Liberty Cruise — Attraction in New York

AVOID THIS “DINNER” CRUISE COMPANY

I actually try really really hard to give people/businesses/events the benefit of the doubt, but this experience was beyond unacceptable, ESPECIALLY for the amount of money we paid

Short version: Paid almost $800 for 4 of us to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Cruise was 7-10 pm, they didn’t even attempt to serve our table dinner until 10:15 pm, 15 minutes before docking. **Not one worker had any explanation as to where our food was while we waited OVER 3 HOURS

Long version: We took the “Thanksgiving Dinner” cruise with friends this last November after watching my daughter march in the parade that morning. We were excited to eat Thanksgiving dinner on the boat watching the city skyline. What could have been a really beautiful evening ended up being such a shockingly bad experience. I’m still baffled as to what even happened as I don’t know how we could have paid so much money and not even received the product (dinner!) that we paid for.

First interactions with waitress was as expected: greeted us after boarding around 7, took our orders, etc., All went down hill from there 🫤

•Didn’t receive a water refill for over an hour. (Cups were tiny, asked multiple times politely, even suggested maybe just leaving a pitcher so she wouldn’t have to worry about refills)

• Appetizers were served as expected

• Rolls weren’t served until about 90 min in and we had only received 8/11 rolls needed for our table. Had to wait longer for the rest of the rolls

• Entrees were being served upstairs and to most tables around us around 8:30ish, kept thinking our food was coming out soon

• Dessert was being served around us around 9:15… still waiting for our entrees

• 3/6 of the kids at our table were asleep by this point

• A few other tables still waiting for food were becoming impatient as no staff could tell us why our food was so delayed. A fellow patron tried entering the kitchen to see what the hold up was.. was blocked. Yelling ensued by different parties (noted, the person yelling for the man to chill out was one who actually had already eaten her food 🙂)

• 10 pm … still no entrees. Were supposed to be docking at 10 pm

• 10:15 pm they start bringing food to the tables still waiting.. we refused as we were told we were docking in 15 min. No time to eat entrees and still didn’t even have dessert and wanted off the boat

• Others served at that time complained of their food being cold

• We docked and got off the boat and the staff acted as if it was perfectly normal that people on their boat DIDN’T GET DINNER ON AN ALMOST $200/person THANKSGIVING DINNER CRUISE

• Had to DoorDash dinner at 11 pm to our Airbnb to feed my starving children

• Will never get that Thanksgiving night back ever again though I keep reminding my children that we still had a memorable day and not to let it be ruined by our ruined Thanksgiving night

• Contacted company after arriving home from the trip and they offered a “complimentary 3 course dinner cruise” to make up for our beyond disappointing experience (remember why we went on a dinner cruise? Thanksgiving. I live like 1300 miles away.) 🙃

• My friend and her family (whose table we shared and also was seeking a refund) received word-for-word responses by their customer service person

• Company then offered 25 percent refund (So essentially saying I paid almost $600 for 4 rolls, 6 shrimp, 2 beet salads, and 4 cups of water)

• By this time I opened up a dispute with my CC company. Back and forth. Cruise company submitted their evidence that I paid, downloaded the app, and boarded the boat. All true.. but I PAID FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER which I did not receive

• Company then offered 50 percent refund but because I had opened up a dispute they were “no longer able to give any refund”

• We were not the only table that night to experience this, and digging through past reviews we now see that people in past years have had the same experience. Shocked this company is still in business, to be honest

SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF MONEY AND DO NOT USE...

t was described as the following and did not meet advertised expectations.

Stunning views of July 4th fireworks, Manhattan skyline, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and more on a multi-deck vessel. Access to both indoor and outdoor areas. Live DJ spinning July 4 themed and summer hits. Open bar with beer and wine only (21+). Sparkling wine during fireworks (1 glass per adult). Party favors for a festive celebration. Mini sandwiches in grab and go style. Red, white and blue cupcakes. Ready-to-go cocktails, hot dogs, popcorn, snacks, and soda available for purchase on board. Complimentary coffee, tea, juice, and water. No guaranteed seating - seating is first come first serve.

