If you are looking for a private tour....Sunny Liston is the man

[Guest hockeychic]

We had booked Sunny Liston for our vacation in St Thomas recently....and he definatley ROCKS!!!!! Myself 39, DH 42, kids 16 and 13 loved him.

 

This is more then a tour it is a adventure as well.

 

Kim

[Freezin' in Minny]

We had booked Sunny Liston for our vacation in St Thomas recently....and he definatley ROCKS!!!!! Myself 39, DH 42, kids 16 and 13 loved him.

 

This is more then a tour it is a adventure as well.

 

Kim

 

Kim:

 

Glad to hear that you had such a good time on your tour with Sunny Liston. We are taking his tour while in St. Thomas in January. Care to elaborate on what made it an adventure. :)

 

P.S. This is not Sunny Liston posting ;)

[stan wood]

I agree with Lynette completely-we have a person making their first post accusing another that has been posting since June. It's not logical. I doubt if Godfrey or Sunny have time to post comments and they probably don't need to spend their time on it.

 

I have been on this site for a year now and check it every couple of days. I'm sure I have read well over a hundred reviews on Godfrey and Sunny. I've seen two complaints on Godfrey-he is slow to respond to e-mails (this seems to be improving) and one person was upset that he passed them off to another driver when Godfrey had a full load. I have not seen anything negative about Sunny. When you consider that these two are guiding thousands of tourists a year between them, they have an outstanding record.

 

We went with Sunny and he was great. He is so jovial and tries to do whatever you ask of him. I would love to go back with him. But because of sites like this, I would have no problems going with Godfrey.

 

This site serves an extremely important purpose for cruisers. If one of the guides is using it to increase their business, they should be exposed. But remember the purpose of the site and continue to help those that are traveling for the first time or that want to try something new on St. Thomas,

[Guest hockeychic]

Wow, tough board.

 

I have not posted much here as the only cruise I ever did was Disney and they have their own board. However, I am going to do either Carnival or RCCL next time so have come here to the experts for advise.

 

I got Sunny Listons name from this board originally and booked him. I thought it was a fabulous tour and wanted to be able to provide info for people on these boards not just asking questions.

 

He was very prompt with pick ups, considering we needed to be back to the ship by 3:30 he accommodated us all the way.

The adventure is during the tour portion, makes the tour interesting, music blaring during down time, had the bus singing all the way, and that horn, not sure how the locals feel about it be we loved it. It was just very informative and fun....we did a organized tour of St Marten for the same $$$ and it was only 3 hours and although informative it was not fun. Sonny had us on the island from 9AM and had us back to the ship at 3:30PM he was great.

 

Really, Sunnys bus was full I don't think he would have to post under someone elses name for advertising. People like me who enjoyed the experience will pass his name around.

 

Kim

[ERNLYN]

Well If this is all true, this really disappoints me!!! We were so in hopes this was the real deal... I can tell you this much. We booked Sunny for this coming week. I do know they were very prompt and courtious answering our questions, and assisting in making our rsvp.. If the tour is half as good as others have reported we will be satisfied. I know there are numerous good reviews from supposed past guests...

[Guest hockeychic]

I can't account for anyone else but I know I am not associated with anyone of the tour companies.

 

I will not argue this point anymore since you have your opinion which you are entitled to....

 

Sorry I posted in the first place.

[Freezin' in Minny]

I can't account for anyone else but I know I am not associated with anyone of the tour companies.

 

I will not argue this point anymore since you have your opinion which you are entitled to....

 

Sorry I posted in the first place.

 

Don't be sorry you posted. I for one appreciate people coming back and telling others of their experiences. :D

[ERNLYN]

I agree... I want to hear all sides, good and negative...I just hope for those of us who book these tours find the contrary...

[stan wood]

Hockeychic,

 

Freezin' is right. Don't be sorry you posted. Hundreds of people view these sites daily. Decisions are made that can make or break a vacation.

 

It is really helpful when reviews are posted. Just be honest and report anything you thought was good or bad. I'm sure many of the tour operators read this site daily to see what they are doing correctly and what they can do to improve.

[Lisa S.]

I was in St Thomas last week and took Sunnys Tour I met not only Sunny but also his wife Angela.. Sunnt Is the real deal we took his tour and had a blast,, The reason we took Sunny over Godfrey was Sunny's website advertising him we liked it better. Sunny went out of his way for us on the tour> He even made 2 stops at the beach because some of our tour had to be back earlier.

