Thenford Grey or Scenic Railway

[ezmack]

Hello All,

DH and I are sailing on the Destiny in May. The only shore excursion offered by Carnival is the Scenic Railway. I've read such wonderful things about Mr. Grey and the railway. I don't know which will get us the best view of the island and overall experience. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[copper947]

Just got back and did the grey tour. Very nice and very informative. He is very knowledgeable about the island and towards the end, takes you to a very nice beach with great snorkleling.

[edgars]

Don't worry. There will be a bunch more excursions. Carnival is probably still working out the deals with the various tour people. We are leaving in Mid april and they only have the one excursion so far also. More on the way.

[ezmack]

Thanks for the info. I read great things about Thenford. I hope Carnival will offer more excursions as well.

[24acruz]

Hello All,

DH and I are sailing on the Destiny in May. The only shore excursion offered by Carnival is the Scenic Railway. I've read such wonderful things about Mr. Grey and the railway. I don't know which will get us the best view of the island and overall experience. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

We will be traveling to St. Lucia in September and I am interested in using reputable tour operators on this cruise. I have seen Mr. Grey's name listed several times. Do you have an email address for him?

 

Thanks.

[sodell]

We will be traveling to St. Lucia in September and I am interested in using reputable tour operators on this cruise. I have seen Mr. Grey's name listed several times. Do you have an email address for him?

 

Thanks.

 

 

he has a website...just google his name.

 

thenang06@yahoo.com

[ezmack]

We will be traveling to St. Lucia in September and I am interested in using reputable tour operators on this cruise. I have seen Mr. Grey's name listed several times. Do you have an email address for him?

 

Thanks.

 

 

The website is **********************. He has good rates and what seems like a great tour. Others from our cruise are also book with him. Hope this helps.

 

Nancy:)

[ezmack]

I guess you can't use hyperlinks on the boards. the web site if thenfordgrey.com.

[prairiesailor]

ezmack: we just returned from the Connie on Feb. 18th & did a tour with Thenford when we stopped in St.Kitts. If you do a tour with him & are interested in local pottery just ask him & he will take you to the potters house. We can not say enough about his tour & he doesn't care if he has a full van or not-wife & I were only ones on tour. Hope this helps.

[darkauf]

Friends of ours did the scenic rail tour as a RCCL excursion. It was $200 per person. They said it was excellent and included all sorts of drinks and stuff. We did the $40 Thenford tour and it was excellent. He was there early, picked us all up and took us on a 3-4 hour tour of his country. He knows everything. His van was immaculate and brand new. The a/c worked very well. He answered all of our questions and we just loved our day in beautiful St. Kitt's. He was terrific and gets my seal of approval.

 

Darlene

[ezmack]

ezmack: we just returned from the Connie on Feb. 18th & did a tour with Thenford when we stopped in St.Kitts. If you do a tour with him & are interested in local pottery just ask him & he will take you to the potters house. We can not say enough about his tour & he doesn't care if he has a full van or not-wife & I were only ones on tour. Hope this helps.

 

Friends of ours did the scenic rail tour as a RCCL excursion. It was $200 per person. They said it was excellent and included all sorts of drinks and stuff. We did the $40 Thenford tour and it was excellent. He was there early, picked us all up and took us on a 3-4 hour tour of his country. He knows everything. His van was immaculate and brand new. The a/c worked very well. He answered all of our questions and we just loved our day in beautiful St. Kitt's. He was terrific and gets my seal of approval.

 

 

 

Darlene

 

 

Thanks for the info darkauf and prairiesailor. I think we've settled on Thenford's tour. It seems a little more interactive than the railroad.

 

Thanks again

[CaroltheCruiser]

We just returned from our 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise and loved our day with Mr. Grey in St. Kitt's. Such a nice man, nice van, and we really saw different parts of this beautiful island. The tour of the fort is wonderful and we really didn't know how he was going to manuveur his van on those very narrow roads going up to and entering the fort but he did. The only sad part about this day was the not so nice weather. Would love to see this island again with a bright sunny day. Since this was the first of 9 cruises that we totally booked these independent tours from the advise of these CC boards, it was a comfort to meet others off our ship on all our tours we were on including Mr. Grey's. And, he got us back to the ship in PLENTY of time which is always important and a concern for us cruisers. We highly recommend this tour with Thenford Grey and his price can't be beat.

[Froufie]

I think based on everyone's recommendation I would also like to book with Thenford.

 

Can you advise which tour you took? On the home page he lists details about "The Tour' - seems to include a beach stop? Can you someone confirm this? Which beach? How long were you there? What about the facilities?

 

He also lists some other tours - one is the "Capital and Beach splash" (only $25.00) Anyone taken this tour instead? (or any of the other mentioned on the website?)

 

Any info greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Froufie

[pearlie]

The scenic Rail tour is $99 per person, ( Hi Darlene) and we loved it, great sites, great pix taking , wonderful banana dacquiri's

[BBfan316]

Just returned from a tour with Thenford. I would recommend using his services. He is knowledgable about his home and a nice gentleman. Our tour lasted around six hours, saw most of the island, many animals, Brimstone(an hour there), the Batik at Romney Manor, Rum Distillary Ruins.

[CaribbeanBound]

We were with BBfan316 and agree it is worthwhile. You'll miss a lot of the good stuff if you take the shorter tour.

