iBoatNYC — Local services in New York

My family and I would like to make a few formal complaints regarding our experience on the Hornblower Infinity Cruise for New Year’s Eve. We paid for the cheapest tickets (standing pricing) and we were aware that no table was guaranteed.

First of all, when we embarked on the cruise and we were queuing at the lowest deck, no employee gave us clear instructions about how to proceed with the food buffet and where to head for sitting or standing. We just gradually found out with other disappointed clients that the queue was for the food and that after getting our food, we had to just rush and find a spot to eat with our coats on. You could have had some managers from the cruise team (or proper signs) telling customers that this was the queue for the food buffet so that people could rather secure a spot before getting the food.

You should seriously reconsider the way you arrange the cruise for this type of event by having standing tables for non-VIP customers because the dining experience was truly not enjoyable, eating on each other. Otherwise, there is absolutely no point in organizing dining on a cruise for non-VIP members. This advice would be useful when we can see that your reviews are pretty bad online, especially on Yelp with customer reviews sharing the same opinion as us.

Secondly, it was very unfortunate to not see any decent customer service because your customer service was the security personnel being rude at customers and yelling at them. Security staff were responsible of welcoming clients on board, yelling at them when they needed to move on the side in the corridor as well as telling people brutally to not come on the highest deck outside because it was reserved for VIP (when we were close to Statue of Liberty). Moreover, no one came to pick our plates so we had to drop them in the cleaning area reserved for management.

Also as an additional point, once we queued at Pier 40 to wait for embarking, we realized that some people were distributing the physical cruise tickets as well as paper bracelets to those who didn’t have them. My son made the effort of coming the day before to pick up the cruise tickets and bracelets but once we queued, we just realized that what my son did was completely useless since all non-VIP customers were treated the same, regardless of whether they got their tickets or not in advance.

We expect a response as well as a refund for this experience because the dining experience and the customer service were similar to a dining experience in an overcrowded fast food establishment with employees who were rude and brutal. It was so poor.

We look forward to your response as well as a refund for this disappointing experience. We sent 2 emails last week, no...

Unless you dont wanna live, go on this boat. I was there on July 29th to celebrate my birthday. What a horrible decision, I should’ve went to a nightclub and call it a day. The staff was so unprofessional, rude and you’re not getting your monies worth. I paid for Latin cruise party but was blocked from going to the Latin floor because the boat was super overcrowded to the point where we crashed another boat! Literally 5 mins from boarding the boat, the boat went left and it crashed onto another boat! IF the boat wasnt there we would of crashed the dock and the building!! We didnt get to see any of the views at all as promised, the view was the boat that we crashed into and the back of the building of the parking lot! The NYPD were the ones who had to pull the boat out to have us go back to the dock which took forever. WE WERE STUCK IN THE SAME SPOT FOR 4 HOURS!! People were fighting and no one cant move around. We literally were sitting on the same chairs because people were standing like sardines and feening for somewhere to sit. There was no explanation as to what happened. After we got off the boat, the staff and the security guards were shouting at us being verbally aggressive and wanting us to walk and leave right away because they didn’t want us to take photos of the windows that were smashed and broken. They didn’t even call for emergency services for anyone that needs it and didn’t even ask if we were OK. Super ghetto af. We believe that the captain was under the influence and the staff. It could also be that the boat was super overcrowded, and when we sailed off the first time, literally two minutes after we sailed, they return to the dock to kick people out and to bring in more people that were late so it could been that too. Towards the end the boat was smoking and we were scared and terrified. I have asked for a refund but they keep refusing for a refund and decided to just give us “free unlimited tickets” for me, my family and friends. Like really? I can only imagine how overcrowded it will be again due to them giving out unlimited free tickets. HOW SAFE. Not to mention this wasn’t the first time that it happened. Another customer in the same boat said that she came on for free due to another boat accident that had occurred previously with iboat. They don’t care at all and they cant provide a guarantee that this wont occur again. Why would I put the people I love in danger? They can shove those “free tickets” and my money where the sun dont shine. Please see photos and videos...

My friend and I were denied entry on NYE for being underage at an ALL AGES EVENT. An event where CHILDREN were at. Nowhere on the website said that we had to be 21+ to be allowed on the boat. The promo said it was open to all ages. It was never specified that you had to be accompanied by an adult. When we were told we had to be with an adult, we came back with a family that said would accompany us and sit with us on the cruise, but the security denied us again. We were given multiple excuses as to why they could not let us on, making different rules up as they go. First they said we cannot be underage and standing - but we had seated tickets. Next they said we had to be accompanied by an adult - which we came back with but were denied because they were not our legal parents. We flew all the way from Canada to board this boat and paid hundreds of dollars. We planned our entire flight and trip around this cruise yet they were not sympathetic at all. Not only were we not allowed on, their staff were making fun of us!!! Are you kidding!!! Security were laughing at us in line, as well as recording the people who were denied access!! Even moms with babies were denied access because they had standing tickets. Many of the staff laughed and said incredibly rude things to the people in line. We told security that we will pay extra if we needed to (and would do anything to get on since we flew here), and they told us to just go home. We had friends in line who called the company to confirm that coming alone underage was okay yet was we were still denied. Many people were denied entry and were left crying while your staff and security laughed and made fun of them. We were also told that iBoat purposely leave out information such as “being accompanied by an adult” to sell more tickets. A STAFF MEMBER told us this....