Godfrey tour questions ...

What is your experience on this tour? Where did you go, what did you do and was it worth it? Was there enough time at each stop or segment to do what you wanted? Thanks for your help ...

We did this tour in November. He picks you up at the ship at a time of you choosing ( 9, 10 or 11 AM), takes you into town for shopping until 12PM. We were a group and some went into town at each of the times at our choosing.Then he takes you on a tour of St Thomas for about 2 hours including several stops. Then he will drop you off at a beach of your choosing and pick you up at 4PM for the return to the ship. He will hold your purchases or whatever in the cab of his truck for safe keeping. I highly recommend this tour. We thought it was well worth the $20 pp that he charges.

tonyt

I am setting up and April tour with Godfrey. I didn't want to go shopping in town, just tour/beach. My choices are take 11AM trip with him into town or meet him at 11:45AM at Emancipation Garden (next to Liberty Bell) in town.

Give him extra time to respond to your questions/reservations but he will get back to you.

I booked this for April, and I can't wait!!!! There is another thread on this subject and everyone has plenty of wonderful things to say. -QLOTP

We toured with Godfrey on 2/08. He showed up with a sign with my name on it - no doubt where we were suppose to go! During the tour of St. Thomas he made many stops along the way for pic ops. He gave us plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful views. The drive along the twisting roads was an experience in itself! He described the 3 main beaches, Coki, Magen's and Saphire, we had a choice of which to go to. He later explained that the water hadn't been very clear lately and suggested what he called his favorite, Secret Harbor. I have nothing to compare it to, but we had a wonderful time there! It was beautiful. Chairs to use, no fee. Palm trees on the beach, hammocks to lounge in. It wasn't crowded and the water was clear!

We also are scheduled for a Godfrey tour. Is there a place to change in and out of our bathing suits at Magen's Bay? thanks.

We had been told that there are few places to change at many of the ports..best wear suit under your clothes!:D

Hello Newgrey,

Yes Magens Bay has restrooms/showers/changing stalls.

--Islander

*****

Great! Thanks very much

A few questions...

1. If you join the tour at 11:00am, from the pier, do you still go shopping? Is it that it's a shorter shopping trip? (which is fine with me, I'm not much of a shopper)

2. The places that Godfrey visits on the tour...are they in St. John also, or just St. Thomas? I've heard how beautiful St. John is...

3. Can the tour bus get crowded? My man and I are big people and would hate to be cramped in a seat very closely to other people making us, as well as them, uncomfortable.

Thanks.

Newgrey - just a note, the showers at Magens are salt water- basically for rinsing off sand.

Hello Stuffic,

If you are docked at Havensight dock you can shop a little right there, lots of shops and then join the tour. If you don't like to shop, you can still go downtown with the group and walk around Fort Christian, the 99 steps and other historical sites rather then shopping. No St. John stops, just a St. Thomas tour. Travel between those two islands is by ferry. The tour is in a safari bus, the seats are bench like with backs, usually 4 or 5 to a bench. When the tour bus is full its usually about 20 people, or thereabouts.

--Islander

*****

A few questions...

 

1. If you join the tour at 11:00am, from the pier, do you still go shopping? Is it that it's a shorter shopping trip? (which is fine with me, I'm not much of a shopper)

 

2. The places that Godfrey visits on the tour...are they in St. John also, or just St. Thomas? I've heard how beautiful St. John is...

 

3. Can the tour bus get crowded? My man and I are big people and would hate to be cramped in a seat very closely to other people making us, as well as them, uncomfortable.

 

Thanks.

We aren't shoppers either, so he picked us up at 11am and we went downtown for about 45 minutes of shopping while all the others who went earlier met up at our assigned time of Noon to start touring. St. Thomas is where Godfrey's tour is located. St. John is beautiful, too. We did a snorkling trip there the last time on the island.

The bus is sometimes filled to compaction- depends on the time of year and how many cruise ships are in port. I would email him and let him know that you will probably need a little extra space and he may be able to accommodate you that particular day. Our tour was about 2/3 full and we picked up some folks who hired a very old van/driver who's vehicle broke down while trying to climb to the highest point. We were very comfortable.

The Islander and pholter: Thanks for your replies, I've decided to go with Godfrey!

We just booked Godfrey for our August cruise! His tour just sounded so good and it is $40 cheaper then the tour offered by RC and it seems to offer much more! I can't wait. We love to shop so we'll start at 9 am.

So the roads leading up to the Mountain Top are twisty? How twisty? Is it a two lane road with rails along the road? Haha. I have this picture in my head that it is this dusty one lane road that is narrow with a severe drop off if you look to the right. LOL! I remember when we went to Colorado a few years ago, we took one road (can't remember the name of it) to the top of a mountain in the nat'l park and there was a travel center at the top. It was a scenic one hour trip up. It was really nice but the roads were pretty twisty! Heheh! I remember I had pictured it as much worse but when we got to driving up it, I was blown away by the beauty and it wasn't so bad afterall!

