Noordam St. Lucia Question (Castries to Soufriere)

[makai 7]

We will be on the Noordam in March, stopping in St. Lucia.

Has anyone booked a private tour starting in Castries and ending in Soufriere? I am a little concerned about the fact that the ship leaves Castries at 3pm and is in Soufriere from 5-6.

It doesn't seem to leave a lot of time to get back on board if I take a full day private tour.

I'd like to know of anyone else's experience with this.

 

Thanks!

[bepsf]

We will be on the Noordam in March, stopping in St. Lucia.

Has anyone booked a private tour starting in Castries and ending in Soufriere? I am a little concerned about the fact that the ship leaves Castries at 3pm and is in Soufriere from 5-6.

It doesn't seem to leave a lot of time to get back on board if I take a full day private tour.

I'd like to know of anyone else's experience with this.

 

Thanks!

 

Just be aware that Soufriere is a tender port, specifically to pick up passengers who are on all-day excursions...

...so best be there at or even before 5pm to make certain that you get a space on a boat!

[mudscraper]

We will be on the Noordam in March, stopping in St. Lucia.

Has anyone booked a private tour starting in Castries and ending in Soufriere? I am a little concerned about the fact that the ship leaves Castries at 3pm and is in Soufriere from 5-6.

It doesn't seem to leave a lot of time to get back on board if I take a full day private tour.

I'd like to know of anyone else's experience with this.

 

Thanks!

CC member Fishbabe posted a recent Noordam review. She says that the roads to Soufriere are still blocked due to hurricane damage. All tours return to Castries until the roads are cleared.

[sail7seas]

When we sailed to St. Lucia in December on Maasdam, they did not offer the cross island tour. There was still too much hurricane damage to allow for the usual tour.

 

[momatibm]

We will be on the Noordam in March, stopping in St. Lucia.

Has anyone booked a private tour starting in Castries and ending in Soufriere? I am a little concerned about the fact that the ship leaves Castries at 3pm and is in Soufriere from 5-6.

It doesn't seem to leave a lot of time to get back on board if I take a full day private tour.

I'd like to know of anyone else's experience with this.

 

Thanks!

 

On my previous cruises, only HAL sponsored tours were picked up in Soufriere -- you should check this before you book any private tours. (Similar to the situation in the Panama Canal - where you can only tender if you are on a HAL tour)

[krusin']

We just cme off the Jan. 6th Noordam cruise. we took the HAL catamaran

cruise down to Soufriere. It was OK but the cat doesn't sail, it motors down the coast.:(

[V and S]

We were on the Noordam in Dec 2010, and took a private Serenity (they advertise here) land tour, roundtrip Castries. We went through Soufriere briefly. We saw so much on the island, and just adored the tour--it was one of the top things we have ever done on any vacation, ever. I think about it every couple of days, even now!

 

They said the week before, they'd had a couple from a HAL ship who requested (by calling HAL before embarking) the ability to be picked up in Soufriere with the HAL tour passengers, and HAL obliged them.

[JamesEM]

Until St. Luica gets up and running a little better, I would stick with the ship's tours.

[hal lover]

Was on the Maasdam and did this tour though HAL. What a great day!!! We stopped at one of the last over look areas and saw the ship coming for us. Really lovely day long tour! ENJOY!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Until HAL resumes the tours to Soufriere -- I would not chance booking a private tour that ends there -- you could be left behind.

 

And you won't know if HAL is ending tours in Soufriere until you get on the ship and see if those tours are back in place.

[rangeley]

We were on the Jan 6th Noordam cruise, and while I really do not know anything about the tours, we did go to Soufriere to pick up passengers.

[sail7seas]

Wonder if it was the catamaran tour or the over ground? If over ground, I would be happy to hear they've cleared the roads enough to be able to get through. It is so tragic the damage these islands suffer from the hurricanes.

 

Hopefully it was the overground but hard to know.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We were on the Jan 6th Noordam cruise, and while I really do not know anything about the tours, we did go to Soufriere to pick up passengers.

 

Do you know which tour it was?

[doncarlos]

, they'd had a couple from a HAL ship who requested (by calling HAL before embarking) the ability to be picked up in Soufriere with the HAL tour passengers, and HAL obliged them.

 

we raised this option [ castries to soufriere on our own ] with hal last summer [ long before the h'cane wreck the roads ] and were given the green light ..............i made it clear i would clear this on board so as not to monkey wrench the "all on board " count .......of course we did not take this option in dec on noordam because ship did not anchor off souf. as no tours ended there [ given the road washouts we would have nixed it anyway because the local residents who were going to entertain us had transport issues ] ..................

in sum, i would not do it without the blessing of the powers at be [ at least a 3 striper ] on board no matter what uncle seattle said !!!

[makai 7]

We asked our TA to contact HAL to find out what the official answer is...

We are planning a private tour with Serenity, and they are very flexible about the schedule and ending in either port, depending on what the answer from HAL is.

 

Hopefully we can ask the captain directly at the meet and greet, if not, I'll make the request to discuss it with him.

 

I LOVE these boards!