Captain Al’s Charter Boat Fleet

I chartered with Captain Al for my sister’s Bachelorette Party (for the Navy Pier firework show) and we had a blast. Captain Al and his deckhand Jose were so polite, helpful, and fun!
The girls had a blast and I couldn’t have asked for a better time. :)

Boat ride was fine and took off on time, but «Captain Al» did not ever really seem warm and inviting. This boat doubles as a fishing boat, and we were promised that all fishing tools and displays would be removed, but this was not the case. When telling us about our boat trip, he said we only had 2 hours, but had booked a 3 hour ride. he did not look pleased. After arriving back to the dock, the entire party made sure to clean up our food containers and even made sure empty bottles and cans were all thrown away. After going to pay for the boat ride, there were several additional undisclosed charges. It did not seem that Captain Al was honest and was trying to make a quick buck, adding costs for ice and parking. This was never disclosed in the original confirmation. Unfortunately, Unilocal does not allow 0 stars, so gave 1 star.

We paid for a sport fishing charter, were told one price. When we arrived on the boat they informed us that would have to charge us more. Everything is extra.

Back a couple of years ago, I was preparing to propose to my now-​wife. I had a few ideas, but when she told me that she was going to be in town to visit for a few weeks (we had been doing the distance thing for about 9 months at that point after previously both being in the Detroit area), I swung into action. The ring was ordered, and I decided since she was going to be around during the week I would charter a boat out onto the lake (she had wanted to do a boat tour before but we hadn’t done one yet) and then right before the Wednesday night fireworks, I would pop the question.
After some brief Googling for options, I found Captain Al’s. Captain Al himself was very friendly, as was his assistant. I was able to bring a cooler onto the boat along with some snacks. The boat we had was a good size, with the Captain up top driving the boat and my wife and I on the main level. There was a CD player and speakers built in so we could play our own music, which was nice. It all went off without a hitch
They do fishing charters as well as fireworks cruises. The boats embark from Burnham Harbor. At some point we’d like to organize a group of friends to do a day out on the lake. It sounded like they had boats of several sizes, and the one that we had for our cruise certainly would be good for either a group fishing trip or to just hang out on the water. Certainly worth a call if you’re looking to organize a smaller group (less than 20) and want to charter instead of sharing a big boat that leaves from Navy Pier.