Portland Spirit Cruises and Events

If I could give one piece of advice it would be look up the boat you book first. I have never been on the Portland spirit and was pretty disappointed in the little boat we all crammed on to go to Halloween town. The captain and host were wonderful, customer service was great, but this simply was not worth the $400 cost. The boat was small, it was loud, we finished touring the event well before it was time to head back. I’m sure there dinner cruises are awesome but calling this a cruise was extremely misleading.

Great cruise of the river. Food was good and nice staff.

Took the portland dinner cruise. Nice ambiance. Food was a dissapointment. Nothing was super dry--almost crunchy. I think they forgot the garlic butter topping. Vegetables were bland and paressan mako chicken tasteless. Nice ride and drinks were good.

We had an awesome time and learned a lot! The weather was perfect. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

Portland Spirit offers a wide range of cruises, but from our experience I'd say any cruise with them is sure to be memorable. For our stay, we chose to book the 7 Wonders of the Gorge Jetboat Cruise, which we booked via Viator about two days in advance. It seems that booking through a third-party, especially on this cruise which has a smaller capacity, might not be the best idea since overbooking can happen, but the team was very accommodating and while we didn't have an issue, I do recommend either booking directly through their website or calling ahead to confirm your reservation a few hours in advance.

Our tour guide, Silas, deserves his own paragraph because I think the cruise was as good as it was only because we had an amazing guide. He got to know as many passengers on the cruise and made sure to point out landmarks and points of interest to everyone, even tailoring some of the tour to those who had particular interests, such as bridges, wildlife, or waterfalls. It was simply unreal how much we got to see on the tour, and while I didn't keep track of all the wonders of the gorge, I had a great time and got plenty of pictures to show my coworkers back home.

I would definitely suggest to show up early, especially with smaller cruises like this. The guides typically offer a lot of information before the cruise departs, and you also have a chance to use the restroom and fill up water bottles before you go on your cruise.

A beautiful day for a ride on the Willamette & Columbia Rivers.

The boat was a little outdated but all in all we had a great time. Staff were super friendly and helpful. Views along the river were beautiful!

The 7 Wonders of the Gorge trip sounded marvelous – on paper. Friends had taken other Portland Spirit cruises and really enjoyed them.
Not this one. Why? The noise level was deafening, repeatedly above 90 dB according to my I-watch. The earphones helped a bit. There were no amenities, which we had read about. And the seats were not comfortable for 3 1/2 hours. My advice –Put the $85 toward a different Portland Spirit cruise!

I was on a dinner cruise for my MILs surprise birthday last night with my 2 year old and 10 month old (my husband was not able to join). Mt 10 month old was just not a happy camper most of the time and the crew went above and beyond to provide a quiet place for us and to make a little extra meatballs for my toddler. So appreciative of their kindness ❤️

3 of us went on their lunch cruise and 2 of us who had their beef dish got food poisoning. I had to cancel my travel arrangements the next morning and my son’s girlfriend had to miss work because we had a headache and diarrhea all night. When we emailed them about this, their rep Justin didn’t want to hear it and just flat out denied it. We had home cooked meals with fresh ingredients at home in the days before and after the cruise. They should train their staff to better communicate with customers and pay closer attention to food safety. Very disappointed. Will never use them again.

Last week I posted a one star review. While I still consider that review appropriate, I want to comment on the company's response. We had several conversations about this trip, both by phone and email, and I feel each and every comment was taken seriously and corrections have been made. The company agrees that this was a bad experience, and I am convinced that it is not typical. We do plan to do another dinner cruise. 5 stars+ for their response!

My wife an I had planned an enjoyable anniversary event on August 19, but were extremely disappointed. The issues began before the boat left. Following the directions to hear the narration through my earbuds, I received fraud alerts for each the two credit cards I tried. One card denied as fraudulent a charge of $38. The ability to use earbuds was listed multiple times as free. Needless to say, we had no narration, which made the sightseeing portion pretty much boring and meaningless especially since about half the trip was after dark (I have mobility issues and was unable to climb the steps to other two floors).

The meals that we received fell below the standards for airplane or hospital food. My wife enjoyed the steelhead, but the rest of the plate was barely edible. I wish I could say the same about my lamb dish. The lettuce in the salad was wilted and there was barely enough dressing to see, certainly not enough to begin dressing the salads.

Our server was one of the worst I have ever had. She was pleasant and had a nice singing voice, but was inattentive. When we boarded we were told that they wanted to get the food out of the way early, but our desert was delivered (after we asked for it) about 2 hours into the 2½ hour trip. The tables around us had finished their entrees before ours showed up. When they finally came, they were for a different table. After that was corrected, she gave my plate to my wife, and mine to her. When we asked for our desert, she said they were still working on it and that it would be up soon. Several minutes later she bought us slices of factory-made cheesecake with a half strawberry and a drizzle of fruit syrup—obviously prepared well in advance.

We had a wonderful time 🥳 our anniversary on this dinner cruise. The meal was delicious. We had the lamb and the veggies lasagna. Drinks were good. But the best part of the trip was our server Maddie (Mattie?). Not only was sha an excellent server, she also got up and sang a couple times, she did some announcements (like our anniversary)and gave some information about local landmarks we could see. I also really enjoyed the historical information about all of the Portland bridges as we passed under them.
If you're considering Portland Pirit cruises, don't wait. Purchase your tickets now! It's definitely worth it.

I took a sight seeing cruise and it was a great way to see the river and enjoy the outdoors.

We did the 7 Wonders tour and had a great time! So many beautiful sights and it was fun being out on the water and learning more about the Columbia River.

This short boat ride down the Willamette River turned out to be very educational and a lot of fun. The weather was perfect on the day we sailed. We sat up top (after reading reviews about people not being able to hear the narrative down below) and had no problem hearing everything. We stood at a table along the side and had a perfect view of the sights along the river, including its many bridges. It was a very relaxing cruise with everyone seeming to have a great time and interacting with each other. Getting on and off was fairly easy but I would not recommend high heels. If you want to sit up top, it seems to fill up very quickly so arrive early.