Hop on, a little narration, hop off. How hard could it be? Well... just about everything that could go wrong, went wrong in our experience with Big Bus Tours.
We initially boarded the bus next the Convention Center and, after some initial grumbling about the extra steps we made them go through when we used a City Pass, were able to get seats near the front on the 2nd level. The tour highlight was the limited commentary, which was at times funny and informative. But things went downhill beyond that.
We hopped off, had lunch and tried to hop back on. Buses are advertised as coming every 30 minutes but we waited 50+ minutes (being patient with a toddler in tow is extra fun). When a bus finally came, it didn’t even stop for us even though we were standing under the bus stop sign, waving and jumping like maniacs. It was only a block later after we started shouting in utter frustration that the passengers on the second story noticed us and got the bus to stop. As we boarded, we got a, “Oh sorry, we didn’t see you there.”
The third time we tried to ride the bus, we walked to Stop #3 we discovered the entire street was closed for a festival – no notices were posted or verbally announced on the bus or website. We walked to Stop #2 where they had a Big Bus stand with workers selling tickets, and were told that #2 was *also* closed, the worker didn’t have any idea what the revised schedule or route was (and couldn’t… call someone?), and that our best bet was to walk to Stop #1. It would have been nice if they had let us know upfront instead of finding it out after we walked to the stops. Luckily we got to stop #1 in time to catch the last bus that day, otherwise we would been out of luck. Although in hindsight, I almost wish we did miss it because while sitting on the top deck, I had a tree branch whiplash and hit me squarely in the face. The conductor took a while to realize I was hit and asked if I was alright. I was too stunned to answer and she just moved on with the tour. Thank goodness our stop was relatively soon after that because I wasn’t sure I could survive much more.
Between our hops on and off that day, there were at least 4 stops out of commission (including the Museum of Art/Rocky Steps, the Betsy Ross house and Ben Franklin’s grave) and there was little to no attempt to at least include the commentary – just missed out. I realize that special events can force a change in plans, but the company seemed ill-prepared to handle, communicate, and compensate for those changes when faced with a series of events that likely happen frequently in Philadelphia.
Overall, I would not recommend this tour unless what you’ve read in my review intrigues you.