Capitol River Cruises

If I could give no stars I would. We tried calling the day we wanted to do this cruise and nobody ever answers their phone. We had already purchased our tickets. Upon arrival we are told they are full even though no reservations are required. We were refused to boarding. We were told come back the next day. We do not live in DC!!! This is not how you conduct business. I would not recommend this business to anyone.

We got a 2 for 1 Groupon for the cruise. I called ahead and was advised that no reservations were needed. We arrived at about 1:45 and the representative told us that the next one where there was availability was the 3 PM and that we should come back to the waiting spot at 2:45. I showed him my Groupon and asked if anything else was needed. He said the Groupon would be sufficient. We arrived at about 2:30 and got in line. The representative directed everyone in our line to the side and allowed people paying full price first. there was no room for us or anyone else who bought discounted tickets. Nowhere did it indicated that the is how the company operated and no one advised us as such. And we were not allowed to make a reservation either. We got our money back from Groupon. I would not recommend this as you could spend 3 or more hours waiting to get a cruise.

We rode the Nightingale boat and it was a really nice trip. nice weather.nice views of the Monuments. overall had a great experience.

This a terrible experience. Disorganized and no company rep on site. Long lines and long waits. I would give them a negative 5 stars if possible.

Let me start off by saying, DO NOT GO ON THIS «CRUISE!»
The reason I say this is because me and my wife had a not so pleasureable time with Capitol River Cruises (CRC). So I planned this great day of brunch at Tony & Joe’s then a nice boat ride. There’s like 5 different boat companies that all dock in the same spot so there is no way of knowing which boat is CRC. We finally found out from another boat (that was much nicer than CRC)…so we wait about 40 minutes, no biggie. But as we are waiting, the line behind us is getting longer and longer. We see our boat coming and its about to dock, then all of a sudden this large group of tourists comes to the front of the line just as the boat docks. We see the leader of the tour group whisper something in the captain’s ear then he allows the tourits to board before all of us who were standing in line could. That group took up the entire boat and I lost it! I complained to the capatin and boat personnel and all they could tell me was, «we board gorups first, thats the CRC policy. Of course that was a bunch of BS… luckily another CRC boat came up shortly behind that one. So we are on this boat and the seats are green lawn chairs and Im talking the really cheap and flimsy, plastic chairs… that was crazy. The bar is cash only… in 2014, cash only? really?
And that 50 minute tour was more like 30, maybe 35 minutes. We made the best of it but it was awful.

I a sorry to write this, but these guys are the worst. It is cheap for a reason. Today we left early, even though they knew someone was coming with a paid ticket and there was room on the boat. As we cruised, the narration was out of sync with what we were moving by. Nice for the tourists. All in all forget this there are many great things to do in our town just not this venue

A terrible experience from beginning to end. I wouldn’t take the time out to try and warn others with this review — if our experience with Capitol River Cruises wasn’t so awful. I took my partner and parents this past weekend on what they advertised as their «Cherry Blossom Cruise» — and we went on the actual day they were in full bloom, on April 12 so we were all very excited about this.
We got there at about 10:15am for their 1^st cruise at 11am. The pier at the dock was packed and there about 3 different cruise companies so no one knew which line was which. No signage anywhere at all. DC Cruises at least had their act together and had someone answering some questions. Capitol River Cruises has no signage at all to see. We got on line and it was the wrong line… People were on CRC line, but from the wrong end apparently. They were only letting people on the boat from the right side. So we had to wait over another hour once they let us know what side to come from, despite the fact that many were coming from both sides.
In addition, crew members and people representing this company were very inconsiderate and rude. Not good business people at all. They could care less about your experience with them… kids really who don’t know any better perhaps.
The cruise itself? Meh. For a «cherry blossom» cruise it didn’t take you anywhere near the tidal basin or get you close at all to any of the cherry blossoms. It was strictly their usual «Monument cruise» with the sub-​par audio poorly timed to what you were actually passing on your left and your right. It was not a pleasant, inspiring, or engaging trip in any way.
I would recommend you stay away from this company, even if you get a decent deal on Living Social or Goldstar. There is a reason they are looking to fill their boats and need to sell tickets on the cheap… no one likes them. Again, I would recommend DC Cruises to you — their boat was much nicer (a top deck you can sit on as opposed to the very small boat of Capitol River Crusies). The boat is very small and doesn’t even say the name on the boat.
Look elsewhere — spend your good money with another company — and hopefully you will have a nicer experience than we had. Thanks for reading!

