Beware of Princess Excursion "A Day in St. Barth's & Island Drive"

[Blackrobe]

The Princess synopsis for this excursion reads as follows:

 

A Day In St. Barth's & Island Drive

Travel by ferry to St. Barths and enjoy a drive around this island that’s home to the rich and famous.

 

Travel from Phillipsburg to Oyster Pond on the French side of the island, where you board the ferry for the approximately 45-minute ride to St. Barths. The ferry features open-air upper decks and comfortable seating in the main cabin. Land in Gustavia, the capital of St. Barths, and board your air-conditioned transprotation for your island drive. Tour Gustavia’s charming streets as your driver points out sights of interest. From Gustavia, drive to overlooks offering dramatic vistas of the town and harbor. Visit Le Tourment, the famed road that’s nearly at eye-level with incoming jets. Follow winding roads through the hills to St Jean Bay, lined with hotels and restaurants. Return to Gustavia and enjoy approximately 2 hours of free time to explore-or visit beautiful Shell Beach, a 15-minute walk from town. Lunch is on your own: there are several restaurants in town. You might wish to visit Le Select-St. Barths’ original island hangout that was immortalized in Jimmy Buffet’s "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

The description sounded good and we paid $129.00 per person for this excursion. Here is what we actually experienced. The streets fronting the city pier in St. Maarten have been closed and are being converted to pedestrian walkways. We were met at the city pier by a guide and informed that we would have to walk to the parking lot by the government building. No problem. When we got to the parking there was no transportation. Small problem. After waiting for 20 minutes (the problem grows) and lots of phone calls by the guide, a bus finally arrived.

 

We arrived on the Sun Princess and we had to tender into port. The Caribbean Princess was already docked when we arrived. After getting on the bus with the guide we proceeded to the docking pier to pick up the passengers from the Caribbean Princess. We had to pass through security and manuever through the chaos at the pier as there were 4 ships that came in at virtually the same time and docked at the pier. That means there were in excess of 8,000 passengers attempting to get off the ships and into town. Why the tour company did not pick up the passengers from the Caribbean Princess first and then pick us up on the way out of town is just part of the disorganization. The guide was attempting to direct the driver as he was proceeding to the docking pier. The driver did not appear to be taking her directions very well. Once we picked up the passengers from the Caribbean Princess, the driver left the guide at the pier and drove off. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether this was planned or part of the disorganization.

 

This was our 7th cruise on Princess and 11th cruise overall so we have a fair amount of experience with excursions. We have never driven any distance without some sort of narration concerning the area, the locale, or general history. Our bus driver said nothing during the drive across the island. I should note that the description of the excursion said nothing about informative narrative on our trip to Oyster Pond so I may have had unwarrranted expectations. When we arrived at Capt. Gilbert's we were given ferry tickets and excursion tickets. We boarded the ferry for the 45 minute crossing to St. Barth's.

 

The tour really disintegrated upon arrival in St. Barth's. No instructions were given to us on the trip over concerning the island tour and there was no effort to provide information when we arrived in Gustavia. I went to the person who appeared to be in charge and asked her about the island tour. She asked me if I had my island tour ticket and I showed it to her. She told me that our tour was at noon. She was about to walk away when I stopped her to ask where we were to meet for the tour. She told us we had until noon (about an hour and a half) to look around, eat lunch, and then meet back in the park. It would have been nice if they had provided this information without having to search it out. However, they failed to tell us that the restaurants along the main street do not begin serving lunch until noon!

 

We returned at noon. We were placed with others in a mini-van with four rows of seats. The van was filled and was actually a taxi, not at all unusual for the islands. What was unusual was that the driver spoke French and very little English. He made no effort to project his voice beyond those in the first row. Those in the back row could not hear a thing that was said. This was not really much of a problem since the driver said so little. Note the description says that we would "board [our] air condition transportation for [our] island drive". The air conditioning was the open windows of the mini-van. Our driver did "point out sights of interest". I am not exaggerating when I say that the points of interest pointed out by the driver went like this, "Airport", "beach", "store", "The Salines". That is the entire extent of the description. Now those of us who could hear him had no idea what he was saying when he pointed out "The Salines". Fortunately a brochure which was handed out gave a brief description of the salt ponds. There was no commentary, no descriptions, nothing other than a statement of the obvious. We returned to the point from which we started and boarded the ferry for the return trip.

 

Let me divert for a moment. When we boarded the ferry at Oyster Bay in St. Martin, there is a ramp that angles down to the pier and stops leaving a 12" to 18" step off the end to the pier. A box was placed at the end of the ramp on the pier creating a step which lessened the distance. There are no hand rails on the ramp. There is a loose rope on one side which is no help to steady one's self while stepping on or off the ramp. There was no box at the pier in St. Barth's and the box disappeared on our return to St. Martin. This left a rather large and dangerous step from a moving, rocking ramp onto the pier. One would think that an employee would be present to assist passengers in stepping off. An employee was present leaning against the ferry watching the passengers step off without offering any assistance.

 

At about 2:00 p.m. we boarded the motor coach which had been sitting in the sun all day. The motor coach had sealed windows. After we boarded and began perspiring profusely we asked the driver to turn the air-conditioning on. He told us it did not work! BIG PROBLEM. We traveled back across the island in that sweat box.

 

The return was an exact replica of the morning (except we had air conditioning in the morning). The driver was totally silent on the return. He proceeded to the docking pier so that we all had to go through security again and deal with the crowds at the docking area when we could have been dropped off first.

