The guides make the trip and they are in general
Knowledgeable, funny and helpful.
The big issue is lack of stops on some parts of the route. We used the bus as a way of getting around and seeing things. The longest red route is fine heading south but doesn’t stop on the way north, so if you get off at Soho or Greenwich village you wind up getting a cab north (our hotel was on 32 street and Lexington.
The other issue is timetables. The Harlem and Brooklyn tours only depart 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00, not hourly as advertised on the brochure. We kept missing them as the red or blue bus got stuck in traffic. The buses also stop running the hop-on/off routes at 18:00.
We spent $270 for 4x 3-day tickets, then another hundred bucks on cabs getting back!