This was $175 a PERSON ( $350 a couple) , and we were told that we would be taken by a bus from the meeting place on 8TH Avenue near 43RD street to Sylvia's at 126TH Street for dinner and be given a tour on the way by a knowledgeable tour director...from Sylvia's we were told that the bus would go to the Cotton Club...an historic site...this was in the beginning of December and traffic was heavy...we were supposed to be there by 7PM sharp....at 6:20 we were concerned that we might be delayed in holiday traffic and called them...we said it looked like we could be there at 7:15...they said they would not wait past 7...that is understandable...so we parked the car and ran the rest of the way arriving at just before 6:50...a little more than 10 minutes early...only to be told that they had left without us ( a party of 6) 5 minutes earlier.....they told us they went by subway...because there were only anther 5 people on the trip they were taking the subway instead of getting a bus...and that the leader had taken our subway passes with her.....we persisted and did get them to give us passes, but they had no idea where the subway station was...they gave us the cell# for the group leader, whom we called several times, but she was not answering her phone...she finally did call back about 45 minutes later with no explanation for leaving without us...dinner was ok...not bad, but not good either...from there we were to be driven to the Cotton Club...however we were told that the Cotton Club was not the destination for this trip...that we were going across the street to a different Jazz Club...this in itself was a big disappointment, as the only reason we went on this was to go to the Cotton Club...so the walk across the street turned out to be about 6 blocks away in 27* weather...I do have to say that the "tour guide" did point out 2 protestant churches that had been Jewish temples years ago..that was the extent of the tour...so now we arrive at a place that the Health Department should have condemned...the place was best described as disgustingly filthy ..the bathrooms were not usable, dead bugs on the flat surfaces and layers of dried out spilled drinks and sticky stuff all over... the musicians were stoned out and constantly going outside to smoke pot the smell of which was drifting inside the joint and their music sucked..there was a singer who seemed to forget the words to the songs that she was singing.
the best entertainment was some drunken customer who did some karaoke for 1 song.....we were supposed to get drinks..but they did not have anything.that I asked for ( iced tea, tomato juice, club soda) ..and I would not have had anything to eat or drink from any dish or utensil in that place any way .....a bus did show up to drive us back downtown, but the driver did not seem to know where he was going ....on the way downtown the guide did point out a place where she thought that some event that she could not remember had taken place...as you can imagine ...I would never recommend this trip or the company ..I do not like to leave a negative review, but we did call the company to discuss at least a partial refund..as the trip was not as described verbally or its written information...they would not hear of it...This was so bad that I will be reporting them to the Dept. of Consumers Affairs.Clear case of overcharging and bait and switch