Glory Tours - Glass Bottom Cruise - Done It?

[Wateron]

Would like to know what the Glass Bottom Cruise Swim with Turtles & Snorkel at the shipwreck was like by people who have done it.

 

Thanks

[Julitta]

I've got it booked for early January so if nobody's helped you out by then, I'll let you know how it went. Nobody in our family snorkels so I thought it would be a good way to see some stuff.

[mrspjotter]

We did a private tour with Glory tours in Feb 2009 which included a trip on the glass bottom out of holetown - we aren't into snorkelling and had 3 kids aged 8,5,5 at the time so like you thought it would be a good idea. It was a great trip we only saw a couple of turtles but they took the boat to another spot and gave the kids bread to drop over the side and we were surrounded by swarms of amazingly coloured fish - the kids had the best time and it was one of the highlights of their holiday.

[candydane]

Do you have a link to this specific tour? I can't find it on the Glory Tours website.

 

Thanks.

[Wateron]

Do you have a link to this specific tour? I can't find it on the Glory Tours website.

 

Thanks.

 

It's part of the tour Best of Barbados Option 1; (and others as well but

not a stand alone tour)

 

http://www.glorytours.org/fulldaytourspage.html

 

Be warned however that Glory Tours is very bad about responding to

emails. I have sent 2 emails so far concerning a tour I have booked but

have received no response.

[Julitta]

We booked the Bajan Paradise tour because the Best of Barbados was full on our port day. It's just turtles, market and beach time. Quite inexpensive because there's no Harrison's Cave.

 

I have found email communication with Glory Tours spotty. There was a long delay before finding out the tour we wanted was full, but all is sorted out as far as I know now. She must get a lot of emails plus running her tours, she must be busy.

[CaribQween]

Would like to know what the Glass Bottom Cruise Swim with Turtles & Snorkel at the shipwreck was like by people who have done it.

 

Thanks

 

We've been considering that same tour with them. Do you take it to mean that the Turtles portion is in conjunction with the Glass Bottom Boat portion? It has the option not to do the Glass Bottom Boat but I'm wondering if we opt out of it whether we would still get to snorkel with the turtles. It's sort of confusing with all of the different options on the different tours. And they are a little slow responding to questions.

[Julitta]

We've been considering that same tour with them. Do you take it to mean that the Turtles portion is in conjunction with the Glass Bottom Boat portion? It has the option not to do the Glass Bottom Boat but I'm wondering if we opt out of it whether we would still get to snorkel with the turtles. It's sort of confusing with all of the different options on the different tours. And they are a little slow responding to questions.

 

The turtles are a few hundred yards offshore so my understanding is that the glass bottomed boat takes you out to see them. I believe if you don't go on the glass boat you won't snorkel with the turtles.

[karylrocks]

Looking forward to hearing your review of this tour. We are booked for Best of Barbados next month. Have a great cruise!

[elliekate]

It's part of the tour Best of Barbados Option 1; (and others as well but

not a stand alone tour)

 

http://www.glorytours.org/fulldaytourspage.html

 

Be warned however that Glory Tours is very bad about responding to

emails. I have sent 2 emails so far concerning a tour I have booked but

have received no response.

 

Did you ever hear from Sarah at Glory Tours? I have been trying to contact her about a tour we have booked in March and haven't heard a word. While I was in the process of booking, she was very prompt with the emails. We have an extra couple who wants to join us and I can't get an answer from her! Hope she is ok!!!

[Wateron]

Did you ever hear from Sarah at Glory Tours? I have been trying to contact her about a tour we have booked in March and haven't heard a word. While I was in the process of booking, she was very prompt with the emails. We have an extra couple who wants to join us and I can't get an answer from her! Hope she is ok!!!

 

Finally did hear from her but called & left a voicemail, she has been ill & had a family emergency to deal with.

[Putterdude]

Finally did hear from her but called & left a voicemail, she has been ill & had a family emergency to deal with.

 

Sarah is a very good operator but not great with communications...these tend to be her common excuses. However that said we will go with again next year. We did a tour with her in January 2009, the folks that did the swim with the turtles had a great time and we just did snorkeling and enjoyed it a lot. Ask for Quammie, he is likely the best tour guide we have ever had.

[tnt/jt]

I had a terrible experience with Glory Tours last month. Their customer service is lacking to be sure. Them not responding to e-mails is just the beginning of terrible customer service. If you want a WONDERFUL experience snorkling with turtles, go on the Silvermoon. They are fantastic. I've gone with them twice (and might make it a 3rd in March), but will never consider Glory Tours again.

[VaCruzers]

We, too, had a horrible experience with Glory Tours. Lack of communication/response to emails is part of it, but my main complaint is that the tour guide never showed up at the pier to pick us up. After waiting over an hour, all the other tour operators had gone & we were left to choose a taxi driver for a makeshift tour that left a lot to be desired. My suggestions is that you do your research & find a reliable tour company.

[1stcruiser1]

VaCruzer- To be fair, it has been six years since this has happened. Sarah did address this matter here on cruise critic and said they haven't had this happen since then. I hope that is true, I have a tour booked with them soon. I would be very unhappy if that would happen so I do understand where you are coming from.

[Wateron]

We also have a tour coming up in about a week, will report back on how it went.

[karylrocks]

Hope you have a great tour and looking forward to hearing about it. I just emailed Sarah last night about our booking for next month and she got back to me today. She has always responded to my emails within a couple of days.

