City Lights Cruises

10/16/09

_movies or a boat_ ? ... see you at the pier

by layla3511 at Citysearch

My family and I attend at least two events a year!

I’ve been going on there cruises for about three years now. I felt really bad when my co-worker was interested and decided to check out some reviews; only to be met with pretty horrible statements. They have free food and I do open bar for like $30Bucks, super cheap for a New Yorker. The food could be better but if you go on the premium cruise; they have the most amazing roast beef and the late night cruises are little appetizers (but I don’t eat that late). My nephews and son love the "Family Cruises", it’s just fun for the kids... my son thinks it’s a night club and dances like Michael Jackson. The staff gets out on the dance floor sometimes and the kids meet the captain if you ask nicely. We once had to dock 15min early because a fireworks show that IKEA or target had going on... well anyway the captain let customers stay on the yacht to watch the display.

I say in a time where just popcorn at the movies cost 6 bucks it’s a good day out for the kids to see lady liberty.

When me and my girls want to just hang out but don’t want to go to a night club... we have a little too much fun on the late night cruises. I think you get what you pay for.

• Pros: discount tickets, bartenders who hook you up if you tip.
• Cons: They sell out quickly, the website isnt user-friendly

10/13/09

Better think again Skipper!

by Ali Harmanoglu at Citysearch

A friend of mine went on this cruise last week (The Majestic). She and her husband along with a few friends went as well. The experience they had made me aware of how deceptive they appear to be in their advertisments. Not only were they treated disrespectfully.... the boat itself was less than acceptable in cleanliness - such as the bathrooms were OVERFLOWED AND BACKED UP WITH FECES!! On a boat or anywhere in public or private is disgusting and for obvious reasons UNHEALTHY!!

Now onto the poor service and disrespect... the wine was served in plastic cups and a group that was behind my friends were let on the boat in preferrence only because they were part of a certain group?! - A paying customer is what it is - money does not get any greener - trust me!

I am sorry for my friends experience and only hope 1 of 2 things now happen.

1. City Lights Cruises straightens up by cleaning up their boat to sanitary conditions and will dissaprove of their current customer service practices and re-train their staff to respectfull customer service practices.

2. Someone reads this comment/review and investigates this organization before throwing in their time and money into something that will not bring them enjoyment in return.

Thank you!

• Pros: The ads are very nice - But I think that's a con.....
• Cons: Watch out for the toilets and the customer service!

10/12/09

The OPPOSITE of luxury, disaster at Sea!!!

by Talin Basmajian Gebbia at Citysearch

The food was terrible, I wouldnt feed it to my dog! The staff was unprofessional and rude, they even let a group of people on board before us, who happen to be on line behind us, because they were part of a special group. Fingers were pointed in our faces, the facilities were worse. The bathrooms on our deck were filthy, and one was backed up with human feces and wasnt even working! When we alerted the staff, we were ignored. The desserts appeared edible until we tried to eat them, the cake tasted as though it was sprayed with cleaning fluid. The ship left dock late and cut the cruise short, but, we were happy to escape....I'd rather sit through root canal and I wouldnt subject my worst enemy on a City Lights dinner cruise, our ship was the Majestic (disgusting) Princess, and the travesty of an evening took place Sat, Oct 10, 2009....spend your hard earned money elsewhere....the bad reviews of this company are ALL over the internet, wish I'd known beforehand!

• Pros: The NYC skyline is gorgeous!!
• Cons: The staff and everything they offer on the dinner cruise

09/11/09

Awful Experience

by ymbvpoy at Citysearch

I had the unfortunate luck to experience a City Lights Cruise this past weekend. Suffice to say, there is a misrepresentation of what this cruise is going to be. The pictures and brochures make it seem like a happy, elegant party boat (to be fair, I should have known better when they said it included a dance floor).

The boat itself is cramped, and you'd better get there about an hour before boarding time to secure a good seat. Seating is first come first serve, and the queue grows to about 300 people for a packed boat.

The tables are cramped and designed to pack as many people onto this boat as possible. It certainly makes eating uncomfortable when you're shoulder-to-shoulder with the persons next to you.

