Tell me what you did in St. Lucia...

[PH8]

We did the "Pirates of the Caribbean" boat..........so much fun..Yo~Ho~Ho!:p

[Host Faith]

We booked a tour with Spencer Ambrose and it was the worst mistake we made.

 

1) The tour started almost an hour late.

2) Then a Christian prayer was said out loud, which is all fine and good in private, but not for those of us who are Jewish (or do not follow a Christian faith).

3) The bus was crowded to the point that my husband and I could not sit together. We were all quite squished.

4) We were educated at Roseau Valley Banana Plantation about the banana crops on the island, but never got to sample anything as stated on the website.

5) We did not pass through the fishing villages of Anse La Raye and Canaries, as stated on the website. We were driven through area with terrible poverty instead. (Yes, we know the economy on many islands is quite bad.)

6) We did stop at the Toraille Waterfall and Botanical Garden, but only for a few minutes to see the waterfall. It was beautiful. No time to see the gardens, though.

7) Due to the late start, so we could not visit both the Sulphur Springs volcano and have beach time at Jalousie Beach. Since there were two buses on this tour, those of us who chose the volcano went one way and the beach goers went another.

8) When we volcanologists were finished with the tour (which was very cool, btw), we were taken to an area to await the beach goers. After 30 minutes, we questioned our delay in returning to the ship. Were were told again that we were waiting for the beach goers, who were set to arrive in another 15 minutes. We were not in a place where we could shop or grab a bite to eat, we were in a parking area with access to nothing, not even a bathroom. We had a bit of a mutiny and demanded that we be returned to the ship. After a few phone calls made by Ambrose's brother to who-knows and more wasted time waiting around, we were finally returned to the ship.

 

The beach goers, incidentally, did not arrive at the ship for over an hour after we did. Imagine if we had not demanded our return to the ship-we would have been sitting around that parking area for an hour, doing nothing. We could have had some time at the beach after all.

 

It took me a few days to decide on a tour for St. Lucia. I went back and forth between Spencer Ambrose and Cosol. If someone had written about this Spencer Ambrose tour as his/her experience, we would have booked with Cosol instead. We heard wonderful things from people we met on the ship. Not one person with whom we spoke reported a single bad issue with the Cosol tour.

 

That's my story.

 

Hi Stargate! We went with Spencer last October and had a wonderful time. We personally went with Spencer himself- were you with another one of his guides, or with Spencer? In our experience, Spencer was very courteous and did his best to make sure we all had a great tour.

 

I'm sorry you weren't happy with your tour. Did you happen to reach out to Spencer and let him know you were not satisfied with your tour and why? I'm sure he would like to hear from you to address your concerns. He always values feedback and would appreciate your honesty.

[stargate fan]

Hi Stargate! We went with Spencer last October and had a wonderful time. We personally went with Spencer himself- were you with another one of his guides, or with Spencer? In our experience, Spencer was very courteous and did his best to make sure we all had a great tour.

 

I'm sorry you weren't happy with your tour. Did you happen to reach out to Spencer and let him know you were not satisfied with your tour and why? I'm sure he would like to hear from you to address your concerns. He always values feedback and would appreciate your honesty.

 

No, we had one of his brothers as our driver. We never had any face-to-face time with Spencer himself. He drove the other bus and took his group to the beach.

 

I am not a shy person by any means, so I would have definitely said something had I met him.

 

Glad to hear you had a great experience with Spencer.

[Havin'fun]

We did the Cosol tour this past Jan. and loved it. Adrian was our driver and he was the best, very informative and helpful.

Just a word of advice - make sure you wear water shoes / tennis shoes or flip flops when getting on the water taxi. There are small rocks in the water that you have to walk over as you board. I had a small bruise on the bottom of one of my feet for about 10 days after the tour as I went barefoot.

[dz63]

We toured the beautiful and lush island of St. Lucia with Spencer Ambrose and had a fantastic experience! Spencer was an awesome tour guide who not only kept us well informed of his island but also entertained us with his stories. We had many photo stops, and saw so many beautiful and interesting sites, such as the Roseau Banana Plantation, the fishing villages of Anse La Raye and Canaries, Toraille Waterfall and Botanical Garden, Sulphur Springs, the famous Pitons and of course the breathtaking Jalousie Beach. Spencer kept a cooler of drinks right in the van which we could help ourselves to at any time. He also kept us well fed and we were stuffed the entire day. From all the tour guides we encountered on the Carnival Victory itinerary, Spencer stood out above them all! We found Spencer to be very accommodating and he would go out of his way to ensure everyone is happy and having a good time. Even today my sons still talk about the wonderful time they had on Spencer's tour. We would absolutely recommend a tour with Spencer Ambrose and if we ever go back to St. Lucia, we would definitely use his services again!

[maxine728]

We did the canopy experience. We are in our late 60s but had a wonderful time.

The people on the platforms were great!!

 

Alice from Houston

[MDSue]

I also booked with Spencer Ambrose because I was worried that Cosul might be too crowded [due to his popularity on these boards]. We started off with Spencer's brother, Small. He did an excellent job and we were able to visit all of the stops. The only glitch was when his van developed an anti-freeze leak. I had visions of getting stuck on a windy-curvy mountain road [and missing the ship- as my sister was worried about]. However, everything worked out fine. Spencer met up with our group and since some people had arranged to take a water taxi back to the ship from Jalousie Beach, we were able to hook up with his group. We may have been delayed a total of 15 minutes while waiting to switch drivers.

All and all, it was a great day and excellent tour.

 

Spencer and Small on the water taxi to Jalousie:

 

Jalousie

 

 

waterfalls:

[karle]

Hi, i saw you did a cataraman to the Pitons. Did you book that thru the ship or with a private person??? Please let me know, thats something we are interested in doing! Thanks!