Pearl - Between The Pitons - Catamaran Cruise?

[katier825]

Has anyone taken the "Between The Pitons - Catamaran Cruise" on the Pearl in St. Lucia? I haven't seen any comments on it and wondered what others thought of that excursion.

 

Thanks:)

[ur_calvin_klein_guy]

I took this catamaran last April and it was excellent.

 

Make sure you book this early as it is a very popular excursion.

 

donnie

 

[katier825]

I already booked it because I didn't want to miss out. Just wondering what others thought. I needed to find a relatively non physical excursion because I'm not up to anything strenuous right now. If it's like other catamaran excursions I've done on other cruises, I should be ok.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

[racepoint]

The cruise/excursion is awesome. The scenery is incredible. I sort of remember the stop for a swim in the bay. (Pictures are great for memorializing what you truly don't remember.) A word of caution: stay away from the "free"/all-you-can-drink rum punch. It is tasty, refreshing, and smoothe as silk. We found out later that it contains something like 150 proof rum. We all called this the "lost day" on our cruise.:o Other than that, a fantastic, beautiful excursion.

[racepoint]

The cruise/excursion is awesome. The scenery is incredible. I sort of remember the stop for a swim in the bay. (Pictures are great for memorializing what you truly don't remember.) A word of caution: stay away from the "free"/all-you-can-drink rum punch. It is tasty, refreshing, and smoothe as silk. We found out later that it contains something like 150 proof rum. We all called this the "lost day" on our cruise.:o Other than that, a fantastic, beautiful excursion.

[cmdchiefthom]

We did this excursion a couple of years ago aboard the Sun, and the scenery was gorgeous. We brought our son, DIL, and two grandsons, 4 & 6 at that time. You could see when boarding the Cat, there were more people booked than there seemed to be room for on the boat. I told the SHOREX rep I thought the boat was overcrowded, but he said don't worry, "they always have that many passengers'. The covered cockpit was full, as was the net between the hulls, The aft area was full as well, and there was really not empty space anywhere. I recall counting at least 90 passengers on this 60 footer. It was a pretty hot day, and our son and the two boys were on the net, but pretty soon, the sun was too hot for them to stay on the net. Problem was the crew never raised the sails, so the only shade was in the cockpit, where the rum punch flowed, and the drunks assembled and at the urging of the crew danced. There was literally no place to move, and the boys continued to cook. We did stop in Soufiere, and some lunch was transferred to the boat, chicken as I recall, but we had to wait for a van carrying the food for at least a half hour, and the crew wouldn't let anyone off the boat, so we just sat in the windless heat, and waited.

 

We finally made it to the beach area, which was crawling with local vendors, hanging on to the sides of the boat. It was clear that every excursion that went to the Pitons stopped here for their swim, and there had to be five or six other large boats dropping their passengers off for their swim. The water was clear, but much of the 200 yard wide beach was rocky, and the waves were pretty big, making getting on and off the boat tough, especially for the older passengers and the little ones. Just behind the beach were a bunch of locals, drinking in makeshift campsites. We were supposed to stop for an hour, but after perhaps 35 minutes, they round up the passengers, and headed back to the dock.

 

When we finally got back, the kids were burned, and clearly dehydrated. I waited untill the SHOREX office opened, and filed a formal complaint citing my safety concerns, and overcrowding. After a couple of days, and a complaint to the hotel manager, the charges were finally waived.

 

Last year, I made private SCUBA reservations, and watched SHOREX load two cats for this excursion while waiting for my dive boat to pick me up. Maybe they learned their lesson about overcrowding the boats. I sure hope so!;)

[katier825]

The cruise/excursion is awesome. The scenery is incredible. I sort of remember the stop for a swim in the bay. (Pictures are great for memorializing what you truly don't remember.) A word of caution: stay away from the "free"/all-you-can-drink rum punch. It is tasty, refreshing, and smoothe as silk. We found out later that it contains something like 150 proof rum. We all called this the "lost day" on our cruise.:o Other than that, a fantastic, beautiful excursion.

 

I'm looking forward to the scenery...it always looks so much better in person than in a book or photo gallery. I don't have any problem staying away from the 150 proof rum... clashes with my meds. It sure is amusing to watch it's effects on other people though!!! ;)

[Planer's Edge]

We did this excursion a couple of years ago aboard the Sun, and the scenery was gorgeous. We brought our son, DIL, and two grandsons, 4 & 6 at that time. You could see when boarding the Cat, there were more people booked than there seemed to be room for on the boat. I told the SHOREX rep I thought the boat was overcrowded, but he said don't worry, "they always have that many passengers'. The covered cockpit was full, as was the net between the hulls, The aft area was full as well, and there was really not empty space anywhere. I recall counting at least 90 passengers on this 60 footer. It was a pretty hot day, and our son and the two boys were on the net, but pretty soon, the sun was too hot for them to stay on the net. Problem was the crew never raised the sails, so the only shade was in the cockpit, where the rum punch flowed, and the drunks assembled and at the urging of the crew danced. There was literally no place to move, and the boys continued to cook. We did stop in Soufiere, and some lunch was transferred to the boat, chicken as I recall, but we had to wait for a van carrying the food for at least a half hour, and the crew wouldn't let anyone off the boat, so we just sat in the windless heat, and waited.

 

We finally made it to the beach area, which was crawling with local vendors, hanging on to the sides of the boat. It was clear that every excursion that went to the Pitons stopped here for their swim, and there had to be five or six other large boats dropping their passengers off for their swim. The water was clear, but much of the 200 yard wide beach was rocky, and the waves were pretty big, making getting on and off the boat tough, especially for the older passengers and the little ones. Just behind the beach were a bunch of locals, drinking in makeshift campsites. We were supposed to stop for an hour, but after perhaps 35 minutes, they round up the passengers, and headed back to the dock.

 

When we finally got back, the kids were burned, and clearly dehydrated. I waited untill the SHOREX office opened, and filed a formal complaint citing my safety concerns, and overcrowding. After a couple of days, and a complaint to the hotel manager, the charges were finally waived.

 

Last year, I made private SCUBA reservations, and watched SHOREX load two cats for this excursion while waiting for my dive boat to pick me up. Maybe they learned their lesson about overcrowding the boats. I sure hope so!;)

 

I am glad to see we were not the only ones disappointed with this outfit. The booze flowed way to freely and was way too potent. On our sailing when the food was finally put out it was a free for all and completely disgusting.

 

Although the scenery was spectacular.

 

PE