For our first time in NYC, we decided to take the Hop On/Hop Off tour to help us navigate the city more easily and shows us to the more popular sites and I am glad we did. We choose Big Bus, over the competitors, because it was offered through our hotel. For the most part, it was really good. We ended up buying the 3 Day Pass as we were there for the whole weekend and this allowed us to see most of what we were looking to see easily, as most of the stops were relatively close to most of the major attractions. We took the Night Tour, which brought us through Time Square, down to Lower Manhattan and over the Manhattan Bridge, so you can see the Brooklyn Bridge at night.
The next day, we decided to go to Lower Manhattan (Red Line) and check out the places down there. This is where we ran into some problems. At NO fault of Big Bus, there was a huge protest going on through the street of Lower Manhattan which finished off at Battery Park. The Bus was unable to get to those stops (Stop 11 and Stop 12) but let us off as close to the 9/11 Memorial as it could. We were informed by our guide that the other buses may not be able to get to this area but should be able to get to Stop 11 as the protest winds down. If we wanted to leave the area sooner, he suggested to take the subway back and gave us the train number to get back. Because we are really unfamiliar with the subway system, we decided to hang out until the buses started to run again, several hours later. As we waited at Stop 11, we saw many Grey Line buses and a few Top View buses drive past, so we waited... and waited. I spoke with a Grey Line rep and they suggested that we wait at the next stop (Stop 12) as that one was a little easier to get to. So we walked down to that stop and waited. We saw many Grey Line buses and a few Top View buses go past, so we waited... and waited... and waited. We decided to take the subway back as it didn't look like any of the Big Buses were running. As I mentioned, we are unfamiliar with the subway but since our guide told us which train to take back, how bad could it be. The train he told us did not exist. He gave us a numbered train and all the train lines were letters. Not impressed at all, we decided to cab it back up to Midtown.
Our next day, we took the Uptown Tour (Blue Line). This took is to Central Park. Again, there were detours on the route due to events, but we were informed ahead of time and that is of no fault to the tour company. This was a good tour as you got to see how the other half lives :) After that tour, we hopped back on the Red Line to go to Little Italy (best pizza places in NYC!!!). When we went to come back, we stood in the line for our bus. As the buses came down, it appeared that there were 2-3 Grey Line buses for every Big Bus running.
The guides, for the most part, were very knowledgeable and entertaining.Our last guide we had, not so much. He did know the area but seemed to rambled on about nothing to fill in some time. He was slagging off some of the other bus companies (who seemed to be engaging friendly with his guests and the other bus company guests as they were passing by), as well as some of his own guides (he even told us to get off the bus a wait for the next bus if the guide got to religious or political).
Overall, this tour was pretty good and I do suggest taking a Hop On / Hop Off tour while you are in NYC. If you are short on time for the day, look into Grey Line as they seem have more buses running (and you only ever saw people on the top of the bus, never on the lower level).