Glory Tours

[chrisj1970]

I wanted to do their tour a which includes harrison caves if they are open but I wanted input from others who have or have not toured with them. Good or bad lets have it. Going in January on Norwegian Dawn.

[SparrowLegs]

We are on the Ventura end of January and are keen to book a tour, mailed Glory Tours 4 days ago, no reply yet.

[teck5a]

Hi, My Family and I just finished a 10 day Cruise on the Ruby Princess, which included a port stop in Barbados. My wife had booked us with Glory Tours and it ended up being the highlight of our trip. We had a private tour booked with Sarah (owner of Glory Tours), and she gave an unbelievable tour which, for us, made Barbados the best stop of our trip. We don't like to go to "Touristy" areas and are always looking for an authentic experience of the culture, and that was delivered by Glory Tours. I would highly recommend them. My wife had corresponded with Sarah for over a year and a half, regarding places to visit so that we could make the most of our short time there and she did not disappoint.

You mentioned that you wanted to visit Harrison Caves, however, they are curently closed for renovations, so you may want to check on the re-opening information to see if it fits with your timeframe. Also, please note that these people get tons of inquiries and are very busy, so they may not get back to your inquiries as fast as we sometimes expect, however, some things are worth the trouble and I would advise patience. I hope that you have a great trip!

[Aplmac]

Isn't there another thread that's done this subject to death?

- and I mean to death? :cool:

.

[chrisj1970]

APLMAC- Not one at least on the first two pages. At least you could do is post a link if you no where it is. I like to have a current review not one that is months old!

[andrea78ts]

In the last week Glory tours doesn't reply to my e-mails, does someone know the reason why? is it a reliable tour operator?

[StaceyCT]

APLMAC- Not one at least on the first two pages. At least you could do is post a link if you no where it is. I like to have a current review not one that is months old!

 

Here's a link to the very long thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=866252&highlight=glory

Bottom line: sounds like a company to avoid. At the end of the thread they started getting their (apparently) few satisfied customers to come on CC and give a good review (look for posters with a whopping ONE post under their belts; I think one even admitted that they hadn't been on a cruise when they used Glory).

 

Probably there aren't more recent reviews because everybody wised up and quit using this company.

[Scubachick84]

Yikes, that's a pretty harsh review from someone who hasn't taken a tour with them. Before I give my synopsis please note my WHOPPING more than one post.

 

I booked a tour with Glory Tours last January while on a two week cruise on the Caribbean Princess. We walked out of the port area to the little traffic island where the cab drivers congregate and Sarah came and found us there. Because of another group canceling we ended up touring privately with Sarah. She was very knowledgeable about the island and its history and shared a lot of anecdotes from her childhood. It was a wonderful personal experience.

 

During the tour she asked us what types of sites we would be most interested in seeing, since we were alone now she gave us options. We went to the Animal Flower cave in the northern part of the island and she bought us lunch there. Later we went to the wildlife sanctuary which hadn't originally been on our schedule. She paid our admission and bought us drinks afterward. Our last stop was to go on a snorkel boat to swim with the turtles and snorkel at a wreck, which we had to ourselves. When I lost the Barbados coins I had been saving she gave me some new ones to replace them.

 

It was an fantastic tour all in all. I never had any troubles communicating with her beforehand. The one thing to be aware of however is an unfortunate situation with exchange rates through the banks. Sarah asks for payment in advance and when it gets posted to your credit card, it will be a bit more than you expected.

 

If Sarah hasn't been answering you, I suspect that it's due to the holidays. Try e-mailing her again now that it's business as usual.

 

Laura

[AlbertaCruisers]

I just wanted to add in that we did Glory tours in October of 2008 and loved the tour. We would have booked with them again, but wanted to try a boat tour this time. We plan on going back to Barbados again this fall and plan on booking with Glory tours again. I can confirm I have no affiliation with Glory tours and they did not ask me to post this, I just think that a lot of the time people who had bad experiences are quick to share it, but those that had a great time are happy about their trip and not necessarily on these boards posting.

 

I had no problems with payment, the tour was well organized and our guide loved his island and was happy to share all the information he could with us.

 

Below is my brief review (post #17 from the thread noted a few posts up).

