How does one review a marina? As of late, I've been including a lot of Wikipedia definitions in reviews. I have been doing this for a number of reasons: 1. knowledge is power, 2. the more you know... (star trail, sing song xylophone, dun dun dun duuuun!), and 3. context is king Clearing up any misconstructions/understanding proper definitions of things (foodstuffs, etc.) creates a better climate in which to appreciate a review and properly understand context. (See my Cempazuchi review in which a Mexican torta is clearly defined via Wikipedia. Some folks might not have had a torta ever in their lives, you see? Maybe the torta they'd experienced was of the French variety... which is a very different thing, you see? You see what I mean, you see?) --- Marina, from Wikipedia: A marina (from Spanish, Portuguese and Italian marina, "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters. The word marina is also used for inland wharves on rivers and canals that are used exclusively by non-industrial pleasure craft such as canal narrowboats. --- So now, a review for Skipper Bud's Marina, of which I had the distinct pleasure of hanging out at/on this past Sunday afternoon. Skipper Bud's, in a nutshell: they'll take care of your boat for you. They house a crapton of boats, from smaller four-person vessels to giant-sized super-rich person yachts. They have three storehouses, and tons of heavy loading equipment that will scoop any size boat of the water and gently place it into its designated housing area. Boat storage at Skipper Bud's is crazy... they stack boats three high on super industrial boat-holders/pallet-type things. They have three storehouses, each holding somewhere around 150 boats. Math! They put them in the water, they take them out of the water. It works like this: you reserve dock space for any specific date/time, and Skipper Bud's takes care of the rest. It's water camping, ostensibly! Seems like the staff knows all of the boat owners/inhabitants on any given day. They're friendly, helpful, and funny. Notice I'm not reviewing Barnacle Bud's. Notice I'm not reviewing the water itself. I'm reviewing the staff and facilities as Skipper Bud's Marina, a very different thing (although together they create one very unique spot in MKE that you won't find anywhere else... that's for sure)! read more

Skipper Bud's Marina - Marinas Near Me - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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They use a shady, heartless, sociopathic towing service that refused to return needed medicine to us. While visiting Milwaukee for the first time on Memorial Day, and trying out Barnacle Buds, we were towed from a line of cars not blocking anything. That's fine, we will pay. The towing company Best Towing, towed our vehicle but wouldn't allow us to get it, they were actively towing but you were unable to get your vehicle. My wife's Lupus medicine was in the vehicle and they wouldn't let us get it until the following morning at 8 am. My wife needs her doses every morning and evening. We explained the situation to Stephanie, the dispatcher, and she told us to "Go to the ER." We flagged down the drivers and they refused to talk to us, just drove away as I pleaded for my wife's medicine. We just needed the medicine. We had to ask SkipperBuds's drydock managers to call Best Towing while one of the employees, actively drinking, berated us, and they still weren't sure if their towing company would allow us to get the medicine. Bear in mind, this is Memorial Day, doctor's offices weren't open for my wife to get an emergency refill. Best Towing company finally gave us their address after a third call and we Ubered there. We waited outside the gate for a tow truck to return and pleaded again through chain-link. They finally they gave us our medicine (though we could not pay for our vehicle then, that would have to wait until they added on a forced overnight fee). Though we weren't blocking anything at all, not even the closed main office of Skipper Buds, we were towed on Memorial Day. I understand that, I'm willing to pay. But to take our belongings, including vitally important medicine, and refuse to give that medicine back is sociopathic. These are bad people, SkipperBud's employees know these people by name, they continue to use them. read more

Originally drawn in by a storage discount, I thought I would give it a shot. If you own a sail boat, head in the other direction. I have wintered at Harborside and Southwind and would recommend those over Skipper Bud's. The receptionist was friendly and courteous, but that's about it. I scheduled 3 times during the day to have our boat hauled out. I showed up for each, but none of the staff were present or willing to pull the boat. Frustrating as I made my plans around their schedule and used vacation time....to sit around. In the end they convinced me to tie the boat up on their wall over night with the impression it would be pulled out the following week. Skipper Buds did not follow through on this either. Our boat was slowly moved up the dock until it was tied up in front of the restaurant. No effort was made by the staff to adjust fenders or ensure the boat was secured in a way it would not be damaged. We ended up having to replace and repair 3 lifeline stanchions from the time staff left the boat secured improperly. I pulled the plug after 3 weeks of failed attempts and went elsewhere. read more

17 minutes ago Pete at skipper buds has the worst customer service anybody could possibly have. This is the worst place to go on Earth for any of your boating needs. STAY AWAY AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. If I could give this place a negative 5 I would do so. They will treat you like crap. read more

