Riverfront Canal Cruises — Attraction in Richmond

thought this would have been a nice thing to do on a Sunday afternoon with my elderly parents but somehow our "Captain" Rasool made sure that was not going to happen. My father is in a wheelchair and were right in front of the boat thinking that he would be instructed how to get on the boat first as is usually the case getting on any type of transport like planes and such, handicap go on first as they take a little extra time getting settled. I saw he was loading people up and I alerted him that my dad was in a wheelchair and where can it go and can we get him on. He pointed to the back of the boat and proceeded to allow others to board and even pointed out that I was holding up the line! Instead of pausing the loading of passengers to allow my dad a chance to board and get a seat, he was rude and did nothing to assist the process of getting him on board safely. Instead my mom had to dash up front and get two seats where my dad (using his cane now) could sit and stretch his legs out. It was an ordeal.

The tour itself is a waste of money. Even if the boarding process went smoothly, I still wouldn't recommend it. It was boring and Rasool just went on about himself and didn't really give a lot historical or useful information.

When we pointed out that we didn't appreciate his lack of professionalism and lack of empathy, Rasool did not apologize. Instead, he argued that he didn't see my dad who was parked right in front of the boat entrance in a wheelchair. Also, even if he did not see him, I pointed out to him immediately we had someone in a wheelchair and can he come on board and he did nothing but point out I was holding up the line! Then he was like, well you can speak to the manager, he's right there. He didn't want to hear anymore but then he goes, Oooh, wait, yeah sorry he's gone for the day. Haha! And then he took off. This guy was a total jerk. ...

This was a complete waste of time and money. The Halloween Haunted tour was advertised as 20 minutes lasted 13 minutes. It would have been even shorter but our boat had to wait at the start of the tunnel to allow two boats to pass and then, went through the tunnel, did a circle and had to again stop to allow the two boats to pass again. So really, if we hadn't sat there waiting, this would have been less than 10 minutes. A "special candy treat" for the kids was one mini chocolate - hardly even worth mentioning. The tour guide mumbled, said something about a fire and something about a fireman. We were sitting right to his side and could not understand 90% of his mumbling. Hardly "hauntedly narrated". I doubt anybody else could even hear what we heard. The decorations were two small sets of garbage decorations that could be seen for free walking along the canal and some rubber hands stuck in the middle. The boy in front of us asked his mother if the piles of clothes stuck to the riverbank were part of it and I could see why he was confused when she told him no. When our boat pulled up at the end, the tour guide mumbled what we thought was, I'll be right back, and left. We all sat there and looked at each other. When it became obvious he wasn't coming back, we all got off. It took us longer to park and walk from the parking garage than the actual boat guide....

I chartered one of their boats for my mom's 60th birthday party. It exceeded my expectations. I was a little nervous given no bathroom on board, but the coordinator assured me that keeping it to 2 hours would likely be okay. They have an agreement with Railway Station Taphouse that is just up the steps from the boat for passengers to use their restroom. That day we found free street parking very close on Virginia St and nobody had to park more than a block away. The boat was available to board 30 min early to decorate and they had an approx 3'x6' table for us to put food on. It comfortably accommodated 20 people including children, elderly, and some obese folks. My mom was late and they had no problem waiting for her. Our guide, Chris (aka Capt Stump)allowed time for us catch up, and also shared the interesting history of the canal. He was funny and quite polite. He even helped us take down the decorations in the end. The older attendees really loved the history and old buildings around the canal. The younger folks seemed to just enjoy the peaceful ride in the middle of the city. The only thing I wish went better was my mom being very late, but that certainly wasn't the...