Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty Tour

Arrived at the meeting point and 1 guide was there waiting. Easy check in and given a wrist band. Another guide arrived later and informed us that due to laws they couldn’t guide us or give us information so if we wanted to know anything we had to ask park rangers. This was sold as a tour however despite the guides being friendly and guiding us onto the ferry this was not a guided tour. It was a ferry trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island and then left to our own devices. Could have saved money and just bought ferry tickets.

BEWARE. This is a SCAM. We booked via Viator and 1) they never showed; 2) when they finally called after multiples calls (I think they'd just gotten word that we were seeking a refund from Viator), they pretended like we were the ones who were at fault and missed our guide; 3) they tried to upsell us to buy later tickets. You can ONLY buy tickets through the National Park Service.

This is a SCAM. Do not book. We waited at the appointed time and hour to be met by our tour guide, getting a little more worried as the minutes passed. Earlier that morning, the operator had texted and emailed asking if we could do another time. I let them know that we didn't have flexibility during our short trip and asked if we were still on for our originally booked time. They reassured me that yes, the tour would continue. Well, they never showed up, and all of my calls went to voicemail and texts to a "dispatch center" that couldn't help. We called Viator for a refund after waiting for 30 mins, and soon after, received a call back from the operator saying that WE had missed checking in, and that they would help us, out of the goodness of their hearts, if we paid them an additional $30 per person. I was amazed at how professional the person on the phone sounded, but she was clearly just trying to get more money from us, and this time outside of the Viator network. (I also confirmed it was a scam when I noticed that the official National Park Service ticket booth requires an ID for each reserved passenger, and Viator/this operator only asked for the number of guests and no names.). I am writing this review because of how frustrating this experience was, and also because we saw so many groups of people looking frantic at our meeting spot while we were calling Viator's customer service for a refund. I spoke with a young family from Italy who were crushed that they'd been tricked the same way that we were. You can ONLY buy tickets through the National Park Service, and yet, the these scam artists are all over Viator, other booking websites, and everywhere in the ferry area, wearing official-looking vests. Viator should do better in its quality control of its partner. These scam operators should be ashamed of themselves.