StarLite Majesty — Restaurant in Clearwater

Took a dinner cruise with 3 other friends for our friend's birthday. Boat departs from Clearwater Marina at 7pm and returns at 10pm. The Captain I believe (he was dressed like the Captain) greets everyone at the gate entrance ,collects your ticket and then has you stand with your group for a photo that you can purchase at the end of your trip. I believe it was $30 (not exactly sure) and comes in a Starlight Majesty foldable binder /souvenir type frame. There are 3 levels so if someone in your party is disabled or has trouble climbing stairs I would ask when purchasing tickets to be sat on the 1st level. The stair cases are fairly wide ,with large steps and hand rails though so getting to each level from inside is not difficult but there is a winding narrow staircase as you enter that is much harder for someone that isn't in great shape or in heels. Upon entering , the cabin's air conditioning was very good (unlike other lunch cruise boats we have taken) and you are accompanied to your table and have water and a lemon wedge waiting. Our server arrived immediately and introduced herself and told us Entree orders would be appreciated as soon as possible and appetizers and drinks could be ordered and they would be right out . We ordered several cocktails and appetizers and they came out fairly quickly . The atmosphere was very nice. They have a small dance floor and dj booth on the 1st floor and plenty of tables that need to be reserved ahead of time . The second floor is also a dining room and has an open view looking down at the dj and dance floor . The 3 floor is the upper outside carpeted deck with seating and a few round high top tables where you can take in the beautiful sunset and scenery and enjoy the ride. The views are stunning. As night fell ,the lit skylines were equally stunning ! Smoking and vaping is allowed up there also (and only on the 3rd level) . After the appetizers they bring out a salad and that was followed by olive oil, seasoning and bread. Right after that the entrees came out . The menu isn't extensive but has Snapper,salmon,shrimp,prime rib,steak,chicken,a vegetarian dish and a pork loin dish to choose from. I highly recommend the pork loin. It melts in your mouth. Entrees are served with a choice of 2 sides . Mashed potatoes,rice and a vegetable. After the entrees were done they bring out a slice of cheese cake for everyone. Also at the start of the trip the dj came around in the beginning to every table and said to let our server know if we wanted a shout out for anyone that was celebrating a special occasion or requested any particular song and she would be happy to fulfill our request. We happened to be seated next to a table who had BB King's drummer celebrating his anniversary (which was pretty cool). For the 4 of us we ordered at total of 8 cocktails,4 appetizers, our entrees ,not to mention the complimentary salads,bread and deserts which was just brought out. Our bill came to $278 not including the tip. We only had 4 people in our party but we did read in the description beforehand that parties of 7 or more a gratuity of 20%will be added. We were all so full by the end of the trip ! Considering everything like the atmosphere, music , dancing, spectacular views ,great food and drinks and great service ,this was a fantastic evening out ! We all had a great time ! Living in the area for almost 30 years and knowing of the Starlight Majesty , we regret not trying it years ago but we will certainly be coming back . The only negative was the tiny restrooms. The girls in our party had to wait to use the restroom due to a full ship capacity and the restrooms only accommodating 1(not sure but maybe 2 people) at a time . The men's room had 1 urinal and 1 stall . Not sure if every level had a restroom. We just used the 1st level . Other than that absolutely no complaints. The ship was clean throughout and all the staff was great! If you have never tried the Starlight Majesty you will not be disappointed! We highly recommend booking a special occasion or just a...

My fiance and I treated my parents to a cruise as a gift for my mother's birthday, a gift for father's day, and we wanted to scout out the ship to see if we would be interested in having our wedding on the ship.

The ship was nice but, in the end, there was a lot to be desired.

One of the women's bathroom stalls was out of order right when we got on the ship, so it's a problem they knew of but hadn't fixed. There was already very little space and I felt like I was doing yoga trying to get into the stall that was working.

After that adventure, I sat down at the table with my family to be poured a disgusting glass of water in which the lemon wedge on the side did little to mask the off-putting flavor. Everyone at my table quickly ordered coffee to be spared having nothing to drink other than the awful water.

Our waitress was sweet and let us know what to expect: appetizers come out quick; dinner wouldn't be served until 8. The earlier you put in your dinner order the better. Okay. I ordered the spinach and artichoke dip thinking it would be plenty for the whole table, as it is when I order it anywhere else. However, the waitress kept asking everyone at the table if they too would like to order an appetizer. That clued us in to the fact that the appetizers were probably small. And so they were.