 

We did the full day tour with Glory tours when we were in Barbados on Halloween. We had a great time. Our tour guide Kwamay (spelling?) was great. At one point he stopped and bought local candies at a grocery store so we could try what he grew up on instead of skittles, etc.

 

The meeting spot was easy to find and we found people in Barbados very friendly. We then drove to Harrison Caves. It was amazing to see once. We sent from there to do some driving and saw some beautiful areas and stopped to take pictures on the Atlantic coast. We then stopped for lunch - the food was good. From there we sent to a wildlife reserve where we got to see the green monkeys without fences or anything between us. The highlight was the glass bottom boat. We got on at one beach and cruised along the beach for awhile. We saw lots of hotel including sandy lane, where Tiger Woods got married. We then got to snorkel with the sea turtles. There were about 5 sea turtles hanging around (the boat operators were feeding them) and it was amazing. One of the highlights of any of my snorkeling experiences yet. The puffer fish that were stealing the fish food were pretty cool as well. We also saw a sting ray (it was a sandy bottom at this snorkel site) as well as a bat fish (which I have never seen before). We then got back in the boat and went back towards where we came and there was a ship wreck and and a bit of a reef structure.

 

All in all it was an amazing day. I paid the entire amount up front and in the end both my husband and I thought it was well worth it. The day was amazing and Kwamay answered all of our questions and talked and told us more about the island even when we were too tired to play along.

 

I really feel we got our money's worth and would recommend this trip to anyone. Remember to bring an underwater camera - the best pictures from my entire 14 day cruise are of the turtles and puffer fish.

[StaceyCT]

Yikes, that's a pretty harsh review from someone who hasn't taken a tour with them.

 

I didn't post a review; I directed the OP to other reviews which were, by and large, negative. I summarized what I saw as the overall tone of the reviews in case she didn't want to slog through a 7 or so page thread.

 

If you want harsh, go take a look at the thread. Nothing I said here could compare with some of those posters' experiences.

[Johnthed0g]

Sarah Taylor who does glory tours does do a good tour BUT seems to be less than reliable in replying to emails...also sometimes it seems they do not get them, I recently helped a person who was actually on Ventura but did not get conformation before leaving home & was worried about it...I made contact with someone on BDS who found out the booking was never received so she was able to book a ships trip instead. Not Sarah's fault that the email wasn't received I suppose.

[floridalady]

whoa,have you used her?

There seem to be people out to get her.People have accused her of overcharging;the bill being more than she said.Well duh people talk to your credit card companies who are charging extra not Sarah.There is a charge being it is out of the US.Learn why you are getting charged extra instead of ruining a person's business.To you poster,don't join on the bandwagon when you do not speak the truth.

Call me annoyed and frustrated with some people on here.:rolleyes:

Here's a link to the very long thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=866252&highlight=glory

Bottom line: sounds like a company to avoid. At the end of the thread they started getting their (apparently) few satisfied customers to come on CC and give a good review (look for posters with a whopping ONE post under their belts; I think one even admitted that they hadn't been on a cruise when they used Glory).

 

Probably there aren't more recent reviews because everybody wised up and quit using this company.

[floridalady]

She will not disappoint you.:D

 

 

I took a tour with Sarah from Glory Tours with my wonderful family in November 2009.It turned out to be better than I expected.It was the best excursion on our cruise tour.Sarah was fantastic.She did not rush us when we wanted to take pictures.She took us where we wanted and more.She called ahead for our lunches which we all loved.Alot of great food and truly local which made it the best.Everyone loved trying my flying fish.I never thought I would like it and I now can not wait to go back and have more.

Sarah,thank you so very much.Barbados has so much to see and do.Many great beaches (may I say we were taken to a hidden gem).Barbados is the only place on our tour a felt so bad leaving.I want to take a trip now and go spend a week there.When I do I will be sure to look for my friend,Sarah.

 

 

I took long to respond because I came home from our cruise and went into the hospital with pneumonia.

GREAT TOUR.

 

 

I wanted to do their tour a which includes harrison caves if they are open but I wanted input from others who have or have not toured with them. Good or bad lets have it. Going in January on Norwegian Dawn.

[floridalady]

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.

 

 

In the last week Glory tours doesn't reply to my e-mails, does someone know the reason why? is it a reliable tour operator?

[teck5a]

whoa,have you used her?

