bad experience with Sunny Liston

[sblois]

I've read one bad experience with Sunny and they mentioned that the Godfrey tour seemed to have more stops. As much as I want to have fun on my island tour, I also want to see as much of the island as possible. And feedback?

[jspirit]

seen a few poor reviews of this tour in the last week. What's going on? Can anyone else who has been on this tour in the last month please comment with your experience very soon?

Thanks!

[CruznJen]

I have been researching the different tour options for St. Thomas. Everyone seems to love Godfrey. Although, it almost seems as if some say he is not as "fun" as the others. Can anyone elaborate? Doesn't he have the island music (atmosphere, etc.) and pretty much what everyone else has? :rolleyes: Thanks in advance for your comments!

[patsyc]

We just came back from our cruise yesterday and went on our St Thomas tour which we booked with Sunny Liston last Thursday.

 

OK, so it wasn't Sunny Liston himself who guided our tour, it was his other driver Pasquali (sp??), and it was really bad. We were very disappointed since I had emailed Sunny Liston a few days before going to confrim things and we still didn't manage to get on his bus...

 

So what was wrong with our tour guide? He made hardly any stops (one overlooking the port, town, blackbeard's castle), one overlooking Magen's Bay and one up on the hill with the bar and souvenir shop. But it's not the lack of stops that bothered us. Basically he seemed like he had better things to do with the 2 hours than take us on a tour. He spent most of the time talking on his cell phone during the drive and even at the stops he never told us anything, instead he off loaded us to the other tour guide, who was running his tour at the same time and made the stops at the same time as us, at every opportunity. Our ship departed at 4pm so we couldn't stay for the beach part of the tour and Pasquali again handed us over to the other tour guide to take us back to the port.

 

Now let me tell you about the other tour guide. His name is Raymond, with blue/green eyes and he drives a bright red bus. He's a fireman and you won't miss him if he's around because his bright red bus has drawings of him in action as a fireman all around it! Raymond is a great tour guide, mild mannered, very informative and patient. In the 15 minutes we rode back into town with him we learnt much much more and felt more welcomed than the 2 hours we spent with Pasquali.

 

So I'm not saying don't go on Sunny Liston's tour. Just don't go if you are not on his bus! Raymond is a much better option. I don't have any contact details for him but I know he does pick ups from in front of town's Little Switzerland at around noon.

[jspirit]

we were also booked with sunny for last week and he did not show up. He was responsible, though, in getting Pasquali to take us and he was waiting for us at the pier with the sign and everything, right on time. We were able to bypass the very long line waiting for taxis, so that was another plus. Although P. was very kind and nice, I would have appreciated if Sunny had let us know that he would be away at that time of year and would not meet us personally. No days of the week song or anything else we had read so much about him. We also joined with raymonds tour. Does anyone know how much he charged for the island tour and beach drop-off starting at the shopping area? I guess those two work together.

[Sgt. Jeff]

My daughter just said that Henry was "da bomb!!!" He is a very nice man and a retired police officer and now a Pastor at The Church of God. I have referred him many times on here and will continue to do so. We used him in September and loved him! We just booked AOS for 9/2/07 and are going to be in St. Thomas...and with Henry..on 9/8/07. If you want his info, e-mail me jsbenton1@yahoo.com and I will pass it along to you!! Jeff

[Dirtyoldad]

Re Godfrey- We used him a few years ago. He's very personable and knowledgeable. He was reliable. Our ship took slightly longer than usual to clear customs/immigration that AM, but he was there waiting for us. It was us and just one other couple. He took us shopping first and said we should leave our purchases on his vehicle, that everything would be safe. He then took us on a wonderful tour of St. Thomas. In the afternoon he took us to a nice beach where we relaxed before heading back to the ship. I'd highly recommend his services.

[lauren0309]

Do they pick you up on ship time or island time? I would assume island time since that is where they are from. So if the ship docks at 8:00 since it is 9:00 on St. Thomas you should tell them to pick you up at 9:00?

[jspirit]

That was the ship we were just on, and they made us change our time for a few days . In other words, when we arrived in St. Thomas, our clocks were the same time as theirs. We did not change our time back until 2 am on the last day of the cruise before we got back to Port Everglades.

Hope that helps!

[Lightsluvr]

We booked a tour with Godfrey in November but Sunny Liston met us at the appointed place. Had our name on a sign and everything...

We weren't terribly impressed with Sunny's noisy and crowded tour...we made the mistake of sitting under the speakers in his truck...couldn't hear for hours after that experience...

Never did receive a reply why Sunny showed up for a tour booked with Godfrey.

Just our experience.

 

LL

[Maddie444]

We booked a tour with Godfrey in November but Sunny Liston met us at the appointed place. Had our name on a sign and everything...

We weren't terribly impressed with Sunny's noisy and crowded tour...we made the mistake of sitting under the speakers in his truck...couldn't hear for hours after that experience...

Never did receive a reply why Sunny showed up for a tour booked with Godfrey.

