Pensacola Bay City Ferry — Attraction in Pensacola

If you have young children, this is probably not the activity for you. Our children were very excited to go on the ferry ride that is advertised as "good for kids". We had to give our 3 year old lots of reminders of the rules, and did so throughout the ride to the first drop off. Upon boarding the boat toward the second destination, my wife overheard the young female crew member making negative comments about our kids from the first portion of the trip. That was the first of two times we heard her talking negatively about our kids, only the second time her statement was actually said to our child. While we specifically overheard this staff member's comments, there was a strong sense of it being an irritation to have the kids aboard from others working for this business (this was not just one isolated person).

It's normal that children 3 and under (and older) require a lot of reminders and prompts to follow rules. Our kids were perfectly safe with our monitoring. I held our 1 year old during much of the ride because of her being too young to understand and follow the rules. Throughout the ride, each time our 3 year old forgot in his excitement and stepped up onto a rail or onto a bench, we promptly redirected him to put his feet on the ground. I think most parents agree that this is what parenting toddlers looks like. The only way to avoid these patterns would be to set a higher age limit on passengers, which this business should perhaps consider doing. Better to do that than to welcome people aboard and collect their money, only to proceed to make them feel lousy while they patronize your business. If you have young children, i suggest you go with another company where they actually make children and families feel welcome.

In reply to the owners response: you claim that the number one priority is safety for passengers at all times. If safety was the motivation than any concerns should have been communicated directly, clearly, and early on. The only communication from your unprofessional crew was passive aggressive, unclear, and indirect. Every time our children's feet were off the ground, and any time they stepped onto seating to see over the edge their parents were addressing it. Any time they started running, they were told to stop by their parents and did so. This cycle played out a number of times, as I said earlier these are toddlers / young children and this repetitive correction / shaping behavior defines parenting at that stage of human development.

By the time the capitan finally communicated more directly with concerns, we were likely 75% of the way through this process. If safety was so compromised and is such a concern of your business, why only address it directly and clearly at this stage? Do you train your crew to just convey a generally nasty attitude towards your patrons for 3/4 of the trip in response to "strictly prohibited behaviors" rather than using effective, professional communication techniques? Parents care more about their children than your immature crew ever will.

This was not about safety or your crew's concern for it, if that were truly the catalyst to this experience it would have been conveyed earlier and clearly. This was the result of people working the last shift of the week who were ready to be done and were annoyed by little kids. Our children's safety was never compromised one bit under our care and monitoring. Set a 5 or 6+ age requirement if you don't want kids on your boats that require a lot of reminding of the rules, and sometimes accidentally break them in their excitement. If you continue to have young children on your boats and patents aren't policing these behaviors strictly enough for your liking, train your crew to communicate this clearly and effectively early on. Businesses that are good for kids / families partner with parents to help facilitate good / safe experiences on both ends. Your crew were adversarial towards our family from the start, and did nothing to promote a safe or...

The Pensacola Bay City Ferry offers a wonderful opportunity to cruise the bay in comfort for an extremely affordable price on a stable and spacious ship. We've done these cruises a number of times now and I highly recommend them to any and all (be you a tourist or a local like us). The crew is friendly and professional. There is a bar on the main deck with drinks and snacks (although you can bring your own picnic aboard (no outside alcohol consumed on board though). The sunset cruise is beautiful and the blue angels cruises are the perfect way to watch the practices and the shows from Pensacola Bay. Special mention about Captain Frank Rawley in command of the Turtle Runner on our last cruise - probably one of the nicest and most professional...

This truly is a wonderful way to spend a day in Pensacola. We took the cruise from the Pensacola Beach boardwalk (Stillwater Pier) to Downtown Pensacola. We walked down Palafox Street for lunch before reboarding, stopping at Fort Pickens, and heading back to Pensacola Beach. The park rangers on board were awesome and my nephew was able to be sworn in as a junior ranger by the end of our last leg. Also, Captain Phillip was incredible with the kids. He taught them about the navigation gauges and how to steer the boat. This is well worth the money and we will certainly be...