I love using hop-on/hop-off buses when I travel to new places so I can easily get around while learning about the city I’m in. Unfortunately, my experience with the NYC tour wasn’t great overall but we did enjoy two of the guides. We loved Bernie who we spent time with on the red tour, he was funny and knew so much about his city. Very entertaining! There was also an older woman that we really enjoyed who did the blue loop but we didn’t catch her name, she engaged the kids on the bus and let them act as guides. Super cute!
Our negative was that we paid too much for what we were able to take advantage of, even if it was kind of by choice. Poor customer service kept us from going on the Brooklyn tour, which sadly was the only thing my husband wanted to do. We had just been sold scam tickets (for something else, NOT the Big Bus Tour) at a park and had been dealing with the police when a yellow Big Bus pulled up. I went over and asked what loop it was, if a yellow bus meant a yellow loop so I could check the map to see where they were going. A younger man tried to tell me but an older woman was coming off the bus and started in on me, telling me not, that means the night tour, we’re the Brooklyn tour - come on’. So I said to her (my patience already thin, to be fair) ‘Oh, I wouldn’t know that which is why I asked the question’. She then asked where I was from, I told her. She then proceeded to say to me, ‘what’s with you people? Can’t you watch the news? Why the hell would you be here?’ I told her it was because our trip was planned and our kids were excited. She then asked us if we were getting on the last tour of the day, but at that point I was so upset by her that I said ‘No thanks, it feels we’re inconveniencing you by being here. We’ll go find something else to do.’ The younger man with her made the appropriate ‘I’m so sorry for the way she’s acting’ faces but I was done.
We were not able to do the tour the next day so we missed out on the part of the ticket my husband wanted the most. Like I said, it was our choice to skip that particular tour but I was too put off to sit with her at that point. It’s not typical of this company, it’s the only company I use when I travel. This just bothered me. I understand covid-19 has people panicked BUT the buses were running and she was at work. To give us a hard time when trying to use the (expensive) tickets we had bought that morning was unacceptable.