Much of the Navy Yard Tour is driving and walking around buildings that contained many small businesses. Didn't go in any, but probably wouldn't have seen much anyway. Their highlight was all the funding and effort going into developing small businesses, which could have been absorbed by reading a couple paragraphs.
Part of the tour was a description of the history of the yard. Not much maritime activity now, and looking at a couple dry docks didn't do much for us. Doug did do a good job leading the tour and explaining the facilities, but we were expecting to see much more interesting things, and left disappointed.
Réponse de l'hôte
Sep 2019
We are concerned and dismayed by your review, and are sorry to learn that the experience of visiting the Brooklyn Navy Yard did not match your expectations. Our small, dedicated team works very hard to deliver informative, fulfilling, and engaging experiences of this historic and dynamic industrial facility, and we obviously don't want anyone to leave feeling disappointed. If you are willing, we would be sincerely grateful to have a conversation with you so that we can better understand what it was you were hoping for and how your visit to the site did not match up with your expectations so that we can better communicate with visitors about what they can expect to see and experience moving forward.
As our Brooklyn Navy Yard Past, Present, and Future Tour is meant to be an introduction to and overview of the 300-acre industrial facility, we strive to cover most of the site's geography while visiting some of its most significant sites, all with the end goal of giving visitors a deeper sense of place and community - both about its important military history and its contemporary context. Through visiting a ship repair facility, piers and other waterfront sites, and buildings both old and new, we seek to bring the history of the Yard to life through the built environment, oral histories, photographs, and stories of historically significant events, while also highlighting stories that illuminate how the Yard today has become a center of New York City's manufacturing sector and industrial workforce. As I'm sure you can appreciate, this can be a challenging balance to strike, which is why we try to assess interests and make the tour interactive so that we can adapt accordingly and respond to questions and engage specific interests or stories that people might have or want to share throughout the experience.
As for the facility itself, we would be interested in learning more about your expectations prior to visiting. Indeed, most of the former sub-assembly shops have been restored or renovated and are home to 450+ manufacturing and creative businesses, while the piers, dry docks, and other waterfront infrastructure at the Yard play an important role in the functioning of the port and are still important maritime assets for the region, including the largest ship repair facility in New York Harbor, the NYC Ferry home port, a major marine division of the Fire Department of New York, and businesses that bring in dry cargo from Canada.
Needless to say, we are concerned about your feedback and if you'd be willing to speak with us directly, we would be grateful to learn more about your expectations and discuss your experience so we can avoid having other visitors feel this way in the future.