 

I read this thread ans I can tell I am still in cruise depression the only thing that came to mind was

 

Will the really Sunny Liston Please stand up, please stand up. and I am not am Eminen fan.

 

And where is a host when you need them

[Luna23]

Hockeychic, (PS - big hockey fan as well -- GO CANUCKS GO!)

Don't ever be sorry that you posted!!! -- I really don't care if you're Sunny in disguise or not -- because fact of the matter is that if it wasn't for someone posting about Sunny, I wouldn't have known about his tour, and would've been stuck paying $80(each) for a tour that probablly would not have been as intimate or fun as Sunny's!

So I say -- post on, my friend, post on...and if you are Sunny in "disguise" BRILLIANT, my friend, BRILLIANT -- Cheapest and best form of advertisement - ;) :p

[scrubee]

So, how do I find Sunny?

[CruzinPat]

We just returned from the AOS and booked Sunny's tour and ended up with Godfrey and both are great! They are the real deal and the best tour we had on the entire cruise! They work together to accomodate all size groups and pickup/drop off times...and it works!! We signed up for 10am pickup but were ready at 9am so Sunny coordinated with Godfrey took us into town and then arranged for us to meet Godfrey for the rest of the tour. Godfrey recommended Sapphire Beach and our whole group went there and absolutely loved it!

[ShannaPooh]

I will be leaving on a 7 day cruise that includes St.Thomas on the 19th. What is Sunny's website?

[nancyfancy40]

My feeling on the "are tour operators pretending to be cruises" is this. WE have book Grodfrey for our April CB cruise. It was really a toss up as to which operator got my business. They both come highly reccomended and have very similar websites. I came down to how answered my e-mail first. Both names have been tossed around on all aspects of the cruise critic lin.

 

The truth is, now matter how much someone pretends, if they werent both good at some point the truth would come out. Even if the two operators posted everyday for every hour. They could not hold both the truth of other cruisers.

 

I do not know about most of you, buy my time is to few to be debating wheter the posts are real or not.

 

If in doubt a good consumer will investigate any business they are doing business with prior to commiting. All one has to do is pick up a phone call the local business bureo and the local police station to find out about the business.

 

Bottom line, to many good reviwes form lots of different sources all over the web, for both Liston and Gofrey to be for real.

 

Nancy (loving to living in mabey naive land, but love it here)

[Luna23]

Shanna Pooh,

 

I am on the 8-day Jewel of the Seas and we are in St. Thomas on the 19th as well. I have booked by BF and I for Sunny at 9am on January 19th. You should join us!

[montgomeryfamily]

I have read many reviews for Godfrey and Sunny and have no doubt that both offer good tours. I just want to clarify something that the posters here have said about accommodating the passengers pick up/drop off times or going out of the way for passengers so it doesn't give other people like me the wrong idea.

 

We don't want to do shopping, especially not early in the morning. So I contacted via email both Godfrey and Sunny about being able to skip the shopping and just do the tour and beach. Neither of them were willing to accommodate this on their tour, although Godfrey did offer a "private" tour" wth a driver and vehicle which would cost $75 pp. (Since the established taxi rate island tour is almost a third of this, we declined, because we are better off taking a taxi tour).

 

Apparently their schedule is such that they go to the cruise ships in the morning and take people to town and drop off for shopping. Then beginning aound noon, they pick people up from town and go on the tour and then drop off at the beach. Then in the afternoon they pick people up at the beach and take them to the ships. They apparently will take people who don't want to go to the beach back to the ship, stopping at the beach to drop off those who want to go to the beach and/or picking up those who are at the beach ready to come back.

 

I want to clarify this for people who may be like us who read these types of posts and then contact Godfrey or Sunny about skipping the shopping, thinking that they will make this accommodation. This is apparently not the type of accommodation or "going out of their way" type of thing that Sunny or Godfrey does.

 

However, I will note that on an earlier thread (posted before the changeover of the boards) someone posted about doing this very thing with Godfrey. However, apparently in that case, the poster was with a very large wedding party and in essence filled up the entire tour. So if you have a large enough party that you could fill up an entire tour, then it might be possible to make such an arrangement.

[CruzinPat]

Here is Sunny's website: http://sunnylistontours.com/

[Kelfly]

Montgomery Family:

 

Have you already gone on your trip? I'd rather have very little or no shopping also. We've been to St Thomas 4 times, but have never really "seen" this island - we generally go over to St. John. We were looking to a St Thomas tour this time. Did you actually do the taxi tour? I thought that would be quite expensive compared to an organized tour? Where did the taxi tour take you, how long, $, etc.? Did you just pick a cab up at the pier, and were you able to get private or did you have to wait until that entire open air taxi filled up and then go where everyone else wanted to also?

