St. Thomas and Sunny Liston

TRAVEL THERE: SUNNY LISTON’S ST THOMAS TOUR

No – I didn’t misspell it, because it’s not that Liston.

After our Cruising Excursions.com tour in St. Maarten was such a flop, I was worried.  We’d booked another Cruising Excursions.com tour  for St. Thomas and I dreaded discovering another mistake.  Instead we got Sunny Liston!  If you click on over there, you’ll immediately get an idea of what to expect on his tour.  The music sets the mood.

Best Day of the Cruise

I think everybody should see St. Thomas with Sunny, but now that you’re in the know, book directly with Sunny and forget about Cruise Excursions.com.  They might stick you in another tour and that would be a crime!

Though we didn’t realize it, our fun started before we even stepped on the pier.  Someone was standing at the end of the gangway, handing out packets of brochures.  Glancing at the packet I realized it was COUPONS, so I tucked it in my tote bag and kept on moving.  Our first order of business was to deliver our guys to their scuba excursion, which we’d booked with NCL.  The official NCL shore excursions were on the pier next to the boat, so that was a no brainer, but then we had some time to kill before connecting with our tour.

We asked a couple of the guides if they knew where the Cruising Excursion.com tours met, but the NCL guides showed their disdain for anyone who dared not to book through the cruise line.  To tell the truth, after the experience of the day before we felt a little sheepish about it, too, but it was obvious we’d need to pass through security and leave the pier.

Once outside security we asked someone  who was directing the taxi traffic about the tour.  They weren’t very impressed with my sheet of paper from Cruising Excursions.com, until they saw Sunny Liston’s name on it.  Then they began to smile and pointed us to the very colorful bus you see in the picture above.  Sunny was standing close to the bus and when it became apparent we were headed his way his smile erupted.  I wish I could capture some of his smile in a bottle and drink it up when I need it.

We were among the first to board the open air bus and I tucked into the coupons.  I’d gotten other shopping coupons on other cruises, but the only one I’d tried to use was for a free bracelet that promptly turned less than shiny.  Still a coupon was a coupon and I wanted to see what I’d gotten.  Soon the bus was full and Sunny started the tour.  It took about three seconds to figure out that we’d gotten on the good-time bus.

Our first stop was Charlotte Amalie.  Sunny pointed out the good shopping, a nice place to rest if you weren’t interested in shopping and told us what time to get back.  For about the next hour we had a blast on Mission Coupon.  At the Effy store, they promptly handed us a garnet necklace and offered us matching earrings for some paltry amount like $5 or $10.  We couldn’t get our money out fast enough.  At Diamonds International we got a bracelet and a charm.

Then someone begged us to come into a store and get a gift, even though we didn’t have a coupon.  The salesman wasn’t as excited about us as his barker had been and when it was obvious we weren’t in the market for anything he had, then he rudely handed us some plastic chotskie.  We giggled as we threw the ugly foam hat into the nearest trashcan.

Mission Coupon had only begun and Sunny’s tour wasn’t over yet, but you’ll have to come back next week for the rest of the fun.