City Cruises — Attraction in Chicago

Sad to have to rate this one star. I have been on this ship twice before. But both times around 10 years ago. I had nice experiences then.

This experience was not nice. My wife's cousin just got married a few hours earlier in the day. A party of 12 came to the Odyssey for a nighttime firework cruise. Set to sail at 8pm.

When we were boarding the boat, the boat worker lady checked her paper for our group and said she had our group of 12 marked down and to proceed onboard to the host stand. We get to the host stand, which is on the 2nd floor (important later) and are brought to a table. The table had 6 seats, we need 12. Our group was not large compared to others either. There were many other groups of 10 and 12. Anyways, they somehow messed up and had our table wrong. We end up on the lower 1st floor. Both floors look about the same, but there were some issues with the lower floor. For one, it is much cooler in temperature than the 2nd floor. But the main thing was the smell. Luckily, you couldn't smell it much at your seats. But if you went to the back stairs to go up to the deck, or went down the stairs to the bathroom, the smell was unbearable. Sewage smell that was so bad I took about 5 steps down the stairs towards the bathroom, and had to turn around because I became nauseous. Although I had 4 beers on board, I didn't use the restroom a single time. I would have thrown up if I got any close to the door; I never even got inside the bathroom. A friend in my group who was brave enough to go use it, also said it was really bad. Also, there was water dripping down from the 2nd floor. There was a table by the entrance door that was in a section not being used. Because there was a consistent water leak dripping into a jug.

Ok so now for the food. That was a complete disaster. Ship departed at 8, fireworks are at 10. I don't know why they didn't serve our table well. All workers were nice, everything was great in terms of atmosphere. But, we noticed every other table had got their food. Then we noticed every other table had eaten and had their food cleared. We had not yet got our food. We noticed this as it was happening, and asked several times what was happening. Always being told, "it will be out in a minute". As for the timing of the food, long story short, we were served very late, and ended up missing most of the 10 minutes firework show.

But missing the fireworks wasn't the biggest problem with the food. The food was. I don't think one person said one good thing about a single item. We tried every item on the menu between us all. The soup was cold, the salmon was cold, the steak was cold and raw, the salad dressing was not liked, the side dishes lacked flavor, the dessert was meh, the drinks were weak.

And for the service. Although super friendly the whole time when speaking and at our table, they simply did not provide good service. Obviously the late food is one part. But, rarely coming back to ask if we needed anything. Not clearing the table; every other table got cleared fast upon finishing their meals, most before we even got served our meal. Our empty plates were sitting there for half an hour at least. My wife actually stopped another waiter she saw working on some other tables. She had been watching an comparing him to our waitress. She told him how good of a job he is doing and she wishes we had him. He actually was the one that right then initiated clearing our table.

I'd come back and give it another try in the future, but probably won't be for a good while. Hopefully it will improve. This was Saturday the 28th...

CAUTION - DO NOT ORGANIZE YOUR EVENT HERE!

This proved to be an utterly disastrous experience, particularly considering the substantial sum of $10,000 we expended for a private event hosting 50 individuals. The organizational lapses were shockingly prevalent, and the inadequacies in management were glaringly evident at every level, including the Chicago Area General Manager.

The ordeal commenced with the pre-boarding phase, where it became immediately apparent that the tables and chairs were haphazardly arranged. Despite our insistence, the correction of this issue was not efficiently executed, with the explanation being a shortage of team members available to address the matter promptly.

As our guests embarked, the bartender failed to provide drinks promptly, instructing guests to await the servers for their orders. The service was excruciatingly slow, with each person enduring a wait exceeding 10 minutes. Consequently, we were left without any beverages until 2.5 hours into the 3-hour cruise—an immensely embarrassing situation in front of our guests.

The wait staff, clearly inexperienced and uncoordinated, struggled with order processing. The extended intervals between services prompted some guests to step out for photographs, further highlighting the disarray. Additionally, the DJ, seemingly redundant for a Spotify playlist, remained secluded at the back, contributing nothing of value.

The food fell significantly below expectations. Numerous guests opted to abandon their meals, later expressing their dissatisfaction with the lackluster quality. Despite our repeated requests to sample the food beforehand, we were not granted the opportunity, and assurances of a delightful culinary experience went unfulfilled. Regrettably, the food turned out to be bland and utterly devoid of taste.

Despite specific requests for lighting and ambiance, the agreed-upon color scheme was inexplicably reverted to default settings shortly into the event—an unexplained and unsettling deviation from our specifications.

To compound the evening's disappointments, we were informed that docking would occur at 10:00, only to find ourselves docked at 9:45. This unexpected early conclusion, coupled with delays in food service, deprived us of the opportunity for observatory photos while cruising, limiting our photographic memories to the docked phase.

Upon raising our concerns with Manager Becca Kerry and the General Area Manager Grace Fuller, the proposed resolution was shockingly inadequate—a mere offer of an 8-person ticket for another cruise. Such a response is not only inappropriate but showcases an extreme lack of professionalism on their part.

I strongly advise against considering this Chicago Navy Pier location for any future engagements. The staff exhibits a distressing lack of professionalism, and the management, headed by individuals like Becca Kerry and Grace Fuller, only compounds the overall...

We booked a 50+ person private reservation for the Cartwright Family Reunion last weekend (7/13/2024). We reserved the date with no issue, and boarded the ship at Navy Pier by the agreed upon time of departure (12pm CST). After about an hour or so, we were advised that the cash bar would now be open for the remainder of our cruise (which was only until 2:30pm CST). Good news right?? - WRONG. We were then told that due to some technical issues, the boat would remain docked and would not set sail at all, hence the open bar. Determined to make the most of it, we continued with our banquet as usual, while still attempting to get more information on what happened. We paid close to $10k to reserve our section of the boat, and were not given any sort of accommodations other than the open bar (well drinks only). We’ve constantly called and sent emails, and have not had anyone return our call, or offer to refund even part of our reservation (as we never set sail). We had family visiting from all over the country who had never seen our city or skyline before, and the lack of communication from the Odyssey throughout this whole ordeal was sickening. We later found out that other guests with separate reservations on the Odyssey had their entire booking refunded, which makes the Odyssey’s lack of accountability with us even more disgusting. The bartender was rude to us, and constantly asked us for tips (disregarding the fact that her tip jar was CONSISTENTLY full). We weren’t able to stay on the boat past our 2:30pm end time, as there was a reservation immediately after ours (??? - we were told the ship couldn’t sail?). I understand that some things are beyond the crew’s control, however the lack of care, communication, and the utter disregard for us is extremely unacceptable. It has now been 4 days since our cruise, and we have yet to receive any communications or resolutions from the Odyssey team on this matter. The open bar was average, the drinks were slow, and respectfully, was not worth the ~$10k we spent for the brunch cruise. The food was ,about the only positive thing I have to say about this entire ordeal. We will likely never reserve a cruise on the Odyssey again, and wouldn’t recommend them to anyone hosting a large gathering. They were overly responsive during the booking process, however on the back end, they’ve essentially ghosted us at this point. If you have a large group looking to reserve a boat cruise, go with another company - the Odyssey is not it. The customer service is...