Flagship Amsterdam - Canal Cruise - Central Station — Attraction in Amsterdam

I booked the first canal tour of the day (at 10am) with Flagship Tours from Central Station because I had an afternoon flight from Schiphol. The night before the tour, they texted me that the boat had broken down and I could either do a 10am tour from the Anne Frank House (which was considerably further from my hotel) or a 10:30am tour from Central Station. It was a tight fit with my schedule, but I reluctantly chose the Anne Frank House. At the time of the tour, the boat and personnel were nowhere to be seen. Finally, a university-aged employee showed and informed my family and I that there was no 10am tour from the Anne Frank House, there was never a 10am tour, and she was sorry but all we could do was wait for 10:30am or ask for a refund at the nearby office. At the office, the employee processed our refund but was completely unsympathetic.

This tour company doubly wronged us. If they had informed us that there was no 10:00am tour anywhere, we could have booked a tour with a different provider. And by directing us to the Anne Frank House, they ensured that we couldn’t attempt a 10:30am tour from Central Station (which we maybe could’ve squeezed in). We were thus unable to do a canal tour of Amsterdam. I am devastated: we are Americans for whom coming to Europe is time-consuming, expensive, and consequently infrequent. Through Flagship Tour’s dishonesty and dishonorable behavior, we were deprived of the canal tour opportunity. Their refund was a plainly inadequate remedy.

Avoid this company...

TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT Wrote a 1-star review about yesterday's evening cruise and now must add details about another disappointing SAIL out cruise today. Evenig cruise: Very disappointed with our yesterday's SAIL cruise. Was supposed to be 1 hour evening cruise by the tall ships but instead was only 45 minutes of which 10 minutes around canals (???) and just in front of Amsterdam tower to see fireworks! If only I knew it was "fireworks cruise", would not have booked it. This is a special event and you must understand customer expectations and inform them accordingly about what's included. Not to mention 30 min wait and chaotic organisation of crowds at the pier. SAIL out cruise: delayed by 15 minutes because we were waiting for drinks to be brought on board, so missed some ships sailing out. Then we sailed in opposite direction to see nothing (!?), then slowing sailing after the last tall ship going out of the city. And this was in less than 1 h from the start of the cruise! Then we turned around (as the last ship is out and we are too slow to go after it) and continued sailing around Central Station. Eventually the cruise took 1.5h instead of 2h. 100 euro to see...

I’m rating this cruise with 3 stars because I feel pretty neutral about the experience. I don’t feel like I wasted my money but it’s not what I expected. The staff were very friendly when we boarded the boat. I was disappointed with the number of people they crammed into the boat. Twice they added people after the captain had already started preparing to leave. One of the reasons we chose this company was because their boats were smaller and people didn’t seem so crowded. When I booked the cruise it was booked as a historical canal cruise with an English speaking guide. The captain spoke Very good English but only talked for about a total of 5 minutes during the entire one hour cruise. We were seated at the front of the boat about as far from him as you could be. The people seated next to him engaged him in conversation for most of the cruise. I think they were asking pertinent questions and he was pointing and answering their questions. We were too far away with too many people in between to ask any questions. So if you want a nice quiet cruise this one would be great for you. If you want to learn about Amsterdam and the canals maybe try...