There seem to be people out to get her.People have accused her of overcharging;the bill being more than she said.Well duh people talk to your credit card companies who are charging extra not Sarah.There is a charge being it is out of the US.Learn why you are getting charged extra instead of ruining a person's business.To you poster,don't join on the bandwagon when you do not speak the truth.

Call me annoyed and frustrated with some people on here.:rolleyes:

 

I couldn't agree more, FloridaLady. I'm the person with the "Whopping one Post" that a very ignorant person (StaceyCT) referred to. I guess that only posting once before disqualifies me from stating my opinion and relating my very positive experience with Glory Tours. Some people are just unhappy, miserable souls with nothing better to do but to put other people down. The point of these boards are to inform other people who are here to get information and to share our experiences, good and bad. Our experience with Glory Tours was excellent and we did not experience any of the problems that other people have related. Sarah was fantastic and she does a great tour. I would highly recommend her. OK, this is now my whopping 2nd Post.

[StaceyCT]

I'm the person with the "Whopping one Post" that a very ignorant person (StaceyCT) referred to. Some people are just unhappy, miserable souls with nothing better to do but to put other people down.

 

Well, bless your heart, teck. You've learned to be anonymously nasty on the internet. Good going. All the personal insults reveal a very mature person; your post says a lot more about you than me :rolleyes:.

 

As stated before: I have not used Glory tours. I did not write a review of their excursions. I directed the OP to a link where lots of people did write reviews, and noted that a shocking percentage of them were negative.

 

The "whopping one post" referred to several one-post wonders on the old thread. They seemed quite suspicious.

 

Everyone can share their opinion here. Those with good experiences with Glory (and I'm sure there are many) are welcome to post. Those with bad experiences can also post, and those of us with no experiences can refer to others' posted experiences.

 

I must bid the Glory fan club adieu as I go to research my cruise which will begin two weeks from today :).

 

Sincerely,

 

The excited, happy, can't wait to hop on board StaceyCT.

Oops! I meant, the very ignorant, unhappy, miserable Stacey CT:)

[crusinglady]

Listen you bad mouthed a company you freely admit you never used.You are no better than someone making believe they did use the company.Who are you though to say someone is lying?You really should read what you write,my dear.

Mary

Well, bless your heart, teck. You've learned to be anonymously nasty on the internet. Good going. All the personal insults reveal a very mature person; your post says a lot more about you than me :rolleyes:.

 

As stated before: I have not used Glory tours. I did not write a review of their excursions. I directed the OP to a link where lots of people did write reviews, and noted that a shocking percentage of them were negative.

 

The "whopping one post" referred to several one-post wonders on the old thread. They seemed quite suspicious.

 

Everyone can share their opinion here. Those with good experiences with Glory (and I'm sure there are many) are welcome to post. Those with bad experiences can also post, and those of us with no experiences can refer to others' posted experiences.

 

I must bid the Glory fan club adieu as I go to research my cruise which will begin two weeks from today :).

 

Sincerely,

 

The excited, happy, can't wait to hop on board StaceyCT.

Oops! I meant, the very ignorant, unhappy, miserable Stacey CT:)

[teck5a]

Well, bless your heart, teck. You've learned to be anonymously nasty on the internet. Good going. All the personal insults reveal a very mature person; your post says a lot more about you than me :rolleyes:.

 

As stated before: I have not used Glory tours. I did not write a review of their excursions. I directed the OP to a link where lots of people did write reviews, and noted that a shocking percentage of them were negative.

 

The "whopping one post" referred to several one-post wonders on the old thread. They seemed quite suspicious.

 

Everyone can share their opinion here. Those with good experiences with Glory (and I'm sure there are many) are welcome to post. Those with bad experiences can also post, and those of us with no experiences can refer to others' posted experiences.

 

I must bid the Glory fan club adieu as I go to research my cruise which will begin two weeks from today :).

 

Sincerely,

 

The excited, happy, can't wait to hop on board StaceyCT.

Oops! I meant, the very ignorant, unhappy, miserable Stacey CT:)

 

Maybe you should go back and read your own posts. You are correct, StaceyCT, you did not post a review. If you had an experience with Glory Tours, didn't like it, and posted a bad review, I could respect that, but that's not what you did. This is what you said;

 

Bottom line: sounds like a company to avoid. At the end of the thread they started getting their (apparently) few satisfied customers to come on CC and give a good review (look for posters with a whopping ONE post under their belts; I think one even admitted that they hadn't been on a cruise when they used Glory).

