We were looking for something different to do in DC yesterday and stumbled upon this! We did a sunset cruise and it was just awesome. It was easy to find, the staff was friendly, the view was awesome. The bar had an ok selection for what it is. We had a great time. read more

Capitol River Cruises - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

I enjoy seeing a city from the water and this boat is fine BUT, my ride was running late and I emailed Capitol River Cruises, no response, I tried to phone, mailbox full. We ended up needing to go on the next cruise which had 8 other people on it. We were charged $10 more. Gentleman was rude about it. Lousy customer service all around. BTW, bathroom had out of order sign on it--except the staff was able to use it. Go figure. read more

This was a great family experience. Perfect for young kids - only 45 mins long with bathrooms and drinks and snacks on board. read more

Capitol River Cruises - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

My brother and I were visiting DC and a river cruise came highly recommended by friends. I live landlocked in Arizona, so the appeal was overwhelming. We took the sunset cruise and it was very enjoyable. The boat had ample seating in different areas. I really liked the seating style with tables instead of just plain seats. The attendants play a recording that explains the different sights that the boat is passing by. However, if you prefer to just chat amongst your group, it's fairly easy to tune out. I enjoyed this experience and would definitely do it again! read more

Capitol River Cruises - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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This was a great little activity to do on the waterfront. I believe that the tickets were a bit pricey for what we got. The cruise was about 45 minutes and they didn't really have water on board unless you bought it. The one thing I did not like was that the captain of the ship was not nice to us when we got on and to the guy helping him. The other thing was that there was a tape playing to give info about things we would pass on the way, was going way too fast and not personable. The other guy was really nice. Got a drink for $5, even though I wanted water but it was nice. read more

Capitol River Cruises - Life jackets - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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Everything. It was boring. The guided tour was via recorded audio. You called it a cherry blossom tour and three as nothing special about the cherry blossoms. You went down one side of the river and up the same side. It was freezing and sent normal tour could easily have put heaters in the boat or blankets or T least a warning via email. It was awful. Totally awful read more

Fun experience to view the District from a new perspective! My friend and I ventured to Georgetown alongside a larger group to catch the Capitol River Cruises with their Cherry Blossom Boat event. We loaded the dock near the Georgetown Waterfront and started our journey right on time. The staff was very helpful in making sure everyone got on the boat safely with a supportive hand as we stepped aboard! With it being a cloudy, slightly rainy day, it was reassuring that the staff was consistently making sure there was comfortable seating and room for all of the customers. I really enjoyed seeing all of the major DC monuments accompanied by a detailed recount of its history! With tickets being only $25-$28 dollars, this was a nice deal and felt like money well spent for the opportunity to see the blossoms via boat. I would perhaps suggest the tours to incorporate stop times for people to take photos with the landmarks. This was a fantastic cruise and I look forward to seeing what other Capitol River Tours are conducted throughout the year! Wonderful and affordable tour for family and friends. read more

Capitol River Cruises - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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We went on the 2:00 pm cherry blossom cruise today. I purchased tickets online about a week ago. We did not want to deal with the Tidal Basin traffic this year, and seeing the city landmarks from the water provides a unique perspective. It probably was the last day of peak bloom, and it had been a chilly week, but the sun was shining today. You don't see the trees as close-up from the water, but you get the advantage of seeing a wider view of the whole lovely DC landscape. It can be a little chaotic at the dock; there are several different boat tours loading in the same area. But we waited for Nightingale II, which came in on time, and the crew helped everyone aboard. The Nightingale I was scheduled to depart at 2:15, so it came in right after we left. We sat in the bow and had good views of everything. At $25 per person for 45 minutes, it was very reasonable. They have a small bar on board, so we purchased beer ($5). It was a very enjoyable time. read more

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booked the all you can eat crabs for Father's Day and when I say it was very nice. The crabs and food was very good. The crew was nice and catering, whatever we needed the crew made sure we had. I would definitely recommend to anyone that is considering booking for great crabs on the water experience. Fast forward 2 years later!!! We did a second Father's Day crab cruise my experience was totally opposite crabs were small and not good they they only provided 50 pieces of chicken for thirty people the food ran out before the first turn and they ran out of crabs on a all you can crab cruise It was $144.00 dollars a person and Cody gave every everyone $10.00 refund to compensate FROM REPEAT COSTUMER TO NEVER AGAIN read more