Terrible is the only way to put it. The company cares little about the customer experience making people that already purchased tickets stand in line for hours without the ability to make a reservation. They also don’t have a proper loading system literally having to hoist people up a vertical staircase. The fact that they care little about it’s customers is demonstrated by their sale of over 5000 tickets on living social for a cherry blossom cruise when they know full well they can’t accommodate that many. Do NOT use this service, go to DC River Cruises instead.

I don’t really know how to review this «Cherry Blossom» cruise. First off, I got my tickets through
. The 6pm cruise I went on was put together through Professionals in the City, so no walk-​ons were allowed. It was a windy evening, so I think many people did not show up. Therefore, there were probably only 20 guests on board, two PITC workers, the bartender, and the captain.
As previously mentioned, this was suppose to be a Cherry Blossom cruise, but there were no cherry blossoms to be seen. Not a one. That’s Mother Nature’s fault, not Capital River Cruises. We were on the Nightingale. They have a second larger boat too. Just a note: This is a different cruise company than DC Cruises which sets sail directly behind this boat.
As for the 45 – 50 minute cruise itself, it’s functional. The captain plays a prerecorded tape pointing out which monument is which for the tourists, and other points of interest which were sometimes hard to see through the plastic covering shielding us from the wind.
Margaritas are good! We had pizza that was provided by PITC; the bar has small snacks (crackers and candy) for sale.
It’s a shame we were a week or so too early to see any blooms, but it was okay.
According to their website:
$ 15 for Adults/​$ 7 for children. Save $ 2 if you buy online, but apparently you can get better deals from sites like Groupon and Travelzoo.

Pros:
–Fairly quick tour with interesting facts
–Cheap (w/​Groupon)
Cons:
–No organized line
–They let a tour company’s bus tour skip in front of everyone actually waiting in line (only 16 of about 50+ seats are for people waiting in line)
–Cheap plastic chairs
–Points-​of-​interest are on both sides of the boat and some seats are blocked from a view of one side.
–Pre-​recorded audio tour
–Audio tour stops at the turn around (so the entire way back is just a boat ride)
–Unfriendly staff
The operations were pretty shady, but if you’re looking for a decent boat tour of some of the monuments from a different viewing point, this tour wouldn’t be your worst choice.

I wasn’t thrilled by this boat tour on the Potomac. They were disorganized with the people waiting at the dock. We’d been waiting in line for 40 minutes, then they encouraged an entire tour bus of people to cut in front of us by reversing the order of the line that had already formed. We were SO angry. All of the people who’d been waiting were in rebellion. Onboard, we were subjected to country western music as we waited, then couldn’t hear a word the tour guide said over the engine noise.

Got a 2 for 1 deal on LivingSocial and went for a cherry blossom cruise on a Saturday morning. An excellent no frills tour of the Potomac with friendly staff and a decent audio guide.

This was among the worst things I’ve ever voluntarily done. I felt guilty dragging my bf onto this with me. We had a TravelZoo voucher (two tickets for $ 12) which is cheap, but in retrospect, I wouldn’t have gone on it if you had paid me. The boat is super ghetto and so loud, and also the tour tape is not synced so it would say to look for a monument that wasn’t nearby at all. It was especially miserable because it was also a cold day, and I was cursing and muttering under my breath cause all I wanted was to go home.

