City Cruises Reviews 1,577

The cruise was cancelled due to river levels. We were offered a bus trip instead but no option to rebook another day and we were offered fish & chips from a shop in the city.

When we booked the trip we were told it was a 40 minute trip from Westminster Pier to Tower Pier by the staff member selling the tickets at Westminster Pier. Onboard it barely lasted 20 minutes, with a recorded guide which was barely audible despite being told it would be a fun and interactive live guided tour. A complete rip off. Avoid this company for your Thames trip.

*Update*

As of the 23rd May 26 there has still been no follow up to my complaint despite City Cruises assuring me of wanting to reach out about my review.

The "cruise" never set sail and they would not even give a partial refund.

This was one of the best decisions I've ever made for Mother's Day! Everyone, right down to the parking folks, were amazing! The food was amazing, the service, the ambiance...everything! My wife deserved a 5 star experience and she got one. Thanks to the entire Hornblower team! I HIGHLY recommend to anyone looking to have an enjoyable and memorable experience. We will be back, over and over.

Entire staff, from booking reservations via phone to end of cruise, was outstanding. Great customer service skills by everyone
Give better directions to food line.
Food was cold!

Came here for the Mother's Day brunch 2:30 to 4:30 cruise. The entire staff was really nice especially the manager Alex. Only issues I had with the cruise is that it was short and the wait staff were forgetful.
Because we had a large-ish party we were seated downstairs wayyyyy in the back. Being downstairs was O.K because there were less people in the area we were in so it felt somewhat private. However, it was extremely warm and stuffy where we were seated. My grandmother who doesn't drink asked for a Sprite that she never got and the wait staff asked if we wanted water but never brought it.
Towards the end of the cruise Alex came to make sure we enjoyed ourselves, which we did, and was the main reason we didn't push the issue about the soda and water.
I would recommend this cruise for those who just want something to do on a nice Spring day. Overall the experience was fun but the food, and atmosphere were mediocre.
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EDIT: My grandmother said she got her Sprite but it wasn't carbonated and didn't taste anything like Sprite. Other than that the overall experience wasn't terrible.

Edit: This review is specific to the London Afternoon Tea River Cruise.

I’ll preface this by saying some people may not be put off by this experience, and it likely won’t happen to everyone so ymmv.

After boarding, we were told that we would not get teapots during the cruise because they ran out before getting to our table. The server and her supervisor acted like this wouldn’t be a big deal even though the whole point of the tea cruise is to experience a traditional British afternoon tea. Their solution was to just pour us water and give us a tea bags instead, and that they’d continue bringing us new cups of tea. The water they gave us was only warm for the first cup, and then only 2 of the 6 people in our group were brought a second cup. In the last 20 minutes of the cruise, we finally got teapots because some of the other tables were finished. At that point some of us were finally able to pour ourselves our second cup of tea. The only compensation they offered was free drinks, but no one in our party drinks alcohol.

Personally, I’d recommend doing a regular cruise and a proper afternoon tea experience rather than participating in this cruise since they apparently can’t properly prepare.

Booked York Fish’n Chips Cruise for visitors from north east to celebrate wed anniversary. First class, got there a few mins early, great fish n chips then off up the river. Staff were very friendly and professional, the Captain’s commentary was informative and yet very funny.
Brill!! GREAT EXPERIENCE.

Well the DJ started the party , Line Dance music , he kept everyone on their feet, the food was good but could have been warmer , the rolls were cold , the staff kept the food coming so it wasn't that bad although we did run out of saucers , but I did have a great time , and would come again

We paid too much for the worst experience ever! We arrived at the pier at 10:30 am. Although there were long lines and boarding was suppose to start at 11 am with an 11:30 am departure, they didn't start boarding until 11:20 am and we departed at 12 pm. We paid $233 (plus $30 for 2 glasses of wine) for a guaranteed window table. The windows were dirty and above shoulder level. Because of crowded tables, loud music, & pore acoustics, we couldn't carry on a conversation. Even our smart watches warned us about loud noise. The food was mediocre and the service was poor. We had to ask 4 times to pay for our wine. The boat traveled in circles and there was very little notable scenery (i.e., only distant views of the Washington Monument & Anacostia Bridge). Save your money and avoid this tourist trap!

The cruise was fine but the staff at the peir was really unfriendly and shouted at us for goung the wrong way after we were given wrong instructions. If you can't talk to people normally you should work somewhere else in my opinion.

The Potomac water taxi operation runs smoothly and the entire crew are top-notch.

They are one of the best in the game.
You can also try it out today

What a lovely nice neighborly experience to have this Staycation Cruise

My Girlfriends and I went for a night out to have fun. What we got was an extremely disappointing evening.
While the views are amazing. The service we received was terrible!
We purchased a package that included drinks and appetizers.
We never had anyone wait on us, we were eventually told to go upstairs and get our own drinks. We asked 2x about our appetizers and we finally received 1 appetizer, the same time the buffet was served, the other after dinner was served! Pointless!
Which that appetizer was greasy cheese. Not crab and shrimp dip. It was disguisting.

There was a group of high school kids aboard and the cruise was obviously aimed at them! The music was blaring the whole evening. When the buffet was served lthe kids were told to go first. While the rest of us were waiting in line to get our food, the kids were already going for seconds, while the staff did nothing!

The kids went upstairs to dance, taking up the whole room, leaving NO room for anyone else, then eventually spilled into the dining area downstairs- again the staff did nothing. We paid alot of money for an extremely chaotic, unorganized evening. The money we spent was not worth even half. What a terrible and disappointing evening.

This was an incredibly disappointing experience from start to finish. Our server never willingly came to our table—we constantly had to track someone down just to get basic service.

The timing of the food was completely off. We ordered two appetizers—one arrived right as they were announcing dinner, and the second didn’t show up until after dinner was served . The bread was stale, and one of the shrimp dishes was just grease and covered in cheese—completely unappetizing.

We ended up going to the bar ourselves just to get drinks because no one was checking on us.

What made it worse was the overall chaos in the dining area. There were several tables of high school students who were dishing up second and third helpings while other guests hadn’t even been served once. A tour group repeatedly crowded into our reserved window space to take pictures, and staff did nothing to manage it.

To top it off, the atmosphere felt disorganized and tacky. People were cutting in line, throwing belongings everywhere, and another group celebrating had to dance in the dining room because the students had taken over the upstairs dance area and eventually took over the dining area as well, no room for adults to enjoy dancing.

The food was poor, the service was worse, and the entire experience was far too expensive for what we received. We came to enjoy a night in the city and left feeling completely ripped off.

Would not recommend.

We had our cruise cancelled. The customer service team was informative and refunded our trip in a timely fashion. We would like to return and reschedule a trip in the near future.

Warning! Don’t schedule cruises with this company! We scheduled two cruises with City Cruises and they canceled both of them! The first one they canceled weeks after I booked it. So I rescheduled and now they are telling me that one is canceled too! I am so frustrated and disappointed. They say there is nothing they can do and don’t know why they canceled the sailing. Please!

everything from the tour guide to the experience from the price everything was amazing. I would recommend to every person in the world.