave. The boat ride to the beach was fun, great views. We had to rush to get back to the ship, so we had no shopping time at all. What little rum punch I had was really good.

It was just our luck that there were so many ships in port the day we were there. So just check how many ships in port and if there are alot, stay away from the Volcano and Falls. There is still alot of the island to see.

[NWLA Cruiser]

NWLA Cruiser....We lost about 2-2 1/2 hours due to the traffic. If we had of known, we would have told our driver to not go to the Volcano & Falls. I can see where this could be a good tour, we loved the island. We did go to the the beach, but we could only stay for about 1/2 hour and had to leave. The boat ride to the beach was fun, great views. We had to rush to get back to the ship, so we had no shopping time at all. What little rum punch I had was really good.

It was just our luck that there were so many ships in port the day we were there. So just check how many ships in port and if there are alot, stay away from the Volcano and Falls. There is still alot of the island to see.

 

I've never been to a port with so many ships before. I don't think it would be fun on any island. I guess that is a benefit to cruising in the off season, maybe? I pretty much never shop, so I always forget to take that into consideration. You're right, though, there is a lot to St. Lucia and it's so very beautiful.

[miss meow]

We were there on the 14th of April, had Bumpy as our guide and we all had a great time. I believe that there were only two ships in port that day, so the crowd was no big deal. Unfortunately, the tours have no control on how many ships are in port and how many other tours may go to the same sights.....so, expect that if there are several ships in, you're probably going to run into that issue. There is probably a way to check the port site for the island and see how many ships are in the day you will be there before booking something like this. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

[travelnut4]

Can someone share the link that shows how many ships will be in the various ports on any given day?

[lindalo5032]

I just want to clarify--there is no shade on the beach you stop at? Although the tour sounds great, this would be a deal breaker for us. Would need to know for SURE that we could get some shade at the beach.:confused:

[geezer2151]

travelnut4

below is the link to the site I use to check how many ships are in port

 

http://cruisett.com/ports.php

[miss meow]

Can someone share the link that shows how many ships will be in the various ports on any given day?

 

http://www.slaspa.com/s_schedules.php

[miss meow]

I just want to clarify--there is no shade on the beach you stop at? Although the tour sounds great, this would be a deal breaker for us. Would need to know for SURE that we could get some shade at the beach.:confused:

 

There IS shade, not a ton, but you can rent an umbrella for an hour if you want...we just plunked ourselves down under a tree'd area on a towel...we just weren't there that long to worry about a chair/umbrella, etc.

[welldone60]

Can someone share the link that shows how many ships will be in the various ports on any given day?

 

 

Here is another one.

 

http://cruisett.com/ports.php

[BroncosFan2010]

We used Cosol in Feb of this year. There were 11 of us from our roll call in our van. We were all a little unhappy with the tour. Cosol tried hard but he overloaded the tour on this day. There were six ships in port and he tried to handle all of them. Every stop was way to crowded. At the first stop they ran out of drinks, the food stop you were lucky to get a little taste of 2 or 3 items. The Volcano was a total mess. Traffic was backed up for a mile or so. Same at the falls. These two stops used up alot of our time. We loved the parts of the island that we saw, the Banana plantation was nice.

I think this would be a great tour if Cosol cut back on the number of people he takes. But then it's all about the money. Just check and see how many ships are in port before you book this tour.

 

 

This was exactly our experience on this tour last March, and I am sorry that Cosol has not learned his lesson and stopped over-booking this tour. I am afraid the experience soured my husband and I on island tours for a very long time. Probably won't take an island tour on any island for a few years. We felt like cattle herded all day. Our van had 10 people, and had Cosol tried to shove the mother with the crying baby in with us, I would have jumped out of the van so fast! We did not get to enjoy the food, as there were too many people, and because of the crowds, we missed the beach stop entirely!! The worst part was that Cosol kept telling everyone to go back to Cruise Critic and tell all the members what a great time we had. Because of that, I will never recommend this tour to anyone. I'm sorry, but you don't provide a lousy product and then tell people to recommend you to others.

This tour was the only sore spot of my cruise, which was otherwise fabulous!

[eetonaee]

With all due respect I'm wondering why you think the overcrowding is Cosol's fault.

 

They are not responsible for 6 ships in port at the same time. They are not the only tour company on the island so they are not responsible for the traffic jams or the congestion at the volcano.