We called in advance to ensure one of our party who is disabled would be able to sit and view the fireworks. We were told that if we arrived early we would be able to be in the front part of the line. We arrived at pier 40 before 6pmand we're told we couldn't walk to the line for our ship until 7:15. When we were allowed to go to the line it was filled with the other guests on the boat after speaking to them it turns out they were allowed entrance through the other end of the dock. We were waiting at the northern entrance by the dog park where the liberty cruise staff had directed us to go and additional staff were directing people on when they could enter. As a result we were not able to get a seat that had a view of the fireworks. The disabled member of our party was also unable to use the restroom during the entirety of the boat ride due to the stairs, we should have been informed of this prior to booking. When we asked your staff for help navigating these issues, we were told: just sit down, I can't help you, there are too many people here.

During the show, the boat was pointed directly at the fireworks. As such, no window seat had any appreciable view. According to the captain of the vessel the fireworks display we were watching was the Macy’s fireworks display and it had an orchestrated musical score that went along with it. No such music was ever played on the boat. As a matter of fact, no music was played on the boat during the fireworks display. There was literally virtually nothing for us to enjoy.

After getting settled I went to grab sandwiches. They were hot like they had been in the sun for several hours. The chicken was hard as a rock, and the tomatoes were wilted on the vegan option. I ended up feeling sick after eating them. This was not seasickness, I spend a lot of time on the ocean and have never been seasick.

When I went to get water the line took almost 30 minutes. I asked for drinks for the people in my group and was told I could only get 1 water at a time. After a few minutes of explaining that members in my group were disabled and couldn't walk the stairs I was allowed to take 2 waters. When I went back for another water so we could each have 1 there were no waters left. This was an hour or so after leaving the dock.

The decorations consisted of 1 broken streamer and 2 circular things strung near the dj. There were no party favors that I could find.

The DJ did not play any music. He had some kind of technical problems and ended up packing up his gear long before the fireworks. We have experienced fireworks in similar paid outings both on land and on water and have never had such a...

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. The price of this 3.5-hour Fall Foliage Cruise piqued my interest but good God! The start time was listed as 2PM with 1:30 boarding time. I and many others arrived well early and stood patiently in line. At 2:15 they began to let passengers board in order of class of service. It was chaotic. With no consistent direction given by the guide, passengers took a long time getting settled and Crew didn’t seem to want to pull away from the dock until everyone made purchases from the concessions. A much better plan would have been to get launched and then let people get their stuff. There were loads of seats up top in priority class and passengers were told they could buy these seats at the snack bar but then later they reneged on that offer and said those seats were sold out after people had already begun to go for them. At long last we left the shadowy chill and constant drastic rocking of the dock about 2:30 or later. The Guide was abysmally wordy, overly familiar, and not that knowledgeable. Nobody cares where people on the boat are from and it’s nobody’s bloody business anyway, so she shouldn’t have been asking dumb questions like that as part of the show. We’re there for a nice boat ride and leaf peeping not to make friends. The loudspeaker was so loud and guide droned on and on so I finally plugged my ears with earbuds and tried to listen to music instead but could still hear her trying to get people to go down and buy more concessions. She kept yanking, often just riffing about literal nothing and had minimal knowledge to share once we got past the Upper West Side. We went right past the Charlotte Brontë Villa in Spuyten Duyvil, which she made no mention of, yet she made a point of drawing our attention to a passing Amtrak train and told us to wave to the train like a bunch of second-graders who’d never seen a train.

It was a lovely, brisk sunny fall day and the views were spectacular but the ride dragged on with the 2+ hours of non-stop, abrasive idle prattle. Big problem: ONE unisex/ladies’ restroom on board for around 100 ladies and one men only. Quite inadequate, causing lengthy waits breathing exhaust fumes at the stern. This tour would have been SO much nicer if it were just about silent, with a lot LESS narration and selling. There are MANY other companies offering shorter similar cruises from which to choose. Save yourself some aggravation and pick one of those. If I’d known it would be like this, I’d have paid much more for one of the smaller, nicer vintage yachts or schooners with more dignified, quality service or for a much shorter guided tour. This ride was longer but not better....