| Rating |
Date Attended [v] |
Reviewer |
Gender |
Age |
Where From? |
Group Type? |
|
Must be seen to be believed
|
| Sun, Dec 14, 08 7:00 PM |
alexismucha |
Female |
20-29 |
Combination |
Family Without Children |
| One of a kind experience. At first I was unsure what the tour would be like and how you'd actually see the lights from the bus windows. However, that was unfounded as the bus does stop in areas with concentrated lights to allow everyone to get off and look closer and take photos. Tony our guide was very real and enthusiastic and knowledgeable giving just enough commentary as he pointed out the different neightborhoods from the Gowanus expressway and talked about the lighted houses as we drove by. I thought the tour was the easiest, quickest, and most relaxing way to make sure that you saw all the highlights of the decorated houses in Dyker Heights |
|
|
beautiful lights
|
| Sun, Dec 14, 08 7:00 PM |
JoanneD |
Female |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| This tour was wonderful, tony was a great tour guide. The homes were decorated so beautifully. It was just amazing and magical. I would recommend this tour to everyone. |
|
disappointed with the optional stop
|
| Sat, Dec 13, 08 7:00 PM |
bxw2721 |
Female |
50-59 |
Local |
Group of Friends |
| Bus : great and I'm glad he had gotten the larger-size bus that knees.
Bus driver: great & able to make those tight turns plus knows his way around.
Video presentation: great.
Audio: disappointed that we were not able to connect the radio channel to be in sync with the lights at the final house, hence a disappointing finale.
Optional: Mona Lisa Bakery: very poor rating. [ I would add that we have some in our group that had lived in Europe, been to Italy and grew up in NYC's Little Italy!]
Lousy food, bad service, but large cups of coffee.
Guide: OK, but can show a bit more enthusiam and passion. Some bare facts had already been mentioned on the other tours.
[ FYI, these are the usual specific comments that we ask our travellers]
I am a professional Travel Agent with over 20 years of experience.
Sincerely, Linda Loo |
|
Fun trip, but overpriced
|
| Fri, Dec 12, 08 7:00 PM |
lsiebenhaar |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Group of Friends |
| Much of your experience will depend on where you call home and what you are used to seeing at Christmastime. We live in Utah where electricity is cheap and there are single-family houses galore. A large majority of the population decorates their houses with Christmas lights. Thus, we felt like this excursion merely showed us the same things we can see by driving around our home, but at a rather costly price.
However, we must say that if you live in a big city such as Manhatten, where there are few homes, this would be quite a scene. There were people on our bus from Australia who loved it and took 10 photos of each house.
One hint for Tony, if you're going to play vintage Christmas music, turn it down a bit. It was obnoxious after a while. |
|
|
Cold enough, but no snow
|
| Fri, Dec 12, 08 7:00 PM |
dickc240 |
Male |
70+ |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| My wife and I took this tour December 12, 2008. It was cold ! If only it had snowed. On this night Tony was filming with Samantha Brown for the travel channel so we started out with Uncle Louie. It was my wifes birthday and the entire crew of the bus knew that ahead of time. Made her feel great.
Tony was able to join us about half way through the tour in Bay Ridge. We then went on to Dyker Heights. The light were "over the top"
This is something everyone should do. It is hard to believe that so many people could get involved with decorating their homes to the degree we saw.
We took the Pizza tour and the Lights tour on the same day. That's a whole day and an evening spent in Brooklyn. We feel like natives.
Thanks Tony !
Dick and Vera Compton
Walnut Creek, CA |
|
|
Brooklyn in a new light (Christmas that is....)
|
| Sun, Dec 7, 08 7:00 PM |
jcm1967 |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Other |
| We had a wonderful time viewing the Holiday Lights of Brooklyn. Our guide was very enthusiastic and knowledgable and also sensative to and accomodating of our issues with the "cold" weather last Sunday night. The light displays were fantastic!!! We would definitely recommend it. |
|
|
Christmas lights, SNOW and Tony...fantastic!
|
| Sat, Dec 6, 08 7:00 PM |
texasgals |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Group of Friends |
| This tour was one of the top highlights of our week long stay in New York! As two best friends from Texas celebrating 40+ years of friendship, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect evening. Tony, our guide, along with Big Mike as helper, were just fantastic....so personable and fun! The videos which explained the origin of the Christmas lights was a nice (and helpful) touch, and we enjoyed the really great Christmas music that Tony was playing on the bus. We had the BEST group of fellow passengers onboard....really fun and enthusiastic crowd! But the crowning touch was that it began to snow as we drove into Dyker Heights....I realize the tour company had nothing to do with the weather...haha!...but it was almost like out of a movie....walking around the neighborhood, viewing the Christmas lights, in the falling snow! Fantastic!! We got to stop at the Mona Lisa bakery on the return trip and then Tony showed us some old TV Christmas specials that were just great and brought back so many memories of past Christmases with family and friends. We would HIGHLY recommend this tour to anyone who loves Christmas, Christmas lights and just "getting into the holiday spirit"!! Thanks, Tony and Mike....you're the BEST!!! |
|
|
Good time, good lights, Good stories!
|
| Sat, Dec 6, 08 7:00 PM |
jeanniew |
Female |
20-29 |
Local |
Couple on a Date |
| The tour showed beautiful houses decorated wonderfuly, but also gave interesting history about the nieghborhoods and the people that lived there. The tour leaders were very friendly, funny and showed us a good time. |
|
|
Brilliant Festive Tour!
|
| Sat, Dec 6, 08 7:00 PM |
helendickers |
Female |
30-39 |
International Tourist(s) |
Individual |
| This was a really good tour, I recommend it to anyone. I was travelling alone but it was a really safe and friendly tour. The guides were fantastic and entertaining and the coach was comfortable and the driver was great, even navigating round the smaller streets of Brooklyn. There was some great entertainment in the coach in the form of a documentary about the Dyker Heights/Bay Ridge lights. The lights themselves when we got there were awesome. It even started snowing which added to the festive feel. After a good look round at the lights we were taken to Mona Lisa cafe so we could buy a coffee and cake. |
|
|
Excellent lights tour!
|
| Fri, Dec 5, 08 7:00 PM |
MWillcox |
Female |
30-39 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Individual |
| This tour is just as good as the pizza tour that Tony does. The lights we saw were fantastic. I grew up in places where people went all out, but what they do in Brooklyn is nothing like I've seen before. It's crazy, ridiculous, fantastic - but great!
Just bundle up if it's a cold night so you don't end up back on the bus (like a few on our tour ended up doing). You don't want to miss out. There isn't a lot of walking, but there is a point where you do walk a little bit to see some of the places that the shuttle doesn't take you too.
Enjoy! 100% recommended (and definitely take the pizza tour also if you haven't done so). |
