Odyssey Washington DC Lunch Cruise Washington, DC

We booked a day cruise to Mount Vernon from Washington pier 4. We booked and paid for a box lunch at the time of booking. The day before the trip City Cruises changed the pier. That update caused me to call the customer service to see if I would be able to buy a breakfast sandwich and coffee on the cruise and to confirm out box lunch would still be available. The City Cruises customer service representative confirmed that both would be available. I even received a confirming email which I still have. When we boarded we were told there was no food other than simple snacks like chips, candy and soft drinks. That meant we would be going hungry until the box lunch was provided on the return trip. On the return trip I went to the snack bar to ask about our box lunch and the attendant said they did not have any box lunches. There were at least two other people waiting and being told that their box lunches would not be provided. The attendant called someone and was told to give us a free bag of chips and a free soda and that we would get a credit for the missed box lunch. We did indeed get the credit later that day; but we were still hungry for many hours. Later in the evening, long after the cruise was over, we got an email that we would not get out box lunch. If I had received the email before the cruise I could have purchased lunch at Mount Vernon. The cruise was not that interesting at any rate. It was a pretty boring experience. So, don't bother doing this cruise. Find some other way to visit Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon itself is a great experience. Just avoid this City Cruise tour.

My wife and I did the Washington DC Premier Dinner Cruise. The service and the food were horrible. The music was too loud so everyone in the room had to yell to speak, which made the room uncomfortable. I don’t know if the servers are overwhelmed? But getting a drink, including water, was nearly impossible. Wife couldn’t even get a coffee. And the food was totally inedible - coming from a couple who are NOT picky eaters. The steak was tough and tasted like a block of salt, for example. The boat ride was fine, but the expensive dinner part was so so bad. Don’t do this lol.

My husband booked the sunset dinner cruise. It was almost as bad as it could get. The only thing that was pleasant was that it was a smooth sailing experience. The worst was that we almost did not get our meal . If not for an observant wait staff, we would have been missed. It seemed everything was an up charge. Our order was taken quickly,but after that everything fell apart. We stuck with the basic menu except for a glass of wine, which we did not get when we reminded our waiter we got some flippant answer. The appetizers were ok. And got our 2 rolls. When someone asked for more rolls they were told “ no”. Then, we watched and waited while EVERYONE around us got served. We began joking that we were at the forgotten table. As it turned out we were. Our waiter told us to go outside to take pictures and we were sure he did not realize, we had not eaten. Another wait staff Oscar, came to our rescue and brought it to our waiter’s attention. The waiter came over and tried to explain but couldn’t why we hadn’t gotten our meal. Finally when we got the meal. It was not palatable. My meat was overcooked and whatever was served with it was dry and had no taste. My spouse got the salmon and later that night got sick. Our waiter offered a complimentary drink and we again had to remind him that a drink was ordered that we never got. Since it was a sunset cruise, we thought it would be narrated and the monuments would be lit. Unfortunately it was cloudy, so no sunset, no narration even though there was a DJ and No monuments were lit. Lots of loud music. We were seated at a window and 3 people sat on the benches outside our window blocking our view for picture taking. Just not a good experience.

Worst dinner cruise ever. Welcomed by a photographer that does not like their job. It took 40 min to get our drinks which were not the ones we ordered. My wife's gnocchi looks like they were coming from a low budget cafeteria, my friend steak was grey, never seen a steak cooked that badly. We were informed that we can leave the table and go outside to take pictures at any time. So we did half through our meal to take advantage of a beautiful sunset. We came back and all our plates were gone. We did a similar dinner in Paris for half the price and the quality was 100% better. Coffee served with the dessert was cold....