Hellgate Jetboat Excursions — Attraction in Grants Pass

**Hellsgate Jetboat Excursions Reached out to the family and I. What was a bad experience was made better by their customer service team and notes were taken to hopefully increase the overall experience for future parties that choose to experience Hellsgate. Many factors fell into place like domino's that directly impacted my party but Hellsgate took it upon themselves to make things right for the family and myself. We are frequent flyers to the Hells Gate Jet Boats and will be looking forward to our next trip with this company.

Thank you Stephanie for reaching out to us.

First off, the family and I are frequent flyers to the Hells Gate Jet Boats. This last trip, July 3rd, 2023, was an absolute disappointment for our party of 10. We were the first to get to the cabin and the last to eat. For our table of 7 adults and three children we were given one carafe of wine and one pitcher of beer. Both of which were gone in seconds, and to obtain any more was like pulling teeth. When the food came the portions brought to our table, which was table 6, wasn't enough to feed our party. By the time the small servings were dispersed to the group, many were still left feeling hungry.

When the rolls came, we tried putting honey on the rolls. The honey tasted off and had a strange aftertaste. Upon further inspection, the honey was 5 months past expiration and completely crystallized throughout... when we brought this to the staff's attention, we were told more honey would be brought. What we received was who I assumed to have been the hostess came to our table and was rather rude telling us that honey doesn't go bad and arguing with my grandmother. I tried the honey myself, and the initial flavor was correct, but it had a strange aftertaste that was anything but pleasant... most of the food was gone, and we never had an opportunity to ask for anymore. Again, we were nearly the first group to sit. On the lead boat, we were the very last to eat or have food brought to our table.

The 5 minute warning was sounded before the desert was brought, and everyone in the party felt that we had no time to eat and spent the majority of the time waiting for the meal to arrive. Neglected and leaving with a sour taste in our mouths we truly are questioning why we even did the trip in the first place. A trip that I initiated for my birthday.

Our driver, Donny, was funny and knew a ton about the river and the history. But the ride back to anyone beyond the fourth row was completely dry. He did a very good job of getting us wet on the way to dinner, so there is at least that. We used to be regulars on Johnny's boat and miss him dearly.

One of the members of our party is severely handicapped and cannot walk unassisted. The trailer left and our party was told that it would be back to get the remainder of our party. Up at the top of the pickup it appeared that no one was coming and our extremely handicapped family member was forced to struggle down the path. The bathrooms had such lines that most of our party felt there wasn't enough time to get before getting on the boat in fear of being left behind. At the portapotties at the bottom of the hill the water was empty at the handwash station. Leaving my wife forced to rinse her hands in the river.

Leaving that evening, we were all disenchanted, and there is a very real possibility that we may stop our many trips to the jet boats. Left hungry, dry, and disappointed our entire party has been struck by the erosion of quality that we once knew. I view this last experience as an extremely unprofessional, and unsatisfactory example of what the Hells Gate Jet boats can be...

I’ve done excursions with Hellgate before and typically have enjoyed them. The one hour tour is a little too short. The dinner cruise is fun and the food is pretty good. I had gone with a huge group for work so we all sat together and it was fun.

Recently I tried the brunch cruise with my partner and I was personally not as big a fan. It felt rushed and for those who get seated on the ends of the table it felt like we were picking at the scraps of what everyone else left behind. I’m not sure if it was entirely just the groups that were seated with us or if it’s the way they serve large tables but none of the “family style all you can eat” plates were placed anywhere near us and they turned out to be small platters big enough for maybe 3-4 people placed 2+ people away from us. Naturally by the time it got passed to us, there was barely anything left. I literally ate maybe 3 tiny pieces of fruit, one sliver of the banana bread, 1 slice of bacon, about 1.5 tbsp of scrambled eggs, and a serving spoonful of potatoes. To the servers credit, he did say he could bring us extra of whatever we wanted, but by the time they came back by they were already bringing out the next plates and then it was time to go and the bathroom lines were long so everyone rushed to get in there before leaving. I think the meal cruises are better when you’re traveling in a bigger group, personally. Family style doesn’t always work when it’s a bunch of strangers going at it. It would be nicer if the meal time was extended even by just 30 minutes.

The jetboat portion itself is always fun. The drivers always interject some silly humor and they always stop to show us cool wildlife stuff and neat historical facts, even silly statues in people’s yards. Some of them are definitely more fun with the splashes than others though. We had Brady most recently and he was great. I was seated second in on the fourth row and we got pretty soaked. He did a lot of spins and splashes with another boat but unlike some of the other drivers I’ve had, these two both seemed to know how to do it just right so their passengers all got some splashes. Even river goers along the way had spray guns and were spraying passengers. The drivers would pull the boats up close to them, especially the kiddos with less reach, so they could spray us too. It was great!

Overall I really enjoy hellgate excursions and will probably come back again but I’m not entirely sold on the family style meals given the time crunch and the size/number of plates for the size...

I have mixed feelings about the Hellgate Jetboat Excursion. Parts of it were great but others just boring. The parts that were great was when the boat was traveling a high speeds and the driver was swerving and spinning the boat. The boring parts were most of everything else. But I accept that there are rules of the river set by the local government, limiting the speed we were allowed to travel through certain areas, which is fine and why I didn't give less stars. I didn't care much for the driver's banter and history lesson of the Rogue River. I would have preferred to just enjoy the slow parts in silence or conversation with my family. Of course this is just my personal preference. I am certain a lot of the other riders enjoyed that part, including my father. We got the ride with lunch included, I think it came out to $56. The lunch was certainly the worst part of the trip which was served family style. The "BBQ" chicken wasn't actually BBQ-ed. It looked to be baked and then smothered in BBQ sauce. The Lemonade tasted like it came from a powder and the tea wasn't much better. The potato salad was mediocre as well was the green salad which came already dressed with some kind of vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was not to my liking and it would have been better if they had provided a few different options to choose from on the table. The best part of the meal was dessert, blackberry cobbler. My dad enjoyed it so much we had a difficult time dragging him away from the table as everyone was leaving back to the boats, while he finished it. This was my first trip on the Hellgate Jetboat and despite the negatives I still gave 4 stars. My father had taken the ride 3 other times and said he was also disappointed with the lunch but said that the dinner was considerably better. So my recommendation would be either save your money and take the ride that does not include a meal or fork out an extra $10 and get the dinner ride. Of course take everything I say with a grain of salt and make your own decision. Maybe everything I thought was boring may...