 

I wonder if they had more vans operating than they do when there are only 1 or 2 ships in port.

 

I'm sorry that you did not enjoy Cosol as much as the vast majority on this board did but I guess it is a good lesson to those planning to go to St. Lucia that they should check out the port traffic that day in advance.

[travelnut4]

Thanks so much for the link showing ships in port! That is awesome...got it bookmarked!

[welldone60]

With all due respect I'm wondering why you think the overcrowding is Cosol's fault.

 

They are not responsible for 6 ships in port at the same time. They are not the only tour company on the island so they are not responsible for the traffic jams or the congestion at the volcano.

 

I wonder if they had more vans operating than they do when there are only 1 or 2 ships in port.

 

I'm sorry that you did not enjoy Cosol as much as the vast majority on this board did but I guess it is a good lesson to those planning to go to St. Lucia that they should check out the port traffic that day in advance.

 

No, Cosol is not responsible for the traffic at the Volcano or Falls. But, on the day we were there our driver told us Cosol had over twenty vans and buses running. Our driver has his own taxi operation and hired out to Cosol on that day. This ment when we stopped at the food stops and photo stops there were well over 250 people when normaly there are 50-60. This is where the problem was. On our first stop for drinks, they ran out before half the people got anything. On the food stop, there was not enough food for even a small taste of a few items (if you were on the last vans, you got nothing). The "lunch" stop was a bag of bread and cheese (which was good) handed thru the window of the van and passed around, but no drinks, as we drove back to the pier.

As I said in my review, I think this would be a good tour on a day when 1-2 ships are in port, or for Cosol to warn his passengers about the traffic at the Volcano and Falls, or if Cosol had broken up the parade of vans so they arrived at separate times at the stops.

We booked Cosol for the very reason that he was so highly talked about on these boards. I Just put this out for people to check and see what condidtions there will be when they visit St Lucia. When lots of ships in port, avoid the Volcano and falls.

[eetonaee]

We definitely agree that a bit of research in to the port load on your day in St. Lucia is a good idea.

 

If you get back there again I hope you have a better experience.

[BroncosFan2010]

We definitely agree that a bit of research in to the port load on your day in St. Lucia is a good idea.

 

If you get back there again I hope you have a better experience.

 

I will be back in August, with my ship being the ONLY one in port. I will not be doing the Cosol tour (ever again, nor will I EVER recommend it), but do intend to enjoy this beautiful island. This time, I will get to check out the beaches and snorkeling!

[TortieGal]

Thought I would chime in with my 2 cents... :)

 

We did Cosol's tour a couple of weeks ago. A very thorough tour. We saw lots of the island. Cosol definitely takes good care of you with all the food and drinks along the way. My group had it's own van (there were 20 something of us) and our tour guide was Sylvia. She was a lot of fun. We thought she would her hands full with us but she held her own.

 

Would I do it again? Unlikely. Understandably, Cosol can't be blamed for the crowds we encountered along the way. But, the AC on our bus really wasn't working. The beach stop wasn't great and it was only an hour. I thought the waterfall was a waste of a time. It was a very loooong day of being herded like cattle at times.

 

I would recommend it for an opportunity to see a lot of the island but if you are looking for a relaxing day, I would say to look at another excursion.

[PreciousCruiser]

I have three words to say "COSOL", "COSOL", "COSOL"!

 

So glad we did not miss this tour. Even though it was somewhat busy at the volcano, the whole tour was so great, that part did not even phase me. It is a not to miss tour in my opinion. I highly recommend it!

[kenrod]

I agree with Precious Cruiser. But that is also because she was on the same sailing as us and we toured together bumped into each other on the ship throughout the week.

 

On our day in St. Lucia there were only two ships. There was a caravan of about 8 or 10 mini busses on Cosol's tours, but we never ran out of refreshments. At every stop, the refreshment van was there to hand out beer, water, pop and rum punch.

 

Also, there was a nice buffet to sample the local cuisine that was made by one of Cosol's relatives at their house. There was a lot to sample, and there was plenty for everyone.

 

I can't imagine what it would be like if we shared the port with 5 other cruise ships so I consider ourselves to be fortunate not to experience the mayhem of large crowds at the various stops.

 

The Jalousie beach time was only a hour, but that was plenty of time for us. Also the water taxi that took us there provided a beautiful view of the Pitons that you wouldn't get from land.

