Has anyone used Great Vibes Tours?

I know that Jen70 has, and gave us a great recommendation. I'm just looking to see if anyone else has experience with Donavan.

7 of us will be in Falmouth on the Disney Fantasy.

We've decided that 5 of us want to go to Sun Valley Plantation then, based on the time we have left, do Blue Hole or Dunn's River.

The other 2 want to do Rose Hall, Witter Village shopping, then Dr Cave Beach.

We separately contacted a few other private drivers and in both cases, Donavan was significantly lower than the others.

I don't really see any other reviews, not here, not other cruise sites, not TripAdvisor.

Thanks!

Hi Divot33 - It's me again. I know you wanted other feedback, rightfully so...but I wanted to additional info.

I mentioned in other posts, but not sure if it was in the thread we communicated on. When I first started my research on Great Vibes Tour, I posted a similar question as what you posted above. Search cruise critic by my ID or Great Vibes Tour, and you will see my original similar question. :-) I got no responses simply because, as I found out in my research, Great Vibes Tour is a new "tour" company. The owner had been focused on airport transportation for the past 10 years and now branching out to providing tours to cruise passengers.

I will be honest - I was VERY nervous when I first booked with him. In fact, I was nervous until we were finally at Blue Hole. As you found out, the prices he quoted us was significantly lower than the others, I contacted 5 other people besides Donavan.

Anyway, in the end, I booked with him for the following reasons:

1. My husband and other family members reminded me that we typically use the "newer" tour companies to give them a chance in the business/market. Some people are not comfortable with this approach, and it is understandable. We have written reviews for the different operators we used over the year and it makes me happy to see them getting business.

We have done for all our cruises, except the one to Alaska (which we booked directly through the ship). Also, there fact that there were 11 of us signed up for it although only 8 actually went on the tour.

Also - we like have the van to ourselves. With other tour operators they try to maximize the # of seats available to get more $.

2. I mentioned to Donavan that safety is #1 for me, no compromise. #2 was to get us back to the ship by the time I requested. #3 - make it fun for us!

a. Without me asking, one day i got an email from him with a picture of his business license from the Jamaican government. If I had wanted to, I could've contacted the government to get information.

b. Of all the tour operators we have use in the past, Donavan is the only one who asked us for our ship name and cabin numbers. He provided those information, along with our names, to the port authority so that they know we are out with him. This came as a surprise to me, like I said, never had it happen to me before.

3. Lastly, he was in constant communication with me. He would email me at least once a week fromthe time I booked to the week we set sail.....just wanted to check if I had any other questions/concerns etc. There were operators who I contacted didn't even respond to me. Or the responses were very infrequent.

Because of the great experience we had with this tour company we wanted to put our review out on cruise critic.

My niece updated her blog - http://www.travelinstilettos.com/2015/01/winter-in-caribbean_9.html#more THere are a few pictures of the blue hole...and in part of the video at the bottom.

Anyway, you cannot go wrong with the other tour operators reviewed on this forum and tripadvisor. I think they all have the same knowledge of their island, jamaican personality. There are tour operators who charge more jsut because they have the presence on Tripadvisor and cruise critic.

In the end, you just should go with who you are comfortable with (and not based on the price). :-)

You will have a fantastic cruise.

Just curious, do the prices on their website just cover your transportation (van ride for the day) or does it include the cost of all the activities associated with the tours?

Also are the prices per person or does it cover all (up to) 4 people in your group?

Thanks!

Hi Divot33 - It's me again. I know you wanted other feedback, rightfully so...but I wanted to additional info.

 

<snip>

 

In the end, you just should go with who you are comfortable with (and not based on the price). :-)

 

You will have a fantastic cruise.

Thank you for the additional information, Jen. I really do appreciate it. The funny part is, if he had quoted a higher price, I wouldn't have questioned it as much. ;)

I was hoping for another trip report to ease my mind a bit.

Just curious, do the prices on their website just cover your transportation (van ride for the day) or does it include the cost of all the activities associated with the tours?

Also are the prices per person or does it cover all (up to) 4 people in your group?

Thanks!

bradysmom - the best way to know is to email the operator and ask.

For us, we didn't choose one of the tours from his site. I emailed him, gave him the details (date, time of arrival, port, ship, number in our group, and the places we wanted to visit) and asked for a price.

Donavan got back to us very quickly and was clear in his quote that the price was only transportation (for our group as a whole, not per person) and that we would have to pay entrance fees (he also listed those prices for our reference.)

I got quotes from 4 other operators, and all but one did not include admission fees in his quote - and all were very clear on what was and wasn't included. The only one that include the admissions in his quote was Peat Taylor.