Joyce prince Private tour. need advice/help/info

Just wondering if anyone has used Joyce Prince for a private tour while in St Marteen? She offers 3 hour tours. Does her tours take you to both sides of the island and does she allow for picture taking. Does her tour take you sightseeing, does she give you time for shopping and pictures on both sides of the island. and lastly does her 3 hr tour allow for any beach time. Does she just drive you to see the beaches or does she actually give you a short time for swimming at one of their beaches. I am thinking about booking her. I contacted several other tour and taxi companies but haven't really heard mcuh from them. I would like to book with her but I haven't read or heard much about her..

Can anyone share their experiences with her and also, how did you pay her? Did you fax or email her your credit card information. Does she fax or email you a confirmation and receipt of payment. Does she fax or email you the itinarary for the 3 hour tour. Just trying to find out the specifics and trying to avoid any surprizes later on down the road.

I notice that you haven't received a response, so I'll jump in here with some information from last year.

I toured with Joyce last October. I was with a family of five that had booked for the same day. Her van holds eight, so it wasn't crowded. I reconstructed the tour by looking at my pictures for that day.

We toured both sides of the island, with stops for shopping and checking out the beaches, but no real 'beach time'. That could have been worked into the schedule, but wasn't this day.

Pickup was at 9:00 (actually just a little earlier) and we went up the hill looking over the port to take pictures of the ship and the bay. Then we drove through Philipsburg, both Back Street (mostly for locals) and Front Street (jewelry, etc. for tourists) then off to Rima's for a shopping stop. Beachwear, souveniers, etc. at great prices. Probably spent too much time here, but nobody was complaining.

The next stop was at Divi Little Bay Resort, with some time to check out the facilities and walk for a while on the beach. Then over the hill with a stop for photos at the Simpson Bay overlook.

We drove past the airport and Maho Beach and then stopped at Mullet Bay Beach to see it.

From there we went onto the French side, with a requested stop for shopping at the Marigot Open Air market.

We drove past Grand Case and down to the beach at the Northern end of Orient -- farthest away from the nude section -- for some photos, and then stopped again way above Orient for some photos looking out over all of the beach and bay.

After that we headed back to Philipsburg to be dropped downtown for shopping, but the family's kids were getting kind of antsy, so Joyce took us straight back to the pier, instead, at their request. We got back to the pier at about 12:30.

I think Joyce still wants a credit card on file for the reservation, but doesn't charge it, and you pay cash (plus tip) at the end of the tour. I believe that you can give her your information by phone, fax or e-mail. You don't get a confirmed itinerary, as it is really up to you what you want to see and how much time to spend wherever.

The fare depends on how many people and how long, if you share, etc. so it is best if you contact her directly with your date and requests.

mailto:joyol1771@yahoo.com

Thanks for the info, very helpful

My family and I (6 adults) toured with Joyce 2 weeks ago today. She was fantastic as a guide, a wonderful person, and we highly recommend her. You can basically do whatever you want to do, for however much time you want to spend (you can add time, I believe for $25/ hour-I would recommend extending). What we covered was similar to Gtaylor, with stops at scenic locations and beaches around the island (including the southern part of Orient :eek: ), and stopped to sample some Guavaberry. She also provided some liquid refreshments. We aren't big shoppers, so didn't spend a lot of time on that. We arranged to be at Maho beach to catch some of the planes coming in to land at the airport, and she hung out at the Sunset Beach Bar with us while we waited for the next flights. (actually as we were approaching the beach, she noticed there was a plane coming in, stopped the van, and we all piled out and ran onto the beach just in time!). All in all it was a great excursion. About the only thing we would have liked would to have spent more time in Marigot, but that was our call. We were not rushed at any point. I still need to organize pictures, but if you want any, I can email some. One other note, reserve early, she is often booked (in fact I originally contacted her in Dec., and that was the case for our date--she emailed me later in April when the other party had to cancel. Otherwise I would have been the guide with a car rental!) Good luck!

We were a party of 12 (one was an infant) and we used Joyce for the day.

Every single person thought this was the best tour we did for the entire vacation!

Joyce was absolutely wonderful as was our driver Bernice!!

Joyce will arrange your tour however you would like it. We did a couple of hours sightseeing, a couple of hours shopping, and a couple of hours at the beach. Joyce stayed with us the whole time, even while we were at the beach! We had a very nice air conditioned van and we all fit in comfortably, of course we did have 5 kids that you can squeeze together a bit.

Brad in Ma.

Could you tell me how much she charged? was it per person or per hour? Thanks

mfdt

Joyce was already booked, but checked with the other couple and they said they didn't mind if we came along too. We booked her in March 2 wks after we booked our ship! We sail in Sept 2006! She books very quickly! Can't wait! Thanks for all your sharing and comments about the tours and island! :D

Joyce Prince Web site: http://www.joyceprince.com/ She answers you email promptly!

Adventure of the Seas 9/3/06

We went with Joycealso. We were four people. SHe would take us any place that we wanted. We were with her most of theday as I remember. I would definately book with her again.

Just wondering if anyone has used Joyce Prince for a private tour while in St Marteen? She offers 3 hour tours. Does her tours take you to both sides of the island and does she allow for picture taking. Does her tour take you sightseeing, does she give you time for shopping and pictures on both sides of the island. and lastly does her 3 hr tour allow for any beach time. Does she just drive you to see the beaches or does she actually give you a short time for swimming at one of their beaches. I am thinking about booking her. I contacted several other tour and taxi companies but haven't really heard mcuh from them. I would like to book with her but I haven't read or heard much about her..

Can anyone share their experiences with her and also, how did you pay her? Did you fax or email her your credit card information. Does she fax or email you a confirmation and receipt of payment. Does she fax or email you the itinarary for the 3 hour tour. Just trying to find out the specifics and trying to avoid any surprizes later on down the road.

I have booked Joyce for Aug 3 and have many of the same questions that you do. If you find out anymore please let me know. She has a great reputation. Thanks.

We went with Joycealso. We were four people. SHe would take us any place that we wanted. We were with her most of theday as I remember. I would definately book with her again.

What did she charge for the time you were on your tour with her?

Thanks,

We originally booked Joyce for a party of 6, but just now had to change to a party of 3 (teens committed to going elsewhere with friends). Joyce was very gracious to accept the change at this late date. Her tour comes highly recommended as you can see, so if you haven't booked something yet, check out her website www.joyceprince.com and take those empty seats before someone else does.

5 days and counting!!:)

Betty