Blue & Gold Fleet — Local services in San Francisco

As a resident of the Bay Area who prior to moving had visited multiple times as a tourist, I've had the opportunity to utilize many boat/tour and ferry services in the area. None of them quite lacked the professionalism and borderline predatory policies of Blue & Gold Fleet.

I've not specifically taken their single-board round trip Cruises, I assume they would be better than my situation. However, I recently took a trip to Angel Island for a day of hiking. Overall the trip itself was fine. I did have to explicitly ask which dock the boat boarded from rather it being clearly evident or provided outright, but that's really not a big deal. Only in hindsight did it play into the staff's overall lack of customer service.

When you take a round trip journey to Angel Island, you line up in an area that is setup like you would expect with line queues, but which they eventually tell everyone to just cram into towards the front and ignore any of the line infrastructure. Seems kinda pointless, but they take your ticket and you board and it's like any other ferry. It's a boat ride.

Coming back, you line up similarly in a very disorganized fashion with nobody clearly managing the lines or getting people lined up for the right boat. There's multiple, different boats which leave from their same dock and so finding which line in the giant mass of unrestrained people is your correct boat can be a bit of a challenge... and this is where their service turns borderline predatory.

When you board the boat on Angel Island, they don't even so much as attempt to check tickets. They just open the door and let people file on in. I had my ticket out expected it to be checked, but they never did.

Now, at some point during this journey after boarding (recall, I had my ticket out and ready to present when boarding), I lost my ticket. I most likely accidentally threw it away when cleaning out other trash I had from my trip or it might have even been dropped when I thought i put it in my pocket after boarding. At no point in this journey once boarded or even as you prepare to disembark are you informed that, apparently, they check tickets AT THE DOCK before you are able to leave the boat. This both creates a very slow line to leave, but then also runs into situations like mine where I am now apparently unable to get off the boat that I was able to freely get on at the previous port.

The staff wasn't even friendly or understanding about the situation. The person checking the tickets immediately had a "tough luck, go over there to the cashier and buy another ticket" attitude. To which point I did, and upon making it to the cashier AND PRESENTING A RECEIPT THAT HAD MY NAME FROM MY CREDIT CARD with proof of purchase from my ticket was told "tough luck, everyone must have a ticket" ... Turns out, their on board tickets ARE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN BUYING THEM ON SHORE.

I recognize that it is indeed my fault for having misplaced my ticket. But at no point were we ever informed that we would need it to disembark. The staff had zero interest in my proof of purchase and was more than happy to charge me an up-charged ticket for the ticket on board. I can't even figure out where the process makes sense except for hoping that people did lose their ticket and then sticking it to them at the last possible moment when they're essentially trapped. What are they stopping with this process? Do people buy one-way tickets to Angel Island and then expect they'll sneak back? Even if this was a supposed "problem", what logic does it make to wait until the last possible minute to check? They've boarded the boat. Why not stop them before they ever board? Why let the person actually take the trip if they hadn't paid? It's a predatory policy that is hoping to scam people out of an extra $15. It's not the money that bothered me, it's the principle.

I will never use this boat service again. There's other boats/ferries. Use...

Absolutely the worst tour experience I have EVER overpaid for in my life. I travel a lot for work and don't have a lot of free time for sightseeing, so I love to squeeze in trips like these when I can.

This was the hands down biggest waste of money and biggest disappointment I've ever spent, in any city, on similar tours and tourist trips.

The boat was ancient, rusty, and not at all an appropriate boat to carry 250 to 300 passengers on its limited outer decks. The boat was PACKED, almost to the point of making it impossible to move around. Everyone crammed onto the decks, and no one sat in the inside cabins, which probably comprised about 50% to 75% of the boat's passenger space. The crew did NOTHING to police this. The available outside seating filled up fast. When seats were all filled, remaining passengers, rather than finding seats inside, decided it was okay to stand around the entire edges of the boat, sometimes 2-3 people deep, pressing up against the people on the benches and ea h other, and completely obstructing views of the seated passengers. And I do mean completely obstricting the views. I feel the staff should have instructed everyone to physically take a seat and not allowed the obstructive SRO status on the boat's limited outdoor decks.

The crew was abysmal. Unfriendly, unwelcoming, and, it appeared, eager for this last trip of the day to be over. They barely spoke at all on the trip, in fact. Now, to be fair, the sunset cruise was not advertised as a "tour," but I've been on many other similar trips that didn't advertise a tour guide, per se, but did at least offer minimal chatter and friendly banter along the way, along with some tidbits of touristy info that paying customers might have enjoyed.

I do feel the description of the trip was rather misleading. It boasted some sort of fabulous LED light display on the Golden Gate Bridge. There was none that we could see...in fact, we were back to the dock and the tour over before dusk. The description also promised a trip around Alcatraz. We didn't actually circle the island, though we did pass one side of the island on the trip out and the other side of the island on the way back in, I guess. Again, just disappointing overall. I guess it didn't matter because we couldn't see much from our seats anyhow.

If you do go, bring a tote bag with your own drinks in it. We paid $12 each for a shot glass of cheap red wine. Ridiculous. The wineries don't even charge that much.

One star because what we could see of the sunset was beautiful, and giving zero stars isn't an option here, so I had to give at least one star. My advice, save your money and drive up to the top of one of the area's hills and watch the sunset from that vantage...

They changed the departure time from what is posted on the website and the schedule that we were handed AFTER we purchased our tickets. We were never told that the schedule can change per the “captains desire.”

We walked up to the ferry 15 min before the scheduled departure time, and they looked at us and just closed the door as they shouted at us and another group of people, “the schedule is wrong.”

I then approached the information desk on Angel Island to again be told the schedule can change based on what the “captain wants.” He said, “the captain runs the show.” I understand that the ranger has nothing to do with the Blue & Gold Fleet company’s policies or practice, but this is BS.

We are now stranded on the island for another 3 hours, that is if it is on schedule. I am a T1 diabetic and my insulin pump will run out of insulin in approximately 1 hour. I understand this is my personal problem, however we timed our experience on Angel Island to make it back to the ferry in time to depart and then make it back to the hotel to refill my pump.

After explaining my problem to the ranger, he pointed to a sign that had water taxi numbers - there were 2. I called both. #1 did not answer. And #2 said he was not running it today. He also said if he was running, it costs $300 to go 1 way back to SF.

I also attempted to call Blue & Gold Fleet company, however their office is only open M-F. This company basically misleads and then does not take care of their paid guests.

I would absolutely not recommend this company or visiting Angel Island unless you have nothing...