Frankenmuth FunShips — Attraction in City of Frankenmuth

I wish I could leave zero stars. My friends and I booked a river boat tour here for August 3rd for 3pm. We got there on time and checked in and were told to head on down to the lower deck to get ready to go. We excitedly went down and patiently waited. This was my first time out with my girlfriends after having a baby almost 6 months ago plus 9 months of a grueling pregnancy. So over a year of worrying about nothing but my baby girl. My friends all drove 45 minutes and myself an hour to get there. We get down to the water and there are us and one other group of 9 girls. There are two boats empty at the docks. As we’re waiting the female staff member yells out “We hear there’s a birthday girl down here!!!” And the other group cheered and she says “Out of the two groups here you’re group is being chosen to go on your tour, unfortunately the other group (us) will have to go get a full refund and leave. But we will give you some wine and chocolate” ……. UM? What…. We stood there stunned and confused. Politely asked her if we could wait a while and go on the next one. She says “Nope unfortunately we are booked solid for the rest of the day” and basically get out right now goodbye. She had no sincerity in her apology and basically shouting at us to get the hell out of here. Annoyed at our presence. My friend asked to speak to a manager and the girl said the owner is working on the boat right there. So my friend went over to try to speak to him trying to work something out and he was incredibly rude to her, no proper solutions except for us to leave immediately. He couldn’t even be bothered to turn and look her in the face. Meanwhile two older women came over to the boat to thank him for some money he had donated to her cancer foundation and to let him know she fought it. He again couldn’t even be bothered to turn and look at them and say congratulations or anything and just kept working on the boat. My other friend had purchased some chocolate from their shop and wanted to return them because she was upset and didn’t want to support their business. The other woman at the counter was basically just shouting at her saying she could not refund the chocolate and that our tour has been canceled and refunded and ushered us to get out. We are appalled at our treatment at Frankenmuth Funships and strongly urge groups of friends to find elsewhere to have celebrations. The staff and owner should be absolutely ashamed of themselves and their actions and definitely should not work in...

Recently we did the Wine and Chocolate tour. It sounded like a fun way to enjoy a day, but we left hoping for something more.

Be advised it's mostly sweet and fruity wines - which you can safely assume, given it's paired with chocolate. Just be advised, in case you prefer drier wines like me. No big deal - wine is wine, and what I did try was tasty.

They have their own chocolateur that comes weekly. Chocolates were good. Nothing special - but it's hard to impress anybody with just chocolate these days.

The boat was clean and comfortable for the most part. Not sure what they do for people with special needs as you do have to climb down several flights of stairs to get to their dock (FYI)

Unfortunately, that's where it ended for us...

If I had to guess, our boat driver wasn't even old enough to drink yet...spoke so fast it was hard to understand, and what I could understand him saying, it wasn't much...would've liked more commentary on the wines, the chocolates....the river...the town...? Some history? A joke? A story? Music or something to listen to? Cheese and crackers? Nuts? A point-of-interest? Anything? But alas, silence. It was a bit boring at times...the river wasn't exactly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, so a bit of commentary or "adventure" would have been fun and entertaining.

Finally, after spending ~$200 in their shop, the girl behind the counter answers their phone, rolls her eyes, then waves us off (as in "get out of here, I don't want to be bothered anymore"), without saying Thank You. I was shocked how rude she was - both to us and whomever was on the phone. Young, perhaps, but old enough to know better when dealing with customers. That or the owner(s) are clueless.

Maybe we caught them on an off day, or COVID changed it, but I can't say I'll recommend, or will return anytime soon. One and done!

To summarize I would recommend: (1.) improve the experience by adding something - a story, an audio tour, some cheese, commentary or anything to make it even better. (2) retrain your staff and remind them to ALWAYS say Thank You to customers, then...

Made reservations easy enough. Arrived extra early because my husband has mobility impairment and uses a scooter for any distance. I asked about access to the boat. I asked about if the scooter could go on the boat, or if it could be left securely on shore. I got "I don't know". There were 6 people working there and only one seemed to have any knowledge about the tour. We learned that to access the tour, we'd need to go nextdoor to the brewery, as they allow use of their elevator. Again, I asked about the scooter. Still unknown. Finally we are lead to the brewery with the intention of using their elevator to access the boat. The tour guide still had no idea if the scooter could be accommodated! I asked a brewery employee, who got her manager. At that point we learned that there was in fact no place that the scooter could be left for the tour. It was ridiculous that no one could find that information in the hour ahead of the tour after I questioned them several times. I was, however, given a refund. By the same one employee who knows...