Our family was visiting from CA , our grandkids had never been and we were there over 20 years ago so we thought it would be a great outing. How wrong we were. We went on a Monday because we thought the traffic would not be as bad. That was the first mistake. We were bumper to bumper all the way from Boulder City to the Dam.
We chose the Powerplant tour because that was the only one available and while it was interesting and informative the tour that they said would take 45 minutes went on for about 2 1/2 hours most of which was waiting time. First they took us into a room and spent about 5 minutes telling us what we would see on the tour then we waited about 15 or 20 minutes until we were taken into another room where we saw a movie for about 10 minutes. Then another line but this time we waited about 1/2 hour to take an elevator down into the dam tunnel. The whole presentation was about 5 minutes and then another wait but this time there was a problem with the key cards for the elevator and the wait was over 1/2 hour. When they finally got it working (had to be manually overridden) we went to the next level were we again spent only 5 minutes for another presentation in the generator room. All together maybe a 20 minute presentation and about 2 hours in waiting time.
My daughter in law who did not go on the tour with us was able to get all the same information by just visiting the visitors center and it took a lot less time.
I think the employees who see the tickets need to also inform the customers that there will be long wait times.
I can tell you it was not worth the trip time or the tour time.