This was an unexpected last minute side adventure to our friend's birthday wknd. I called their office 4 days before our trip to see if we could get into a Saturday tour and at first I was told they were booked out til July 17th but I asked to be placed on a waiting list.
She called me back and said someone had cancelled and they had room for us! Woohoo!
Yes, we did have our own car which made it convenient and free for us to get there (on the far North side of the strip) And parking was free.
They have a fun/friendly staff check you in that has you sign the waver not to sell any pics you may take and all tour guides are volunteers. Ours was Amy. She was friendly and very knowledgeable re: the history of Vegas and all the signs currently resting in the boneyard.
It was a hot morning and the sun shines down in June pretty hard even for 10am. I didn't wear a hat as recommended but I was glad I wore sunscreen and had a bottle of water--although it kinda got in the way of my taking pictures.
I noticed that some of the signs were either no longer there that I have seen in other yellper's visits or perhaps I missed them because the boneyard has been moved around from time to time. Some of the images that are posted on yelp looked SO cool and I was hoping to get shots similar to those for myself but unfortunately, the signs that were either near or leaning on each other that day were no longer in that same formation.
Amy gave us plenty of time to ask questions and told us many interesting facts about the signs.
My personal favorites were the big duck, the new Yucca sign and the old Stardust sign.
I think they should probably stop calling the $15 charge a "donation" and just charge it as a fee to get the tour. We didn't get the feeling while we were signing up that the donation was optional--but it's totally worth it!
Can't wait til they move into the conch-shell looking building as their future lobby area. I'll have to bring the parents back for the tour once they do!