The appetizers ranged from about $8-10 and we were able to choose from 5. The spinach and artichoke dip was lackluster and tasted as though it was old or from the bottom of a bucket.

The beef wellington tasted amazing (to me) but I will admit that I have never had beef wellington before so I am uncertain of how it compares to other. My mother who has had it before said she has had better from a popular local pub.

My fiance had the shrimp cocktail that had 6 thawed shrimp and a shameful "cocktail" sauce that was mostly ketchup. Seriously. It's Florida. There's no excuse for bad shrimp and bad cocktail sauce.

My father's appetizer was a fish dip of sorts, I cannot remember the name. While the taste was okay, it was incredibly runny and he ran out of the pita bread and ate the rest of the dip like soup since it was so liquidy.

Also, when the waitress told us dinner would be at 8, what we realized she meant was dinner would be served on the first floor first at 8. By 8:30 we got our salad (we were on the second floor), which I thought was pretty good. The waitress gave us a quick spiel about how the salad had raspberries, raisins, and nuts as a quasi-allergy disclaimer that was a little strange. The salad was decent, but nothing remarkable.

As for entrees, the prices were absurd. The cheapest option was the chicken marsala for $21.00 and the chicken was overcooked and the sauce was bland. I was surprised how disappointed it was. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't "bad".but it was definitely not $21.00 worth. The asparagus was overcooked and bland. The wild rice was unremarkable.

My dad had the pork which was good but it was served on a large bone so it looked like you got more than you actually did.

My mother had the other chicken dish which was also overcooked and had an odd taste. She tried to eat the whole dish but she couldn't.

My fiance had the seafood creole which was ridiculous. The mussels were overcooked and bland, the tomato sauce was overpowering, and the fish was just an overcooked mess. Let's just say, this was the first time in my two year relationship with my fiance that I EVER saw him leave food on his plate.

Besides the food, the cruise was nice. The ship turned around a lot which was a little odd, in my opinion, but the top deck is covered so we had a nice retreat when the inside of the cruise was getting a little too warm. We would definitely do the cruise again in the future if we had the time, but there's no way we're ordering the food again and my fiance and I decided that we're not going to have our wedding aboard the ship because I would be embarrassed to serve food of such low quality to my...

Well.. It is not a floating Cruise. It is a Floating Restaurant!!

There are so many reasons for the 1 Star - few below:

1. Food - it is ok to have. But the Price - is not a match - It is too high for what they provided. One of the Veg platter we ordered - is too ridiculous.(you can scream that why the hell i had veg, ;) I am vegetarian - on the sad part) They don't even know what they are preparing. Only good thing we had is the bread that they provided before the dinner - not to forget to mention the side for the bread they provided - really good.

2. One of the promising advertisement of this cruise is Sunset - but the Cruise never left the Back water. we expected this cruise would leave the backwater and will be entering the sea for Sunset experience - Sadly - all the 2 hours- it is roaming inside the backwater. anyway we had the sunset sight caught some where between the buildings. Only good sighting we had is the night view of the shore buildings with lights ON - which is some how compensated my expectation.

3. I understand that they provide the Dinner in the cruise but for Kids and Babies we took the food along with us - but we are not allowed to feed them. The so called captains or whoever in the white uniform - behaved in very improper manner to convey the message. Not sure they behaved in such way because of Racism.. But we felt very bad with their rude way.

4. Kids!! we realized later that this cruise experience will suit only for couples or Families or Friends. Few of our friends brought Kids - they had hard time - handling them. Which will happen with Kids - but - few of the managers at the cruise yelling at the Kids itself directly to be calm and not to run. Well, It is rude to write such thing - but the way the behaved - is really RUDE! So - this cruise - definitely not for and not with the Kids.

5. Last but not least - When I heard first about the so called CRUISE - i imagined bigger. My Fault. But is not really a cruise. we can call it as a boat. oh sorry, we can call it a yacht. they shouldn't use the name 'cruise' for the size they have. well, this is called Business. Lighting and ambiance are very poor. However one thing we have is - dance floor - light music - live and recorded performance - which is below average.

SOOOOOOO - If you are looking for cruise experience - this is "not definitely" the right place. But if you are looking for a place to spend 3 hours - yes, absolutely! with 50 bucks per person, if lucky you can get...