How many times can you say, "I rented a private yacht for the night?" Not very often when you're in my income bracket. But thanks to my job and my role in planning meetings and events, I got to finally check renting a yacht off my list. Setting up the event was easy. A phone call, talking through options and placing a deposit secured the boat. It wasn't inexpensive, but it also wasn't bad since food and drinks are included for our 25 guests. For food, there are several options to choose from. You can do appetizer stations, have appetizers passed while people are enjoying cocktails, or you can skip apps and just do dinner. For dinner we opted for a sit down meal, but they also offer a buffet. For the plated meal, you get to choose two proteins, a starch and a vegetable. I chose a filet, mahi mahi, potatoes and carrots. The meal also comes with a spinach salad and bread. They kept the drinks flowing throughout, and for dessert we selected the chocolate cake. The boat is nice, the staff super, and cruising around is awesome! Sadly, the food is the low point. For appetizers we had a mix of things, including seared beef, spanakopita, samosas, chicken satay and bruschetta. The appetizers were pretty good but the bruschetta was served on stale crackers. I always thought the point of bruschetta was the bread. Also disappointing was the filet and mahi mahi. The filet was ordered medium to accommodate different tastes...middle of the road, I figured. Every filet was well done and the sauce tasted only of mustard. The fish was like shoe leather...so overdone. I ended up eating the salads and sides. I know it's difficult to cook on a boat, but what about cooking the filet whole and then carving it? Or just get someone who knows how to cook. If I were to do this again, I'd skip the food altogether, or maybe just do appetizers (I can buy the bread for them). People still had fun, even with the bad food. Just being on the water makes everything better. read more

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3.5 Stars! My friend and I were running a little behind, but were able to get there in plenty of time and did not have to take a running jump to get on the boat. (woo hoo!) We were aiming for a Cherry Blossom tour, but the trees weren't on our side this time. The cruise itself was fine, as it took us around. I didn't really notice anything of note, except the Washington Monument in the distance. (This could just be my ignorance as well.) There was a deceptive display of coffee urns and mugs, but there was not coffee. That was disappointing. The bottom deck had several chairs in rows, and upstairs there are a few tables. You can also go outside on either end of the vessel. If you are on the bottom in the back, it's really loud, as that's where the motor is. Upstairs has cushioned seats and the engine isn't as noisy up there. In the front, there is some seating as well and it can also be loud if it's windy. We didn't buy anything from the snack station as we had just eaten, but I saw that they had a decent snack selection. read more

Capital Elite Private Yachts - Ahoy! - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Five stars! The boat was gorgeous; but, the staff was VERY hospitable, and went above and beyond to ensure that we enjoyed our experience.

Planned my wedding here in exactly one month. Rachel did a wonderful job coordinating the most cost efficient option for us and we were able to personalize so much of our big day. My groom and I were very pleased with how everything looked and ended up. Our food was delicious, we were able to upgrade to a carving beef station since we had seafood allergies on board and our guests were waited on quite well. DJ Fred was in touch with us beforehand and did everything we requested. The only hiccup was parking, which we thought we had figured out using the parking garage under the Safeway until that was full and a family member had to panic for parking fast. The wharf is under construction and to my knowledge, working on adding better parking. We both highly recommend the capital elite for a small wedding, because how many people can say they got married on a private yacht?! read more

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Great night on the Capital Elite for our company. The staff on the yacht were amazing, helpful and professional. The food was awesome. Nothing but positive feedback from our company employees about the night. read more

Cruise was pretty good. I went with a pretty large group. The boat picked us up right from the hotel and off we went. The crew was nice, food was decent but very heavy. For some reason, I think I am more of a fan of the appetizers. They were all delicious. The cruise I went on was open bar with top shelf liquor. Always good. My only complaint was that when I would get another drink, unless I abandoned the drink somewhere, I got a refill in the same glass with old ice etc. While mildy annoying, I wasn't paying, so I can endure it. Not sure about how much it cost, but it was interesting to take a cruise up and down the Potomac and get a different view than you would otherwise. read more

I've been planning class trips to Washington, D.C. for groups of eighth graders for over six years. Every year, we make sure to request this cruise around the Potomac, and every year it's a highlight for the children. read more

I am giving these guys 5 stars purely because of Kimi Williams' follow-up. We had been working with Paul from Elite and he was very accommodating in organizing our event. The cruise and food were great especially the salmon with the best beurre blanc sauce I've ever tasted! The yacht and view was wonderful and elegant. Our group increased headcount the night before and Elite placed a special order of alcohol. In the end, we didn't need the extra headcount. We reached a compromise with Kimi's help. Kimi was able to get Elite to work with us and provide a credit and partial refund for the unconsumed liquor. We will definitely use them again. read more

