Amsterdam Circle Line - Canal Cruises — Local services in Amsterdam

Be aware: captain's commentary is "extra" and "not included with the cruise" (from my communication with the company)

I had a terrible experience cruising with Amsterdam Circle Line, and disappointing response from their service team. Despite the website description of "canal cruises with a personal touch" and "amazing historical facts packed in a humorous way" I was on a cruise that had almost zero commentary from the captain for the entire 70 minute cruise and relied solely on very sparse pre-recorded audio commentary. I read many reviews of the captains for this company being the highlight of the tour and that they were funny, entertaining, told a great story, etc., but the captain I had only spoke 3 or 4 sentences during the whole cruise (he pointed out one hotel, one restaurant, and maybe two other buildings). The cruise was silent for 95% of the time, incredibly boring, and several people on the boat just fell asleep. If you’re just looking for a silent cruise around the canals, this might work for you, but definitely not if you’re looking to learn anything about the city or hear any entertaining commentary. After the cruise, I spoke with a company representative at the pier to share my disappointment, and was told there was nothing she could do and that I had to email the company. She also told me it was this particular captain's first day, so maybe he didn’t know what else to say. I emailed the company and followed up again before I left the city. I finally received a response 3 days later and they apologized for my experience but noted that the captain’s commentary is extra and not included in the cruise, so each captain can decide for themselves if they want to add anything. If that’s the case, then they certainly should not be describing the cruises as having a “personal touch” nor being “humorous” or packed with facts in any way. I was offered 50% off another cruise with them, but I had already left Amsterdam, and with no guarantee that the second experience would be any different, I wouldn’t have taken it anyway. If you’re thinking about taking a canal cruise with this company, I would confirm beforehand what kind of commentary will be included. As noted in other reviews, the pre-recorded commentary is very limited and lacking in information, so without additional commentary from the captain, it would be insufficient for anyone looking for a guided tour of the canals, and a waste of time, as...

Myself and my 2 friends each purchased tickets for the yellow amsterdam circle canal cruise today and walked 15 minutes to Anna Frank house where we were going to get the 4pm boat.

When we arrived there at 4pm we were told that the boat would not be returning to the Anne frank house point, but would be finishing up at central station, which was too far away for us, as we had made arrangements to be finished at Anne frank house museum.

The woman there told us that the next boat, leaving at 4.30pm would be returning to Anne Frank house, so we waited for that boat. That 4pm boat did not depart.

When I asked her at 4.20pm if the 4.30pm boat was definitely finishing at and returning to Anne frank house, she told me that no, it would not, that it was finishing at Central Station.

At this stage we were going to be late for our dinner reservation, if we had to take the 4.30 boat and finish at central station, because it was too far away from where we needed to be. So we decided not to go on the boat. I am very annoyed that we received such poor service. It ruined our plans for the afternoon/evening. I would not recommend this company for a canal cruise....

We booked the beer and bitterballen tasting tour. The host, skipper and brewery person were absolutely fantastic, fun and friendly. However, there were way too many people, and some of us weren’t able to sit at a table. It’s a 90mins cruise with drinks and food, so it’s really not ideal to be standing. About 8-10 of us ended up having to go outside so we could sit down, which actually was lovely (albeit a bit wet and cold, and no table), but the poor host and brewery person had to run back and forth with all the drinks etc. which I don’t think was the plan as they were unprepared. Really not great! It is also advertised that we would be trying 2 types of bitterballen, but we only had one, and that we’d get to leave with our favourite beer, which wasn’t offered (we had to ask and they had leftovers which they said we could take, but we weren’t given one as such). So again, big thank you to the people on board who did the best they could (and they did a great job), but I think it was very poorly organised from Amsterdam Circle Line, and we didn’t get some of the things that...