Just our experience.

 

LL

 

12 of us are booked with Sunny Liston in april. Can you tell me where the speaker is located so we can make sure we don't sit under them :)

Thanks

[rjack22]

Sunny Liston's tour did not live up to my expectations on Feb. 8. It was "okay" but not spectactular.

[Nickymjw1]

We went with Sonny Liston last March and had a ball!!

Godfrey & Sonny basically did the same stops, and Godfrey let Sonny do all the talking at the stops.

 

On the way to the beach coming down the mountain, a girl let her back pack fall off the bus. By the time we were able to get Sonny's attention to stop, it was quite a bit back. No way to turn the bus around on the mountain. Sonny parked the bus and ran back up the mountain to go get the lady's bag that was no longer in sight! We were all worried because it was far & hot. After a while Godfrey's bus showed up with Sonny standing on the side with the backpack! He gave him a lift back! Sonny was the hero of the day.

[jennybabee]

We used Sonny in January and had a ball. Only thing I did not like was that he passed us off to another tour guide at the end (we were on a disney cruise) I think he thought we would get back faster that way though) We are planning to use him again in September with my Grandma and mom I hope I dont regret it if the service has slipped that much :eek:

[Elizabeth K.]

We used Henry Christopher Feb. 14th and would recommend him. Its not a "party" atmosphere but as others have said he is a kind, intelligent man who knows alot about the island, the plants/trees (what they used to brew teas for hypertension...old islandremedies) if that interests you, etc. There were 4 of us in our group. He is a good driver.

 

There was a glitch at first in that our ship reversed its itinerary and even tho I emailed Henry with the new date and he acknowledged my email, he wasn't there to greet us. We ended up taking a taxi into town and then calling him. Got his wife norma. They were very apologetic and he ended up picking us up after we shopped and had lunch. He went out of his way to make it up to us for the rest of the afternoon. Low key but a great guy.

 

Elizabeth

[Sinbadthecruiser]

We took Sunny's tour on 2/20 and I have to say that I was very dissapointed. It was pouring down rain and traveling up the steep mountain roads, only to get up there in the clouds and see NO views, was very frustrating. I know the rain wasn't Sunny's fault,:rolleyes: but as there was no view, Sunny made very few stops, and blasted the day of the weeks song all the way down the mountain. The song would have been fine if Sunny had not "sang" with it thru the microphone, which was piercing to your ear drums. I LOVE caribbean music, but couldn't wait for the song to be over so Sunny would quit singing. Of course, he had to play and sing it again! We were seated in the second row, so I would suggest you sit further back from the speaker that is mounted next to the front row. I know the views in St. Thomas are beautiful and hope that next time I get to see them.

[muirhejs]

Hi Everyone,

 

As I will be going on this trip in just a few days, I emailed Sunny about this. He asked that I pass on his reply:

 

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Hi John,

 

You are confirm for the tour for the 10.00am pick up time. I will be doing the tour.

 

A few people have email me this information about Pasquali, and I already inform them that he no longer works for my company. It will be great if someone could let the cruise critic community know that pasquali no longer works for me. I only keep drivers who do a good job for me. I hope you can help me with this information for the cruise critic members. Take care, see you soon.

 

Sunny Liston

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[NCLinda]

We are getting on the Serenade Saturday and we have booked Sunny's tour on Sunday. I have been a little aprehensive because of the few negative postings on this board. I emailed Sunny and told him about the bad reviews and asked him to confirm that he would be our tour guide - he emailed back immediately and said yes, he would be there for us.

I am excited about this tour and excited about Sunny.

I'll post a report when we return,

Linda

[RvrCrzr]

Sunny and Angela (wife) are great.

We just took their tour.

Only negatives were:

Shopping time was cut a little short, and we didn't visit the pirate stuff...they were just pointed out from the top of a mountain.

The viewpoints are incredible, and Mountain Top is awesome.

Sunny and Angela made the trip FUN with the singing! Great people, great tour, great island!

 

How these folks can spend all day driving you around in a huge truck, Up and down mountains, where gas is about $4 per gallon (all for $25)...I don't know.

What fun...AND VALUE!

 

PS...a couple World Famous Banana Daquiris makes the trip down the mountain much more fun! :)

 

I give this tour....TWO THUMBS UP!

 

Angela is in the green shirt:

[NancyC]

For a really personal tour of the island, we toured with Henry Christopher at eeetours.com. He even took us to his home, bought us coconuts and showed us how to eat them, took us to the beach, shopping, the 99 steps, as well as the scenic overlooks. He told us many of the plants that are old remedies and how to prepare them for use. He will take you wherever you want to go for the day. He is a retired policeman and will lock your valuables in the cab of his bus during each stop if he feels it is necessary. He truly takes care of you for the day. He told us that a few weeks back he had trouble getting a group off of the beach to head back to their ship on time and he had to call his police officer friends to provide him with a police escort to hurry the groups return through traffic to their ship. He truly takes care of all of your worries for the day.