What a cool way to see the monuments on the other side of the river especially on a warm day. They have a lot of shaded seats so if you want to sit toward the front have sunscreen and or a hat. They do have a bar to grab refreshing drinks. The intercom was a little shotty so it was hard to hear the information about the monuments but there were some great pic opportunities. All together it was a very nice day. read more

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This was an alright little dc water tour. It started in Georgetown and you were on the water for about 45 minutes or so. The "tour" is a recorded guide, which was okay but not very engaging or personable. People in my party had questions and missed some things. For the price, I would expect a little more attention to your tourists/passengers. If you're not a local and don't know, there's also a lot of rowers in the water. One was in the path of the boat and they lay on the horn for an obscene about of time. It was just blasting in our ears for several minutes. It was unnecessary, they were towing out of the way as fast as they could. Besides that, we got lucky with the weather and it was an okay experience. read more

We had a great time on the monument cruise at sunset. It's no frills with basic chairs and tables. There is a pre-recorded tour voice track that runs for part of it. It wasn't timed just right but if you have someone local on trip, they can point out the sites. There is alcohol on board to buy, again basic service, nothing too fancy. We didn't have problems with boarding and everyone formed a line. We all had fun, and for the price you can't beat it. read more

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The tour is a tourist trap. It's on old boat, but that's not the issue. They advertise that you see monuments from the cruise; you barely see anything. Most sights are obstructed by trees, construction equipment and other things. This was a waste of time and a waste of money. read more

This was a horrible experience. The didn't have enough food to accommodate the 30 people we had on board. They only ordered 50 pieces of chicken and 30 pieces of corn. It was supposed to be all you could eat crabs, but we ran out of crabs 30 minutes into the trip. So we ran out of food and crabs before we reached the halfway point of our trip! Totally unexpectedly! Please don't patronize this business poor, poor service! read more

Wouldn't really recommend this boating service to others. $25/each for a spotty Pre-recorded tape of all the sights you boat by. You can barely even see everything from the river... you're better off taking a city bus or renting bikes to see all the national monuments. Not worth the $$ read more

Cruised with them on Saturday night. It was great to get out on the river and see the DC sights from the water. It was raining heavily when we boarded. While there isn't a covered place to stand while waiting to board, they did a great job drying off the seats and putting covers on the windows to keep us dry. The recording was informative but sometimes hard to hear over the engine noise. read more

No alcohol in the margaritas. Straight mix only. Music is shotty. Keeps going on and off. No soap or paper towels in the bathroom. read more

Was not a fan of this at all. The staff was great but we were almost late because we couldn't find the parking garage that I prepaid for. Once we found parking the cruise dock was easy to find. The staff was friendly but the cruise it labeled was a let down. Be prepared to sit the entire time. Obviously your back is to half of the tour and it's hard to hear the guide on the speaker as the cruise is right under a flight path. read more

We purchased 6 tickets 2 days in advance and were first in line for the 1:00 cruise. When boarding time came, the belligerent employee told us to step aside while he boarded a tour group that arrived after us. He then told us we would have to get a refund from the company because he was waiting for another tour group to arrive and there wouldn't be room for us. After a confrontation where he refused to give his name and grabbed my phone and threw it down, he pulled away from the pier without the other tour group he was waiting for (see photos), leaving us at the pier. SO BE FOREWARNED: TICKETS PURCHASED IN ADVANCE MEAN NOTHING TO THIS COMPANY IF A TOUR GROUP WANTS YOUR CRUISE TIME read more

Capitol River Cruises - Captain leaves us behind after refusing to board us - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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Cost $25 to ride which isn't bad. They let a large tour group on first that took up all the seats with tables. Pre recorded tape blaring over the speakers. Due to letting the tour group on first, I would not recommend. They let them on first and made people with babies in strollers and senior citizens wait. Poor service that you only see in an airport normally read more

Just okay. Several sights pointed out i could not spot. A couple sights were cool to see from river but would not say highlight of my DC visit. Would i do it again? No. Would i recommend to friends. No. read more

Motor was so loud, fuel fumes too strong, couldn't hear commentary over motor and other passengers' conversation. Commentary was given rapid fire on way out but silent on way back - would have been better to split it up between the two directions - and raise the volume. read more

The advertisement schedule is wrong, Margarita cruise the advertisement is from 8:30 pm - 10:30 pm but the cruise is from 8:45-10:00 pm.