Probably there aren't more recent reviews because everybody wised up and quit using this company.

 

This sounds pretty nasty and vindictive for someone that has no direct experience with the company, and then you dismiss people who have actually had a good experience as some sort of fluke. You are hurting hardworking people by bad mouthing them and their business in this way.

"Sounds like a company to avoid" and "Everybody wised up and quit using this company" is pretty specific and nasty for someone that has no experience with them. If that's not miserable and ignorant, I don't know what is. Shame on you! OK, that's 3 posts now (only 2 of which were "anonymously nasty"). Please reply with some other nasty comments so that I can make it 4. I'm really getting the hang of this now. Thanks for your help!

[klepton]

For what it's worth, I had some correspondence with Sarah a month or so ago and she was very responsive. I then signed up on the site and waited two weeks without getting confirmation. I then emailed Sarah back asking what was going on and didn't hear anything for another two weeks. She finally got back to me a few days ago saying they didn't get my registration, and please try again.

 

Because I work in technology, I know there can be technical issues. And I'll admit that Sarah was unresponsive through the holidays, so that might explain that. But the bottom line is it makes me very uneasy as a consumer having that lack of communication. I think that's the problem most people had. If you look at the negative reviews, most are people who ended up not booking with Glory Tours because the lost confidence in the communication, not because they had a bad tour. Most people who actually went on a glory tour had nothing but good things to say about it.

 

So, take that for what it's worth.

[Putterdude]

We booked a tour with Sarah of Glory Tours back in December for earlier this month. Subsequently after reading some of the mixed reviews I was a bit concerned...however I am pleased to say that my concerns were unfounded. I think that Sarah could be a better communicator but she did deliver a great tour. There were 5 of picked up by Quammie who is a native Beagin and is likely the best tour guide we have ever had. Quammie spent the day tourning us all over the island and his knowledge and presentation was first class. I am not sure what more that I can add but we would not hesitate to use her again....and no, I am not related to her and I do have more than 3 or 4 posts.:)

[vacation fool]

I have had a tour scheduled with Sarah for almost 2 years now. We will be in Barbados mid April. We have communicated back and forth frequently in deciding what to see and do for our day. In all of these communications, perhaps 50, there was one time that Sarah did not get my email and once she did not reply because she was ill.

I am not questioning the person who did not get a reply, but in my experience with Sarah over the past 2 years she has been nothing but professional, and it makes you wonder if she really did not get the OP emails. Why would she want to deter business when this is her livlihood? It doesn't make any sense.

I have not posted on this thread til now because i cannot stand the arguing and bashing that goes on. But in the last 2 days i happenned to email

Sarah 2x and both times i got a reply the next day.

I am not promoting Glory Tours; just stating my own personal positive experience so far. I did not get a bad vibe and have gone with what my gut feeling told me.

Will report on how the tour was once I am back.

[floridalady]

Hi Vacation fool,

What are you planning for your tour?I hope you have a great time with Sarah....and do try the flying fish-it's great!Wish I was going back right now.

Nancy

I have had a tour scheduled with Sarah for almost 2 years now. We will be in Barbados mid April. We have communicated back and forth frequently in deciding what to see and do for our day. In all of these communications, perhaps 50, there was one time that Sarah did not get my email and once she did not reply because she was ill.

I am not questioning the person who did not get a reply, but in my experience with Sarah over the past 2 years she has been nothing but professional, and it makes you wonder if she really did not get the OP emails. Why would she want to deter business when this is her livlihood? It doesn't make any sense.

I have not posted on this thread til now because i cannot stand the arguing and bashing that goes on. But in the last 2 days i happenned to email

Sarah 2x and both times i got a reply the next day.

I am not promoting Glory Tours; just stating my own personal positive experience so far. I did not get a bad vibe and have gone with what my gut feeling told me.

Will report on how the tour was once I am back.

[floridalady]

lolol

It was nice to have a post that made me laugh.So glad you enjoyed your tour.What did you like the best?I loved Bathsheba and the view from animal caves.BUT I loved the local food and I loved the beach we went to and all the beaches looked great to be honest.We really enjoyed it.I can not thank Sarah enough for a day i will never forget.I am hoping to return because I fell in love with Barbados.There seems to me to be so much to see and do.

