Sunny Liston Tours ~ St. Thomas
We spent the day in St. Thomas this March off the Carnival Magic. St. Thomas is a beautiful Island and we were taking some family members there for the first time and we wanted them to see just how gorgeous it was. We have booked several excursions through shoreexcursioneer.com in the past in other ports and have always had excellent experiences. Well this time was the exception. Shore Excursioneer is like a middle man and they set up your excursions through local companies. In St. Thomas they booked us with a company called Sunny Liston Tours for our 2 hour island tour excursion. We were very disappointed in this excursion and would not recommend it to anyone. Although we did see some beautiful views, we spent more time waiting than seeing the island. Here’s a little review of how our tour went…
We were to meet our excursion at the port area after getting off the ship. We were there a few minutes early and waited over 45 more minutes for our tour guide. Then we were told he would be taking us to the area where the tour would be starting. So we were lead to believe he was just our ride to our tour location. He kept saying he was just waiting on a few more people. Although we came to realize he was just trying to get more business by trying to encourage more people on the tour.
Finally, we were on our way with a few more passengers. Then he took us downtown, where we thought we were getting off and going to join a tour. Well no that was not the case….He stopped in front of some stores and started loading more people in the vehicle. Then once again, we were waiting and waiting as he kept asking more people to join the tour until our vehicle was uncomfortably jammed pack full and several people were not even able to sit with their families. Then we were on our way. He did offer us water or sodas, but most everyone looked annoyed and declined them.
He drove us up to the top of a hill area which did have a lovely look out area, but it was also a shopping area and bar in hopes people would purchase items. As we realized later this was the shopping part of our tour. He gave us 20 minutes at the area then told us to meet him out front to leave. The whole group was out front by 20 minutes. As we were waiting we saw our driver Elvis get into a van with another tour operator and sit inside (not sure why) for 30 more minutes as we were all standing outside ready to leave. Then once he climbed out of the van, he walked us over to his vehicle and said he was taking us to the beach. At this point we were very confused as our excursion did not include the beach and we had not planned to go to the beach. He asked everyone which beach they wanted to go. Then as all the guests started talking we realized some people said their excursion did not include shopping, they thought it was just the beach and some others like ourselves was to be a tour with shopping and not beach. Some tours were to be 2 hours and some 4 hours. So then those of us that were on a 2 hour tour ended up coming along as he dropped people off at the beach. Our tour ended up being over 3 hours. The sad part was that the only thing we did was drive to a hill top to look at a view that overlooked Megan’s Bay, which took at the most one hour. The rest of the time was waiting, and waiting, and waiting…
I will admit the tour was inexpensive, but it stated that it was a 2 hour island tour and that’s what we expected to see. It did not state we were sharing a tour with another excursion.
I do not blame shore excursioneer for this as they may not have known about the service Sunny Liston Tours is providing. I did write to them at shore excursioneer and let them know of our experience and they refunded our deposit to us without question. Unfortunately, the remainder of our payment was paid in cash to the driver Elvis at Sunny Liston Tours and after writing to them of our experience, I have not received a response.
So next time you are in St. Thomas, if you are looking for a nice tour of the island, stay clear of Sunny Liston Tours.
Sharon at Sea