My wife and I had our wedding reception at the Capital Elite private yacht in DC at the beginning of the Spring. Our overall experience with Entertainment Cruises was terrible. I am giving two stars average because Mary (the general manager who I give 3 stars) made a very good job cleaning up the mess made by the other staff members that worked with us initially. I would give negative numbers to Jennifer and Kimi if I could. When we were still negotiating the contract the customer service was great. We got all our initial questions answered within hours. As soon as we signed the contract and made the initial payment, the customer service changed in it's entirely. 1. My wife and I agreed to meet for the first time with our wedding coordinator (Jennifer Johnston) to review planning-related matters on a Saturday at 12:00pm. As we arrived at the parking lot, I asked my wife and in-laws to stay inside the car and wait for me to come back with Jennifer to grant us access to the parking lot. When I arrived at the office, I noticed that only one lady was inside doing the cleaning and she told me that the office was closed. I mentioned to her that I had an appointment, and she brought another wedding coordinator with her. She mentioned that Jennifer already left the office, and asked me if I was the guy of the appointment that was rescheduled at 4. When I mentioned to her I had an appointment at 12, and I show her a confirmation of the appointment, she tried to cover Jennifer. The bottom line is that the other wedding coordinator couldn't get ahold of Jennifer (she ended up arriving 1 1/2 hours late). We were told it was a personal emergency (which we decided to believe) 2. We had a telephone conversation with our wedding coordinator's manager (Kimi) during the upcoming week to explain the situation, and to express our concerns regarding the before mentioned incident and the fact that Jennifer was nowhere to be found, and we were not even notified. Kimi asked us to CC her in every email we sent to Jennifer moving forward, we agreed that it was not necessary as we understood it was a personal emergency and we wanted Jennifer to feel good about working with us, and we all agreed that we will be informed moving forward. 3. We sent several questions and made a few requests to Jennifer during the upcoming weeks, that in most cases required a yes or no answer. She took forever to answer (a couple of times it took more than a week) and a few times she left us hanging for that long. We explicitly mentioned during the previous phone call with Kimi that it is expected to get at least a courtesy call or email, letting us know that they were still working on our request. 4. Working with Kimi was basically the same thing. The final stroke was when we requested a clean amended contract containing the agreements made based on our questions and requests. The contract was not ready when Kimi agreed to have it. That was not a problem, the problem was that we email her to ask when it was going to be ready in order to plan our agenda and spend time reviewing it... She answered that she sent the contract that morning. We asked to forward the email again (I normally resend emails when they are not received) and she mentioned she was unable to send it, and that she will send it "again" during the morning. The contract was a joke, she basically copied and pasted the text of the previous contract into a word document and made last minute changes; several paragraphs were chopped off and the overall aspect of the document was very unprofessional not to mention that the document was timestamped with that day's date. This is completely unacceptable and makes the integrity of a person and a company to be questioned. 5. Moving forward we worked with the regional manager (Mary) as we escalated the issue to her. She was helpful and made things move forward in the right direction. 6. We thought the wedding reception went smoothly, as the staff was attentive with us during the reception. We found out later via guests, that there was not enough food to serve all our guests. We paid for a lunch buffet and they run out of food during the first serving even though a couple of our guests didn't attend to the reception. This is completely unacceptable! We spend more than half of our budget on the reception and paid a premium price for a tiny and intimate reception (30+ people). I would not recommend the Capital Elite Private Yacht/Entertainment Cruises for celebrating your once in a life time event. Once you signed the contract and made the initial payment, you will be at their mercy. If you decide to work with them, make sure to read the fine print off the contract (as you should), don't pay in full until you are satisfied with the agreements, and work very closely with them or they will forget about you. read more

Great night for our annual trip to DC. The staff on the yacht were amazing and professional. The food is excellent. This is a great option for a large group. This was our second year using Capital Elite, they did not disappoint! read more

Food was fantastic, service was fantastic, bar was fantastic. Excellent option for a private party. The staff made it a point to learn our names and remember what our drinks were which was really special, and definitely above and beyond. read more