Nancy

 

We booked a tour with Sarah of Glory Tours back in December for earlier this month. Subsequently after reading some of the mixed reviews I was a bit concerned...however I am pleased to say that my concerns were unfounded. I think that Sarah could be a better communicator but she did deliver a great tour. There were 5 of picked up by Quammie who is a native Beagin and is likely the best tour guide we have ever had. Quammie spent the day tourning us all over the island and his knowledge and presentation was first class. I am not sure what more that I can add but we would not hesitate to use her again....and no, I am not related to her and I do have more than 3 or 4 posts.:)

[floridalady]

I want to tell you that we cruised and of all the other tours we took Barbados was the very best in every way.Moneywise i think she gave the best deal...we had a wonderful lunch,saw so much,learned alot,enjoyed the beach and made a new friend in Sarah.

 

I had one tour on my cruise that did not live up to all that he told me it would be.He was so friendly in his emails and yet kind of cold in person.

The other tour we took-we were told we would have a van and instead had a car (tight squeeze).Also told the owner would be our driver.Met us and gave us another driver (who was great).Did not care for the beach we were taken to (was not the agreed upon beach).But the driver was wonderful.Did I give a bad review]-No.We did enjoy ourselves even though it could have been better and we should have insisted on the other beach.

Loved the people and the place!

 

Barbados was simply perfect in every way for us.Thank you again,Sarah.

Nancy

 

 

I just wanted to add in that we did Glory tours in October of 2008 and loved the tour. We would have booked with them again, but wanted to try a boat tour this time. We plan on going back to Barbados again this fall and plan on booking with Glory tours again. I can confirm I have no affiliation with Glory tours and they did not ask me to post this, I just think that a lot of the time people who had bad experiences are quick to share it, but those that had a great time are happy about their trip and not necessarily on these boards posting.

 

I had no problems with payment, the tour was well organized and our guide loved his island and was happy to share all the information he could with us.

 

Below is my brief review (post #17 from the thread noted a few posts up).

 

We did the full day tour with Glory tours when we were in Barbados on Halloween. We had a great time. Our tour guide Kwamay (spelling?) was great. At one point he stopped and bought local candies at a grocery store so we could try what he grew up on instead of skittles, etc.

 

The meeting spot was easy to find and we found people in Barbados very friendly. We then drove to Harrison Caves. It was amazing to see once. We sent from there to do some driving and saw some beautiful areas and stopped to take pictures on the Atlantic coast. We then stopped for lunch - the food was good. From there we sent to a wildlife reserve where we got to see the green monkeys without fences or anything between us. The highlight was the glass bottom boat. We got on at one beach and cruised along the beach for awhile. We saw lots of hotel including sandy lane, where Tiger Woods got married. We then got to snorkel with the sea turtles. There were about 5 sea turtles hanging around (the boat operators were feeding them) and it was amazing. One of the highlights of any of my snorkeling experiences yet. The puffer fish that were stealing the fish food were pretty cool as well. We also saw a sting ray (it was a sandy bottom at this snorkel site) as well as a bat fish (which I have never seen before). We then got back in the boat and went back towards where we came and there was a ship wreck and and a bit of a reef structure.

 

All in all it was an amazing day. I paid the entire amount up front and in the end both my husband and I thought it was well worth it. The day was amazing and Kwamay answered all of our questions and talked and told us more about the island even when we were too tired to play along.

 

I really feel we got our money's worth and would recommend this trip to anyone. Remember to bring an underwater camera - the best pictures from my entire 14 day cruise are of the turtles and puffer fish.

[Putterdude]

lolol

It was nice to have a post that made me laugh.So glad you enjoyed your tour.What did you like the best?I loved Bathsheba and the view from animal caves.BUT I loved the local food and I loved the beach we went to and all the beaches looked great to be honest.We really enjoyed it.I can not thank Sarah enough for a day i will never forget.I am hoping to return because I fell in love with Barbados.There seems to me to be so much to see and do.

Nancy

 

It would be hard to come up with a favourite place, Barbados is just so beautiful. By all means Bathsheba would rank very high on the list but so would Accra Beach and the view from St. John's church and North Point. Can I go back now?:D