Really great even on a rainy day ! Super staff ,great seating by the window, delicious varieties of foods on buffets and delicious beverages !
Michael Harper
Yo OMG this was a great experience for me and my wife we had a very good time and the people was so polite and the food was so crazy.. we have to go again we loved everything about it ty all for everything and GOD BLESS YOU ALL ??
Anicia Howell Epps
I've had good experiences on the cruises until recently. I was looking at the Norfolk Easter cruise for my family and left tickets in the cart. I received an email calling out Norfolk Easter cruise to book your tickets using coupon code to get an additional 15% off. Enter the code and it doesn't work. Contacted support and code can't be used for special occasion cruises. Then why send the email with false advertisement? It just rubbed me the wrong way so my family and I will kick off Spring Break some other way .
ELee
They have the best New Year’s party! Great food music and entertainment
Tim Mullen
Company function, we had the whole 2nd floor. Good food, good DJ, great staff! Our tables server Vee was awesome, and Danielle the restaurant supervisor had us all overjoyed. The dinner ladies got out and danced with our staff ( sorry I didn't get everyone's names!). I'd highly recommend the trip to everyone!
Willis Barry
I truly enjoyed the Valentine's Day Dinner Cruise on the Spirit of Mount Vernon. Great service! Great music! Great FOOD!
Oshun Goddess
The glass were filthy the sliverware was dirty and sticky .The whole 2 hours was horrible !I couldn't stand the facts they were serving alcohol to a church group then charing 4 dollars just for orange juice ?They ran out of dish for dessert their no coffee mugs no sweet tea why would I want to sweeten my own tea ?We paid so much money for nothing !I will tell everyone I know never to trust the spirit of Norfolk cleanse everything should have been better especially for the prices they charged!!This boat is only worth $50 to $60 at most !NEVER AGAIN !!!!! ?
Chop
2024: My experience this year was the best one yet; so, I HAD to update my review. I am very grateful for the attentive staff, the DJ, & the servers. Their energy, positive attitudes, & the atmosphere was great. No issues with quickly retrieving my tickets. The ride was great & smooth. Everything was just much better. At the end of the ride, I received a gratitude letter from the staff, but sadly I forgot it at my table. But I will be coming back & bringing more people with me. Thank you all for your hard work & kindness! 5 stars!!2022: After COVID, I expected it to be some minor changes which is fine. What made me want to come back was the music & ambience. Was also hoping for the entertainment games to be available located on the top deck. Didn't happen. What's even worse this time was that there is now an unnecessary amount of dead time the first hour and 20 minutes on an ENTERTAINMENT cruise. What I mean by this is, there is LITERALLY a guy speaking about power lines located to the left of the ship & to the right of the ship are military ships. Additionally, there were 100 ads playing after a pause between his statements. Whereas before, there was a DJ playing music from the ship's departure until we pulled back to the dock. This change was a HORRENDOUS executive decision. When the DJ finally began to play music, it was NOT a good selection of music by far. No good balance of music. It was bad. The DJ before was on point which was a key reason that made me want to come back. Even worse, at the end of the cruise, the DJ decided to play gospel music & pretended to faint as if he caught the Holy Spirit. It wasn't funny. Not the time nor place on this type of cruise. The worst experience. I paid WAAAAY too much money to have this type of experience. The second deck was closed. The top deck still had no games to play. The only upside with this trip was the food & customer service. 2 Mimosas were $48. I would have been fine if the environment was good. It's just everything wasn't. I wish I could actually get a refund because this experience overall was BAD! OVR rating 2 stars.2018: Upon arrival, I go to the ticket booth to retrieve my purchased tickets so I can board the boat. It was very unorganized having people in the same line who need to purchase tickets & those in line whom already have tickets purchased. Standing in the heat sweating for 35 mins wasn't ideal. So after this elasped time, the lady in front of us, decided to take initiative to find someone who could assist in this process (given there were multiple workers there standing around chit chatting watching the line get longer & longer DURING boarding time). A gentleman finally comes over and assists in expediting the process by handing out tickets to those who already have tickets purchased thanks to the lady for speaking up. Rough start. After we get our boarding tickets, we take our picture, and board the boat. The waitress was very nice and accommodating. No complaints. The company was able to get us the seats we wanted, which I was pleased about. Food was subpar, but the drinks were great. There was barely any real options for the buffet. There is no real dance floor, there is just a very small space for no more than 15 people to dance on. The DJ was great on both floors. As far as entertainment with games, that was not available. No Jenga, Shuffleboard, or etc as advertised. One of the camera guys asked if my girl and I would like to take pictures, I politely declined and he caught an attitude, turned his nose up, huffed, and walked off. Unprofessional much. The views are ok. There are alot of broken looking ships along the way. I was hoping for better views considering the price. It's not really an upscale place as expected. Towards the end of the ride, I seen our boarding pictures. The deal was 1 picture for $30 or 4 pictures for $40. I literally only liked one picture. It's as if they purposely bs the other 3 to make a profit. I do want to give the place
Ebonie Talley
I booked the endless mimosa brunch for Feb 18 2024 for my birthday and the experience was not pleasant I don’t know what happen this day but the cruise was very unorganized it seemed they weren’t prepared for the amount of guests that booked this event. After we were seated our server was so overwhelmed we did not get a drink order in til about 40 mins after sailing off. It was endless mimosas however they were delayed on the refills. The majority of my table did not have glass for mimosas so we had to wait for that. It felt as if our table was ignored. Our table was one of the last to be called for the buffet meanwhile there were other guests working on second helpings of food. My table finally got our food 30 mins before arriving back at the dock. By this time the food was cold we had to again wait for them to replenish the food.I was very disappointed because my family and friends traveled to be with me and this was the experience we got. I feel staff should have been better prepared for this event to avoid experiences like this in the future.
