To ALL who recommended Sonny Liston

[msucooper]

I am very skeptical of the comment made by MUSSHKA. Why would you complain about a tour your friends took 2 years ago? If the experience was that bad a comment should have been posted then not 2 years later. :confused:

[msucooper]

Visit their website www.sunnylistontours.com

 

Hi everyone, a few years ago I take a tour with PaPa Bear, air force one tours and Godfrey tours on St.Thomas. Their tours were very good. I am about to take a cruise that will be stopping on St.Thomas again. I heard so many good things about the Sunny Liston Tours. Is this a good tour to take if you are in to having a fun time? We are party people. We would like to have some fun in the sun. Please give me some advice about his tours. We will like to do some shopping, sightseeing and spend some time at Sapphire beach. What time does he pick you up from the ship? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[jazznj2]

We toured with Sunny in February off the Liberty. We absolutely LOVED the tour and Sunny! He was fun, energetic and friendly. It was a highlight of our cruise and we would recommend it to anyone that asked what to do in St Thomas!

[faslane]

i HAVE BEEN TO ST THOMAS 6 TIMES AND THE HIGHLIGHT WAS THE SONNY LISTON TOUR. i WILL NEVER FORGET HIM AND THE FUN WE HAD. YES, HE'S THE GREATEST!!!

DIMITRI.

[Muushka]

I am very skeptical of the comment made by MUSSHKA. Why would you complain about a tour your friends took 2 years ago? If the experience was that bad a comment should have been posted then not 2 years later. :confused:

 

MUSSHKA here (why caps?) I'm sorry.:( I had forgotten all about it until I saw this thread.

 

You may be skeptical about my comment if you wish. I am neither a troll nor a trouble maker. My only reason for telling my friend's experience is just to give anyone a head's up if booking, be sure that the tour will, in fact, be with Sonny and not someone he has hired.

[CrusinAgain]

I keep reading those who got lucky to get on Sonny's van was happy but there are generally more vans of Sonny's that leave and we did not get Sonny at all going or returning and it was not happy at all. I see now he requires payment in advance - I can understand why.

[ok4uni2cruz]

Myself and 12 other family members were on a Sunny Liston tour last week (April 2010). We had an amazing time and I would book another tour with them in a heart beat! We did not have Sunny as our driver but instead we had his wife Gie Gie and she was fantastic!

 

First let me start off by saying that the Sunny Liston tour is almost exactly the same as the tour the ship offers (with another company) BUT Sunny is a ton cheaper! Being a past cruiser, I was comfortable booking a tour outside of what my ship had to offer and after reading all the amazing reviews about Sunny.. I knew that was the tour I wanted to do. I had a total of 13 people in my group (most of them first timers) and they were a little nervous about setting up a tour online with a company they had never heard of before and then on top of that paying up front... I understood their concerns but they agreed to trust me and go with it. On the last night of our cruise we were all sitting in the main dining room having dinner and as I video taped my group, I asked them "what was the best thing about the cruise for you?" and every single person said THE SUNNY LISTON TOUR. Needless to say, I was very happy to hear them all say that... since it was my bottom on the line for setting the tour up...lol..

 

One other thing I want to suggest if you have a larger group of people is to book your Sunny Liston tour as a "PRIVATE" tour. This is what we did. The private tour allowed us to have our very own tour bus which was wonderful since the weather was really hot and sticky and I didnt want to be sandwiched in between two other people.. I knew the moment I stepped on that bus that the private tour was the way to go because I didnt have someone sitting right on top of me. The tour bus next to me was packed full and I just smiled and let out a sigh of relief. Besides the bus being spacious there were many more perks to the "private" tour.... She asked us where did we want to go and what kind of things we wanted to see.... The entire day was all about us and not some by-the-minute schedule. We told her we wanted to go shopping, see the highlights of the island, spend some time at the beach, and maybe grab lunch somewhere. She took us to the shopping district and asked US what time we wanted to leave. Then we went on our island tour which was spectacular. Only one spot she took us to visit had another tour bus there..... and the two largest ships in the world were in port that day among other cruise ships. Don't worry about too many people!