[Julitta]

We're back from our holiday now and our tour turned out to be private in a taxi. The driver told us that he is a regular taxi driver when he's not doing tours for Glory.

 

It was never explained why, but we were not taken out on a boat. The feeding of the turtles took place at the pier behind the fish market. We could have gotten in the water with the turtles but we had just dried off from the beach so I didn't feel inclined to get back in the water. I just didn't feel like complaining and the wind and waves were huge that day so I sort of assumed that was why there was no boat.

[dkfan81]

We have a group of 11 taking a tour with Glory Tours two weeks from today. Sarah did confirm the tour is taking a glass bottom boat out. Here is her direct response "Yes you take the boat out then you get out into the water to swim with the turtles".

[karylrocks]

I have been corresponding with Sarah quite a bit this past week. She has answered every one of my emails within 24 hours. I expressed my concerns over our scheduled tour and she described the type of vehicle we would be in and named several tour guides that may be leading our tour. At least I know ahead of time that it will not be her, which is dissappointing, but there are 6 people signed up for our tour and she will probably be taking out a larger group.

[dkfan81]

We did the tour with Glory Tours during our cruise earlier this month. Our tour was good. We did the nature reserve, a tour of the island and then the swimming with the turtles. Our tour guide was great, but I felt that we were over charged for the tour. 7 people backed out of our tour at the last minute (we originally booked 14 for the tour). Prior to our sailing I made a $350 deposit for the tour ($25) for each person and was told the total would be $43.50 a person.

 

On the date of the tour we were charged over $70 a person :mad: I wasn't happy but didn't take it out on our driver since he was getting direct orders (via cellphone) from Sarah.

 

I was disappointed on how the business end of things shook out.

[elliekate]

We did the tour with Glory Tours during our cruise earlier this month. Our tour was good. We did the nature reserve, a tour of the island and then the swimming with the turtles. Our tour guide was great, but I felt that we were over charged for the tour. 7 people backed out of our tour at the last minute (we originally booked 14 for the tour). Prior to our sailing I made a $350 deposit for the tour ($25) for each person and was told the total would be $43.50 a person.

 

On the date of the tour we were charged over $70 a person :mad: I wasn't happy but didn't take it out on our driver since he was getting direct orders (via cellphone) from Sarah.

 

I was disappointed on how the business end of things shook out.

 

I agree 100 percent with the above poster! I did much research before deciding on Sarah with Glory Tours. We booked two vans for a 6-7 hour private tour. I had to prepay for the tour at a rate of $280 per van (with 10 people per van, that would be $28/person). That payment was made almost 5 months prior to our trip. Since I had read so many good things about Sarah, I asked for her to be our guide on one of the vans and was reassured that she would be. (There is even a place on their reservation form to check if Sarah agreed to be your guide.)

 

Her emails were spotty as everyone has mentioned, but I kept in touch with her because I was afraid something would go wrong from reading the negative posts about her. We seemed to have a good rapport through the emails. She asked what we wanted to do and I told her we wanted to see the island, learn the history, maybe the caves, maybe the nature reserce and swim with the turtles. I told her that we would have to rely on her suggestions since she knew the island better than us. NOTHING was ever mentioned about how much each stop would cost!!!

 

Last Thursday (March 3) arrived and we met our two van drivers...Jemel and Kyle - NO SARAH. When I inquired as to what happened to Sarah, Jemel said she couldn't be there and they would take good care of us. When he knew I was not happy, he put Sarah on the phone and she said one of the drivers had surgery and she had to fill in for him. My thought was why didn't OUR driver fill in and we get Sarah as promised. I had even brought a gift for her from Texas because I liked her so much from the emails. I later heard from someone else on our ship that they were on a third van (not a private tour) and they said Sarah didn't even do a tour that day. I really don't know what to believe, but I do know I don't like to be lied to and I wasn't happy at all with the entire operation.

 

Jemel asked what our group wanted to do. I had a copy of all of my emails with Sarah and I pulled that out and told him what Sarah and I had discussed. It was only then that I found out the amount I paid for the vans only covered the vans. The other stops were $37/person for the caves, $25/person for the glass bottom boat and swimming with the turtles, $13/person for lunch and $6/person for the reserve. Since I was responsible for booking the tour for 20 friends, I felt terrible that the cost was quite a bit more than expected. We decided to skip the caves and do the glass bottom boat, lunch and reserve. So, my friends had to reimburse me $28/person for the van and come up with an additional $44/person which totaled $72/person for the tour. Some of the people in our group are on a very tight budget and would not have agreed to go on the tour had they known the additional costs. I felt terrible!!!

 

We learned a little about the island, saw some beautiful scenery and loved snorkeling with the turtles (the guys on the boat were great and we tipped them well). Jemel was nice but spent too much time singing and not enough time talking about his beautiful island.

 

When we returned to the ship, some friends in our group said they had a wonderful tour of the island from a taxi driver they met at the port. They told us many things that we would have liked to have learned. Their driver stopped and cut some sugar cane for them and passed it around. Our friends and another couple were the only ones in the van. Since our friends have some mobility issues, they just wanted to see the island and not do any of the stops. Their cost was $25/person. I love Barbados and have done a catamaran (Shasa) before. It was great and I would use them again or try Silvermoon. If you just want to see the island, I would recommend the driver our friends used:

Big Mac bigmactaxi57@hotmail.com

 

Some people have been lucky and things went well with Glory Tours, but it appears from reading the boards that it is the luck of the draw! Some people have had good experiences and others have had a bad experience like us!