Land and Sea to Pitons with RCI Jan 1, 2014

We booked Land and Sea to the Pitons SL72 for Jan 1, 2014 with Royal Caribbean on AOS. Do you know what company provides this tour for RCI?

We booked Land and Sea to the Pitons SL72 for Jan 1, 2014 with Royal Caribbean on AOS. Do you know what company provides this tour for RCI?

I don't know who provides the tour, but we took the tour in Jan 2013. If you have any other questions, please ask and I can try help. :)

Hi SeShineSunShine,

Did you like the RC land and sea tour? Was it crowded?

Thank You

Was the Sea portion of the trip sailing or motor boat?

Hi SeShineSunShine,

 

Did you like the RC land and sea tour? Was it crowded?

 

Thank You

It was a good tour. We saw a lot and enjoyed almost all of it. Our bus driver was AWESOME! He was nice, polite and a good driver. Our tour guide was nice and knowlegeable. however, each stop we made she seemed to always be the last one on the bus. If she said, be back in 15 minutes, she would be gone 20, and her breaks got longer as the day went on. After Lunch, we waited about 20 minutes, all of us on the bus, including the driver. I finally went to go get her, i found her and said "we are all on the bus waiting for you" she was very island casual about the time and came a bit later. After lunch the next stop was the catermaran. When we go to the dock, the boat was no where in sight and we all sat waiting about 45 minutes. By this point we had about 2 hours before the ship was going to sail, so out sea portion was shorter.

Would I do it again, YES! We saw a lot and enjoyed all the stops along the way. The botanical gardens was really fun and the guide knew a lot about the trees and flowers etc. The lunch stop was at an old pantation that had an old mill or something, restored with the equipment etc. The buffet was really really yummy! The catermaran ride was so much fun!! We did stop for a swimming break, they do not provide any snorkels or masks so bring your own, the snorkeling was really great there. My husband saw a puffer fish. I will post a link to a video I shot while snorkeling there, not the best video, but fun.

They have rum punch after the swim stop and yes it has rum, a lot. :D There was also juice with no rum, next time, that will be my choise.

It was not really crowded. I think the caermaran was more so since they seemed to be unorganized. But the crew was still fun and did a good job, once they showed up. We were late getting back to the ship, by a few minutes, but that is the advantage of taking a ship tour, the ship did wait for us.

If you want a total island snaphot experience this is it.

I just rewatched the video, and its worse than I remembered. mostly I was trying to find that little blue fish again, never have been able to find out what kind it is. Maybe i will put up a better one after work tonight.

Was the Sea portion of the trip sailing or motor boat?

Im pretty sure it was under sail power, I don't remember hearing a motor. The sail was pretty cool!

Im pretty sure it was under sail power, I don't remember hearing a motor. The sail was pretty cool!

I asked my husband about the motor or sail power. He said sail, I don't have a lot of experience with sail, but to me, it was a different feeling, like Flying in the Wind or something.

Thanks for the info on the sailing. This definitely sounds like our kind of tour.

Could I ask a couple more questions regarding what you saw on the tour? I read that you saw the botanical gardens.

Did you see:

The Basilica in Castries?

Marigot Bay?

The "drive in" Volcano?

Any waterfalls?

The "bat cave"? (this would have been on the boat)

And last questions (probably not, but at least for this posting)

What time did you start the tour and what time did you get back?

Thanks again. I will try to identify the blue fish for you. I think it is some kind of wrasse -I'll ask my wife, she is a better "identifier" person than I am.

Thanks for the info on the sailing. This definitely sounds like our kind of tour.

 

Could I ask a couple more questions regarding what you saw on the tour? I read that you saw the botanical gardens.

Did you see:

The Basilica in Castries?

Marigot Bay?

The "drive in" Volcano?

Any waterfalls?

The "bat cave"? (this would have been on the boat)

 

And last questions (probably not, but at least for this posting)

What time did you start the tour and what time did you get back?

 

Thanks again. I will try to identify the blue fish for you. I think it is some kind of wrasse -I'll ask my wife, she is a better "identifier" person than I am.

That little fish was so cute!! Just seemed like a happy little fish.

We stopped at a place to see Marigot Bay from the bus, of course there were shops to spend $ at too. :D And we saw it from the boat too, kind of drove (is that what you call it when a boat moves) into it a bit but not too much.

There was a waterfall in the Botanical Gardens, nothing special though. It had some cool rusty coloring to the water and rocks around it due to the minerals in the water. There were a few groups at the waterfall, we stayed a bit longer than our group did, the walk back to the bus was kind of an at your own pace, of course with a shop to buy from on the way back. The guide did walk with some of the guests to answer more questions.

We saw some of the volcano from the bus but didn't drive into it or see it close, the whole drive is just beautiful! Get a window seat!

The bat cave doesn't sound familiar to me or my husband. They did point out things along the way on the boat, but I wasn't listening too much. For quite a while I sat along the edge on the side near the front with my legs hanging over the edge, just enjoying the sea side view and the feeling of flying over the water. I also tend to get VERY sea sick on any boat or bus, so I tried to not really look at anything while we were moving.

I don't know if we saw the Basilica in Castries. So many things were pointed out to us and that doesn't stand out as something I remember. We might have.

They stop at a few different places. The first one is a stop where you can see down to the port from the top of the hill. Don't forget to have your photo taken with the ship in the background. Because my husband is a professional photographer and I usually end up sitting around waiting for him to take photos, I kind of became the official photographer for a few couples on our bus, each stop I took thier photo so they could both be in the photo. I didn't mind and it's something people usually forget to do. they take pics of each other, but not always together. Someone always offered to take one of us too, so i wasn't left out of the photo sessions. :D

They talk alot about banana ketchup which I guess is a local favorite, and something to sell to the tourists. If you are adventerous, get some, but honestly I have a bottle in my fridge with one only serving eaten and no one will touch it. Not to my taste. People along the way sell these hats and flowers etc made from palm leaves, pretty cheaply, but you can't take them on the ship, live plant stuff rules. So if you buy one, keep in mind it's only to enjoy for the day.

This was an all day excursion, we got on the bus right away, i think 830 and got back as the ship was ready to leave. It waited for us a few minutes. You can find similar excursions not thru the ship but it cuts pretty close time wise and I like the security of knowing the ship will wait, or if its really late, they will get you to your next port, as compared to a non ship excursion where you are on your own. We go on our own a lot, but not when the time is tight like that.

It is a great value for your $. You get to see so much of the island. And it kind of got me hooked on catermarans.

If you go to my youtube video and look for my other videos, I have some more from our trip on the AOS, not tons, but a few to give a glimps of the ship and a few other ports. I am still learning to navagate youtube so i don't know how to link to my list of videos. Im trying to put some on that will be of interest to people wondering about a specific thing, not 8 minute videos of the whole trip, although, I might try that someday too. :)

They talk alot about banana ketchup which I guess is a local favorite, and something to sell to the tourists. If you are adventerous, get some, but honestly I have a bottle in my fridge with one only serving eaten and no one will touch it. Not to my taste.

There's a Chinese supermarket near us that started selling more and more Caribbean food as the demographics of the neighborhood has changed. I got some banana ketchup there, but couldn't really tell much of a difference between it and the standard Heinz stuff, just that it tasted a bit off.