 

The music... Awesome! The music made a great informative tour just that much better. We were signing at the top of our lungs... people on the street would start cheering when we went driving by... the other tour buses would look at us with eyes of envy! Seriously, there were 13 of us on a bus that could hold 28 and we were signing and laughing and taking pictures and just enjoying the scenery... what's not to be jealous about? They were on a bus that could hold 28 and had 30 on it (at least thats what it looked like based on the lack of arm space they had) plus they weren't singing and laughing. I know my tour was better...for sure!

 

We had kids as young as 5 years old with us and I was not once concerned about Gie Gie driving to fast as I have read in other reviews.

 

By the way... getting a private tour was only $10.00 more per person then going on the standard tour! Well worth every penny. Gie Gie or Sunny - if you are reading this that does not mean raise the prices :p

If I remember right, the cruise ship wanted $56 per person for a similar tour. Sunny was offering it for $30 per person! And if you go with a private tour it's $40 per person. I saved $16 per person compared to the ship AND I got to make my own tour.

 

Sorry this post is so long but like I said we were just there last week and everything is so fresh in my mind. One thing I would have changed about the tour is the beach we choose to go to. We went to Sapphire Beach which was beautiful of course but there were a lot of rocks in the water which made it a little more difficult for the kids to play. I will choose a different beach next time. Obviously that is no fault to Sunny Liston but just a heads up for your travels if you have kids.

 

:D:D:D:D:D

[flahagan]

We did the Sunny Liston tour about 10 days ago and were disappointed. We ended up with three different drivers, and all seemed to be in a rush. We had no choice but to be picked up at 9 AM and dropped off in Charlotte Amalie for 3 hours - this is WAY to long to browse nothing but jewelry shops! We couldn't even find a place to get lunch.

The tour of the island was rushed and we only made two quick photo op stops. A taxi ride would have given us the same.

If I ever go back, I'll just grab a taxi at the pier and head to the beach. I wish we had docked at Havensight Pier, as their shops are SO good, but we were at the new Crown Bay, nothing much there, just as there's nothing much in downtown except jewelry stores.

 

Bottom line, don't waste the money.

[Muushka]

I didn't realize how old this thread is! When I asked about it in 2006, we had booked with him. But our Millie had pod problems and we had to cancel his tour. Never did get to tour with him, but it sounds like my friends were not the only ones who didn't have a wonderful tour.

[notentirelynormal]

We did the Sunny Liston tour about 10 days ago and were disappointed. We ended up with three different drivers, and all seemed to be in a rush. We had no choice but to be picked up at 9 AM and dropped off in Charlotte Amalie for 3 hours - this is WAY to long to browse nothing but jewelry shops! We couldn't even find a place to get lunch.

The tour of the island was rushed and we only made two quick photo op stops. A taxi ride would have given us the same.

If I ever go back, I'll just grab a taxi at the pier and head to the beach. I wish we had docked at Havensight Pier, as their shops are SO good, but we were at the new Crown Bay, nothing much there, just as there's nothing much in downtown except jewelry stores.

 

Bottom line, don't waste the money.

 

Taken right from his website:

 

Our pick up times are as follows: 9:00 am, 10:00 am, and 11:00 am, local time. (You will need to let me know which of the time you want to be picked up). Please note that on Sundays there is only one pick up time at 9.00am. Choose your pick up time based on how much shopping you will like to do. 9.00 am local time gives you 3 hours and, 10:00 am local time gives you 2 hours and 11.00am gives you 1 hour of shopping.

 

 

I really don't think you can blame Sunny because you didn't a) read his website in advance or b) not ask when you booked the tour. I just don't understand people that don't take responsibility for themselves. Please explain why you “had no choice”. You couldn’t find a place for lunch in St Thomas? Really! Then you say you were dropped off in Charlotte Amalie and that was too long to shop and then you say you wish you had docked at Havensight as the shops are so good. You do know that they are basically one and the same, right? It’s just a short walk to Havensight from downtown. I found most of the shops at the Havensight pier to be just what you are complaining about, jewelry stores.

 

I recommended his tour to my friend 2 years ago and she was very disappointed. Perhaps after everyone reading these boards he became too busy to keep up. He hired people to take my friend and the tour was not very good and not a lot of fun.

