Flagship Amsterdam - Canal Cruise - Anne Frank — Attraction in Amsterdam

We were disappointed with this tour in general, but mainly because of several disruptive passengers and the crew's ineffectiveness at handling a large tour group. There were a total of 30 passengers on our tour, which included a group of 8 loud and obnoxious German guys on a stag party. Right from the beginning they disrupted the tour for everyone else. They were demanding drinks from the tour guide/bartender, ordering time-consuming mojitos and then complaining when they got too many regular mojitos and not enough of the berry mojitos they had ordered. They were really giving the poor guide/bartender a hard time, taking up all his time and preventing him from getting drinks for the other 22 passengers, my wife and I included. It took no less than 20 minutes of the one-hour tour to deal with these 8 German guys, and then other passengers started ordering mojitos, too, which took even more time. All the while the guide was trying to actually give a tour and tell us interesting historical facts about Amsterdam, mixing mojitos and dealing with the loud Germans. Then it turned out there was a group of women towards the back of the boat who had paid for an unlimited drink package, but by the time the guide/bartender got to them, we were already about 30-40 minutes into the tour and they hadn’t even gotten their first drink. So they were pissed off and started complaining to the guide about how he was handling the whole situation. At that point, about 45 minutes in, he basically just gave up on giving a tour and tried to just get people drinks as fast as possible. You could tell he was just beaten down by all of these rude, obnoxious, and angry passengers. It was a lose-lose situation for him.

It’s important to emphasize that the tour guide himself was very good, and shouldn’t be blamed for the disappointing experience. He was friendly and knowledgeable, and really did the best he could in a bad situation. The tour route was also very good; we saw a lot of the city from a perspective you don’t get from the street.

But this tour company, Flagship, seems to have set the guide up for failure. It’s true he probably could have done some things differently to manage the situation better, such as taking beer and wine orders first to get more people drinks quickly, and then deal with the more time-consuming mojitos and other cocktails later. He also probably could have been a bit faster with the drink mixing, but even the world’s fastest bartender would have a hard time making the 15 or so mojitos he was asked to make quickly while still giving a tour.

The company itself is to blame, and it’s their job to set things up so everyone has a good time. Some suggestions for improvement could be:

the boat's captain should deal with disruptive passengers

have another person on the boat to handle bartending while the guide focuses on the tour

take drink orders earlier so that people can get their drinks while the tour is starting

limit the drinks menu to include only easy-to-serve drinks like beer and wine

do not offer an unlimited drinks package, since it was impossible for the guide/bartender to get anyone more than one drink (I’m glad my wife and I didn’t pay for that)

not take as many passengers if you’re also planning on keeping the drinks flowing

It’s a good thing the tour tickets were only about $25 US, otherwise this experience would have felt like a bigger waste of money. The boat ride through the city was the only good part about this. Next time my wife and I visit Amsterdam we’re going to look for a different canal...

We booked the cruise for 8pm. We hurried to come at the meeting point as instructed. When we arrive, we were told that the 8pm cruise will be moved to 830pm because there was a fault in the boat. There was no notification or email to inform us in advance! We could have done something else with our time… but hey, they offered us if we want to join the other 8pm cruise, its just that instead of unlimited cheese, we will only get a snack—and UNLIMITED drinks of course. So because we are already there, we agreed.

So the cruise began… but shortly after about 5 minutes, their boat had a problem with the steering wheel! Surprise surprise!!! We were stuck on the canal side for 20-30 minutes! The staff and captain handled it well—sure. But, the mere fact that their other boat had a problem beforehand, it was soooo irresponsible of them not to inspect the other boat that’s about to cruise!!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

So, to make other passengers happy, they opened the bar for everyone, even without the unlimited drinks voucher—which is good! They looked after the people. But hey, 3 serves of apperol spritz, they have nothing left. I heard the staff also asked two gentlemen to fight over a ginger beer! And when the asian lady asked for a drink, the staff said, i cant give you anything anymore as nothing’s left—the asian was wearing an orange band which means she should have unlimited drinks!

Funny they asked people if they want to give them tip for their service 🤣😀😆

Bottomline, my advice is DO NOT Book with this company! Boats are UNRELIABLE! Selling LIMITED drinks at “UNLIMITED” prices! Go somewhere else. Thats the reason why...

I joined the Cookie Boat Tour and it was honestly one of the worst tours I’ve ever taken. A large number of cookies were loaded onto the boat, but instead of being shared with paying customers, many were eaten by the staff themselves or handed out for free to their friends waiting on shore. The one cookie I received contained salted caramel, which I’m allergic to. When I asked to change it, I was told it was impossible and that everyone only gets one chance — even though there were plenty of cookies left in the basket.

The tour itself had zero value: no information about the surroundings, no storytelling, nothing cultural or historical. The staff were extremely inexperienced and spent most of their time pushing for tips. They even directly asked several of us whether we had cash to give them — which felt very uncomfortable and unprofessional.

On top of that, the tour started 20 minutes late and ended earlier than scheduled. When we asked why, the staff casually said it was the last tour of the day and they wanted to go home. Completely unacceptable.

I originally joined because I was excited about the cookies, but I couldn’t eat mine and therefore didn’t buy more. The whole experience seemed designed around staff trying to collect tips rather than delivering a proper service.

Later, I booked a tour with another company and it was fantastic — proving how bad this one truly was. Overall, a total disappointment and waste of money. I do not recommend this...