DC Cruises

A bit too chilly for my people to hang out upstairs; BUT, the moonlight monument cruise is pretty awesome! Not the best pics from inside; BUT, I’m comfortable inside on the lower level.
Ya can also purchase some alcoholic beverages if ya choose!
Gonna enjoy the jazz music for the rest of
the cruise and kick back. Talk to ya later!

We travel to DC from NC several times a year for Redskins football. We do not do the tourist ‘thing’ much anymore, as we have seen about all there is to see. However, we recently came home from a 3 week vacation in Europe where we took ‘city boat tours’ in 4 countries. We discovered that with boat tours you get a great/​different perspective of the city, and usually great narration. So, we looked for a tour in DC. There are a few choices of boat companies. We chose DC Cruises for the length, price, and more adult type cruise. It exceeded our expectations. We learned a lot of history we did not know, and saw amazing views of the city and monuments. The narration was fun and informative. The boat was clean, had a small bar and plenty of room above deck with tables and chairs. There was a lot of room in the ‘inside’ if you don’t want to be exposed to the elements.

The captain really knows his stuff. Great narrative and really nice clean boat. Apple cider was top notch and a very nice added touch to the Fall Foliage tour.
We had a great experience.
The Cruises run on time and the people that work for DC Cruise are very helpful and kind.
We had an outstanding time!

We were denied boarding on another boat after buying our tickets online. My son was upset so we talked to these people. They let us board and enjoy the evening. They were all very friendly and very helpful from an almost ruined evening by another company. Music is for a younger crowd but that should be expected on a happy hour cruise. They allowed us to sit up front away from everyone and my son enjoyed it. Good people and a great business.

Sorry to disagree with the other Unilocalers on this one, but their reviews were definitely very helpful for a great experience. So I did get the groupon, and the groupon was really clear– You have to reserve using the special link ahead of time to get a spot.
When we arrived, it was really easy to spot where the ships were departing from, since there was a sign in front of the nearby restaurants. We also saw the long line of people. We arrived about 30 minutes before departure and were a little disheartened thinking we couldn’t get a good spot. So as the skipper looked at our tickets and let us onboard, we just asked if we could walk on the upper deck, and he said sure! So, even though it was partially full, we just asked people if they could move some of the chairs that were blocking the benches and we got great seats! The other guests were also really nice. I think the white benches on the upper deck had the best view, because all you had to do was turn around for an unspoiled view.
So, the moonlight cruise wasn’t as bromatic as advertised, because they mostly played Usher (whispers «ushaaaa»), but it was still a great experience to see the monuments and chill for an hour. The staff were super friendly, sold drinks in the main cabin, and had to clean up for people before and on our voyage, so i don’t envy their dedication. I would definitely do it again!

The Moonlight cruise was a great experience. The weather was nice the moon was full and the bartender was on point. There were only two issues.
The boat arrived nearly an hour after it was supposed to come, so my friend and I were waiting. Looking to see if the DC cruise boat would come. Also, the seating upstairs is limited. We were in the front of the line and still didn’t get a great seat on the top deck.
All in all the cruise was nice and will come back. Maybe for the happy hour cruise

My fiancé and I took their 8:00 Monuments by Night tour and was awesome. The tour did get started about 10 minutes late but was otherwise a terrific experience. We sat up top for the best view possible. They were playing some chill type of romantic music at first but then started to play a little R&B towards the end of the cruise. The staff was very courteous, I would definitely recommend taking this cruise to anyone.

The «Bitch Better Have My Money» Cruise.
We took 2 out-​of-​town friends on the 10:15 PM ‘Monuments-​By-​Moonlight’ cruise last Saturday night.
I’m hardly a prude, but the cruise had a DJ that played only expletive-​laden hip hop & rap (including the above title of this review). I didn’t mind that there were people smoking weed, but there WERE actually other folk on the boat besides the ones who apparently appreciate that music. Judging from the response I received from ‘Lori’, though, my «demographic» isn’t what the company is looking for:
that’s what the nightclubs for our demographic are now playing.
yours is the 2^nd complaint we’ve had about this in the past month, so
i think we need to clarify on our website somewhere that that’s what
you’re going to hear.
i’ll pass your comments along to my manager. sorry you didn’t enjoy it.
–Lori
Very glad I never invited my parents on one of their cruises. Definitely won’t be sailing with DC Cruises again!

