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I'm currently in the middle of a well-deserved vacation in Las Vegas (I like to call it 'Lost Wages!'), and yesterday I took a bus trip to the Grand Canyon. It was an amazing experience - you get to see Hoover Dam on the way, the bus takes you from the Strip through Joshua tree forests and chapparal country and sparsely-populated towns of trailers and ramshackle tin huts that look like a cross between Breaking Bad and Lovecraft, the tour guide was very professional and had lots of interesting information to share, and I even got to walk out on the transparent glass sidewalk hanging out over the canyon edge. There was, however, one aspect of the trip that was not so great.
Once the bus gets to the canyon, you're more or less on your own to roam the grounds on your own, have your lunch, hike, take selfies two feet from the cliff edge, or what have you. The tour guide announced multiple times before arrival - at least five times that I remember - that you were responsible for making it back to the bus no later than 1:30 so that everyone could get back to Vegas on time. By 12:45 I'd seen all I needed to see and got back to the bus. At 1:30, (almost) everyone was there, and the tour guide did a headcount. Then he left the bus and came back 10 minutes later and did another headcount. Then he left again, came back 15 minutes later, and did another headcount, and then made this announcement:
TG: We're four people short, ladies and gentlemen, so I'm going to take roll call. We'll start with the parties of four - Customer, first name Sucky?
(no response)
TG: Customer, Sucky, staying at the Gilton Hrand? Anyone from this party?
(no response)
Surprisingly, he had got it in one, and yes, the entire party was missing.
TG: I've got their phone number, let's give them a call.
(Surprisingly enough, yes, you can get cell phone service at the Grand Canyon with most carriers these days, but good luck getting a data connection.)
He calls them. No answer. He leaves a message. And then he leaves to look for them again.
At 2:15, now 45 minutes past departure time, he comes back again emptyhanded, leaves another message, and makes an announcement.
TG: We're still missing the Customers. I know some of you are thinking we should just leave now anyway, but we can't do that yet - it opens us up to litigation, there's nowhere to stay out here, no alternate transportation, you know the rest of the story. I have checked all the gift shops, I've checked the helicopter terminal, I've alerted security and they are checking at the rim, and I've left several messages. I'm gonna take one last look around for them, and one way or another we ought to be back on the Strip no later than 5.
He finally comes back at 2:35, leading a mother and three kids in tow, who get onboard without apologizing to anyone and bickering to the driver that NOBODY TOLD THEM they had to be back at a certain time.
We eventually made it back to the Strip at 5:30, a good hour and a half behind schedule. It just boggles my mind how people could pay so little attention to a tour they PAID to be on, especially one which is taking them into an uninhabited desert and which is their only lifeline back to civilized lands. Or did they just expect that the bus and everyone on it would just sit there all day and all night until they FELT like going back, because surely none of those people had plans or anything, right? (I personally had to cancel my reservation at Gordon Ramsay's steakhouse, but I still managed to get into another steakhouse that was good, though probably not as good.) And of course, as the tour guide mentioned while waiting on them, this was hardly the first time it's happened in his ten years doing tours.
Once the bus gets to the canyon, you're more or less on your own to roam the grounds on your own, have your lunch, hike, take selfies two feet from the cliff edge, or what have you. The tour guide announced multiple times before arrival - at least five times that I remember - that you were responsible for making it back to the bus no later than 1:30 so that everyone could get back to Vegas on time. By 12:45 I'd seen all I needed to see and got back to the bus. At 1:30, (almost) everyone was there, and the tour guide did a headcount. Then he left the bus and came back 10 minutes later and did another headcount. Then he left again, came back 15 minutes later, and did another headcount, and then made this announcement:
TG: We're four people short, ladies and gentlemen, so I'm going to take roll call. We'll start with the parties of four - Customer, first name Sucky?
(no response)
TG: Customer, Sucky, staying at the Gilton Hrand? Anyone from this party?
(no response)
Surprisingly, he had got it in one, and yes, the entire party was missing.
TG: I've got their phone number, let's give them a call.
(Surprisingly enough, yes, you can get cell phone service at the Grand Canyon with most carriers these days, but good luck getting a data connection.)
He calls them. No answer. He leaves a message. And then he leaves to look for them again.
At 2:15, now 45 minutes past departure time, he comes back again emptyhanded, leaves another message, and makes an announcement.
TG: We're still missing the Customers. I know some of you are thinking we should just leave now anyway, but we can't do that yet - it opens us up to litigation, there's nowhere to stay out here, no alternate transportation, you know the rest of the story. I have checked all the gift shops, I've checked the helicopter terminal, I've alerted security and they are checking at the rim, and I've left several messages. I'm gonna take one last look around for them, and one way or another we ought to be back on the Strip no later than 5.
He finally comes back at 2:35, leading a mother and three kids in tow, who get onboard without apologizing to anyone and bickering to the driver that NOBODY TOLD THEM they had to be back at a certain time.
We eventually made it back to the Strip at 5:30, a good hour and a half behind schedule. It just boggles my mind how people could pay so little attention to a tour they PAID to be on, especially one which is taking them into an uninhabited desert and which is their only lifeline back to civilized lands. Or did they just expect that the bus and everyone on it would just sit there all day and all night until they FELT like going back, because surely none of those people had plans or anything, right? (I personally had to cancel my reservation at Gordon Ramsay's steakhouse, but I still managed to get into another steakhouse that was good, though probably not as good.) And of course, as the tour guide mentioned while waiting on them, this was hardly the first time it's happened in his ten years doing tours.
Basically, we were missing most of the passengers from the plane.
)
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