If you don't belong to any big group then you are pretty much screwed. They let the big tour groups cut in front door of everyone and if you have small parties then you don't get to board until the last. Service is extremely poor and I would take my business to another company next time that's for sure. Absolutely horrible! read more

I don't really know how to review this "Cherry Blossom" cruise. First off, I got my tickets through goldstar.com. 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. read more

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 read more

Don't bother with this, find another tour. They don't take reservations but let other groups skip the already formed line. They do not have clear signage or anyone that you can talk to while you're waiting for the ship. The employees could care less about you, too. The one guy (who had the most punchable face I've ever seen) just kept repeating, "I'm not the owner, I just work here." While we were not happy about not getting on the boat, others had waited for hours and had no success boarding. Find another tour option as they are NOT the only game in town! read more

We got our tickets on Groupon which was a great deal for the four of us. I had no problem finding the dock nor the boat. We took an Uber there to Georgetown and it let us off right there. The skipper redeemed our Groupon and we were shortly off. We got there about 10:45AM and the first sail is at 11AM. It was a nice sight seeing tour with some info given over the loud speaker. You do get to see a bit of the DC sites and some of the blossoms but it's really not up close. It was fine with us. They have a small bar on board and chips and such. It reminded me of home and our MKE Boat line. It was well worth the price of the Groupon. There were plastic chairs and tables to sit at. You can take pictures out of the sides. read more

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Immediately was accused of being drunk after we left the dock, so I wasn't allowed any drinks for the next 45 minutes , one reason I went was I saw advertised cocktails, when I asked about cocktails I got accused, he didn't even check my ID. What a waste of my time. Going to a different place to get my First drink of the day. read more

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. read more

Capitol River Cruises - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

$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). read more

Capitol River Cruises - The Nightengale - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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

Being from Maryland naturally I have a lot of friends and family that come in to town to tour the Washington DC area since I'm located so close. Have always brought them to this boat company due to its efficiency in boarding customers on and off as well as the attention you receive from crew members while aboard! There is an alcoholic bar that includes snacks and sodas/water/juice which is great since this is about a 45 minute tour. I have gone weekends and weekdays and have never had a problem or complaint with this company....in addition, since I enjoyed them so much I recently rented out the boat for a crab trip. This was an amazing experience all the fun of eating unlimited crabs, fries, and other sides while kicking back and drinking beer too! The best part is no mess and they take care of all the clean up so you just get off the boat and keep hitting up the bars around town. Would definitely recommend this boat over the surrounding ones only because of the consistent good experience I have recieved. Great for kids, tourists or anybody just looking to cruise around!! read more

We followed the instructions for an all day pass, we purchased tickets online, called day of to check times--with no answer and the recording not stating that anything was cancelled-- arrived one hour early for our pass and met a couple who had been waiting two hours for theirs-- had to talk to another boat company who said they are usually by their sign-- no sign was there anymore and no message left about cancelling early for rain-- despite other tours still going-- disappointed to say the least on this for our honeymoon. Do NOT recommend. Others around us mentioned this company was flaky, I was very saddened by not being able to use my non-refundable ticket because of a company's error and lack of communication. read more

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. read more

I recently booked a company outing on one of the Nightengales. We did a sort of booze cruise, but keep in mind that the Nightengales are not actually yachts so don't set your expectations too high. The boats were a little grody but not gross by any means. I spoke with Frank when setting everything up and he was very nice and helpful. However when I got to the boat to set up, there was a miscommunication on set-up time. The staff on the boat eventually fixed it, but it was kind of annoying and not very professional. If you're looking to do a group outing on a budget, I would recommend. I've never been on one of their hourly tours, so no comments there. read more

Capitol River Cruises - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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. read more

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. read more

Capitol River Cruises - This is after standing in line for an hour! - Boat Charters Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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. read more

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 1st 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! read more