I have no complaints at all with anyone at Memphis Best Tours. My city tour guide (and I could kick myself for not remembering her name) was just great! She was very friendly and a joy to talk to and had not only the usual tour highlights to point out but also told us more personal notes about the city and I could have listened to her all day. I had no idea that the sightseeing part of the tour would be so long and I was pleasantly surprised that I had almost 3 hours worth of driving around Memphis with her. The tour bus was clean, comfortable, and blessedly cool, which for Memphis in August is a necessity!
The river cruise I will deal with in 2 parts. The tour guide for the river tour was a local gentleman from just a couple of miles up river and he was a lot of fun to listen to. He gave us a lot of local river history without it seeming like a lecture and was funny without it seeming forced. I enjoyed him very much.
The river cruise itself was ok. When we arrived at the terminal we were told that the tour was running behind and it would be about 30 minutes late, which turned into an hour and we were never told why. Because there were multiple boats docked together, several people were asking where to go and which boat were they supposed to board and the 2 ladies at the front desk seemed to be bored and didn't give very good information.
The gift shop we were asked to wait in was very sparse and had very little in the way of souvenirs specific to the riverboats themselves. More junk than anything else. The boat was very stuffy and the way the tables were arranged made the interior feel very crowded even though there were only a handful of people on the boat. When we boarded, we were not told that there would be a river guide, nor that he would be at the upper level of the boat, and that if you wanted to see the things he was pointing out you needed to be on that level until the boat was already underway and by then you were stuck in the seat you had chosen because there was no room to move around. The actual distance that the boat traveled turned out to be very short, I wouldn't even call it a tour. It was probably about a half a mile in length right in front of the dock.
I would rate the sightseeing portion of the tour and both guides as 5 star all the way, and everyone I dealt with at Memphis Best Tours were great, but the river boat ride itself I would only give a 2 or 3 star rating,
So bottom line, next time I would just stick to the City tour, and pass on the boat ride.