"Distracted bus driver. Will never take again."

Overall, I am extremely unsatisfied with this service and would not recommend it to anyone. There were VERY serious safety concerns (amongst other things), as the bus driver was completely distracted and not paying attention to the road. We booked a round trip “flex” trip from NYC Port Authority to Woodbury Commons Shopping Mall. We booked the flex because there were multiple departure and return times to choose from. You simply show up and hop on the bus- or so I thought. This was my experience:

First, upon paying online, the confirmation email says I had to go to the Times Sq Visitor Center to redeem it and get an actual print out of our ticket. You can’t just show up at the bus with the email. I went 7 blocks uptown to the Times Sq Visitor Center (just as the confirmation email instructed) prior to our 830am departure. Then I trekked back downtown in the cold to the Port Authority pick up location. When i got to Port Authority, I discovered there was a Visitor Center there. So I went to Times Sq for nothing. The confirmation email didn’t say anything about a Port Auth Visitor Center. I went to the bus gate 30 min early but there was a jam packed line of people waiting for the same bus. I was the last one to get on and everyone behind me had to wait 1 hour for the next bus. I had to sit away from my companion. I wish I had been warned that there was only one bus and we should arrive 1-1.5hrs early to stand in line.

Here’s the worst part. I sat near the front of the bus with full view of the driver. As we drove out of Port Authority and into New Jersey, the bus driver started counting and reading tickets he collected while driving us on the highway! His hands were at the top of the steering wheel, and he was thumbing through each ticket, reading them, and sorting them. The bus even started straddling the lane lines on the highway! He did this for about 10 minutes. Then he opened an envelope and started bending it and fiddling around with it and putting some of the tickets inside. The heel of his R palm was on the steering wheel, and the L hand was holding the envelope and he was inserting tickets with his R fingers. The bus swerved and everyone sitting near the front was looking at each other and saying they were nervous. One lady finally asked him, “Sir, would you like me to help you count those so you can concentrate on driving this bus?” At that point, he became aware that everyone was watching him and he put the tickets and the envelope away. I wish I took a picture of it. Talk about distracted driving!

We were thankful to make it there without getting in an accident. At Woodbury Commons, the 2:02pm flex pickup time, the line was about 60 people. We got in line at 1:35pm. We were freezing cold. The bus arrived very late around 2:30pm. There was no one there to tell us what the status was, or where the next bus was. There was one bus driver parked far away and someone asked him where the bus was and he said he didn’t know, and it wasn’t him. He then ignored us, and turned and continued to talk to his friend. We inquired with the Mall Information Center, who didn’t know anything. A few people standing in line called the Grayline/Shortline 800 number listed on the ticket but the office was closed on Saturdays. Someone managed to get through to a receptionist who put her on hold and told her she would check. The receptionist never got back on the phone. We were all FREEZING and were standing in line waiting for a bus that was 30 min late and no one was there to tell us what the status was.

6 of us standing in line became were so frustrated, we all jumped in a cab and split the $150 fare back to Port Authority. I will never take this bus service again. What a waste of money.

"Horrible online signup /ticket process"

Horrible process to get signed up. Bought tickets online while at hotel. Not explained that if you signed up online that you STILL have to go to Times Square location to print out ticket. Defeated purpose of booking online. Slow, too few people working at physical sight. Added 2 hours if u considered time to get there and time in line.

"freestyle pick 7"

I purchased this ticket as it said now included airport transfer from your hotel. I had to use one of the passes for this it was not an extra. I found the staff at the desks very unhelpful but praise to the tour guides on that busses and boats, very knowledgeable and helpful.

"Insightful-"

Michael was a wealth of information and made the tour even more memorable.