Came here on a Travelzoo trip for two on the monuments cruise.
Boat is called Nightingale and departs every hour, on the hour until last departure 7pm. Trips are about 50 min long each, and there’s a bar with drinks and hot chocolate/​cider.
–audio out of sync
–freezing cold because of the plastic tarps covering the sides
–incredibly boring

Super nice people, but the audio (the narration of the tour was pre-​recorded) was hilariously out of sync with where the boat actually was!
Good thing they have a bar on board.

We bought a Travelzoo voucher so it was $ 12 for a monuments cruise for two adults. We went on the 8pm cruise on a Friday evening in August. Our cruise started just as the sun was setting so it was really beautiful to watch the sunset and see the monuments both with the sunset glow on the outbound ride and then with the lights on in the dark on the return trip. We sat at the front of the boat on the left hand side and it was not too windy or cold. There is a recorded narration that points out things that you are passing by and gives you a little bit of history on the monuments. It was good to be on the left side since most of the monuments (Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington Monument, Kennedy Center) are all of this side. The narration also pointed some things out behind us but we couldn’t see it given where we were seated. It might be better to sit on the back so you can see both the front and the back. The cruise itself was about 40 – 45 minutes. If I were to rate just the cruise itself, I would give it 4 – 5 stars.
I am giving this company 3 stars because of the lack of personnel and the lack of organization among personnel. We got there 20 minutes prior to departure. There was a guy at the ticket booth but no one else to organize/​control the people waiting for the cruise so there was no line. People were just gathering on the dock and people just rushed to the boat when it arrived. There was a tour group of 20 people or so (that arrived after most of the people waiting around) that got on the boat first so that really upset a lot of people. We didn’t use any of the amenities on the boat aside from the chairs (simple lawn furniture) so I can’t comment on that. On the way back, the boat stopped about 100 feet from the dock for 20 minutes. I think there was only one dock and they were loading another boat and that boat didn’t leave until 9pm. The cruise operator should really have timed and organized their boat schedules so that customers are not waiting around because the company failed to get their boat out on time.

I didn’t have to pay for anything because we had a Cherry Blossom Cruise living social deal. But just overheard 3 people deman refunds because they weren’t even allowed on board with bycicles — something that was assured to be ok by the person who sold the tickets. Even so, the boat denied them boarding and then the ticket person denied them a refund stating: «the person onthe boat that promised the refund doesn’t run the register». Kind of ironic since they originally promised the boat would take bikes and she doesn’t work on a boat.
I doubt we will be coming back to this at all when there are so many nice places within waking distance that would be glad to service people with respect and professionalism.
To top off my already low expectations, on the boat ride back from our tour the wind was so bad that it toppled their entire «bar» onto the deck and glass shards flew everywhere. My girlfriend and I got covered in Wiskey, the cheap kind to boot.

Took advantage of a half price sale. Should have taken advantage of a coat, because I was cold.
Boat is old, and they have you sit on plastic chairs. It is open aired, so the wind/​cold affects you if you aren’t dressed warm enough in the colder months.
Cruise was 45 minutes with nice views and some educational information about landmarks along the coastlines.

It’s the sort of thing your out-​of-​town guests will enjoy more than you will. Neat thing to do during the summer.

$ 14 a person seems a bit much for the 45 minute, narrated cruise. BUT, they recently did a Groupon, so I got two tickets for $ 14 and my boyfriend and I made it just in time for the last boat. They run every hour on the hour, with the last boat departing at 9 PM. I suggest the evening cruise: the night air was cool and refreshing, the monuments were beautifully lit up at night, and the company was great.
While riding, there is a historical narration, which proved to be pretty interesting, but all-​in-​all, I was more excited just to be on a boat.
This is something fun to take friends/​family to do if they’re visiting from out of town. It’s pretty touristy, but if you are a local, just go at nighttime and enjoy the fresh summer air (intermixed with bad river smells).