Monika gibson
This was my 4th time going but the 1st time on the new one.. the food was cold & they ran out by the time it was our turn. They ran out of coke. Our drinks were watered down. The music was ok. The staff was very nice though. We made the best of it but I was disappointed
Such a lovely evening at #BIMSWeek2023's cruise dinner.
Lindsay Dunning
Had a work retreat and they booked this cruise for us. I have always been leery of boats, ships, really anything that has to do with water, but I decided to go for it and enjoy the experience with my team. I am so glad I did because it was an awesome experience. The crew were top notch and made the experience all the more enjoyable. They served a delicious meal and we had a great time dancing afterwards. You can go out on top of the boat/ship (I’m not sure what to call it ?) and there’s a bar on top with seating to enjoy the cruise. All in all it was an amazing experience and I highly recommend, especially if you are not a water person like me and need a nudge to possibly work your way up to an actual cruise ?
Grampa Forker
Can’t give it five stars! Food was good, not great but I was expecting good and received it. Boarding/Disembarking the ship was well organized. Staff was VERY nice. We booked a Dinner Cruise in December. My tickets stated Dinner Cruise. In reality it was a Party Cruise in December. Can’t speak to other times of the year. There was one large and one small party going on. We had no problem with that. Seeing everyone dancing and having fun was a joy. I took one star because the music was LOUD! It was loud enough that I had trouble conversing with my wife a foot away from me. Know where it was the loudest? -107 dB. I measured it. The bathroom. The music was very good. But WAY too loud…and I’ve stood in front of speakers at a Halestorm concert in the past eight years. I suggest one of two actions: The company should drop advertising as a “dinner cruise,” maybe Party Cruise with a meal. Or you avoid certain times of year with this company. However, knowing what I know would I not have booked it? I would have. Meal didn’t really sit right but being able to go to the top deck or back to watch the lights was memorable. Would I book it again? Never!
Cosyco
DO NOT BOOK WITH CITY CRUISES! SPEND YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE!!!!I wish I could give a "no star" rating personally to the owner(s) of city cruises! We planned an event of 100+ people. Ali was my contact person from April until the 1st week of August. We had a contract, sent in the $500 deposit that would hold that day and that cruise for our party only. We meet all requirements according to the contract. Afterl that, there was silence. I reached out multiple times and nothing. We finally got in touch with Tina Swanson who is the manager. She IS extremely rude, a liar, impersonal, unapologetic, and her temperament is disgusting! There is no way she should have any authority and or be the face of this business. She lied to us about our event being canceled because the boat would be dry dock the same day. We never heard from anyone, that date was canceled. I can still go online and book tickets for the time frame she said the boat would be in repair. There were so many issues with getting the deposit back, from her saying "deposits are non refundable "to her saying she would call us back in order to track the deposit. The deposit was then overnighted from headquarters In Chicago...not Norfolk where she said she could track it. That's not all...overnight meaning I didn't get it until 5 days later and she never told me I had to sign for the check. So I had to leave work, sit in tunnel traffic, waste time and gas all because she is not equipped for management. I hope you all read this to her in person...and no I don't mind being contacted to insure all events are true.
J Tolentino
Our experience on the After Dark Cruise was a disappointment. The information for the cruise states: Nightclub atmosphere with premier DJs playing today's hottest hits. This information needs to be less vague, there was one DJ and the music was one genre for the time we stayed, and was not the style we booked the cruise to listen to. Knowing the entire 2 hrs were going to be the same genre and we were only allowed on one floor of the ship, my party of 2 left the ship before it left the dock to cruise. Overall the atmosphere was not what we expected and felt disappointed, having specific information for the specific date you choose would be helpful. Beware, you will not know the dj style from online. This was supposed to be a fun birthday dancing celebration, wish we could be refunded.
