City Cruises — Attraction in Washington

I wanted this 4th of July to be a fun experience for my parents (in their 70s) who were visiting from out of state. I didn't want my mother, who has physical limitations and uses a cane, fighting through crowds and walking for long distances. I thought the 4th of July dinner cruise would be perfect way to celebrate the holiday. To begin, it was very hot, and we had a thunderstorm that came around late that afternoon. But to our dismay, there was nowhere at the pier to sit and get out of the weather (other than going into a bar or restaurant we were not planning to patronize), so we huddled close to buildings with others and were completely soaked before we even started our evening. Everyone just crowded around a gated entrance waiting for the boarding to begin. This would have been great to know before we arrived over an hour early. Boarding began late and everyone was so tired of standing around in the weather that people were pushing their way to the front of the line while only ONE person checked/scanned in each guest. Once we were through the line and began to board the vessel, the kind young ladies who were seating us led us down the stairs. I must mention here that when I purchased the tickets, I requested we be located in an area where my mother would not need to climb stairs. Sure enough, they put us on the bottom floor--downstairs. I also added that I was celebrating a special occasion when we purchased our tickets, and our waitress asked again if we were celebrating something special, and I told her. She said, "I will bring you all something special to celebrate." Well, not only did our waitress never return with the drinks we ordered, but she never brought us "something special. " In fact, she NEVER returned to our table for the rest of the evening. My husband and I kept going back up to the bar anytime we needed a refill of soda, wine, or beer. The food in the buffet line ran out before we arrived and left us adding the scraps as the staff SLOWLY replenished the food on the line. The music/DJ was so loud on our floor/level that we could barely have conversation without yelling at each other across the table. Halfway through our cruise, I could tell my parents were miserable. This was not the fun and festive evening I was hoping for. All this and we battled everyone else on the boat just go outside to get a small glimpse of the Capital fireworks. This was not worth the $1300 I paid for 4 tickets. In fact, it wasn't worth a quarter of that...

Booked this dinner cruise as part of my honeymoon. Overall experience was great. Note that there is no parking available directly across from where you check in. You have to either go with street parking or go with public parking available behind the Safeway grocery store. You're charged $5 an hour and the cruise lasts 3 hours so you'd be paying $15 total for public garage parking. Atmosphere on the ship is very nice as the crew do their very best to make you feel welcomed. Customer service exceptionally great. DJ played great music of oldies from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and a bit of today music through many genres. Food was seasoned just right and tasted very fresh. Only drawbacks is the semi limited food menu. You could pretty much only choose from a handful of items off of one hand. Just a few more additions would've been great such as a seafood pasta alredo dish, Mac and cheese, crab legs, etc. The noise from the engine and one particular entourage of people made it difficult to have conversations with wife and other guests surrounding us. It kind of took away from the experience somewhat but overall a really great time and would do it again. Already talking about getting together with some friends to do a double dinner date with City Cruises. If you're in the area try them out. A bonus tip, you can always do a flex pay option through Klarna as the cruise prices can be a bit pricey for some. At the end of the cruise you have the option to buy photos of you and your spouse or group. Whole set of everything cost under $45. Also, advice to management: Have your security guards working the gates greeting folks right before they board the boat to have better friendly engagement. These are confusing times for some of us as some states have lifted mask restrictions and others haven't. I'm from Maryland and practically everywhere these days we don't wear mask so long as we are fully vaccinated which I am. A Hispanic bald head security guard rudely told me to wear a mask. I apologized and complied while telling him I was fully vaccinated and he snapped back at me saying "I DON'T CARE." I told him I meant no disrespect as his fellow officer quickly diasculated the tense exchange with kindness thanking me and hoping I had a great time. I used to work security so I know how demanding the job can be at times but I always treated people the way I want to be treated and that's with respect with kindness. That guard came off miserable...

Event Review - I rented the Capital Elite for my husband's 50th birthday party. It's not an easy party to host as there are a lot of rules/limitations that have to be followed, so I spent a lot of time and energy hammering out the details with their event planners. The highlights of the night were the perfect weather and a comfortable boat with a good layout, but there were so many food/beverage issues.

After we started cruising, they informed my they'd left one of the two main courses at the dock, but I realized that on top of the missing main course we were also missing two appetizers, and over half the sides/condiments for the one main course they did serve. The available food was generally overcooked and hardly enough to feed our guests.

We paid for the top shelf bar package, and paid an additional fee to provide our own wine because we didn't like their wine list. This reduced their burden as I delivered my wine pre-chilled and in a cooler on ice. The only wine-type product they provided, Prosecco, was displayed on the bar in bottles that had not been chilled, therefore were unservable. On top of that, the bar RAN OUT OF ICE with about an hour left in the cruise and 50+ people on board. I'd told the event planner that our crowd would likely request more mixed drinks and to make sure they had plenty of garnishes on hand, but I never thought I had to add ice to that list.

Lastly, I asked in advance about managing tips for the staff and was provided a guideline for settling up at the end of the night, but while on the cruise I discovered the bartender and DJ had put out tip jars, and a staff member hit my brother-in-law up for a tip directly. I support tipping, which is why I asked about it in advance, but I was the host and as such it was my responsbility. I did not appreciate my guests being pumped for money.

I didn't expect a super high quality, bespoke event. I knew going into it that the food would likely be mediocre at best, but hoped the other elements of the party would compensate. I still can't figure out how a company who provides regular food/beverage services on their cruises could make so many basic errors. City Experiences reimbursed us about a third of our food/beverage bill (which is the reason for 2 stars instead of 1), but I can't recommend them for...