I typically do a lot of research ahead of a trip but with a 9-day cruise, I just got bogged down and ran out of time to put a lot of focus on St. Lucia which was our last island to visit.
Now, we had been to St. Lucia once before way before kids but didn't end up getting a chance to see the southern part of the island and the Pitons so I really wanted to book a tour that included a visit south.
My wife and I are now 51 and we were traveling with our two children, ages 11 and 14.
We were aboard the NCL Bliss and the ship's tour that caught my eye was well over $700 for the four of us and I felt that price was nuts.
So we braved it on our own and I'm sure glad we did. Typically, I always avoid the pushy salesmen right outside the cruise or airport terminals and I felt like a sucker when one of them had a sign showing all the things that the ship's tour offered and got me into their office right across the street from the terminal. Actually, the fellow was nice, polite and not pushy at all.
And the price was right...HALF of the price the ship offered. Now, there's always that chance of missing the ship but I wasn't too concerned. Honestly, I don't know what else we would have done had 'What a Vision' not been there.
It was a little confusing determining that there were two groups on the boat that we met just a short walk from the terminal.
One of the groups, I believe, paid $20 less and they just had the boat ride to and were dropped off at Anse Chastanet Beach and came back with us later in the day. It's a lovely beach for spending the day and there is an amazing hotel that my wife and I actually considered staying at way back around 2007 when we were last there. I don't know what prices are like at the beachside restaurant but it looks very nice and you can have food and drinks there. I think I recall some of the reviews saying the prices were a bit high so beware, however, it's a stunning location.
For the $20 more, the rest of us continued by boat on to Soufriere and were met by a minivan. The minivan took us up to the nearby volcano where we were able to apply volcanic mud to our bodies and take a dip in the REALLY hot springs. This was a lot of fun and there are several pools, the last of which was certainly more tolerable. The one closest to the spring is insanely hot yet some folks were able to handle it. The springs were a bit crowded but our driver was able to help us get a bucket of mud to dip our hands into.
After the volcano, we had a short ride to a beautiful waterfall where we were able to rinse off. The water was cold but not the worst I've experienced and we were able to go underneath the falls for a little massage as well. The rushing water wasn't too hard. You gotta do it.
After the falls, we headed back to meet the boat at the dock in Soufriere and then headed back to Anse Chastanet Beach where we had an hour for snorkeling. I had to rent a mask and snorkel from the Activities Hut; it was just $12 so that was ok. It afforded me the opportunity to snorkel with my kiddos for the hour. The snorkeling was fantastic, too.
After an hour, we were back on the boat heading home.
The staff were all polite and did what they needed to do very efficiently. If you're looking for a bunch of history of the island and narration along the way, this isn't for you but since we were not, we were really pleased by our luck in finding 'What a Vision' Tours!
First let me begin by saying that I am writing this review under this title "Pursuit Boat Trips & Tours," as this is the name on my receipt via email and web-site, however, the title on the receipt is "What A Vision Island Tours."
Firstly, we chose this independent tour after disembarking a cruise ship - they told us we were going to the Pitons via a catamaran which included swimming and snorkeling at a beach near the Pitons. The catamaran was named "Summer B."
Please also note that the 3 or 4 staff who were on board were wearing peacock blue polo shirts and the logo said, "Early Bird Boat Charters."
The person who sold us the tour at the port told us we were leaving at 10:15 am - it was only about 9 am - we had enough time to go back to the ship, grab our personal snorkel gear - apply sunscreen, get cold water and ice, etc., just so we would be ready for the 3 to 4 hour day/tour. Needless to say, it took staff quite a bit of time to solicit more passengers and tourists so that they would have enough people to run the tour. We finally left Castries at about 11 am - with 19 passengers.
We made a quick but distant stop at Marigot Bay, just enough time to take some photos of the Bay.