Really great even on a rainy day ! Super staff ,great seating by the window, delicious varieties of foods on buffets and delicious beverages !
Yo OMG this was a great experience for me and my wife we had a very good time and the people was so polite and the food was so crazy.. we have to go again we loved everything about it ty all for everything and GOD BLESS YOU ALL ??
I've had good experiences on the cruises until recently. I was looking at the Norfolk Easter cruise for my family and left tickets in the cart. I received an email calling out Norfolk Easter cruise to book your tickets using coupon code to get an additional 15% off. Enter the code and it doesn't work. Contacted support and code can't be used for special occasion cruises. Then why send the email with false advertisement? It just rubbed me the wrong way so my family and I will kick off Spring Break some other way .
They have the best New Year’s party! Great food music and entertainment
Company function, we had the whole 2nd floor. Good food, good DJ, great staff! Our tables server Vee was awesome, and Danielle the restaurant supervisor had us all overjoyed. The dinner ladies got out and danced with our staff ( sorry I didn't get everyone's names!). I'd highly recommend the trip to everyone!
I truly enjoyed the Valentine's Day Dinner Cruise on the Spirit of Mount Vernon. Great service! Great music! Great FOOD!
The glass were filthy the sliverware was dirty and sticky .The whole 2 hours was horrible !I couldn't stand the facts they were serving alcohol to a church group then charing 4 dollars just for orange juice ?They ran out of dish for dessert their no coffee mugs no sweet tea why would I want to sweeten my own tea ?We paid so much money for nothing !I will tell everyone I know never to trust the spirit of Norfolk cleanse everything should have been better especially for the prices they charged!!This boat is only worth $50 to $60 at most !NEVER AGAIN !!!!! ?
2024: My experience this year was the best one yet; so, I HAD to update my review. I am very grateful for the attentive staff, the DJ, & the servers. Their energy, positive attitudes, & the atmosphere was great. No issues with quickly retrieving my tickets. The ride was great & smooth. Everything was just much better. At the end of the ride, I received a gratitude letter from the staff, but sadly I forgot it at my table. But I will be coming back & bringing more people with me. Thank you all for your hard work & kindness! 5 stars!!2022: After COVID, I expected it to be some minor changes which is fine. What made me want to come back was the music & ambience. Was also hoping for the entertainment games to be available located on the top deck. Didn't happen. What's even worse this time was that there is now an unnecessary amount of dead time the first hour and 20 minutes on an ENTERTAINMENT cruise. What I mean by this is, there is LITERALLY a guy speaking about power lines located to the left of the ship & to the right of the ship are military ships. Additionally, there were 100 ads playing after a pause between his statements. Whereas before, there was a DJ playing music from the ship's departure until we pulled back to the dock. This change was a HORRENDOUS executive decision. When the DJ finally began to play music, it was NOT a good selection of music by far. No good balance of music. It was bad. The DJ before was on point which was a key reason that made me want to come back. Even worse, at the end of the cruise, the DJ decided to play gospel music & pretended to faint as if he caught the Holy Spirit. It wasn't funny. Not the time nor place on this type of cruise. The worst experience. I paid WAAAAY too much money to have this type of experience. The second deck was closed. The top deck still had no games to play. The only upside with this trip was the food & customer service. 2 Mimosas were $48. I would have been fine if the environment was good. It's just everything wasn't. I wish I could actually get a refund because this experience overall was BAD! OVR rating 2 stars.2018: Upon arrival, I go to the ticket booth to retrieve my purchased tickets so I can board the boat. It was very unorganized having people in the same line who need to purchase tickets & those in line whom already have tickets purchased. Standing in the heat sweating for 35 mins wasn't ideal. So after this elasped time, the lady in front of us, decided to take initiative to find someone who could assist in this process (given there were multiple workers there standing around chit chatting watching the line get longer & longer DURING boarding time). A gentleman finally comes over and assists in expediting the process by handing out tickets to those who already have tickets purchased thanks to the lady for speaking up. Rough start. After we get our boarding tickets, we take our picture, and board the boat. The waitress was very nice and accommodating. No complaints. The company was able to get us the seats we wanted, which I was pleased about. Food was subpar, but the drinks were great. There was barely any real options for the buffet. There is no real dance floor, there is just a very small space for no more than 15 people to dance on. The DJ was great on both floors. As far as entertainment with games, that was not available. No Jenga, Shuffleboard, or etc as advertised. One of the camera guys asked if my girl and I would like to take pictures, I politely declined and he caught an attitude, turned his nose up, huffed, and walked off. Unprofessional much. The views are ok. There are alot of broken looking ships along the way. I was hoping for better views considering the price. It's not really an upscale place as expected. Towards the end of the ride, I seen our boarding pictures. The deal was 1 picture for $30 or 4 pictures for $40. I literally only liked one picture. It's as if they purposely bs the other 3 to make a profit. I do want to give the place
I booked the endless mimosa brunch for Feb 18 2024 for my birthday and the experience was not pleasant I don’t know what happen this day but the cruise was very unorganized it seemed they weren’t prepared for the amount of guests that booked this event. After we were seated our server was so overwhelmed we did not get a drink order in til about 40 mins after sailing off. It was endless mimosas however they were delayed on the refills. The majority of my table did not have glass for mimosas so we had to wait for that. It felt as if our table was ignored. Our table was one of the last to be called for the buffet meanwhile there were other guests working on second helpings of food. My table finally got our food 30 mins before arriving back at the dock. By this time the food was cold we had to again wait for them to replenish the food.I was very disappointed because my family and friends traveled to be with me and this was the experience we got. I feel staff should have been better prepared for this event to avoid experiences like this in the future.
