Boston Duck Tours Museum of Science Departure Location — Local services in Cambridge

This tour was recommended by a couple people where I'm from (Florida). I've been looking forward to visiting Boston for a few years. If you have difficulty walking 2.5 miles (length of the freedom trail) then I would recommend doing a duck boat tour. If you can walk it, I would not bother with a duck boat tour. Before coming to Boston I spent just five minutes or so online and found a good pdf file showing a map with the 16 stops of the freedom trail. Each stop had a couple paragraphs of explanation. You will have a better experience walking the trail with a map/brochure. My wife and I really enjoyed the trail. You can get free maps at several places along the trail. On a duck boat you get most of the trail (but you get closer to things by walking). Beyond that you don't get much on the duck tour. We started from the museum of science and our water portion of the tour was kind of pointless. There was very little pointed out while we were in the water. In was kind of just for fun I guess. We just did a circle in the water for 10-15 minutes. There were no buildings pointed out while in the water, and the views were generally similar to my one posted pic. This tour seems more suited for parents with small kids (who seemed to enjoy it from what I could tell)...probably elementary and middle school aged kids would be best. I did learn a few things but got way more out of walking the trail. By the way I usually leave positive reviews. This tour didn't seem worth $95 for two of us. Maybe your tour guide will be a little better, but I'd recommend saving your $ for something else if you can...

Instructions said that the bus would leave from the science museum. No instructions about where and when to check in, so when I went to check in about 25 minutes before the tour was supposed to start, I inquired about checking in at a kiosk set up in front of the museum. I was then informed that the bus would NOT be entering the water because the city was draining the river, which would cause the current to be too strong. I was given the option of taking our original time slot and receiving half off or waiting around for 3 hours to possibly get the full tour. I asked if I could get a full refund and was told I would have to get the refund from the third party that I booked from. The Duck Tours were helpful in getting a number for VIATOR for me. I ended up spending about an hour and 20 minutes on the phone with VIATOR. I was told several times that they would email me with an update, but with 4 tickets at $181, I wanted to know for sure that I would be 100% refunded. I spoke to Duck Tours and they did seem to want to help, however, all of this could have been avoided or replanned if they had sent a notification about the situation in advance. As far as VIATOR is concerned, I’m not sure why they couldn’t just say, “yes, you will be 100% refunded” after over an hour of back and forth and being on hold. Lesson: do not book through a third party, especially since I was told that THIS HAPPENS ALOT by the Duck boat tours (the water being drained). The whole thing was very disappointing as we walked quite a way to get to the site and wasted so much of our vacation...

Very disappointed customer service. I travelled with my service dog and before I purchased a tour ticket I did all the research to ensure I was able to get on the boat with my service animal. Do not be fool, despite the website Q&A form stated service animals are allowed, they do not allow any service dogs on the boat unless you have a physical disability as per customer service staff at the center. My service dog has a ADA ID card and even with that I was denied access today. I could not believe it. It shameful that someone will disrespect and discriminate someone with disabilities and not allow them to enjoy such a beautiful city as Boston is. As someone who lives in one the most visited cities in the world, it’s sad to see how inaccessible and unfit this tour operator is for people with disabilities. Please educate your staff, ADA not only protects people with physical disabilities to travel with their service animals there are a huge range of mental disabilities that also qualify people to travel with their service dogs that are not for “emotional support” as your staff member said “if I did not have a physical and visible disability i wouldn’t allow to participate on the tour”. Besides being disrespectful, completely...