 

For this adventure we paid $129.00 per person. In all fairness to Princess, I voiced our complaints on our return and we were credited with 20% of the excursion price. Our complaints are being forwarded to higher ups with the possibility of additional credit.

 

If you are thinking of this excursion BE FOREWARNED!

[gtaylor]

We just returned from four weeks on the island, and there was a day when five cruise ships showed up, after a couple of weeks of 2 at a maximum, (perhaps on Wednesday of last week?) that the Island Government suddenly announced a ruling that no busses could pick up passengers at the normal points, but had to stage the busses and move in from the parking lot out on the landfill next to SXM University. It threw everything into disarray!

 

Combine that with the work on Frontstreet (which, by the way, will NOT be pedestrian only when completed) but caused major problems with the normal flow of cruise tourists!

 

I would imagine that the sudden influx of tourists booked to St. Barths could also cause similar complications over there.

 

My point being: This might, while being a very unpleasant experience, be (probably) a very unusual circumstance. Perhaps everyone was simply overwhelmed? And certainly not related explicitly to the cruise line offering the tour.

 

Gary

[kal]

Gary - It sounds like there were logistical problems at the point of origination likely ascerbated by the Front Street renovation work. This shouldn't occur after the work is done. However, the issues concerning the bus on the SXM side are the problem of the tour vendor.

 

All the issues at St. Barths are really poor and reflect directly on the tour vendor. Some of it is the "French culture" at St. Barths, but we just have to deal with it in a smart way. Sadly, like all the shipboard excursions the price is a ripoff.

 

On our last trip to St. Barths, the advertised price for the ferry was about $50/person (our's was free tho.) We thoroughly explored Gustavia and Shell Beach on foot, had lunch then took a taxi tour to Grand Saline and St. Jean. We selected the taxi driver based upon his english speaking ability and the quality of the vehicle. The driver (about 55 yo) was born on St. Barths and provided almost an endless narrative of the island, his life and a many fascinating stories about the rich and famous visitors to St. Barths. He dropped us off at St. Jean for about 30-minutes then picked us up for the return trip to Gustavia. We then had more time to further explore the shops and bars in Gustavia. The taxi was $10/person (4 adults = $40). We arrived back at St. Martin at 4:45pm. The trip was excellent!

 

Assuming you took a taxi to Oyster Bay and back to PBurg (4 people, $6/person - each way) this trip would cost $72/person.

 

As an alternative, a person could take the hi-speed catamaran from PBurg to Gustavia for $90.

[Zeno]

Blackrobe:

The tour vendor sounds very inept. Some years ago we were on a cruise that stopped in St. Bart's. Our experience was very different. We had an excellent tour with a taxi driver who spoke fluent English and like Kal's driver told us many personal stories and described everything we saw. I hope Princess finds another vendor - it is definitely possible to have a great tour on St. Barts with the right people.

[Blackrobe]

Gary, unlike kal and Zeno, seems to have missed the point of my post. St. Maarten is a great port. The improvements made to the docking pier will continue through the downtown area making it particularly attractive.

 

My posting and problems concern this particular Princess tour and the operator with whom they have contracted to provide the tour. The tour operator knew where the buses could and could not go that is why we walked to the staging area. I have no problem or complaint with that. What I do have a complaint about is the fact that there was NO BUS THERE for at least 20 minutes! This has nothing to do with improvements on the island, government rulings or anything else other than the disorganization of the tour operator.

 

There was no sudden influx of tourists to St. Barth's. The ferry was less than half full. All of the people on the excursion fit into three mini-vans. I doubt that this number would "cause similar complications". What occurred was a lousy tour operator offering a service that was neither professional nor organized. If three mini-vans (not more than 30 people) overwhelmed the tour operator perhaps the tour operator should get out of the business.

 

The fault of the cruise line is that it is the entity which is offering the tour. The cruise line has put its name and its reputation behind the tour. Because the tour is sponsored by the cruise line, the cruise line has a responsibility to provide the highest quality. The information provided by the cruise tells you that. In that respect they have failed with respect to this excursion. The tour was not worth the money that Princess charged us for the excursion and I feel ripped off.

[rkacruiser]

Many thanks for your review. I am sorry that it was not a better experience for you as I remember St. Barths as being a very lovely island.

 

Your tour is nearly the exact same tour described for when the Queen Mary 2 visits St. Maarten(at a price of $125/person). I had been seriously considering this tour when we are there next week. I think I will book something else.

 

Thank you very much for your advice!

[Blackrobe]

A follow up to my original post.

 

I sent a lengthy even tempered letter to Princess precisely describing the problems with the tour. I suggested improvements and I explained a couple of life safety issues they should be concerned about. I told them I appreciated the immediate adjustment that was given by the shore excursion office. However, I wrote that I thought that 50% of the excursion price should be refunded.

 

I received a very nice personal letter. Princess fully refunded the price of the excursion.

[KaC-Cruiser]

Bill & Lu!! Saw your username pop up, and thought I'd jump in and say Hi!! Hope you both had a wonderful Christmas!!

 

Kathy (& ALan)!!

[rkacruiser]

Congratulations on receiving a refund for your unsatisfactory tour!

 

On my QM2 cruise, the tour like yours was no longer available for booking once we got on the ship. No reason was given, although when I was in Marigot, the community from which the ferry to St. Barths would have sailed, the ferry's ticket office(if you could call it that) was closed and no indication when it would open. It made me think the ferry was not in operation. Even if it had been, given the sea state that day, it would have been a very rough sail to St. Barths.