This was my 4th time going but the 1st time on the new one.. the food was cold & they ran out by the time it was our turn. They ran out of coke. Our drinks were watered down. The music was ok. The staff was very nice though. We made the best of it but I was disappointed
Restaurantji Recommends
Such a lovely evening at #BIMSWeek2023's cruise dinner.
Had a work retreat and they booked this cruise for us. I have always been leery of boats, ships, really anything that has to do with water, but I decided to go for it and enjoy the experience with my team. I am so glad I did because it was an awesome experience. The crew were top notch and made the experience all the more enjoyable. They served a delicious meal and we had a great time dancing afterwards. You can go out on top of the boat/ship (I’m not sure what to call it ?) and there’s a bar on top with seating to enjoy the cruise. All in all it was an amazing experience and I highly recommend, especially if you are not a water person like me and need a nudge to possibly work your way up to an actual cruise ?
Can’t give it five stars! Food was good, not great but I was expecting good and received it. Boarding/Disembarking the ship was well organized. Staff was VERY nice. We booked a Dinner Cruise in December. My tickets stated Dinner Cruise. In reality it was a Party Cruise in December. Can’t speak to other times of the year. There was one large and one small party going on. We had no problem with that. Seeing everyone dancing and having fun was a joy. I took one star because the music was LOUD! It was loud enough that I had trouble conversing with my wife a foot away from me. Know where it was the loudest? -107 dB. I measured it. The bathroom. The music was very good. But WAY too loud…and I’ve stood in front of speakers at a Halestorm concert in the past eight years. I suggest one of two actions: The company should drop advertising as a “dinner cruise,” maybe Party Cruise with a meal. Or you avoid certain times of year with this company. However, knowing what I know would I not have booked it? I would have. Meal didn’t really sit right but being able to go to the top deck or back to watch the lights was memorable. Would I book it again? Never!
DO NOT BOOK WITH CITY CRUISES! SPEND YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE!!!!I wish I could give a "no star" rating personally to the owner(s) of city cruises! We planned an event of 100+ people. Ali was my contact person from April until the 1st week of August. We had a contract, sent in the $500 deposit that would hold that day and that cruise for our party only. We meet all requirements according to the contract. Afterl that, there was silence. I reached out multiple times and nothing. We finally got in touch with Tina Swanson who is the manager. She IS extremely rude, a liar, impersonal, unapologetic, and her temperament is disgusting! There is no way she should have any authority and or be the face of this business. She lied to us about our event being canceled because the boat would be dry dock the same day. We never heard from anyone, that date was canceled. I can still go online and book tickets for the time frame she said the boat would be in repair. There were so many issues with getting the deposit back, from her saying "deposits are non refundable "to her saying she would call us back in order to track the deposit. The deposit was then overnighted from headquarters In Chicago...not Norfolk where she said she could track it. That's not all...overnight meaning I didn't get it until 5 days later and she never told me I had to sign for the check. So I had to leave work, sit in tunnel traffic, waste time and gas all because she is not equipped for management. I hope you all read this to her in person...and no I don't mind being contacted to insure all events are true.
Our experience on the After Dark Cruise was a disappointment. The information for the cruise states: Nightclub atmosphere with premier DJs playing today's hottest hits. This information needs to be less vague, there was one DJ and the music was one genre for the time we stayed, and was not the style we booked the cruise to listen to. Knowing the entire 2 hrs were going to be the same genre and we were only allowed on one floor of the ship, my party of 2 left the ship before it left the dock to cruise. Overall the atmosphere was not what we expected and felt disappointed, having specific information for the specific date you choose would be helpful. Beware, you will not know the dj style from online. This was supposed to be a fun birthday dancing celebration, wish we could be refunded.