 

Could you please explain more why they didn’t think the tour was good and not fun. Did he not take them to where they wanted to go or do as he promised or did they just not like what they saw. “Not a lot of fun” because? What was lacking for them for you to make this comment. Everyone’s idea of fun is subjective so when you make a blanket statement like this it’s always appreciated if you back it up with an actual explanation. You say you recommended this tour, have you been on it? What did you think?

 

As for personal experience, we were in St Thomas on Good Friday and used Sunny. We had a unique experience. We hired him to pick us up at the pier to take us to another excursion (a private sailboat). He was then to take us back to the ship for lunch and then take us on an island tour. We hired him as a “private party” and had him to ourselves. Here’s how our day went. There were 15 adults and 3 small children.

 

Sunny was waiting for us at the gate to the pier. We were running a little late for our excursion which was quite far away. He got us to where we were going on time. We went to the Marriott and he arranged for the hotel shuttle to take us down to the pier. He then walked down himself and waited with us to make sure that excursion started (there was a small issue where the sailboat was meeting us somewhere else) as planned. During our ride he kept us informed and with music playing got us in the mood. Once our sailboat arrived we asked Sunny to join us for the sail, which he did. At all times he was friendly but professional. I actually chatted with him for a while when we were sailing and found him to be quite nice and polite. While the sailboat was anchored for us to swim Sunny stayed on board. Once we were back to the dock Sunny ran up the hill and got the tour bus and headed down to get us. Wet and happy we all climbed back on for the trip back to the ship. Music was playing and as others have said earlier, you could clearly see others on tours wishing they were us. We laughed a lot that day in between “hot, hot, hot” and “who let the dogs out”.

 

Back at the ship we had lunch and met him again for our island tour. He was waiting as planned. Off we went. My daughter stayed behind with two of the kids and she says that she could hear us as we loaded up and as we went around the corner. Apparently we were loud LOL. We had some specific things we wanted to see and he obliged us. We were disappointed in the fact that being Good Friday we weren’t able to get our banana daiquiris but other than that he delivered as promised. When we wanted to stop, we stopped. When we wanted to go, we went. Photo opportunities happened. We were starting to drag be the end of the day. We had been going since 7:00 am, snorkeling, drinking and in general having a fun time but by the end of the day, we were ready to get back on the ship and rest. Sunny delivered us safe and sound.

 

We had paid the higher price for the tour because we had the private tour. For me it worked out great because since we docked at Crown Bay we would have had to take taxis to the Marriott and then back if we had wanted to do anything. This way Sunny was our taxi for the morning and our tour guide for the afternoon. Would I do it again, sure why not?

[Muushka]

Snip...

Could you please explain more why they didn’t think the tour was good and not fun. Did he not take them to where they wanted to go or do as he promised or did they just not like what they saw. “Not a lot of fun” because? What was lacking for them for you to make this comment. Everyone’s idea of fun is subjective so when you make a blanket statement like this it’s always appreciated if you back it up with an actual explanation. You say you recommended this tour, have you been on it? What did you think?

.

 

Oh my, do I need to call my attorney?

 

My friend (should I state her name?) said that the driver was very quiet, not much interaction with the guests. No music. No singing. Very cut and dry. The tour was less than stellar. I am not sure exactly where they wanted to go or where he drove them to. My reason for originally booking with him was for the fun aspect of the tour, as was my friend's. We have both been to many beaches and it was more of a have fun rather than sightsee. Not sure what else I can add. Next time I will be more careful, I promise.

 

As for myself going on the tour, if you read above your post, I wrote

 

I didn't realize how old this thread is! When I asked about it in 2006, we had booked with him. But our Millie had pod problems and we had to cancel his tour. Never did get to tour with him, but it sounds like my friends were not the only ones who didn't have a wonderful tour.

[emma9393]

i am writing this reply to let everyone in the world know that whoever is posting bad reviews about sunny liston tours is crazy!!!! we were on a carnival cruise right after new years and travelled to st thomas. after disembarking we were approached by many people to take their tours, we chose sunny liston and am so glad that we did!!! that was the best tour that we were ever on. even our 16 year old daughter was having fun and singing along with all of us. it was fun, it was informative and well worth the little money we spent for it. it was in no way dangerous as others have said he was a great driver and a wonderful entertainer. the time went by so fast. people on the other tours were stopping and looking at all the fun we were having as they sat there BORED!!!! on their tour. i my opinion if you want to have a tour of st thomas and have a GREAT time chose SUNNY LISTON TOURS and you will spend the rest of your vacation singing the songs that he plays on his tour bus. I GOING TO LOVE YOU BABY..... EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[notentirelynormal]

.