Our experience with this particular Skipper Bud's has been very poor. The interactions we've had with staff range from being merely incompetent to down right rude ***holes. When first docking our boat there the front office lady decided we didn't need a key for the gate even though my wife specifically asked if we needed a key to get in an out. Her response was that we didn't, well one night as we were leaving late the employees from Barnacle Bud's restaurant (not affiliated) had the presence of mind to ask if we needed to get out. Apparently once Barnacle Bud's closes they lock the gates and you need a key to get in or out. The front office lady I guess decided for us that we didn't need it or that we couldn't afford the $100 deposit for the key. Luckily we got back to the dock before the gate was locked otherwise we would have been trying to squeeze under a fence. Our latest interaction came as we were sitting out front of Barnacle Bud's early one morning after spending the night. We thought this section of dock was owned by the restaurant and had asked the manager the night before if we were okay to spend the night at the dock which he said was fine. Well shortly after getting up one of the Skipper Bud's employees came up to our boat in a huff took a picture and yelled at us that we had 2 minutes to get off the dock or he was calling the police and having us ticketed. Even after explaining we thought the dock was owned by Barnacle Bud's he kept yelling about having us ticketed. All he had to do was come over and calmly explain that this dock was owned by Skipper Bud's and that we needed to move and we would have apologized and moved. To come up to us out of the blue and just berate us was ridiculous. This is just disappointing considering how well we've been treated by any of the other Skipper Bud's we've been to. I would recommend you take your money and your boat elsewhere read more

I was so bummed. I made a reservation to rent a pontoon boat over a month ago and a week before the date they canceled. When I called and inquired why my reservation was canceled the lady was short with me as if she didn't want to give me an answer. Eventually she shared that they were selling the boat and all rentals were canceled. I dont understand that logic but since the lady wasn't very nice I decided to cut my losses. I will not be offering them any of my business in the future. read more

Dishonest service with Pete Deri in Milwaukee. I had been a loyal Skipper Buds client since 2004. I felt they did a good job at a reasonable service rate. I recently took my boat in for spring maintenance and asked them to install a new rotor and cap I supplied along with replacing the water impeller. Pete Deri had the technician charge me over two hours of labor for what Volvo Penta confirmed was a 30-minute job for the cap and rotor. In the past Melanie, the service receptionist had said they had no issue with installing customer supplied parts. Volvo Penta then referred me to a service dealer who has an impeccable reputation and I was very impressed with their work. Stay clear of Skipper Buds... David T. read more

The service manager, Pete Deri, is completely incompetent and he has a severe anger problem. He rants and screams at customers in a threatening way and if he gets mad, he will demand payment by "cash only", no checks or credit cards. This is not Skipper Buds policy, this is Service Manager Pete Deri's policy. He ran up my bill to over 5 times the original quote with no estimates along the way. The repair time went from an estimated "few days" to several weeks, After installing a new transmission, he could not diagnose a vibration and noise problem with it so he began throwing parts at it and he ran my bill through the roof. He installed a flex plate, cutlass bearing, removed the prop shaft several times, installed another new transmission, tuned up the engine and installed numerous other parts, charging me for everything and every hour of labor and still he could not fix the issue. His solution was to drain the transmission fluid and put in heavy engine oil to dampen the vibration. I'm a machinist and part-time auto mechanic and to me this sounded wrong. It seemed like the equivalent of putting saw dust into a noisy engine. Being that it was a was a brand new transmission, I called the manufacturer. They told me this was completely wrong and that what he did voided my warranty. I politely asked Pete about this and he went nuts. He started yelling and ranting and calling me names. He told me how long he had been doing this and said that all boat mechanics did this. He was screaming at me and turning red. I actually thought he was going to hit me. I insisted that he put the correct fluid in my new transmission, which he did and he charged me for it again. Now, after spending a fortune on replacing every part he could think of, the boat is still making noise with severe vibration and Pete Deri made it perfectly clear he "was done with this boat". I have to take it somewhere else to have them fix what he did. The bill went from my estimate of about $1200 for a trans cooler to around $7000 and it's still not usable. I have never been treated so poorly by the representative of a company in all my life. I would strongly suggest you NEVER go to Skipper Buds for anything. Service Manager Pete Deri is a disgrace. Oh, and he is keeping my boat until I pay off the last couple hundred dollars in "CASH ONLY' because he got mad. I contacted the corporate office but have yet to hear back. If they refund my money I will be much happier but this hot-headed, incompetent bully of a service manager needs to be fired. read more