Then we headed to Anse Chastenet Beach, which had a beautiful resort there; the catamaran dropped anchor, the driver of the catamaran told us we had only 20 minutes here to swim and/or snorkel. Too bad, because it was a really lovely stop - nice resort, restaurant and facilities and very clean beach - it would have been nice to spend most of the afternoon here, but we were told after the 20 minutes we were going to another beach. The driver let out a loud whistle, and we knew it was time to make our way back to the catamaran.
The second beach we docked at, we believe was called Hummingbird Public Beach, Soufriere, St. Lucia. As we pulled up, we noted it was not at all like Anse Chastenet Beach. There was garbage scattered on the beach in different areas, it didn't appear at all as though this beach was cleaned, maintained or cared about. We were informed we would be staying here for 1 hour and a 1/2. This was very, very disheartening. There didn't appear to be a safe place to snorkel at this location, so we dropped our gear and went up to the restaurant that was on this beach (can't remember the name, but the food was good). We had a small lunch (while it rained quite a bit, and thought we would wait out the rain under cover). Then we decided to take our gear and belongings and put them back on the catamaran. We decided to go back in the water for a short swim before the catamaran had to head back to Castries.
Let me say, it appeared as soon as we boarded (later than expected), in Castries, that the staff on "Summer B" had no interest in working that day - just drive us where we needed to go and play loud music all along the coastal ride.
Once we arrived at Anse Chastenet Beach, we were disappointed in the only 20 minute stay at this beautiful location. Poor choice on the part of this tour company!!
That next public beach was horrifying - I would never, ever take a tourist to this beach - this really left a poor taste of St. Lucia - what could have been a wonderful afternoon was truly disappointing.
Then, at this Hummingbird Public Beach, we assumed, as with the first stop at Anse Chastenet, there would be a whistle notifying passengers we needed to board the catamaran to head back to Castries.
There was NO whistle, No warning they were leaving the dock. When we noticed some other passengers boarding the catamaran a few at a time, we decided to get out of the water and head to the catamaran. Don't forget, we were in the water, but all of our belongings and gear had been put on the catamaran earlier. We expected to hear a warning whistle to get us back on board. No whistle, no warning came.
As we make our way down the beach to the dock we notice they start untying the catamaran to set sail - but as we make our way to the dock other passengers finally noticed WE WERE NOT ON BOARD!! No one took a head count, no one noticed we were not on the boat - can you imagine what would have transpired if we had missed getting on board???? Take a head count, staff - there were only 19 of us - and as an added precaution you can ask passengers if they came with others, talked with others, met others while on board and during the tour who they feel may be missing before taking off!!!
Anyway, staff had to pull the catamaran back to the dock to get us to board - which was not done safely as the boat was untied and they were just trying to pull it back so we could get on...
Then, if that wasn't enough, after we boarded and headed back along the coast and back to the Castries cruise port, we noticed that each staff member (3 of them) had been provided a take away meal from the restaurant that was at the public beach. Then each staff member proceeded to go down stairs, one at a time, and eat their take out meal. How very unprofessional. You had a job to do that afternoon, and it barely was completed - you don't eat while you are still on duty - you could have eaten while we were stopped for an hour and a half at the restaurant, OR, you could have eaten your meal after dropping us all off in Castries.
We will assume that this tour received a percentage of the money spent in the restaurant by the passengers who were on this particular tour - also left a poor taste of St. Lucia in or memories!!!
Please also note again that we didn't leave Castries in the morning until 11 am - our ship was leaving port at 4:30 pm that day - since we didn't leave until 11 am we didn't get back to the cruise port until 4 pm. Thank goodness we were, at least, somewhat remotely, on time...
All in all this was the most disappointing and frightening tour while on our cruise.
Please, please, for future tourists, you need to run your business much better than that - if we don't like what we experienced, we will leave these types of reviews and we won't be back.
Please, in future, communicate accurate information to tourists and passengers, give them what they paid for, make sure everyone is safe in every aspect of the trip/tour!! Thank you.