spencer ambrose tours

[starfish the second]

we will be in st lucia in april 2014 on ncl sun thinking about doing spencers land and sea tour has anyone done this tour? it's 6 to 7 hours long makes me a little nervous about getting back to ship on time. we will be in st lucia 8-5

[pghsteelerfan]

We were just in St. Lucia on a cruise about a month ago. We did the Spencer Ambrose "Jalousie Beach Break", which is also 6 or 7 hours and they make sure you get back to the ship, with time to spare, so we had close to an hour before we had to get back on board. We were on Carnival Valor, but we were also in St. Lucia from 8-5. We were instructed to meet a half hour after ship's arrival, 8:30, and we were back at the ship between 3:30 & 3:45.

[MelWhiskey]

We were just in St. Lucia on a cruise about a month ago. We did the Spencer Ambrose "Jalousie Beach Break", which is also 6 or 7 hours and they make sure you get back to the ship, with time to spare, so we had close to an hour before we had to get back on board. We were on Carnival Valor, but we were also in St. Lucia from 8-5. We were instructed to meet a half hour after ship's arrival, 8:30, and we were back at the ship between 3:30 & 3:45.

 

We are looking at the Beach Break tour in Feb of 2014 - how did you like it? I really wanted to go to the Jalousie Beach and see the Pitons but all the other tours seem to be mostly based on other site seeing with a short stop at the beach.

 

How was the lunch they served?

 

Would you recommend this tour?

 

Sorry for so many questions! ;)

[pghsteelerfan]

We are looking at the Beach Break tour in Feb of 2014 - how did you like it? I really wanted to go to the Jalousie Beach and see the Pitons but all the other tours seem to be mostly based on other site seeing with a short stop at the beach.

 

How was the lunch they served?

 

Lunch was served buffet style on the beach. I think it was about noon or 12:30PM. They had BBQ chicken, green salad, potato salad, green banana salad (this was very good), two different rice dishes, and 4 different kinds of root vegetables (taro root was one). I tried all 4 and really liked all of them. There is also an unlimited supply of bottled water, soft drinks, Piton beer, and rum punch. It was all very good.

 

Would you recommend this tour?

 

Yes, highly.

 

We were on Carnival Valor and they also offered a similar tour, but only allowed an hour and a half at the beach. We wanted to snorkel and we also wanted to spend time on the beach. With Spencer Ambrose, we had four hours at the beach. We took a speed boat from the ship and it took about 45 minutes to get there. On the way back we also took the speed boat but we had the tour of the coastal areas and points of interest. We were back at the ship at 3:45PM and that allowed time for browsing in the cruise center before having to be back on the ship. The total cost was $85.00 per person, but it was well worth it.

 

We had also seen some of the negative reviews on these boards but I've seen too many good (positive) reviews and felt comfortable booking, so don't let those negative reviews scare you. We had the best time and Spencer and crew were wonderful and so much fun. Spencer told us about the negative reviews and takes every review to heart. He said with the negative reviews, he makes changes so that he can improve. One example was that he used to collect payment when everyone was at the beach (his land tours also stop at the beach) but apparently there were problems and some disorganization with that. He now collects payment before the tours start. He has a sheet of paper with each tour that day (Jalousie Beach break, Land & Sea, Piton Hike, etc.) and under each tour he has a list of names of those booked. When we got off the ship (ship docked @ 8:00AM, we met at 8:30AM) and were directed to Spencer (there are signs). Spencer took our name, collected payment, then put you into groups of the different tours. Very well organized and we had no problem paying then. There are also set times for when we leave the beach and he will let you know. We had no fear of not getting back to the ship on time.

 

I'm attaching a thread (from this board) where someone was debating on whether to take the RCI ship sponsored excursion, but they weren't impressed with the pictures on RCI's website. I posted some pictures of Jalousie Beach and some of the snorkeling to give them a better idea. If you'd want to see the pictures I posted, they are in this link.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1778537

 

Sorry for so many questions! ;)

 

No need to apologize for the questions, I don't mind. :) That's what the boards are for, to help each other out with questions. Many others have helped me. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.

[TTEllis]

Headed back to St. Lucia on the Emerald Princess in Dec. this is my 6th trip to the island I met Spencer with Herod, on Herod's Tour back in 2010, booked his Jalousie Beach Break Tour for Dec.4th and really looking forward to it. No problem ever getting back to the ship, Herod's full day land and sea tour is longer than Spencer's Jalousie Beach Break.

