Bottom line: Unbelievable customer service, an incredible trail guide and some of the most beautiful scenery I've experienced made this my wife's and my favorite part of our stay in Gatlinburg.
My wife and I don't get to vacation very often. When we got the chance for a 4-day getaway, we decided that we wanted to go to the Smoky Mountains. We looked online and found the Waterfall Adventure with A Walk in the Woods. I booked the hike and put it in my Google Calendar. What I forgot is that I live in Central time and Gatlinburg is on Eastern. So when we got to Gatlinburg Google changed the time from 2pm to 3pm. My fault entirely for forgetting to compensate for time zones.
At 2pm on the day of the hike my wife and I are getting ready in the hotel room, thinking we have plenty of time (again, because *I* had messed up on my time zones). Instead of writing us off, I got a call from the tour guide asking if we were still going. Our hotel room was 15 minutes from the start of the hike, and we panicked. The guide (I can't remember her name!) didn't want to delay the other hikers (which I completely understand), so she called the office. They contacted another guide who had completed a tour. He agreed to turn around and guide us on the tour.
Eric ended up being our guide, and he was terrific! He knew a lot about the various plants that the Cherokee had used for different things, knew the history and lore of the area, etc. Our tour was around 2.5 hours, and we were learning and enjoying every single minute of it.
The hike was gorgeous, we passed several 6-foot or so waterfalls. A lot of it was uphill, but the pace was good.
So, again, an amazing experience, unparalleled customer service, and Eric was a wonderful guide. This experience could have been a disaster (which would have been completely my fault), but A Walk in the Woods turned it into a lifetime memory for my wife and me.