My scheduled time for me and a friend is tomorrow, and I’m already extremely frustrated with this company. The most unprofessional, unresponsive, and unhelpful group I’ve come across in a while.
I bought a Groupon for me and a friend at $ 30. Cool. Great deal. Something new. Let’s try it out.
I didn’t really see anything on their website about a Groupon voucher code like normal (I’ve used several Groupon vouchers in the past). So I emailed them in May (almost 3 months ago now) to get some direction on how I should book, etc. No response. Now, me and a friend are wanting to go, I decide to try it out. I go online, start the payment process. I clicked next once, and it said payment was processed. No review order? Have never seen that before. So, I think no problem, I will email this third party company that DC Cruises has a contract with — they’ll totally understand since I just did this 2 min ago. Well, they say DC cruises won’t allow that. So I email DC Cruises — the next day they email me back saying No because they have to pay fees. I then attach my email from May and explain that they never responded to me to help.
After a few times back and forth (and terrible email grammar — which is a red flag and shows how unprofessional they are), the manager says she will give me back the $ 30. Better than nothing I guess, but I wouldn’t have even purchased these if it weren’t for the deal I was getting. Terrible customer service. I thought Groupon was supposed to help both customers getting deals and the companies getting exposure to bring people back… obviously they don’t care.
And even worse, I tried calling DC Cruises and nobody answered — went to voicemail — then says mailbox full. Are you kidding me!!!
AWFUL COMPANY. Save your $ — plenty of other boating/​tour places to choose from.

I was really looking forward to having my going away party through DC Cruises and to say I’m dissatisfied would be an understatement. I had a party of 20 or more people and I clicked on the send more info button. I inquired about our options with such a large group 3 weeks in advance and asked what the number of open seats was for the date I had requested. They responded with no helpful information at all and quite frankly where very rude and not willing to work with me at all… Here is the rest of our conversation after the initial general information email where they didn’t address my question about the number of seats that were available:
Jessica:
Hey DC Cruises,
I had a question about the number of seats available on the cruises. I purchased the deal through living social and when I click on the link on the voucher it took me to this site :
Here it showed me how many seats are available for each cruise. I was looking on July 25^th for the 10:30 cruise. Is this number the total number of seats left on the boat for that time or is that the total amount of living social vouchers allowed for that day? It says there are only 20 seats left and I need at least 25. If you had a contact phone number where I can reach someone instead of email that would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
DC Cruises :
hi,
We start with 50 seats in our voucher area and 50 in our own
site’s area. And then re-​balance them once a week. So you’re not
seeing total number available.
Jessica :
Would it be possible to know the number of total seats available so that we can see if this is something the a group our size can do? And will everyone that buys the LivingSocial be able to use it for the boat or only some people? Is there a phone number where you can be reached? It would be much easier to discuss on the phone rather than going back and fourth over emails.
DC Cruises :
it’s too tight already. i see 19 in voucher area and 26 on our site.
Response from me :
Okay so I have approximately 25 people. Could we do 19 through the living social and the remainder through your site or can you adjust the living social voucher number?
DC Cruises :
Sorry, i’ve got to run to get my kid. registration and tix must be purchased online
anyway. good luck!
So looks like that was the end of our conversation… guess it’s safe to say that I won’t be having my going away party on a DC Cruises boat… Extremely disappointed

The parents visited and really wanted to do this. They don’t go far and there really isn’t much to see. Nice bar downstairs. You are better seeing monuments from land.

This was a fun Friday night activity. We bought a groupon, which was 30.00 for two people. It started raining a few minutes before we boarded, but thankfully it slacked up. So originally we planned to attend the cruise with a dj, but we didn’t want to start at 1030, so we went to the 830 jazz cruise. Definitely filled with a lot of couples but it was still fun with my best friend. It is a relaxing route around the monument and other historical buildings. One of the highlights was once we got out a little ways, quite a few planes headed to Reagan were directly overhead. It was fun to watch then so close and did feel like an added perk to the cruise. I like that you can just enjoy the water and not have to feel rushed or need an agenda. I would recommend a groupon to save a few bucks and next time we will come earlier and enjoy dinner at the Washington harbor, it had a great crowd and seemed lively.

Took this cruise. The cruise itself was not bad and went around the Potomac river. However, it was not v enjoyable.
1. The driver hardly gave any commentary. You would expect them to say when we approached different landmarks and some context. At the very least, some kind of «monument A is on your right» should have been there. Wasn’t there
2. Boat was filled more than the number of people accomodate on the top floor. Most people obviously want to stay up, so there’s a rush upstairs. With people standing and blocking your view, it wasn’t that great.

You have a nice time for the fee, I would go back on a random date. For a party of 2 have at least $ 55 to get the pitcher ($ 45) and maybe two margaritas ($ 10) if you are a drinker. If not, enjoy the ride, not much scenery but thats because im from DC, so out if towners would really love it.

