Crown Princess - St. Lucia

[nycruise]

Four Quick Questions::confused:

 

Does the Crown pass by the Pitons entering and leaving the port. I understand the Pitons are on the west coast of the island and was wondering how close the ship gets to them.?

 

Where the ship docks in Castries, are there souvenir stands nearby?

 

Did anyone take the Princess tour on the Catamaran to the Pitons? If so what was your opinion of the tour.

 

Lastly, if we want to avoid the mountainous road, what land tour would you recommend.

 

Thanks for the help.

[karena1]

I can answer a few:

 

Shopping - yes, there is a local straw market right by the pier - tons of stuff. Lots of it the same, but it is fun to walk through

 

Tours - if you are talking about the all day bus/cat trip - yes, we have done it before and plan to do it again this year. We rarely take ship's excursions, but loved this one so much the first time, decided to do it again. Really the one trip we feel is worth the money. 1/2 day on bus to Souf (sp???), volcano's, plantation with botanical gardens, lunch, then 1/2 day cat ride. It is awesome.

[Host CJSKIDS]

The Crown doesn't pass by the Pitons but you will see them as you and depart the island. (We may have passed them very early in the am, but we didn't see them.) We had a suite in the aft and as we left St. Lucia we had an incredible view of the Pitons off to the left side of the ship.

 

There is a nice shopping center where you dock with plenty of stores.

 

Sorry I can't help you with the ship's excursion question as we did a private tour with Herod and really enjoyed ourselves. Go over and check out the ports board and you'll get to read all about the various tours on St. Lucia.

[gpierce]

Ditto karena1's post again! (We apparently like the same things. :D )

 

Tip: They split the tour in half (at least they used to) with half doing the land part first and half doing the boat part first, then switching places a lunch. If you take the bus part first you don't have to spend lunch sitting in a soggy swim suit or looking for a place to change.

[okbowler]

nycruise: We took our land tour with Cosol Tours. If there were any non-mountainous roads on St. Lucia we didn't ride on them. Basically the whole island is a mountain. That being said ,he had new vans and took us to a beach between the Pitons. Very scenic and snorkeling at same area. Tour lasted about 6 hrs.Hope this helps. Bill

[willysgrandma]

Really the one trip we feel is worth the money. 1/2 day on bus to Souf (sp???), volcano's, plantation with botanical gardens, lunch, then 1/2 day cat ride. It is awesome.

 

We did that and felt it was too long. If I could do it again, I'd do just a catamaran snorkle. It takes you near the Pitons.

[scooter123]

We were in St. Lucia last week on the Crown Princess. We elected to do a land tour through Herod. Half the van was car sick by the end and we cut our tour short. St. Lucia is very mountainous and the roads are windy. The island is big -- over 200 square miles. You will not circumnavigate the island on a land tour -- whatever road you travel, you backtrack on the same road to get back to the ship. I wish we had done the catamaran/land tour, because at least we would have seen the land route only one way.

 

I have to say that I was most disappointed in our St. Lucia experience. This was surprising to me b/c it is the island I most wanted to visit from all the islands on our itinerary. We saw rats twice -- once in Castries and once in the banana plantations. And I just wasn't ready for the level of poverty I saw. I'm such a sap, it makes me want to cry when I see kids in these situations. I know, there are places in this world where poverty is much worse, but it still affects me.

[Logie]

The last 2 times I was in St Lucia I took the 1/2 day Catamaran to the Pitons. It is a great sail to the Pitons and back. Also on the way back you pass through Marigot where Doctor Doolittle was filmed and those who wanted to swim were given a 15 minute swim break.

 

I really enjoy this tour it is so relaxing!

[JimnKaren]

We went to St. Lucia several years ago and rode those curving roads back to the drive-in volcano. The views were awesome, yet depressing. There IS a lot of poverty in ports we have been to (the worst were the slums on the hills outside of Caracas), but those folks are getting by somehow.

 

When we were in St. Lucia a couple of weeks ago, we took an excursion on Hacksaws, we motored briskly to the area of the Pitons, watched several kinds of dolphins, went for a swim and lunch at a cool place at Marigot Bay. That was much better than riding for hours and hours for an inland tour.

 

Jim

[CRUISER94044]

We also took the half day catamaran ride in St Lucia about 2 weeks ago and it was a highlight of our trip. Wonderful view of the Pitons, and a relaxing and fun trip.

[nycruise]

Sounds like the Catamaran is the tour to take. Thanks for all of the replies!

 

How many people does the catamaran hold, and is there a shaded area to sit or stand? How long is the actural catamaran portion of the tour?

[tron3737]

Four Quick Questions::confused:

 

Does the Crown pass by the Pitons entering and leaving the port. I understand the Pitons are on the west coast of the island and was wondering how close the ship gets to them.?

 

Where the ship docks in Castries, are there souvenir stands nearby?

 

Did anyone take the Princess tour on the Catamaran to the Pitons? If so what was your opinion of the tour.

 

Lastly, if we want to avoid the mountainous road, what land tour would you recommend.

 

Thanks for the help.

I can't answer the 1st part of your question as I always missed the ship coming in the morning, but I don't recall passing by the Gros Pitons leaving. . . however, as far as excursions I just came back (2/24-3/3) on the Crown & St. Lucia was #1 amongst the 15 of us that took a non-ship sponsored excursion by EXORTIC BOAT TOURS peterthegreatlc@yahoo.com $50!! I have a detailed review/post on the St. Lucia Boards titled "Truly Amazing Excusion!!" --I now realize I mispelled Excursion-- but thats how it's spelled. Have a great trip!