[MelWhiskey]

No need to apologize for the questions, I don't mind. :) That's what the boards are for, to help each other out with questions. Many others have helped me. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.

 

Wow - thank you so much for the details and the picture thread - that was really helpful! I think we may do this in Feb 2014.

 

Thanks again!!

[pghsteelerfan]

Wow - thank you so much for the details and the picture thread - that was really helpful! I think we may do this in Feb 2014.

 

Thanks again!!

 

You are quite welcome! :)

[starfish the second]

pictures look great on the land and see tour you get snorkeling too, that's why I thought doing that tour would be great just wanted some suggestion just alittle worried about getting back to ship on time has anyone done the land and sea tour?

[pghsteelerfan]

pictures look great on the land and see tour you get snorkeling too, that's why I thought doing that tour would be great just wanted some suggestion just alittle worried about getting back to ship on time has anyone done the land and sea tour?

 

When we did our "Jalousie Beach Break tour", the others tours (Land & Sea and Piton Hike) met up at Jalousie Beach at some point but I forget when the others started arriving. All of Spencer's Tours left Jalousie Beach at the same time, 2:30PM and were back at the ship by 3:45PM. It only took about 30 - 40 minutes to get from the ship to the beach but takes an hour getting back because that's when you get the "Sea Tour" portion.

 

Hopefully someone who did the Land and Sea tour will chime in with what all they did, times, etc.

[Ms411]

I did the Land and Sea with Spencer last year, and it was excellent! I live in the Caribbean, and don't relish an all-day tour on winding roads, so chose the land and sea.

 

Spencer's group catered to my personal requests, and the driver made sure we avoided the crowds at the popular stops.

 

All non-ship tours in the Caribbean that I have encountered make sure you get back to the ship on time. After all, they don't want you spending nights at their home while you're trying to make arrangements to leave theirs!

[caprincesses]

My family and I just (literally today) got of the Carnival Valor and while we were in St. Lucia we did Spencer's tour. It was AMAZING! As mentioned above, we paid before the tour started and were grouped according to the tour. We waited about 10 minutes for a couple that never showed, but it was not that big of a deal. This is NOT trying to "drum up other customers" they were people who had booked and then did not show up. We did the tour part with Small, who is Spencer's brother, and he was great, we learned a lot and saw a lot as well. We got to taste their sweet bananas and some bread before going to the volcano and waterfalls! Idk what the other complaints about food handling were, but for us and a part of 11 doing the "land and sea" tour we were taken to a restaurant who set up a "buffet" style of 6-8 different dishes that they helped serve us, so no complaints their. After lunch, we went to a beach for about an hour, this is the same beach as the "beach break" tour and has some pretty good snorkeling (rent the equipment for $10 or bring your own) with lots of fish that will get super close to you.. if you go snorkeling, take a banana and feed the fish! After the beach we took a 45min boat tour back. We got to go on the "small" boat, which was perfectly ok with us. They showed us a number of different places around the island, including a bat cave and Oprah's house. It was well worth it for our family of 5! As for the times, we met him at 8:30am and were back by 3:00pm. They are really good about watching the time, and they drop you off right at the pier.. although you have to walk through the shops to get to the ship..this took my sister about 5min, and the rest of the family about an hour (we like shopping).

[trillian880]

We have done both Spencer's Land and Sea tour and Cosol's Land tour. I highly recommend Spencer's Land and Sea tour. The roads are VERY long and windy. AND, on Cosol's tour, we barely made it back to the ship. We LITERALLY had 3 min to spare! I have never been so scared in my life (of missing the ship)! I would not recommend Cosol's tour to anyone, it felt it was disorganized. When I mentioned to our guide that we were getting close on time, she said "not to worry, we would get back on time." It was 4 pm when we left our last stop, then we got stuck in bad traffic in Castries. It was so scary.

 

Spencer returned us to the dock with time to shop a bit near the pier, around 3:30 pm for a 4:30 all aboard.

 

Just a note, that if your itinerary says 5 pm, the all aboard will be 4:30 pm. Just so you can plan accordingly. The ship will be sailing away at 5 pm!