Last year - about this time, my ex-wife and daughter took one of these trips. A whole week!!!
She asked me iffn I wanted to go with them. I declined. (No way in Hell wuz I gonna be 'trapped' on a bus full of JWs!!)
Anyway - she and my daughter - did the 'tourist' thing in New York - I think that they even went to Washington D.C. as part of the trip - and saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian Institute - etc.
When she got back, in one of our discussions - I was thinking aloud, and said how it would be cool to take a bus trip to Mexico - Laredo, TX - and then walk across the border to shop.
She said, (and I quote) "Oh. I don't think I would ever want to take a bus trip unless it was full of JW's."
Well... I think that was the straw that broke the camels' back. About 6 months later, I filed for divorce.
She is a hypocrite. She forgot back in 1985 or '86 - the time we took a bus trip to NASA in Houston, TX - 2 busses - and she and my daughter (well, plus her two brothers) were the only JWs out of approximately 80 folks - and she had a good time then.
Grrrr!!!
I'll pass. I don't have a desire to go to look at 'bethel' - or any of those things.
Regards,
Jim TX
P.S. I _did_ go on a 'bethel' tour - in about 1975 - or so. It wasn't a 'bus tour' though - and we flew up thar. I think that is a much better way to do it. I was a JW then, and so had a blast - but it wuz the 'company' that went that made it fun... not necessarily the folks there in New York. We also toured their 'farm'... (Walkill??) it wuz kinda new at that time - and isolated, too.