 

As for myself going on the tour, if you read above your post, I wrote

 

It was a cross over posting - you posted that while I was composing.

[notentirelynormal]

.

 

Oh my, do I need to call my attorney?

 

My friend (should I state her name?) said that the driver was very quiet, not much interaction with the guests. No music. No singing. Very cut and dry. The tour was less than stellar. I am not sure exactly where they wanted to go or where he drove them to. My reason for originally booking with him was for the fun aspect of the tour, as was my friend's. We have both been to many beaches and it was more of a have fun rather than sightsee. Not sure what else I can add. Next time I will be more careful, I promise.

 

As for myself going on the tour, if you read above your post, I wrote

 

Sarcasm is so unbecoming. You came on a public forum and bashed a very popular guide. I don't think its unreasonable to ask for specifics on your very negative comment. Add to that, this was four years ago and you're still holding on to it. Perhaps its time to move on. Anyone can have an off day.

[Perfect Stranger]

i am writing this reply to let everyone in the world know that whoever is posting bad reviews about sunny liston tours is crazy!!!! we were on a carnival cruise right after new years and travelled to st thomas.....

 

But you just happened to find Cruise Critic three months later and make this your first post. :rolleyes: Riiiight.

[Muushka]

Sarcasm is so unbecoming. You came on a public forum and bashed a very popular guide. I don't think its unreasonable to ask for specifics on your very negative comment. Add to that, this was four years ago and you're still holding on to it. Perhaps its time to move on. Anyone can have an off day.

 

It wasn't 4 years ago that my friend went on his tour. It was 2. And as was mentioned by me, it was a head's up for anyone booking that you may want to be sure to secure Sonny himself to be assured of a good tour.

 

Sorry about the sarcasm. I get that way when I am being interrogated. Oh dear, I think I just did it again.:eek:

 

But you just happened to find Cruise Critic three months later and make this your first post. :rolleyes: Riiiight.

 

;) Yup, that's me. In real life, my name is Troll. ..........Oops. that wasn't written for paranoid me! Sorry

[crisrn2003]

We were with Sonny just last week, while in St. Thomas with the Carnival Dream. It was because of the CC website I felt confident in booking with this company. I had done a lot of reading, taking in the positive and the negative comments. I am a more "half full" sort of person while on vacation. I understand my attitude and perceptions may be different from others. I figure there are often good and bad things about every excursion. How much do you dwell on those? That may be a question you have to ask yourself.

Sonny was our guide. I was pleased to see his wife, holding a sign with the company's name written on it when we got down the pier and thru the gate. We provided our names, as we'd previously paid, and were directed to an open air vehicle. There were 5 of us and we took up a row. I believe there were 5 or 6 rows total, so around 30ish on the bus? Not bad though.

He was playing music with Baha Men, Bob Marley, etc. He encouraged us to sing along. Some times I did, sometimes not. The speaker was not directly over us so I didn't feel it was too loud. I have, since returning home, looked up and downloaded two of the songs to help me remember our excursion. We came back from the beach singing and we were having a fun time as we pulled back into the port area. Lots of folks looking and watching us. You know they were wishing they were on OUR bus.

We went to Charlotte Amalie to shop. We felt there was plenty to look at and see besides jewelry. Lots of merchants were set up under tent/canopies. We saw hand made crafts, tote bags, clothing, purses, toys, keyrings, jewlery, soaps, etc. in those areas. There was the usual Diamonds International and other such shops. My father and husband ended up in a couple of bars, so I feel like there was plenty to see and do. I wish we'd had longer there, but we were limited by the cruise line.

We had places to stop along the way for photos. Sonny was a good guide, explaining the buildings and islands we were seeing and some history that went along with those.

We stopped at the Banana Daquiri place. I could have skipped that and felt it was a little bit of a waste of time, but other people enjoyed it and liked the drinks. There was also a gift shop there, but they were having cash register problems and I was going to spend all my time in line, so I gave up purchasing anything. My father at a hot dog, which was very large and tastey, according to him. We weren't there long. And it was a chance to see some more scenery.