[Kelfly]

Montgomery Family:

 

Have you already gone on your trip? I'd rather have very little or no shopping also. We've been to St Thomas 4 times, but have never really "seen" this island - we generally go over to St. John. We were looking to a St Thomas tour this time. Did you actually do the taxi tour? I thought that would be quite expensive compared to an organized tour? Where did the taxi tour take you, how long, $, etc.? Did you just pick a cab up at the pier, and were you able to get private or did you have to wait until that entire open air taxi filled up and then go where everyone else wanted to also?

[Kelfly]

Montgomery Family:

 

Have you already gone on your trip? I'd rather have very little or no shopping also. We've been to St Thomas 4 times, but have never really "seen" this island - we generally go over to St. John. We were looking to a St Thomas tour this time. Did you actually do the taxi tour? I thought that would be quite expensive compared to an organized tour? Where did the taxi tour take you, how long, $, etc.? Did you just pick a cab up at the pier, and were you able to get private or did you have to wait until that entire open air taxi filled up and then go where everyone else wanted to also?

[Kelfly]

Sorry for the triple post! This is REALLY slow this morning!!

[montgomeryfamily]

We did the taxi tour a few months ago. I had a friend at St.Thomas who told me that the St. Thomas had an island taxi assocation that set official rates and all official cabs had to follow the rates. The rates also include a two hour island tour as an option.

 

So when we went off the ship to the pier, we went to the taxi area and I talked with the dispatcher and told him there was just the two of us and we wanted an air conditioned taxi for just the two of us for an island tour. There were some rates posted on a sign, but I don't remember whether the island tour rate was listed or not. But I did confirm with the dispatcher and also when we got into the taxi the rate, which at that time was $25 per person. This may have gone up some but it wouldn't be much, if any.

 

Our driver spoke English and French and was very knowledgeable about the island. We toured quite a bit, including Drakes seat with a view of Magen's Bay, Skyline, and stopping at Mountain Top. He stopped whenever we wanted for photos. We did tell him we wanted to get some T-shirts so we stopped at two places and we got the type of T-shirts we wanted. Our tour actually lasted about two and one/half hours, but our taxi driver didn't try to charge more. We had him drop us at Coki Beach and we didn't have him come back and get us since we didn't know how long we would be. We paid him when he dropped us off. He was very nice, even helping us to carry our stuff to the beach and get a chair. We took a taxi back to the ship from Coki when we finished and I think it was $7 each for that for the two of us. We again rode in a private taxi by ourselves.

 

The island taxi tour rate included going back to the ship and our being dropped at Coki didn't increase the rate. It is possible that if you wanted to be dropped at another beach the rate could increase, especially if it was out of the way. I'd discuss that with the driver up front too.

 

We are going back to St. Thomas next August. This time we would like to go to Coki first and then do a short tour of St. Thomas. So I checked again with all of the tour companies like Godfrey and Sonny and again they only do the tour at noon and after and the beach only in the afternoon. Since we want to go in the morning, we are going to take a taxi. But I have been doing some internet searches and have found some taxis listed that do tours, so I'm emailing them to find out info, including rates, as we do not want the open air taxi and want an airconditioned vehicle and we don't want to wait until they get it filled up, as you said. We don't mind if others go, as long as we are all going at about the same time. I can let you know what I find out, if you are interested. You can email me at kacruiser@ev1.net.

 

If you do take a taxi at the port and want the official taxi rates for the island tour, you need to take an official taxi, which has the dome light and the license plate with the VI. Also agree on the rate ahead of time with the driver too. Unofficial taxis don't have to follow the rates.

[Kelfly]

Thanks for the info. Very helpful. I think we'll do the 2 hour taxi tour and have the driver drop us off at Saphire or Megan's even if it costs a bit more. Does any one know if there are ample taxi's waiting at Saphire and/or Megans to bring cruise passengers back to the ship (if we don't have the driver come back at a specified time?)

[montgomeryfamily]

I recently confirmed directly with the St. Thomas Taxi Commission that the official tariff for a two hour island tour for two people in a taxi is $25 per person. You should be able to hire a taxi at the pier for the island tour for this amount. Just make sure that it is an official taxi and that you confirm the fare with the driver.

 

If you drop off at a beach and have him wait or come back, this would not be included. You would have to negotiate that with the taxi driver for that or hire another taxi to take you back to the ship.

 

Thought I would come back and post this since I have gotten several inquiries.