We had our wedding reception on the Capital Elite Spirit Cruise in May and could not have been happier with the venue. The staff were all courteous, professional and extremely helpful throughout the entire wedding planning process, and were very quick to answer e-mails and to assist in any way they could. They were truly amazing and deserve commendation for all of their hard work! The venue was beautiful and the perfect size for our party of 60 guests. I was concerned there would not be enough room to dance, but the size of the dance floor was was not an issue at all. The boat is elegant and offers great views along the Potomac river during the day and night. The food was delicious and so much better than I could have even imagined! Several wedding guests told me how much they enjoyed it, so I know I wasn't the only one who felt that the food was above and beyond "typical" wedding reception food. I would highly recommend booking a Capital Elite cruise for any special event, especially weddings and wedding receptions! read more

I recently arranged a lovely private charter with Pat Vogel as a Team Graduation event during a corporate training program. Many of those on the charter were visitors, but even the locals enjoyed the opportunity to see the city from a different perspective. We had beautiful weather which didn't hurt either. I really can't say enough how lovely this evening was! The delicious food, peaceful ambiance and AMAZING STAFF.... everything far surpassed our expectations. The charter experience was well worth the cost for the privacy and flexibility of timing for a corporate outing. I found the vessel to be impeccably appointed, spotless and elegant. I would HIGHLY recommend this venue for appropriate size groups and gatherings. I am a sucker for attentive service staff....because honestly this type of evening is about the SERVICE. Without a doubt, it was the warm, welcoming, fun and attentive STAFF on this cruises that made the experience MEMORABLE.... These delightfully upbeat ladies and gentlemen absolutely brought the evening to life! RECOMMENDED! read more

Overall, we had one of the best nights that my friends and I will never forget. We had planned the event as a big classy summer event (white attire party) that coincided with my birthday. We had the full amount of 80 guests there and scheduled for the full buffet and premium open bar for the entire evening. Also, we brought our own DJ. This is all definitely the way to go... own photographer too. There were a couple hiccups with planning something this big and going back-and-forth with the manager but overall good experience before the evening. Only problem that we really ran into was the location at the wharf and the ability to get to the dock. We had planned a big get together on the new exciting waterfront and thought we could walk across the board walk to the pick up location which we were very wrong And took this really big group of people back to the street then around to the docks which was definitely an interesting start and less than ideal (more fault on our part not looking into this but maybe a good heads up would be goo for Capital Elite and future guests with this newly rebuilt are of dc). The location mixup caused our whole party to be a little late and the DJ basically boated when we did. Obviously the crew and chef were a little thrown off by this but continued as best we can which lead to one of the most memorable nights of the year and the crew was more than accommodating. Personally, I am in a wheelchair and still had one of the best times dancing, eating, drinking the beautiful evening away (We were blessed with the most amazing weather). There wasn't a single guest that had a bad time and we are 100% making this an annual event and hoping next year to book the national elite and if not for sure the Capital Elite again! The all white theme made it awesome too - something that I would encourage for a similar party. Thank you for the good times capital elite! read more

We had a very good experience with planning a dinner cruise for the evening before our son's wedding. The Capital Elite Yacht held the 50 passengers comfortably and the dinner, open bar and narration by the DJ of landmarks we were passing were a pleasant way for the international guests coming from 6 different countries plus those from across the US to get acquainted and to enjoy seeing DC via a different experience to the typical bus tour. Kelly worked with me at the start in planning the event and was very careful and professional, making sure that all our questions were answered and helping to personalize the cruise. She evidently moved to another position and did tell us that she was turning over our account to Francesca. Then there was a break of about 2 weeks when I did not hear anything and I became concerned as we neared the event date. But Francesca did respond in time and was ultimately helpful in implementing things that I had arranged with Kelly (access for a handicapped guest, having travel dialogue in addition to music, etc.). On the evening of the cruise, staff with the office at the dock and the caterers and staff on the yacht were attentive and pleasant and helped me set up a check-in table where guests coming on the shuttle were signed in and given a nametag and boarding ticket. The food was varied and generally good and having buffet style meant that there was something that everyone could enjoy, no matter their preferred cuisine. The evening turned out to be unseasonably cold so that everyone had to stay inside the yacht and the long walk down to the ship on the windswept peer was a bit challenging for some. But mostly guests were very content to sit inside and visit with new acquaintances while enjoying soft drinks, wine, beer or cocktails. There were many personal notes and expression of thanks from guests for this pre-wedding get together and we were quite happy with how it turned out. read more

Fantastic service from the first call until disembarkment. The food was terrific, the yacht top notch. It was a very special night made that much better. Our guest had a wonderful time. A truly memorable night. read more

Really great tour! We did the Monuments by Moonlight tour last week. It was relaxed with great views. Snacks and drinks are available. Cocktails are generous. The only downside was that it was crowded and not everyone had a place to sit. Lovely experience for a tourist or local. read more