So the tour that got jacked up was in the states???

Regarding getting here - it happened mostly as planned.

In NYC, we had a transfer from Laguardia to JFK.  Since we had 4 hours, we decided to get a cab instead of a shuttle and go into Mahattan for a brief tour.  There was a uniformed cab official that asked the cab driver to give us a sightseeing tour and then take us to JFK.  We both heard him ask the guy.

I don't think our cab driver spoke much English, because he drove us straight to JFK in record time.  I was saying to Allie - I don't know much about this area but we are not going towards Manhattan.  She said it was fine, it was unplanned and we would laugh about it later.  The only redeeming quality was that we got there so fast it cost us less than a shuttle would have.