I have been my own tour guide in Las Vegas for well over 30 years. I've really enjoyed my backstage tours of shows and the Seqway tours, as well as stuff the neon boneyard tour. I've never taken a Hoover Dam tour or anything like that...until now.

I don't like the idea of a bus load of tourists. When I saw a Groupon for Comedy On Deck Tours, I decided to take a chance. This is a very small, family owned company with 3 or 4 vehicles and less than 10 employees total.

The 16 passenger bus picked me up at the Stratosphere and 8 others at the Excalibur. So out of the 9 of us, 3 of us were on a Hoover Dam, breakfast, museum, boat tour, and the other 6 were on an express Hoover Dam tour. The three of us picked out our breakfast from a small menu and the tour guide ordered it over the phone during the bus ride.

So the bus dropped off the 3 of us and a tour guide at the Boulder City Hotel, and took the other to the dam for the full dam tour. We had a nice breakfast that just about ready when we arrived. After breakfast, they opened the museum up to us, which is inside of the hotel, and the tour guide gave us a tour of the Hoover Dam Museum. After the museum, we went to the dam, where the other group had just finished the dam tour. Then the tour guide gave us all an over the top tour of the dam, as we walked across it.

After the top of the dam tour, we got in the bus and went to the Desert Princess paddlewheel boat where the 3 of us got off and took a boat ride, while the tour guide rode with the 6 others back to their hotel and came back for us.

The paddleboat tour was nice. There were at least two other big bus loads of people and some smaller tour guests on the boat too. It was a beautiful day, with no wind and temps in the upper 70s. The boat has a restaurant deck on the first floor, a bar and snack bar on the second floor, and the third floor is top deck and is not covered. The boat has 2 diesel motors that never got over 1000 rpm as we slowly made our way around to the dam and back. It was very peaceful and smooth. There were big horn sheep on the mountains. I enjoyed the 90 minute round trip.

I went up to and talked to the captain and drove the ship a little. He was a retired aircraft mechanic, and just did this a few days a week.

The worst part about the boat ride is that they played a very dry narration of the history of the area, the formation of the river and the people who settled in the area. I would have much rather had my comedian tour guide talking to us. I did complain to my tour guide that I bought a Comedy On Deck tour and there was no comedy on the deck of the ship.

When we got back to the dock, our tour guide was waiting on us and took us back to our hotels. We got back about 3:00pm. I think this tour normally sells for about $150, and I got it for about $50. I don't know if that's a bargain or not. It was nice not having to drive, it was nice that it was a small personable company, it was nice to have an enthusiastic tour guide. I found their logistics interesting of how they drop a group off here, take the others there, come back and pick up these people, drop others off, etc. It all worked out really well.

I think I would recommend this to friends that wanted a tour along these lines. If they come out with another Groupon for a Grand Canyon or other tour, I'll probably buy one.

I did learn a memorable fun fact on top of the dam. There is a mens rest room in one of those old towers on the dam. It has two urinals. This was originally a Womens rest room, and those were female urinals. The tour guide explained how they worked, I went and checked them out, and sure enough.....it's designed for lady in a dress to raise her dress, drop her bloomers, walk over the urinal and do her thing. Okay, it was a little creepy. OTOH, it is history and makes a good fun fact.