I haven’t even been on the cruise yet but am already feeling frustrated with this cruise line. My friend and I found out yesterday that we were both going on this cruise on different dates and decided to change our reservations to a date that we were both available. We checked the reservation policy and saw that we could change our reservation 72 hours in advance. Our cruise isn’t for another two weeks so we decided to go ahead and change the dates.
Next we checked on the website for a date with available seats. The 12^th had two times, one with 13 seats left and one with 15. We emailed the company. Today we received an email with instructions on how to change our reservations. We both sent out emails requesting reservation changes within 10 minutes of each other. She received a response minutes later notifying her that her change was confirmed. At this point we’re getting so excited about being on our cruise together. Because naturally, I’m expecting a similar email but hours later, still no email…
I try calling but their number takes you to a prerecorded message with no option to speak to a customer representative. That would be fine if the email service was more responsive or at least open with its customers. Maybe they realized there were no more seats available but then they should have informed me rather than keeping their client in suspense.
I finally sent a second email requesting more information and quickly got an email saying no more seats are available for that date. Well, there were seats available this morning just a few hours ago. Likely they were booked while I waited for a response email. And if they were all booked in the 9 minutes between my friends email and mine, then I should have been notified rather than held in suspense until sending a follow up email.
This has all been a massive waste of my time and at this point I’m just so frustrated with this company I can’t even look forward to a cruise I’ve been eagerly anticipating for weeks.
Update: after a few emails I’ve been notified that if I message them the day before and it’s not supposed to rain then I can be fit in. If that occurs then I will amend my rating, but as of now no other rating would accurately describe how I feel about my experience with DC Cruises.

I purchased the tickets off of livingsocial. My husband and i decided to use it for our 7 year anniversary. What a waste of time. I would had more fun in my living room watching a movie and eating some popcorn. No joke. I was so bored and hot. Nothing entertaining but the other people that was on the boat with you. Highly… Not recommended.

This is the cruise for you if you like the idea of being squeezed in to a boat that doesn’t have enough seating for all people on board. This cruise excels in the art of subpar hospitality as well. Drinks are incredibly overpriced and you’ll spend most of your time on the cruise waiting in the line to pay for the overpriced drinks.
They’re great at churning a profit with overly expensive drinks and overbooking their capacity, but I reserve the right to give them a poor review.

My friend decided to do a birthday boat cruise with DC Cruises. I’ll say overall it was an OK thing to do, but not worth our money.
Let me start with the positives. The views of the monuments were nice. If you are looking for something different to do in DC, this is a good option. The crew was friendly, but the policies and procedures are what we had some issues with.
We arrived at Nick’s Riverside with our entire party well before the call time of 10:15, which is when we were suppose to board. The crew seemed to want to wait even when our host/​birthday girl insisted that everyone was there and we could leave. We wanted to get as much time at the open bar as possible. They do not allow themselves enough turn-​around time in between cruises. Once we were on, we found that the selection from the bar was very limited and we were not allowed to be given shots. The host only requested that one drink be available and they did not have it. Our friendly bartender did the best she could but watered down drinks just kinda ruin your night. It seemed as though they were rationing the alcohol and only 35 of our 50 person party showed up anyway.
Once we got back to dock, the crew manager (I assume) rushed us off the boat by telling us we needed to help the host gather her things (which we were already doing). And as I finished my last watered down drink he tapped me on my shoulder and told me I could wait out on the dock for her. It just didn’t make you feel like you ended your night on a high note. Overall I would not recommend this to a friend unless you have a deal.

Fun cruise line, we got the one that lasts about an hour. They take you to see the monuments from a distance. The boat itself was nice and was well kept.
The best part besides the beautiful views was the rotating 80s smooth jazz and the 90s r&b. It was the best of booth worlds?
Great price for a fun hour, I had a lot of fun on this quick cruise and would return again.

So, my (mostly positive) review might not mean much to people since I just showed up for this cruise & didn’t know anything about it going into it. A friend of mine bought tickets (either through Groupon or Living Social… don’t know which one) awhile back and decided to use them when I was in town for a visit. As far as I know she didn’t have any trouble booking the cruise & there wasn’t an issue getting on the boat (and we were almost the last ones to do so since we were waiting for our third person).
To be honest, it was just kind of nice to be out on a boat with a few cocktails (I don’t know «what» exactly our cruise classified as, but from glancing over other reviews I guess we were on the «Happy Hour» one), and there’s probably a number of different companies that do this sort of thing out of this area and for all I know some might be better (and some might be worst).
I will say it probably would have been nice if the boat was a little less crowded (they really pack you in), but even though we were the last ones on we still got seats up top (with a little maneuvering & some nice people who didn’t mind moving around a bit), which was nice.
They big issue with this cruise was getting drinks. Obviously everyone wants one (or three), and there’s only one bar downstairs (where the line doesn’t move all that fast). There was a guy going through the line with beers if people were just looking to purchase those who handed them out, which did speed things up a little. Even though that didn’t really seem to advertise it we noticed a couple groups getting plastic containers that were used as pitchers. Luckily they had one when we ordered, so we just went ahead and got it so we didn’t have to deal with the line multiple times. Honestly, the mojitos we had weren’t great, but it wasn’t because of a lack of alcohol (and quite honestly… at the end of the day that’s all that really mattered).
Maybe if I had purchased the tickets myself, booked it, and had some expectations ahead of time going into this I might feel differently about it, but at the end of the day I found my 90 minutes on the cruise enjoyable (minus the long wait for booze).