Island Queen Cruises & Tours — Attraction in Miami

The tour was mediocre and most of the “famous “ peoples homes were generally unknown and NOT household names. The info was given in English and Spanish, and although I’m more than ok with that, his accent was so heavy that we could barely understand what he was saying half the time.

At around halfway through the tour, two shady looking employees wearing company blue shirts started handing out papers to put in a ballot for a chance to win a holiday. Hopeful , I filled in our info. One of the 2 reps collected everyone’s entry including ours. Minutes later, the tour guide called out the winners and we were one of them. At first I was excited .

About 20 minutes later, the guy who gave out the raffle entry tickets came over to us and brought us down to the bottom level of the boat. He put us in front of an iPad and asked us which of the 3 types of holiday we wanted to claim as our prize. We chose the resort prize and he took our info and said that it would be valid for 18 months and we could use it anytime, but first……we had to attend a VIP tour where he takes us to the Uber and we go to some part of Florida where we have to complete a 2 hour tour. He also said that in order to secure the tour, we’d have to pay 40.00 which we would get back after the tour. My husband, out of a momentary gullibility (and the hasty vibe from the guy who was helping us), paid him the 40.00 deposit.

It wasn’t until after that my husband said something didn’t feel right about this so called prize. Other couples had also won, so it seemed too good to be true.

When we went back up the stairs to our seats, I googled “island queen cruise Miami vacation scams” and lo and behold, it came up from numerous people who took the boat tour!!

I feel turned off by Miami now , and don’t think we’ll be returning. I know scams happen everywhere, but I don’t understand how 2 sceptical and intelligent people fell for this rubbish! 🤦‍♀️ And we got stiffed 40 bucks!!!

After the boat tour was over, the guy waited for us near the exit and we told him we are cancelling and had no iIDs with us, and that we wanted Our 40.00 back. He said “you have to call to get the money back, I can’t help you “. It was at this point we just walked away and noticed one of the other “winning” couples walking behind us, who were told to wait for their “prize representative” to take them to the VIP tour. I turned around and quietly said to them, shaking my head “it’s a scam”. They were pretty grateful!

I also believe, that they target foreign tourists, who may not have fluent English language skills, in order to be able to manipulate them easier than native speakers. All in all, give this cruise a miss, and just watch YouTube videos of the millionaires tour for FREE! I would NEVER RECOMMEND THIS TOUR. Waste of money and scam...

Today's we're visiting Bayside Marketplace in Miami, Florida. Being from Chicago, this space reminds me of Navy Pier and Oakbrook Mall all wrapped up into one location. There's lots of shopping, places to eat, and tours to take on the water, including speedboats and there's a huge ferris wheel.

We're here specifically to check out the Millionaire's Row Cruise with Island Queen Cruises and Tours. I highly recommend you purchase your tickets online. Your ticket confirmation will give you details on what to do and where to board.  This is very important because there were tons of sight-seeing tours at this location, and they will scam you and tell you that your tickets will work with them, and actually no, you're at the wrong spot, so be sure to follow the directions of where to go.

The tickets will say you absolutely need to be there 45 minutes prior to take off. It's fine if you arrive later.  We arrived 10 minutes before boarding and ended up being the first people in line; and the boat was full. They want your money.  Parking can be hard to get, and you may have to walk far to get to the docking area, so please keep that in mind.

Boarding the ship was accommodating, and they also had bathrooms, and a mini-bar onboard with non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks and snacks.  They took cash and credit card payment too.

Before arriving to Star Island, we saw a lot of cruise ships, including Icon of the Seas! That ship is massive!

There are so many mansions and estates on Star Island. Our tour guide and captain had so much trivia and details to share about the homes, former and current owners. It definitely put into perspective the difference between rich and wealthy!

If you're in the Miami area, I highly recommend...

I would wholeheartedly love to give this company more than three stars. The cruise itself is great. The boat is roomy, and the tour is perfecty niche for playing tourist in my home state. I am deducting two stars because they allow a third party on board to run a "raffle." If you listen to nothing else from my review: DO NOT FILL OUT the raffle form. The raffle is actually folks from Holidays Network Group, LLC. They'll tell you you've won a free trip, hotel stay, etc. You have NOT won a thing. Period. What they want is for you to pay a $40 refundable deposit to sit through a 120 minute sales pitch for what is essentially a glorified time share opportunity. We lost time talking to a woman about our "prize" during the boat tour, and we lost 4 hours several days later listening to their supposedly 120 minute sales pitch. I'll save you the suspense. They wanted us to pay nearly $20k for a travel membership that they claim isn't a timeshare, but conveniently there are closing costs. Sure sounds like a timeshare to me. We said no to so many deaf ears, and it was a fight to get our $40 back. I've since looked them up on BBB... probably should have done that first. Anyway, that free trip...? I have to pay $50 to activate the voucher, and even then, I can only travel on Sundays, Mondays, or Tuesdays *subject to availability. Hard pass.

In short, Island Queen Cruises needs to kick these scammers off their boats. I'll be picking a new boat tour option...