Very rarely do I ever publish a negative review on Trip Advisor, but unfortunately we had a very poor experience during our vacation with the Anchorage All Around City Tour by Alaska's Finest Tours & Cruises. Let me start this out by explaining that I tried to reach out to the company numerous times through email before publishing this review. I wanted to speak to the owner or a manager to share our concerns with them, but we never got a response so apparently they don't care.
The tour itself was fine, it was our tour guide that was undoubtedly the worst guide we have ever had in all of our travels! The day did not start out well and sadly it went down from there. The instructions said to meet at the Sheraton in Anchorage for the 8am tour, so we were there at 740am waiting out front. At about 805am the tour guide calls me asking our location, I responded that we were waiting at the front entrance of the Sheraton. He said well I'm in the back of the hotel and then drove around and picked us up. I mentioned to him that if we were supposed to meet in back, that should be spelled out in the pickup instructions. He said he would mention it to his boss. I could not help but notice that Tim (our tour guide) looked as if he just rolled out of bed and forgot to brush his hair or put on a clean shirt... first impressions?
We started the tour and he rattled off where we would be going. As we drove around there was virtually no mention of the general layout of the city or its neighborhoods. Nothing about the history or how Anchorage became a city. The typical interesting facts and figures one would normally hear on a "city" tour. Nothing about the economy or its residents. What did we listen to? Tim complaining about his van and how he wanted his boss to purchase a Mercedes van for him to drive instead. He then asked about where we were from, and I mentioned that I was retired career Army with 30 years. Tim then asked if I had been in "rehab" because he apparently thought a lot of retired Army personnel were alcoholics? I didn't really know how to respond to that besides saying "no" in a confused tone. Considering my wife's father was a retired Army officer and Vietnam vet, we didn't appreciate the remark. He then shared with me that he did a few years in the Navy.
As we drove around and made some stops, we weren't really sure where we were in relation to the downtown area because he was not giving us any idea of how the city was laid out. To further confuse us, he would call out look "left" or "right" but then would correct himself because he was calling out the wrong directions to look the windows! The stops we made were mainly shopping opportunities along with the airport, float plane base, Earthquake Park, and a building that featured some history of the great earthquake. Tim gave very little in the way of information about our stops, in fact when we were at each stop, he spent most of his time preoccupied on his phone and not paying attention to the group. In fact, he temporarily lost track of one tour guest who went walking off on his own. At another native gift shop, Tim thought it was really funny to point out a carving that was made from a walrus penis to our future daughter in law. She started to grow uneasy when he continued to point it out to her and nobody else, all while making inappropriate comments and discussing his personal life with her!
If this was not all bad enough, the worst was when Tim started trying to tell my son he committed a felony while under the watchful eye of my son's professor. Tim explained that like my son, he also majored in computers in college. When they were chatting and discussing each other's final project to graduate, Tim made this ridiculous claim that my son somehow violated the law. My son explained to Tim that the final project was given by his professor and was a sanctioned event by his college. Tim continued to tell my son he was a felon throughout the entire tour! He even told our future daughter in law that he was a felon, and that "it was not too late to leave the relationship because of my son being a felon! Oh and wait... there's more... he then began telling other guests not part of our party that there was a felon on the tour and he pointed out my son to them!!! Can you believe this guy's unprofessionalism? To have the gall to falsely accuse my son of something so ridiculous was just beyond unbelievable!
So let's run this down... 1) lack of communication on pick up point 2) unprofessional appearance 3) no information about the city on a "city tour" 4) insulting comments directed toward Army veterans 5) giving out incorrect directions to view points of interest 6) preoccupied on his phone while losing track of tour guests at stops 7) making immature and inappropriate comments to our future daughter in law about a carving 8) flirting with my future daughter in law and discussing his personal life 9) making false accusations against my son to his face about a college final project 10) telling my future daughter in law that she was with a felon and telling her its not too late to leave him 12) telling other tour guests not in our party that my son was a felon and pointing him out.
Now let me ask you... why would you EVER do business with a company that has this guy on the payroll? The next day we saw Tim with another tour bus full of guests and apparently he was training a new driver. So not only is this guy giving tours but he is a trainer too! Wow what a fine example he is setting! Never in our life have we experienced such an unprofessional individual. My wife and I have travelled all over the world and never anything like this.
Trip Advisor community... do yourself a huge favor and AVOID Tim and Alaska's Finest Tours & Cruises. I really hope the owner of this company who couldn't take the time to contact us reads this review and sees the face of who is representing his/her company.