"Unreliable And disrespectful of people's time"

We ewaited almost 4 hours in the cold outside woodburry for your bus that is supposed to
Come almost every hour. Making us but the flex ticket formextra money butvthen controling and wasting our time like that with ZERO explanation or apology from your staff. You made that day awful for me and had to switch my entire plans for my LAST day in NY. Crap basically

"Needs a scrub down of the operations"

Entertaining out of town guests so I figured the sightseeing tour would be a great option instead of me driving them around (I'm a local resident). Called to ask questions about the service and the CSR was less than enthusiastic and acted as if she could not be bothered with her job nor a customer that she should have been servicing. Just walking to the office to exchange for a voucher, the men outside and inside were incredible pushy, would not leave you alone, even though they were told that we already had tickets. The workers asked a lot of person questions (who are you here with? Are you single? Where are you staying?) this is crossing the line! I understand that the staff is paid on commission and I also understand that the sales agents want to up charge you, but this is ridiculous and it needs to stop and change. The tour guides were just as bad! The first guy we had editorialized continousily - that social security is a sham, and inserting his personal opinion to almost everything! The second guide, a lady, doing the 6:40p Saturday evening night tour, "sang" in our ear (through the headphones) several times and was one person on the mic and nasty off of the mic. Both guides continuously did "cross talk" through the mic. They should know that unless they are talking about the sites, they need to switch the mic to off! The cross talk with passengers about where they are from what have they seen so far, and simply "shooting the breeze" was annoying and unprofessional at best. And the singing - just ridiculous! Also, both tour guides spoke a lot about subway lines, transfer points etc. 1. No tourist will remember a thing about the info on the subway lines! Even NYer's have to look at the map to see where they are going! 2. This is a tour of NYC and its history. If it was a tour of the subway system then reviewing the trains lines would be appropriate, but that is why MTA employees booth reps! While this next comment is not anyone's fault, we spent the majority of the sightsee trip sitting in traffic and not actually seeing sights. That was very frustrating and to hear a lot of unnecessary conversation in our ears added to the frustruation. On the positive side, the 48hr pkg offered a lot for the money and the Via service was a huge plus. Since the bus wasn't moving, we got off, called Via on two occassions and got to our next destination. While the 48pkg offer a lot for the money, it was a big lost for me. We only did two routes (downtown - and half of that) and the night tour - didn't know that that tour went downtown, we thought it would go up town. In all, we only used one day and about 3.5hrs of a 48hr package. Incredibly disappointed!

In my opinion, the entire operation needs to be scrubbed down and rebuilt. Tour guides needs to be retrained, (I've traveled the world and throughout the states and I always take hop-on-hop off when I travel and the tour guides and great and I have never experience what I experienced this weekend in my own home town), CSR need to be re-trained, Counter sales and outside sales need to be retrained, and bus routes needs to be reconfigured realizing that the weekends are prone to grid lock.

"It was awesome!"

Everybody should try this experience when visit New York.👍🏼😊

"Very bad choice of the hop-on hop-off bus company..."

Buyed online, immediately charged from credit card. No confirmation email, took almost 4 hours to get the tickets in the main office...
Bad staff, not helpful, even bus guides. No enthusiasm, except one "little Jewish women", how she called herself. Donť remember her name, she was exceptional. Unfotunately was the only one. Very bad attitude of staff in the harbor office. No warning in advance, that the schedule may changed because of weather - rain (just 30 min after left the main office with the "right schedule" and advice...the weather didnt changed during this 30 min). No communication with the main office, they didnt care, no excuse.

"Perfect way to see NY"

This is such a great way to centre yourself in such a wonderful city so I recommend you take the tour when you first arrive. it means that you work out where everything is and the 48 hours means you can go back and visit for longer the places that really appeal.
Tour guides vary in quality but are generally really personable and interesting.
At times the audio didn't work and so i needed to change seats. And it would be great not to have to go to the central office to pick up tickets.
But the tour itself was great!

"Mostly a good experience"

We purchased the 2-day All Around Town tour and did 3 of the 5 loops plus the night tour. Tour guides were mostly good, some better than others. Although one continuously hit on me and made me a bit uncomfortable. I was hoping the night tour would stop and let us off to take photos at major spots but they did not. But the hop on and off daytime loops stopped at all the major attractions, at convenient locations.