City Cruises — Attraction in Ontario

5-hour Boldt Castle cruise scheduled to leave at 9:30 am on July 5, 2025 was cancelled by email on July 4th at 3:15 pm. This would be fine, except that with such short notice, I wasn’t able to cancel my hotel booking, nor was I able to book anything else, be it, another cruise or tourism experience. After a round of very impersonal email communication by some customer service rep who never identified themselves, I was left with an option to re-book or receive a refund. I opted for the refund as I have no interest in supporting this company in the future. My frustration is due to the unreasonably late cancellation for ‘boat maintenance’, offering to re-book me in for a different cruise option - which neither of them included the castle stop - the only reason for the cruise to begin with, and the lack of empathy from the agent. When you don’t give ample notice of a cancellation, that comes with additional financial implications. I get it, things happen, equipment fails… look, I’m not expecting them to pay for the cost of the hotel, but I am expecting something more than ‘we can can schedule you in for something you didn’t purchase in the first place or get your money back for the cruise’. Even if it’s a more personalized response from the support team… literally anything. Those answers are adequate for a cancellation for more than 24 hours notice and the fact that they aren’t acknowledging the situation they have left us in, is - in my mind, frustrating and disrespectful. The coordination and planning it took for us to get away for the weekend is the reason we cannot just ‘reschedule’, especially considering I could not move the hotel booking. This mini getaway was to celebrate my husband’s birthday and has quickly just turned into us aimlessly searching for additional activities, mostly of which have been walking around downtown because everything is already booked up. I’m sure the cruise is nice if you are actually able to participate in it. But who knows, they might just cancel your trip with less than 24 hours notice, leaving you in the same...

Simply wonderful! Headed out on the 2.5 hour cruise which makes its way through US waters too. It’s called the Lost Ships of the 1000 Islands Cruise. You pass so many gorgeous islands, it makes you look at island reality later! There was a lot of fascinating history to learn, and each spot with a lost, sunken ship was displayed on a tv screen. It was difficult to run back to the tv screen each time they spoke of one and hard to see the screen with the reflections of light all around- perhaps the company can add more tv screens in the future, and extra prompts like, “We are nearly at the A. E. Vickery shipwreck of 1861, come gather round the tv screens to see the side-scan sonar images” or something along those lines. The best view by far was that of Boldt Castle and its beautiful yet somewhat tragic end in 1904. The boat goes around the island twice. It’s breathtaking! George Boldt was the president of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Company from 1897-1916. He built the castle for his wife Louise, with whom he loved so dearly- talk about soulmates! For pandemic safety issues, social distancing is practised. You are required to wear a mask at all times unless you are eating. There’s a little canteen aboard the ship, serves a nice smoked meat sandwich, amongst other snacks. Altogether, it was a great experience, deserves 5 stars but I’ve put 4 only because if the lack of tv screens to view the shipwrecks, or not enough prompting to come and view them onscreen- as the ships’ pictures are shown for only a couple of seconds. For any history buff, I urge you to visit the 1000 Islands History Museum afterwards and the Boat Museum; they are within walking distance, parking is $5 on the lot if you don’t find a spot along the street! Gift shop is lovely too and you can get some quality souvenirs for less than...

My wife and I decided, on the spur of the moment, to experience the 1000 Island Tour, 5 hour duration, with a stop at Boldt Castle. It was booked on our cell phone, while the car was in motion, making details more difficult to read. I was driving, she was on the phone. Imagine our surprise, when, after paying for the booking, we discovered that 1) you needed a passport 2) you can only cancel within 24 hours of the booking! Okay, we booked at 10 am, and the tour started at 9:30 the next day. So, my wife attempted to cancel the booking. The fun starts here. Over 1 hour was spent on the phone. City Cruises said you booked through GetYourGuide, so they have to handle the cancellation. GetYourGuide said they would not cancel, because of their policy! City Cruises would not let us reschedule to a less costly tour, that did not include the stop at Boldt castle, even though they offer 2 shorter and less costly cruises, which we were willing accept. We were willing to accept either of the lower priced cruises at the higher price. I wonder, what would it have cost either of these businesses to offer us the less costly option? Also, our friends who are in the travel business, IATA agents, were shocked that at the time of booking that a message was not clearly displayed stating Passport Required for Boarding, instead of having that stipulation stated much lower on the page. I am unimpressed with the inflexibility of both companies insistence that they could not reschedule us! The booking process should have a pop up window that clearly states a valid passport or Nexus card is mandatory at time of boarding. I wonder, how many people are burned ( left stranded at the dock with no refund ) each year by these 2 companies? If my wife ever sees the 1000 Islands, it will not involve...