Review: Celebrity's Island Delight - St. Lucia

When I was looking at our cruise the main thing that I did not want to do was to book excursions through the cruise line as no they are more expensive than going direct. However since we had an onboard credit that we weren't going to use for anything else there was no reason for us not to use it for this reason as it would save us money from paying out of pocket for the cheaper excursions.

The second tour booked through Celebrity was St. Lucia's "The Island's Delight" which was also our most expensive tour. Due to the size of the roads the buses were limited to about 30 people which was right on the brink of being too big of a group.

In the morning we headed to the theater, got our sticker, and waited for our number to be called before we headed out to the gangway. Once outside, we found the paddle with our number on it and lined up before being led to the bus. After getting on we were off for our tour around the island stopping at a view point then Rodney Bay before learning about how banana's are grown (from the comfort of the bus) and then it was time for another view point.

At each of the stops there was a lot of people trying to sell various items so it is clear that all the tour buses do make their way to the same few stops. While they are not as bad as they are in the Bahamas with their trying to get you to buy things, just don't be surprised when it happens. We also only had a few minutes at each location. Viewing points were about 5 - 10 minutes and Rodney Bay was 20 minutes with 1 hour for lunch. I wish we had more time to explore. We didn't even get to visit Soufere.

After this viewpoint of the Piton's it was lunch time which was quite impressive to see how the bus driver made it up a hill so steep (and back down it in reverse). Lunch was cramped but the food was a good buffet style with BBQ chicken, green banana and cod, rice, noodles, salad, fruits, veggies, fish, and cake. The view of the Piton's was very nice.

With full belly's it was time to visit the world's only drive in volcano which was just a really stinky sulfur pit. Not worth the visit and I wish we had done it on an empty stomach as the smell of baby diapers on fire really did not make my full stomach happy.

Thinking that, that was the end of the trip we were not very impressed but then it turned out we had one more stop to make, the Plantation. Here we got to walk through a lot of local foliage while learning about it until we got to the Plantation House where we learned how they used to husk coconuts before trying some very fresh coconut. After the demonstration we walked back and into the cocoa barn where they taught us how they make chocolate before showing us how to crush sugar cane into juice the old fashioned way. We then headed towards the exit before we were given sour orange juice (so refreshing! If you have the recipe, I want it lol) and a chance to shop in the gift shops.

Would I take this tour again? Yes

Was it worth the money? No, if it had been a smaller group than sure

Recommendation: find a private guide who will do the same thing so you have time to properly explore locations.