Made in Paradise - SMF8

[PaisleyAnn]

I'm looking for more information on the excursion "Made In Paradise - SMF8."

Its described as:

-Visit a rum factory and island perfumery.

- Enjoy a French Caribbean cooking demonstration and taste these authentic dishes.

- Free time at an open-air Creole Market or the beach.

 

Has anyone done this tour that can tell me more about it? It sounds interesting. What kind of dishes do they make in the cooking demonstration? What beach is it on? Did you have anytime on the beach after the cooking demo?

 

I've googled it and not coming up with many results. Would love to hear more from anyone that has additional info on this one. Thanks!

[HeritagePark]

I've posted this previously, but will do it here as well.

 

Okay first let me say that everyone we met on the tour was really nice and friendly. Our driver was Gabrieal (nickname Angel) and he was very kind and very funny. However you need to understand that this is a bus tour with "buying opportunities" rather than really a tour where you learn a lot of stuff.

 

As we drove around Angel gave a talk about the history of the area and it was pretty informative. So the bus tour part (at least with our guide) was pretty good.

 

The "rum factory" was actually a shack painted bright pink where a lady buys rum in quantity and then put flavorings in them, re-bottles them in locally painted bottles, and sells them from the shack. She had about a five minute talk, gave small samples of different flavored rums, and then invited us in to the shack to purchase the rums, local hot sauce, or vanilla.

 

The cooking demo was light and funny. It took 30 minutes or so. The cook made bananas foster and got one of the men to help him. There was a taste of conch and also a taste of a curry flavored dish made with a local spice called colombo (I think.) Then there was another buying opportunity where we were encouraged to eat at the restaurant, buy an alcoholic drink, or purchase something from the front store. There was a small beach behind the restaurant and we went and walked down there while we were waiting for the bus to return. It felt awkward standing in the restaurant not buying anything.

 

The perfume factory was a small store where they make their own perfumes. There was a short talk about the history of perfumes 10 minutes or so by the owners. Very nice folks dedicated to what they are doing. Then there was another "buying opportunity" where people were encouraged to purchase perfumes. If you are sensitive to perfumes this is a small store and the smells are intense. One man had to leave right away because he found it difficult to breathe. It gave me a bit of a headache.

 

The "shopping" stop was pretty unusual. I assumed we would be dropped at a shopping area for awhile. What happened was we were brought to a scenic viewpoint (with a gorgeous view) where a lady had two tents set up with souvenir t-shirts, sarongs, shirts etc and other tourist stuff. Nice view... not really a good shopping stop.

 

People were given the option of being dropped off in a downtown area at the end of the tour for more shopping if they wanted. They would then either have to walk back to the boat (about 15 minutes) or take a taxi back.

 

Our bus tour was evidently much better than a different company's tour where people complained they couldn't understand the bus driver and he stopped every time he saw an iguana. (We were grateful we weren't on THAT one!)

 

So for $55 each we got a decent bus tour, had some light talks from nice folks, and were presented with multiple buying opportunities. Was it worth it? I guess that would be up to you. It was memorable and kind of funny, but not really what we had pictured.