I guess the drive is worth it to the top! I want to try one of those Banana Daquiri's that I've been hearing about!

Carrie

We just returned from our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas. We had booked Godfrey online for a full day tour. You have your choice of a 9, 10 or 11 am pickup time to do some shopping downtown. We chose the 9 am time. Even though we aren't BIG shoppers, we found that the time downtown went by very fast and I'm glad we chose that time. Godfrey then picked us up at about 11:45 and took us for a tour of the island. He gives you lots of information and makes a few stops along the way. He then gives you your choice of beaches to stop at. Our entire group chose Coki Beach because they offered beach activities. My family chose to do the parasailing and then spent a little time on the beach.

Godfrey was a wonderful tour guide. I would highly recommend him.

I had booked a tour with Godfrey back in November '04 for a February '05 cruise. He confirmed via email and everything was set to go. St. Thomas was our first port, so we were excited to see a new island. He was there on time and picked us with no problems. We boarded his safari-style bus and took off (only me and my husband). As we were driving towards the shopping area he informed us that due to a larger group booking with him (just that morning)that he was going to do their tour and past us off to another person. He did introduce us to this new guy and ensured us that everything would be ok.

We were to meet back at 12noon after the self-guided shopping part of the tour. At approximately 11:30 we were seated down to lunch (which took a long time to arrive) and then we had a down-pour. Long-story-short, we were able to make it back at 12:15pm and the new guy (can't even remember his name) was no where to be found.

Not I'm not totally blaming Godfrey on this one, we were 15 minutes late, but this is where I felt it fell apart. I booked with Godfrey, not with what's-his-name who was a taxi driver that I could have simply hailed from port. And, I felt that a 15 minute delay due to a down-pour would have be OK with any other tour operator.

Can someone post their recent Godfrey tour experience? We will be taking his tour at the end of April. I would rather have Godrey as out tour than someone else.

DW and I enjoyed our tour with Godfrey in Jan. He picked us up at the dock area promptly at 9 and took us into the downtown of Charlotte Amalie. We took our time shopping and and had a nice lunch before meeting him at noon. The tour was supposed to last til 2 but because of high surf he kept it going til around 3:15. Very knowledgable about the local history and everyone seemed to know him as he was talking to locals at every stop. We took a very windy road to mountaintop where we had a 20 minute break. Long enough to get some great pics and to enjoy a banana daiquiri. He took us by most of the beaches and also by Mahogony Run golf course. Most tours would have ended at 2 and you'd have a choice of beaching it or returning to your ship.

We felt the experience was a good one for newbies on St. Thomas and would totally suggest to others to give Godfrey a try.

but I just wanted to let everyone know that, from what I can gather from the CC boards and also Godfrey's website...he has a *few* safari buses and limos...meaning chances are you may not get Godfrey himself for your tour. And I think it's "Timmy's Tours" who "jlane" may have gotten "passed off" to...that's some sort of relative of his, though other than "jlane's" post, I've heard decent things about him as well.

anyway, just wanted to share a little insight to that situation a bit. hope that helps!

We were with Godfrey in Oct. He had some of us from the cruise ships, three in port that day, as well as some ladies from the Black Beard's castle hotel. We got to ride with him up there to pick them up and it was a good and different view of St Thomas.

We had enough people that day that Godfrey had another safari truck with a woman driver. We ended up on the safari with Godfrey but the two vehicles stuck together for the tour and stops.

Godfrey did make sure he had everyone accounted for at 12 noon and we left a few minutes past, once he confirmed everyone was on the two vehicles.

Hey Cruisemates!

Can anyone tell me how to find their websites???

Thanks :cool:

http://sunnylistontours.com/index.html

http://www.godfreytoursvi.com/

Thanks so much snwarf!!!! I luv you guys! Get Out There!!!! :cool:

So the roads leading up to the Mountain Top are twisty? How twisty? Is it a two lane road with rails along the road? Haha. I have this picture in my head that it is this dusty one lane road that is narrow with a severe drop off if you look to the right.

I guess the drive is worth it to the top! I want to try one of those Banana Daquiri's that I've been hearing about!

 

Carrie

Twisty? most definitely!! I remarked to my DH that I hadn't anticipated an adventure ride! But I never felt unsafe. It is a two lane road and paved.

The drive to the top is worth every second of it - and you might want to try the Banana and the Strawberry!! ;)

V

Hello,

Were going in June. First cruise. Do you have to book before or can you book when we arrive?

I'm not sure what were going to do?Is there other tours when you get there that might be more privet.

Sheila