We went to Sapphaire Beach. I didn't feel like we were on top of each other. The water was beautiful and so were the nearby islands. There was a charge for lounge chairs. I don't know how much they would have been, because some people were leaving and gave us theirs. My mother did not want to swim. There were trees with shade available so she was able to sit under them.

We did have some people on our bus who did not want to swim. I know they left when we got to the beach, but I do not know what the rest of their trip was.

The roads were twisty. He could have driven more slowly, there's not question about that. But he did not endanger us. We would sway side to side and laugh about it. Much like you do when you are driving children. It was all in jest, but at no point did I feel unsafe. I had my 10 yr old with me and wouldn't hesitate to voice my concerns.

We got back in plenty of time. We still had a few hours before we had to be back on board the ship, but it was getting late in the afternoon and I was looking forward to some cruise food.

I would probably not book Sonny again, but ONLY because I would like to see and do other things on our next trip. I would HIGHLY encourage everyone who has not been with him to give it a go. And for $30 per person, I feel like I definately got my money's worth.

I'm sad everyone has not had a great experience, but I do encourage everyone to remember, it's all about perceptions. And sometimes circumstances happen beyond control. We had HORRIBLE tablemates on the ship. We got changed to a different seating arrangement. I know at one of the stops, I saw that group on another Sonny Liston bus. It would have put a damper on our day if we'd been on their bus, but that would not have been Sonny's fault. Just the way the cookie crumbles.

And remember, a bad day cruising is usually still better than a good day at work!

[Muushka]

I would love to give Sonny a try. But my question would be, how can I gurantee that Sonny would be our tour guide?

[CrusinAgain]

I would love to give Sonny a try. But my question would be, how can I gurantee that Sonny would be our tour guide?

 

When we reserved with Sonny we asked him if he will be our tour guide and he assured us he would be, however once we got there we were tossed from guide to guide and never had Sonny and he didn't care when we approached him about it. Heck there was only 2 of us so maybe he only wants the larger groups with him. He had 3 vans together running thru the tour and then more showed up when we got to the beach. When we made our stops our vans had to get behind Sonny's people so we were in the back and couldn't hear a word he said at the stops. From reading someone suggested to hire him privately but that only works if you have a large group of people since he isn't going to take only 2 or 4 people for 40 each. We based our decision on the fun and music others were describing and maybe if we had no idea it was suppose to be fun we would have looked at it differently but our whole van of folks said this is not what they heard this tour was about and all of us were disappointed that we were on time and the vans were late picking us up from the ship and shopping cutting our time down on shopping which we had chosen the 2 hour frame but ended up with a hour and 15 minutes.

 

Good luck if you use him. I can guarantee we won't again and haven't. We have been to St. Thomas many times and once you have seen the sites there is no need to see them again in our opinion.

[Pechez]

We JUST, 2 hours ago, returned from our Cruise on the Carnival Liberty WITH a stop in St. Thomas AND ANOTHER TOUR with Sunny Liston. We have done his tour the last four (4) times we have been there, because we are always with a group, (family and friends) and new ones and this is THE BEST TOUR. To comment on some of the stuff I read...Sunny ALLOWS you about 3 hours shopping downtown. I have NOT had a problem finding food, drink or shopping. Jen's cafe is right where he drops us off and the Green House, along with LOTS of other eateries are there.

Sunny DOES NOT drive unsafely and the bus is open air, but there is one side with a rail. If you are scared, sit on that side, but he is NOT an unsafe driver.

For the price for almost an all day tour, you cannot beat it and the views are AWESOME. Please, there are MORE PROS here than Cons. It is a FUN, FUN, FUN tour. Yep there is LOTS of singing and we are there for VACATION!!!!!

