Sylvie Di Cristo

[itsjb1]

We are just back from our cruise and I wanted to relate our experience with Sylvie for our tour from Villefranche on August 7th.

 

We were a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children, ages 9 and 13. Based upon the comments on this board I booked Sylvie last September. At that time I confirmed with her that she personally would be our guide.

 

When i read some of the negative comment last month I confirmed with Sylvie by email that we were still on. She advise us to get on the firsty tender off the ship so that no time would be lost.

 

We had a great day with Sylvie. Between us we agreed on an itinerary , having regard to our kids and the must see things. We went to Monaco, drove through Nice , toured Eze, and also stopped in a couple of other small towns along the coast.We saw alot more than the ship tours and even stopped for ice cream.

 

 

Sylvie was very pleasant and knowledgeable and was able to relate to both my wife and I and our kids. I also found her to be honest and honourable.

 

I know that there were problems with Sylvie's partner's problem pregnancy that has caused Sylvie to have to cancel some tours. Obviously, I can not comment on what transpired between Sylvie and the disgruntled parties. However, I know that Sylvie is very bothered by the negative comments.

 

 

 

Do not be deterred from booking with Sylvie. Confirm that she personally will act as your guide and you will have a great day.

 

If you have any questions please post and I will reply, if possible.

[Cruise Junky]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. We have Sylvie booked for our October 2005 cruise. I'm really looking forward to our time in Villefranche.

[jbond]

That's good to hear. We have Sylvie booked for our September 23rd cruise on Brilliance. After all the negative comments, I was getting a little apprehensive. She has confirmed that she will be our guide. Thanks for posting.

[itsjb1]

That's good to hear. We have Sylvie booked for our September 23rd cruise on Brilliance. After all the negative comments, I was getting a little apprehensive. She has confirmed that she will be our guide. Thanks for posting.

 

 

 

 

We were also on The Brilliance. Make sure that you get on the 1st tender, otherwise you may get stuck on board for a couple of hours as the ship excursions leave. Tender tickets were given out on the 5th deck from the shopping desk at 9:30. If you get in line by 9 am you should have no problem.

 

Have a great time. It is a very nice ship and Sylvie is great.

[jbond]

Thanks, heard that elsewhere. We have ppriority tendering, we're Diamond C&A, so that should help.

How many formal nights did you have? Our docs say two, but I've read that there are three.

[itsjb1]

Thanks, heard that elsewhere. We have ppriority tendering, we're Diamond C&A, so that should help.

How many formal nights did you have? Our docs say two, but I've read that there are three.

 

 

 

There were 3 on the Aug 6 sailing.

[jbond]

Thanks, this is as good as instant messenger.

[MVPinBoynton]

Itsjb1,Thank you for posting your Sylvie experience. We had such a wonderful day with her last year and I am glad that you also were able to.

[Jkeith]

We were so happy with Sylvie as our guide, the day in Villefranche was incredibly rainy but she was such a wonderful guide we really didn't mind a bit. Whatever we wanted to see, she took us. Any of you who are yet to have her as your guide, please tell her Keith and Judy from Michigan wish her the best! We have upmost sympathy with those who have been cancelled on but we know in our hearts it had to be totally unavoidible for this to have happened.

[Glendamcd]

Maybe the next time Sylvie does not notify everyone that she is not going to honor

their confirmations (for whatever reason) she will think twice and do the right thing.

She may be a good tour guide but she ruined a lot of peoples cruises by not notifying

them and letting them know that her partner was ill, so they could re-book. I was

lucky so many people complained on the board, because I found out in time to get

Jean Marx, but others did not.

[itsjb1]

Maybe the next time Sylvie does not notify everyone that she is not going to honor

their confirmations (for whatever reason) she will think twice and do the right thing.

She may be a good tour guide but she ruined a lot of peoples cruises by not notifying

them and letting them know that her partner was ill, so they could re-book. I was

lucky so many people complained on the board, because I found out in time to get

Jean Marx, but others did not.

 

 

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but you really do not know what effort she went to to notify people. For example, we left for our holidays 1 week before the cruise left, so even if she emailed , we emailed a few days before, we would not have gotten the email until it was too late, unless we were checking our email while away. It is unfortunate but things do not always work out the way we plan.

 

When I discussed this issue with Sylvie, she seemed really bothered by what happened. For what it is worth she told me that she did try to contact everyone, but some people were not reachable, for whatever reason.

[dbh62ark]

I think the point for me is that there are so many options that I would not take a chance on anyone who has proven to be unreliable in the past. I have been reading all of the threads regarding this matter, and there have been a lot of problems. It is unfortunate that Sylvie's partner became ill, but Sylvie did accept the responsibility for the bookings. I was also bothered by the many reports that this tour operator would accept bookings from passengers and then pass those off when it seemed advantageous to her instead of following through with her original commitment. Additionally, this is the only tour guide that I know of in any port that charges passengers if the passengers are unable to take the tour due to weather or other circumstances that the passengers are not responsible for. I do think a cancellation fee is reasonable, but I do not think it is reasonable to ask passengers to absorb the entire cost of the tour, and I know for a fact that Sylvie has done this in 2003. During our European sailings this year and last year, our ship had to make itinerary changes due to weather, and you just never know when that will happen.

 

So we were very glad that we used Dream Tours in May and highly recommend their services.

 

Donna

[hebeeast]

We have used Sylvie twice and she has always been excellent. She has been very efficient in her communication and I would recommend her again over an over.