The music starts in immediately, and though the brochure states a mix of music, there certainly wasn't any Sinatra played (as indicated), and in fact it was all 80's freestyle electronic dance music for the first hour and a half. The music was intrusively loud.

You get two free drink tickets as part of the ticket price. The first action everyone takes, after jockeying for position at a decent table, is to crowd the bar and get a drink. The previous poster was correct - the "free" drinks are bottom shelf generic alcohol and Yellow Tail wine. You have to pay extra for top shelf liquor.

After about an hour, when you've taken off, they start setting up the "buffet", and begin calling tables, in order, to queue up and get your food. Now, my impression of a buffet is where there's a table of food, and you can go up and choose whichever food or foods appeal to you, and that you can take as much as you want. Not so, in this case. The food line is run with military precision - everyone gets one piece of bread (indeed, they ran out before the end of the night!!), a tongful of salad, some pasta, and a piece of suspect looking chicken breast fillet. That's it. No seconds allowed. The staff was rude, and they did their best to move everyone along like cattle, and badgered people if they asked any questions or tried to get more than their food allotment.

The food was pedestrian cafeteria food at best. Edible, but not good. After dinner, the dance floor upstairs opened up, and the boat cleared out a bit. We ended up spending most of our time outside at the back of the boat. The engine fumes were tough to take, but lung damage was better than the ear damage going on inside the boat.

The trip itself was nice enough, it takes you up to the Queensboro bridge and then back dow around the Statue of Liberty before finally docking. Outside of the views, however - which you can get on any cruise - the City Lights cruise has nothing to recommend itself.

The aim of this Cruise Company seems to be to sell as many tickets as possible, then get everyone off the boat as soon as possible, with no attention to the customer. I imagine that many of the customers are tourists, so they're not concerned about repeat business. There is no indication at all that they are interested in making people happy or accommodating their needs. They just want your money, and want to honor your contract with them to feed you and give you two free drinks - and by honor I mean legally say they have done these things.

I would not recommend that anyone take a cruise like this. I've heard better things about some of the other cruises. They may cost more money, but, you get what you pay for in the end.

• Pros: None
• Cons: Bad Food, Bad Music, Bad Service

06/28/08

WORST EXPERIENCE, DON'T WASTE YOUR $$

by DisgrunteledCustomer1 at Citysearch

Well I don't even know where to start, the picture that they show on the website is nothing like the actual boat you will be crusing on, don't expect good food (maybe after about 6 drinks it might taste edible). The ship left 40 mins after the time it says on the website CITYLIGHTSCRUISES. COM, then we get on the ship and notice it's a glorified ferry, already being disappointed we proceeded to the bar to get a drink, and there I encountered the tackiest bartender of my life, she refused to pour you a drink unless you tipped her. The two drinks that were included were the bottom shelf krap that is $5 at the store, if you wanted grey goose it was $10! after finally getting a drink they opened the buffet. OMG I wouldn't dare eat this food (I think even the homeless on the streets would refuse it!) after deciding that we would all rather starve we thought we would dance, this wasn't to bad until some girls were dancing on the pole like strippers exposing themselves.

After we got off the ship a HUGE fight broke out and fists was flying every where. The crew memebers of the ship did nothing, and instead just watched it all happen. The whole crew was clearly intoxicated and didn't care abvout making it a good experience for anyone.

A few days letter I called city lights to tell them that I was very disappointed with my experience as well as how embarrassed I was. Every person at this office that I dealt with had a B*tchy attitude, all they could do is give me 2 free tickets (I purchased 8 for the cruise I went on) I told her I didn't want tickets and that I wanted a refund. She said "We can't do that" I asked her to have the head person in charge call me back. After 2 days of waiting she never called me, So i called them, they then kept giving me the run around saying that she wasn't in the office (must be nice to work 12-3) Finally i got the manager and she had a bad attitude as well. Overall this was an experience i'd like to forget about and a HUGE WASTE OF $$$

• Pros: seeing statue of liberty so close
• Cons: where should I start? see review

Editorial Review by Citysearch Editors

by Contributor at Citysearch

Charter company provides public cruises and personalized private parties, offering drinks, dancing for up to 700 people on various yachts.