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| - I don't think they quite deserve 3 or 4 stars-3.5, okay, but not four.
I called the day before the trip to set something up. They had 6 people signed up. We made 8. Our Grand Canyon VIP tour eventually had 10.
The small number of the trip was nice and kind of helped bring our group together so we were talking and laughing with strangers. The driver had us introduce ourselves to the others. I doubt that happens on the bigger tours.
The driver showed up 20 minutes late for us, and even later for the people he picked up afterward. He initially didn't tell me why he was late, just simply said "I assure you, it was through no fault of my own." The people he picked up after us were very upset, and he told them it was the traffic. One of them said that she had heard it was something else. The driver said there was something else, but he didn't want to embarass anyone or something along those lines. It was made pretty clear that the couple on the tour who didn't speak much English had made him late, as when we got to places he told everyone, "these people cannot go alone. Someone go with them. Who's going to go with them? Raise your hands. Make sure they get to where we are meeting."
The bus was fine, 14 seats, but it wasn't as nice as what was shown on the website, which shows leather-like seats. It was normal bus seats. This was a disappointment to me, as the comfortable looking seats in the photo was one reason I was willing to pay 2X the cost of other tours.
The temperature on the bus got very cold for a time, though, and my friend told me that he had said there was only "hot" and "cold" on the bus. They did have blankets and pillows.
We stopped at Hoover Dam on the way, and the website said we would also stop at a historic locomotive. Presumably since we were running late, he didn't stop at the locomotive, just asking if we wanted to. I wish he wouldn't have done that: I would've liked to have seen that, but knew that a couple of other people were really upset we were so far behind. I feel like he cut the tour short by asking, when he said he wouldn't cut it short.
Also, when we called, they said the tour was $190, but they wouldn't give us the website cost of $180 over the phone when we mentioned it. (I didn't want to buy the tickets on my smartphone.)They should've honored that.
My friend walks with a cane, and the driver was very good to her. As mentioned, they gave us breakfast (granola bar, apple, cheese and a packaged blueberry muffin) and a lunch-chips, cookies, and a wrap (mine had not-so-fresh brown lettuce inside, but wasn't bad.) We were also given ponchos at the Canyon, as it had been sprinkling a little and looked like rain.
The sheet they gave out that gave tips on the tour and photos also said that 10-20% tip was customary.
The driver was nice and charismatic, and at one point he pulled off so we could photograph sheep in a park, even taking my friend's camera and taking a photo for her.
We watched "The Proposal" , a couple of short clips on Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, and "Son-In-Law" (wtf?) on the all-day trip.
I liked the tour, but I just wished it wasn't so much more money. Other tours-granted with many more people-cost half as much.
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