We arrived at the meeting point by Battery Park to met by Sal, our guide. He told us we were the only bookings for this tour so we had him all to ourselves and how lucky we were! Sal has a passion for history and it showed in the depth of information he gave us. Also, very friendly and a great sense of humour. Sal knows how to get around the crowds and made the most of the tour. Liberty was as stunning as we'd hoped. We didn't go up into the Crown but the pedestal, with it's exhibition, is very enjoyable and you get the best photos from the boat approaching Liberty. We then continued to Ellis Island, which was a lot more interesting than we had anticipated and we got Sal to point out the names of his predecessors on the display stones outside! No doubt having a personal guide made this a particularly enjoyable tour but it's definitely worth doing in a group as well. Highly recommended.
Tour guide was good, and we liked the small group size. More time on Ellis Island would have been good.
We didn't really get going until about 50 minutes or so after the time we were told to be there. We could have arrived later for the tour, or more time could have been spent doing something.
Had booked on Viator to avoid long queues and it was justified. Our tour guide Sal was very knowledgeable and took great pains to explain everything in detail.