 

We hired Thenford Grey himself for this "Island Tour". The cost was $40 per person and ran from 8:00am until about 2:00 pm with beach time available at Cockleshell Beach at the end of the tour. Thenford first took us through the historic city of Basseterre which was founded in 1625 by French settlers. After the city highlights we stopped at the ruins of an old sugar cane processing factory and Romney Manor-Caribelle Batik which was once owned by Captain Samuel Jefferson, the great, great, great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. The Plantation House which sits amidst 25 acres of lush tropical gardens, is now a batik factory and store. The gardens feature a large collection of exotic plants, palms and trees from all over the world. We saw numerous green tailed monkeys in the short drive between the ruin and the Manor. We then spent an hour at Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park which sets atop a volcanic cone that is 800 feet high and offers 360-degree panoramic views of the surrounding countryside and neighboring islands. Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is a World Heritage Site. (The $8.00 entrance fee was included). The Fortress is indeed impressive. I could have easily spent 4 hours exploring this impressive site. A lot of monkeys make their home in the vegetation surrounding the fort. Thenford shared a lot of local history with us as we explored the island. We also saw a live cockfight (two roosters going at each other) in the middle of the street. Our last stop was Cockleshell Beach where we had an opportunity to swim, collect shells, and grab a beer. On the way, we saw wandering goats, cows, and more monkeys. Recommended!

 

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

[Froufie]

Thanks so much for the additional info - the tour sounds great! do you remember how much time you spent at the beach and what kind of facilities were available? (change rooms, shower, food, drink, washrooms?)

 

Did you snorkel and if so what is any good?

 

Thanks

[CaribbeanBound]

Washrooms and a full bar & grill are available.

We didn't swim, by choice as we were fatigued, but other groups were.

Don't know about the snorkeling.

I think we could have spent up to an hour at the beach, but left after about 20 minutes. After 4 straight island tours in 4 days, we were ready to call it a day.

[Holly2]

St. Kitts is a port where I feel you really benefit from taking a tour; not easy to do on your own. We found Thanford to know a great deal about nature, history and St. kitts life in general. We appreciated his enthusiasm and knowledge; he is a natural teacher in the best sense.

[Caribbreeze]

We just got an e-mail back from our new friend in St. Kitts - Vincent Joseph, who did our tour in February when we were there on Destiny. He had come to us highly recommended. He certainly lived up to that recommendation, so I'll pass that vote of confidence along to all of you.

We like to get a taste of the island we're touring, learn something of their history and culture, and spend a few hours at a beach before we head back to the ship. Vincent took a small group of us on a personalized tour of St. Kitts, took us to a beach in the afternoon for pina coladas and snorkelling, and had us back to port in time to pick up a tee shirt or two and watch the dancers in the square.

We thoroughly enjoyed Vincent's company. He has a clear love for his country, respect for his island’s native history, and he’s a great storyteller. Here's how to reach Vincent, or VJ’s Taxi Service 869-465-4121 Vincentjoseph67@hotmail.com

[Froufie]

Back from my Miracle cruise - and tour w/Thenford Gray in St. Kitts - I must say he knows his stuff and is very knowledgeable but I was a bit upset due to his 'business decision' to return to the port to pick up another family.

 

We were on our way and about 30 mins into the tour (heading north towards Romney Manor) when he got a call on his cell phone from family who claimed to have been off the ship at 10:10 (we left at 10:15 as scheduled) and were quite upset - instead of saying too bad so sad - he decided to return to the port for them (driving like a maniac I might add!).

 

This shaved about 40 mins off of our tour and we ran late the whole day. Having emailed Thenford beforehand to confirm we were going to Cockleshell beach and the reggae beach bar - I was very upset when all of a sudden plans had to be changed - no time for cockleshell - we got like a 45 min stop at Frigate Bay beach which was not that nice - black sand - lots of litter (bottlecaps, beer cans, glass) - very rough undertow, dark stand - and I got 'attacked' by a few floating rocks or something which scraped skin off my ankle and left me with a bleeding gash!

 

Of course we had also pre-arranged with some of our tablemates to meet up at cockleshell beach (after I had told them how nice it was) and they never found us - we asked them about the beach - they said it was gorgeous - white sand, calm water - good food and drinks at the bar - go figure!

 

Thenford did apologize to me as he noticed I was quite upset - but truly it was his fault due to the decision to return to the port - I understand it means more $$ for him - but really it does not seem to make sense to upset the 10 people already on the tour?? (and we ended up at the pier at 3:15 - with only 15 mins to run around trying to get some shopping done as we had to be back on board for 3:30 pm and a 4 pm departure!)

 

Well at least I saw most of St. Kitts - still had a lovely day and tried not to let this bother me too much!

 

Frouf

[Froufie]

No - no price adjustment - but I did 'adjust' my tip accordingly. I can understand his not wanting to leave someone behind - and the bad PR that would generate - but no real explanation was provided.

 

What I think Thenford should have done is have the 'late' party taxi to meet us at our next stop (Romney House?) and then deducted the taxi fare off of their tour price (of course I only thought of this after and not at the time - but being a tour operator he should be prepared with options should things not go as planned).

 

Nevertheless yes I absolutely loved St. Kitts and you can bet if I am ever there again I will visit Cockleshell Beach and the Reggae Beach Bar!

 

Froufie

[Caribbreeze]

...being a tour operator he should be prepared with options should things not go as planned...

Froufie

Good point! I'd also always like to think there's a Plan B for getting me back to the ship should something go wrong!

[SPANDER]

Thanks ALL!!! Very informative......will go w Thenford...we leave on 4/27...

[SPANDER]

Do all your tours online.....so much cheaper and better....less people too....went to Russia last year....booked all tours online....perfect!!!!

This is the best w site for finding tour's and I'm a Travel A!!!