Christmas Boat Parade Newport Beach — Attraction in Newport Beach

I love the water, boat rides, holiday extravaganza's and all... but I'd never take this holiday cruise again. Starting with the initial phone customer service representative (Christy) who was extremely short with me and totally uninterested in being helpful or friendly at all. I give her a zero out of 5 stars.

Next, there is literally NO PARKING in this area. It's completely impacted and all the lots are far, full, or both! You must arrive at least 1-1.5 hours PRIOR to your departure time if you want to find parking, check-in with reservations to get your hard copy ticket, and then wait in the 100+ person line to get a decent standing vantage point or seat on the boat. We almost missed the boat. They held it for about 5 minutes for us, which was accommodating, but the hoops you have to jump through to find parking in the area is not worth my stress level reaching 100. There is 1 restaurant close by with limited valet spaces for $25 or more. After 30+ minutes circling for parking (I am not exaggerating) I was willing to pay their $25 valet fee, but no, we were refused once the guys knew our plans to walk over to Davy's Locker.

All the boats are massive (you won't get sea sick), clean, festively decorated, serving hot/cold drinks at one bar + snacks. They have multiple decks both with Indoor seating, which is enclosed and warm, but has very darkly tinted glass windows that you cannot see out of at night time. The outdoor seating is limited, and of course cold and windy. We prefer sitting outside and prepared by bringing heavy layers, hats, gloves, etc because sitting/standing where we can actually see the decorations was our priority. Our cruise was mid-December at 5:20pm. It was a great voyage time for us, as they sky was dark by this time and we have 2 children (3 and 5 years old). We were back on the dock by 6:25pm. There were a limited number of boats (maybe 15-20) we passed who were decorated. Mostly the views were of the dark water and the scattering of lighted/decorated houses on the shore. My youngest preferred to go inside and jump from chair to chair rather than stand outside and not really see anything much/nothing notable to keep her attention.

I've taken whale watching tours with Davy's Locker, and for the money and daytime experience I would probably do that again. However, the craziness of the evening + holiday traffic/people/weather is just not something we...

My family and I went last year. We loved it, and my young girls wanted to go again. I feel like greed has gotten the best of these tours. Last year we were on much smaller boat. A very intimate experience. This time we were on a much larger boat subbed out through Catalina flyer .. this was not a boat though Davey's Locker like previous year. The capacity had to have been 5 times what we had last year. Even arriving an hour early we still were so far back in line that by the time we boarded there was no where to sit. The captain positioned the boat in the middle of the harbor most of the night just sitting idly. Last year the smaller boat cruised along the whole harbor close to the homes for viewing. Not to mention I paid for a boat parade ticket and the captian parked the boat where only the right side could view the parade .. everyone crammed that side so much that there was no where to stand for my children to even view any part of the parade. False advertising .. I feel like there should have been a disclaimer that this years experience would be nothing like previous years.

I would not do this again if I was given free tickets.

I already contacted staff about a refund .. I typically never write reviews I have to be a Karen. But it was quite honestly horrible.

You cannot sell overpriced tickets for a boat parade if everyone on the boat especially small kids will be stuck on the wrong side and no viewing opportunity given.

Not to mention we waited stagnant in the water for about 20 min by the doc just to park.. waste of time when you are paying for a 75 min cruise

Seems like the organization/company got greedy and decided getting huge boats and cramming everyone in like sardines was their new goal instead of providing a memorable experience..

At least we have last year .. but unless they go back to that I would never recommend...

I wrote this review to ensure my review was informative (not emotionally driven). This was our 2nd time to take this cruise. We had a pleasant experience during our 1st cruise w/a smaller vessel. This time, the vessel was much larger thereby accommodating more passengers. We arrived 2 hrs early to ensure we found parking & had a good/decent sitting location. During this boat cruise, people roamed the boat freely & rudely stood in front of the rail blocking our view of the holiday lights to take pics. After consistent blocking & asking people to move aside, I approached an employee w/a walkee talkie. I was informed that what people did was permissible. I thought the behavior of passengers (blocking our view) was rude & a complete disregard for those seated near the rails. If those passengers wanted to take videos or pics, they should have stood behind us for photo opportunities. We were seated & would not have obstructed their view of the holiday lights. What made it worse is they remained at the rail for longer periods without regard for those seated behind them. There was an overhead announcement of the do's/dont's while on the vessel. There should be an overhead announcement asking passengers to practice common courtesy for those seated near the rails. Because of this experience, we will not take this holiday light boat ride again. It was a complete waste of time, wasted money, & it was emotionally draining to deal with rude passengers. My daughter (a teenager), was appalled by the behavior of the rude adults for she thought they should know better. Lastly, I can not recommend this cruise to others due to the treatment of the rude passengers and unprofessionalism of the particular boat employee. I've already communicated our unpleasant experience to those who have asked me. I felt obligated to tell the truth to...