 

Not once did we feel like we were being herded like cattle. If anything, we felt like guests. Our guide, Bernard (aka Fat-Man) was top notch. I took a lot of notes and took a lot of pictures. We left St. Lucia with a greater understanding of the island. We were very impressed with Cosol's tour so much that we are considering spending a week in St. Lucia at one of the resorts.

 

I highly recommend Cosol Tours for your visit to St. Lucia!

[travelnut4]

I see that on our day in St. Lucia, there will be 4 ships- Adventure, Serenade, Thompson Destiny, and Regatta. I am assuming the latter 2 are small (never heard of them) so would you say it would be more like your experience with 2 ships in port?

[caribbeansun]

+1

 

We wasted our money on a so called "private tour" which was a joke as we just went to all the same places as the mob of buses despite our request to do other things. The owner was unwilling to remedy the situation. Worst tour we've ever taken. We either go to a beach or take a day sail the next time, if there is a next time.

 

I will not be doing the Cosol tour (ever again, nor will I EVER recommend it), but do intend to enjoy this beautiful island. This time, I will get to check out the beaches and snorkeling!

[Beachgal77]

We toured with Cosol last week on Wednesday and had an awesome time! Our driver was Adrian and he was informative, funny and professional! At the volcano tour we got lost :eek: and he came looking for us LOL!! We walked way to far past the van! The food was in ambundance and good, the drinks (coke, water, rum punch) was in ambundance and good! The picture stops we made were great, the water taxi to the beach and back was beautiful! Everything ran smootly and you can tell he is very organized! There were a lot of people on this tour but we werent all at the same stops at the same time which made it even better!! Love...Love Cosol!

[Donna_In_India]

I'm a little concerned about the herd mentality. I've contacted Cosol for a tour in November. Since we have a 1 1/2 year old he's guaranteed us a "private" car for considerably more than $65 per person (would expect a discount for a child on my lap). So this is really a car/van for the 3 of us in a caravan of a bunch of vans?

 

I also received a reply from another tour company for another island - and the same thing seems to be happening because of bringing my daughter. Is this normal? Somewhere back in this thread someone mentioned that couples and families are in separate vans, which is fine. But what I don't want is paying for my own van and then having to wait all day for 10 other vans to catch up.

 

I'm a little discouraged by this since the prices are considerably (!!) higher than we expected (as was advertised on the particular sites) or could hire a taxi for (although I'd prefer to have my tours booked prior to the cruise).

[Sweetest Sin]

Donna, although we we part of a caravan of vans for Cosol, we never were waiting for another van before we could move on to the next stop on the tour. In fact, our group wanted to leave the beach early (by about 15 minutes) and there was no problem with that, we just continued on with the tour. We had a group of 10, and so had our own van. We really enjoyed the tour. Yellow Bird was our driver, and he did a fantastic job telling us about the island and answering questions. I never felt herded. We were the only ship in port that day.

 

I'm thinking that you are paying extra to have a private van. If you wanted to share the van with another family you wouldn't be paying the increased rate. The children in our group were discounted.

[AllenF]

I think the prices the private tour operator in St Lucia is far better than the cruise ship prices. Things cost a whole lot more in St Lucia and I think all will have to raise there prices soon to survive in this economy. We just returned from a week in St Lucia for all you folks who cruise and expect the world on a 40 to 65 dollar tour need to realize the only way these guys can make money is Volume (hence the carvan) or pay more for private me personally I pay more which is still less than crusie ship tours now that really a herd tour. That is why we went with Serenity this past week in St Lucia.

[basebare]

We just returned on Sunday the 11th from our week aboard the Serenade of the Seas. We were fortunate to be the only ship in port at all of our stops. Cosol tours was by far my favorite of all our ports (although I loved what we did in every stop). We had Fat Man or Bernard as I called him :) for our tour driver. We had so much fun on this trip. I saw so much of a beautiful island that I have never seen before. We drank way too much :) and ate way too much, but it was worth every second of it! We met a lovely family that was on our van with us. They lived in St. Croix and gave us great recommendations for our upcoming visit to their island as well. They made the day even more fun. We never waited for anyone (well maybe the blue van filled with a rolling bar) and I never felt like there was a "herd" of people at any of our stops! You can't go wrong booking with Cosol!