 

We all know the story about her cancelling a few tours when her partner was ill and her partner was unable to take out those tours. So why not leave it lie. We know this was a disapointment for you all. As far as some of the other comments about her cancelling tours to her advantage - this is only hearsay. I know she did our tour of two and turned down much bigger tours from people who contacted her after me. (I meet those people on our cruise).

 

I think this becomes a lesson to always have a backup plan in case a tour you scheduled does not happen.

 

For people looking for a tour guide in France she is one of the best so let's let next years cruisers know this so she will be used and not beaten down every time some one posts her name.

 

By the way Donna - glad you were happy with Dream Tours -- I had contacted them also about a tour. I had informed Alain that someone in our party would be traveling in a wheelchair. I never forget when he sent me a email that his vans were not equiped for "old" people. Guess we have to remind him that someone does not have to be "old" to not be mobile. Opps guess I need to find every post about him and make sure I make people aware over and over and over.

[MVPinBoynton]

Hebeeast,

 

I couldn't agree more about Sylvie. We look forward to spending the day with her again on future trips. She was so pleasant and knowledgable. She apparently also has some other very good competitors along the French Riviera. Which is fortunate since she can only take one group a day and there are lots of folks that want to take private tours in this beautiful area of the world.

[highworth]

We are also just back from a Med tour and had Sylvie for the day (booked a long time ago). She was excellant and we had a fantastic day with her. I would highly recommend her..

[BarbaraM]

In general, do tour operators count the time you are scheduled to meet as part of the tour? eg. if the ship docks an hour late, whats the general policy?

[MVPinBoynton]

Barbara,

 

All of the private tours I have ever been on are full day tours and limited by the time we had to get back to the ship. Therefore, if the ship is late, the tour is shorter due to the ship's debarkation, not the tour operator.

[rumba]

For those of you who have booked with Sylvie....you will definitely spend a great day with her. We just returned from the "Splendour" on Oct. 1st and we were with Sylvie Sept. 27. Sylvie is a wonderful company and very knowledgeable. She is quite a linguist too...fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and French. She can also speak a little German. She has been in this business for 21 years and is very good at it. If Cannes is part of your itinerary, ask her to take you to Zenith Forge for lunch. This restaurant is by the beach and the food is just awesome. Dessert lovers...you are in for a big treat.

[zebra]

Please would you give me Sylvie's web site and email address. Thanks.

[ClaudiaF]

Her email address direct is:

sylvie.di.cristo@wanadoo.fr

 

and her website is:

http://azur-guides-interpretes.com/

[Mike Andrews]

Sylvie is in my top three guides in Europe along with Paola of Florence Tour (info@florencetour.com) for Livorno and Salvatore of DriveAmalfi(*****)

[med4bike]

I was perusing the CC Radisson board when I decided to look at the Destination board. Lo and behold here was a thread re: the famous (or infamous) Sylvie.

 

We had a very unfortunate experience with Sylvie in Cannes last May on our Crystal Cruise.

 

We scheduled a day tour with her to include Nice, Monte Carlo, St. Paul du Vence, etc.

We were supposed to meet at the Sofitel Hotel ( the only one in Cannes) at 9:00 am. We were there but Sylvie never showed up. This is the first time we have heard about her partner's ill health and I do not know if that affected her performance that day.

We were outraged that she did not appear at the Sofitel at the appointed hour.

 

THIS IS A CRUISERS WORST NIGHTMARE! We elected not to take the ship's tour and now we had no private tour. Wow! Luckily for us, the concierge at the Sofitel Hotel called a car and driver, in about 20 minutes, and we did have a wonderful tour, as planned.

 

When we contacted Sylvie on our return to the US, she gave us some lame excuse that she thought the ship was docking at a different pier and waited there. I told her that the meeting place was confirmed by both of us so it did not matter where the ship docked and when she did not see us there she should have immediately gone to the appointed Sofitel Hotel. We waited almost an hour and a half before we arranged another car and driver.

 

I guess that the posts on this board re: Sylvie go both ways. There are some very outstanding reviews of her services. However, being unreliable and not showing up at the appointed time and place is inexcusable. Can you imagine the travelers dilemma if they could not arrange alternate means of transportation? A day on the French Riviera wasted.

 

Cruise passengers BEWARE!

[trvlnliz]

Sylvie is the best! We toured with her last week and had the best time. She is a wonderful guide that goes the extra mile to make sure your touring experience is extra special. There were health issues with her partner that were beyond her control. This is old news and past history. We've all made mistakes. It not like she has done this over and over at differnet times. Before this unfortunate incident I can say I've never read a bad review of her services. So let it go. It sounds like you are dead set on trashing her whenever you have the opportunity. Let it go. You'll feel better for it. ;)

[Glendamcd]

I do know, I booked her over 8 months in advance and if I had not contacted her

"due to all the cruise critic complaints" a month before I was to leave for my cruise I would have been left high and dry. Thank God all the RELIABLE tour guides had not been taken and I was able to re-book. I am glad you were able to use Sylvie and she

did not ruin your trip. But you should read some of the boards where peoples cruises were ruined. Yes, beat a dead horse in Sylvie's case because maybe she will be more

considerate of other peoples well thought out plans and not forget to let everyone know she canceled on them. I don't think I will ever trust her again for my dream

cruise, but I will always be willing to use Dream Tours with Alain and Jean Marc.

[Glendamcd]

I know the ones who have enjoyed Sylvie defend her but they have not walked in our shoes and I guess cannot not understand what it is like to make plans and have them

ruined by Sylvie's way of taking care of her customers on a random basis. I am happy for the ones who have enjoyed her, but BEWARE if you make reservations with her in the future. You may or maynot have a great day!