For the travel plan to be under the name "Greyhound", there's a distinct lack of those buses that…read moreactually existed.
Allow me to elaborate. Yesterday, 8/6/2016, I had set up a ticket to take me from Santa Maria, Ca to Dickinson, ND. What we were told, since I had to have a friend purchase the ticket for me, being broke, was that all I required was the confirmation number and the password in case. I was ensured by Greyhound staff, that not having the physical ticket wasn't a problem.
The bus that comes to pick me up at 7AM, not only was not a Greyhound Bus, but they also had no way of taking my number. Thankfully, that employee was a kind man and he allowed me to figure things out. Apparently, this isn't the first time it's happened.
On this bus, and the website says, free wifi, power outlets and plenty of leg space. I only had wifi. They largely over exaggerated the leg space. It's no more than a standard bus seating arrangement and the wifi constantly blacked out and would not let me access Youtube. Upon troubleshooting, come to find out, Youtube was being purposefully blocked by their routers. I don't know why and it's a small thing inevitably, but this isn't where it ends.
I go to my first transfer in Hanford and yet another bus of the same type is there to pick me up. She was brought up to speed on my issue already, so she already knew what to do. I had to go to Visalia, which was on the route anyway, to get a ticket printed and tags for my luggage. So fine, we get it done, it's good, no worries right?
Wrong! The very next stop, we were given a lunch break and she said 30 minutes. That was enough time for me to track down lunch, only to see her leaving 10 MINUTES EARLY! As I friggin got back to the station, I see her pulling out. I then spent the next ten to fifteen minutes talking with a manager, who managed to get her to turn around. The woman then proceeded to treat me with disrespect and contempt, reminding me at each break of what I supposedly did to offend her. That pissed me off and because of it, I have been leery of leaving the bus ever since, unless food was literally right next to the buses.
I then spent the next ten or so hours on hard iron, bloody benches at a layoff drop in Las Vegas. It was not comfortable, people and their luggage was cramped and the people there did not speak nearly loud enough or clearly enough to give proper direction. Several people including myself had to ask repeated times on our directions so we didn't screw up.
When it finally came down to transfer, I finally get on an ACTUAL Greyhound bus and it was, admittedly, a nice improvement overall. The promised power outlets were on each seat and the wifi, of which I am currently using in the last leg of my trip. It was better, but for some reason Youtube was still blocked and I cant find a reason why. Regardless though...
I can understand if this was some cheap transportation system from town to town, no more than maybe $100 total. But the tickets are expensive, especially for what I needed. My friend ended up purchasing the most expensive ticket because of the priority boarding (which didnt matter for most of my trip) and the two free bags.
In short, the money was not worth it. The accommodations are not comfortable, the layaway times in my mind are simply preposterous and in the future, I'm gonna do my best to fly instead of using the Greyhound. My trip is supposed to 64 hours, but it is more than likely going to be around 70. I would rather toss the extra hundred dollars and fly to my destination, in comfort, under 8-9 hours.
I wholly recommend against Greyhound unless you have no better option.