[Muushka]

When we reserved with Sonny we asked him if he will be our tour guide and he assured us he would be, however once we got there we were tossed from guide to guide and never had Sonny and he didn't care when we approached him about it. Heck there was only 2 of us so maybe he only wants the larger groups with him. He had 3 vans together running thru the tour and then more showed up when we got to the beach. When we made our stops our vans had to get behind Sonny's people so we were in the back and couldn't hear a word he said at the stops. From reading someone suggested to hire him privately but that only works if you have a large group of people since he isn't going to take only 2 or 4 people for 40 each. We based our decision on the fun and music others were describing and maybe if we had no idea it was suppose to be fun we would have looked at it differently but our whole van of folks said this is not what they heard this tour was about and all of us were disappointed that we were on time and the vans were late picking us up from the ship and shopping cutting our time down on shopping which we had chosen the 2 hour frame but ended up with a hour and 15 minutes.

 

Good luck if you use him. I can guarantee we won't again and haven't. We have been to St. Thomas many times and once you have seen the sites there is no need to see them again in our opinion.

 

Well that settles it. We don't travel in a big group so we would probably not be able to have Sonny.

Thank you for you honest report, very helpful.

 

We JUST, 2 hours ago, returned from our Cruise on the Carnival Liberty WITH a stop in St. Thomas AND ANOTHER TOUR with Sunny Liston. We have done his tour the last four (4) times we have been there, because we are always with a group, (family and friends) and new ones and this is THE BEST TOUR. To comment on some of the stuff I read...Sunny ALLOWS you about 3 hours shopping downtown. I have NOT had a problem finding food, drink or shopping. Jen's cafe is right where he drops us off and the Green House, along with LOTS of other eateries are there.

 

Sunny DOES NOT drive unsafely and the bus is open air, but there is one side with a rail. If you are scared, sit on that side, but he is NOT an unsafe driver.

 

For the price for almost an all day tour, you cannot beat it and the views are AWESOME. Please, there are MORE PROS here than Cons. It is a FUN, FUN, FUN tour. Yep there is LOTS of singing and we are there for VACATION!!!!!

 

I guess the only con that is not being taken into consideration here is the one where you DO NOT get Sonny as your tour guide.

[ok4uni2cruz]

We had Gie Gie (Sunny's wife) as our guide last week when we stopped at St. Thomas on the Carnival Dream and she was amazing:D

You DO NOT need Sunny guiding you to have an awesome time on this tour!

Gie Gie is a fantastic guide!

I read someone comment about not being able to have a private because you are not with a large group. Technically that is not true, you will just have to pay more. You are correct that he will not do it for $40 per person. But his website states that anyone can rent a bus and tour guide for a minimum price of $400. Obviously, you need to have 10 people to get the $40 price but that does not mean you can not have a private tour if you only have 5 people in your group..... It just means that each person is going to pay $80 each. Still not a bad price compared to a lot of the shore excursions offered by the cruise lines.

:rolleyes: If you are a member in a roll call group, why not try to put together a "tour group" to get the cheaper, private tour price:rolleyes: You would get to know your roll call people better being on a tour together all day then just a meet and greet on the ship. Save money... make friends.. have a great time!

[Pechez]

 

I guess the only con that is not being taken into consideration here is the one where you DO NOT get Sonny as your tour guide.

 

Well, like i said..We have done this tour 4 times with different people and we DID NOT HAVE SUNNY everytime. We had Gie Gie, and I believe one of his other drivers. Still had LOTS of fun. So guess you have to try for yourself. IF we go back with a group again, I will take them on this tour. We were downtown 2 1/2 hours for shopping. When Sunny met us at the ship, we waited about 10-15 minutes for others that he said was on the tour. They didn't show up so he took us downtown and went back for them. IF you areen't off in time for your tour (with anyone), they can't hold the whole group.

[Muushka]

I understand what you are saying. But we very rarely take excursions. My husband really is not thrilled with them. I got him to book with Sonny because we knew we would get a good fun tour with him. Then things changed and now it is not assured (by my friend's experience and others comments on this thread). So we probably wouldn't take the chance. But I appreciate your comments! If it was just me, I probably would do it.

[RvrCrzr]

Wow! Talk about over-analyzation of a tour!

OMG people....its just a tour! Either you have fun...or you don't. To each, their own. Not EVERY tour is going to be identicle. I thought the tour was great with Sunny....and great with Gie Gie. Either way...you see and experience St. Thomas.

 

Lighten up...vacation doesn't have to be this stressful. :cool:

 

...you go to the theater...sometimes you see a movie you don't like. Oh well.