The tour staff (Wes, Josh and another gentleman) and many of the site seeing stops were very good. Loved The Apostles, the Gorge and the rainforest walk. The tour staff was kind, compassionate,and understanding considering there was nothing they could do to remedy the worst part of the trip.
The bus is a new bus, which is nice for everyone but those unfortunate enough to sit in the very back row with five seats where the tour company chooses to sell every single seat on the bus. If you get to sit like neatly every other patron on the bus, you get to sit two by two with an aisle to stretch; if you are stuck sitting in the back of the bus, you could also sit two by two, IF the middle 5th seat is left open. Instead every single seat was sold and unless you have a family with small children, you will be jammed together shoulders overlapping and hips touching.
On our trip there were FIVE grown adults crammed together. We had to sit too closely together for strangers in awkward angles to allow room for our shoulders.
If this were a brief ride, the close seating could tolerated, but for an all day tour that is going to be THIRTEEN hours long, it is really unacceptable.
For a tourist to pay the amount of money for the tour and then be uncomfortable the entire way round trip is ridiculous and a poor business decision to value profit over the comfort of the passengers you are wanting to choose your tour.
Yes the length of the tour, the mode of travel by bus, and the potential group capacity is advertised, but not that there is a chance you will be seated uncomfortably crammed with five people in a row. Most tourists know what a tour bus experience is like and anticipate two by two, not five in a row.
When the reservation representative was contacted, it was suggested we ask someone else on the bus to switch. Now who in their right mind would give up a more comfortable two seat row to be jammed together with five? In addition why is solution to the problem placed on the tourist, rather than the reservation department that knows the bus seating and can foresee the capacity problem?
Bottom line, save a bit of profit, sell one less seat and allow all of the paying passengers the same level of comfort! I would gather that nearly everyone had a nice day, a long day, but nice. Those in the back had a nice experience at the sites, but a miserable riding journey round trip.
There were two additional employees in training also on the bus and they were kind enough to switch with two of the patrons, but the five people to a row was still a problem.
As previously stated, the sites were very nice and the tour staff very kind and helpful. In the future, please choose to sell one less seat so everyone on the tour has a chance to be equally comfortable for the thirteen hour trip. If a family with small children desire to sit together, they can have the choice to sit five together, but to force five grown adults is truly disappointing. I am grateful there was a heated spa at my hotel to care for the soreness in my body and a masseuse I will likely seek when I get home.