Odyssey Washington DC Lunch Cruise Washington, DC

My wife and I did the Washington DC Premier Dinner Cruise. The service and the food were horrible. The music was too loud so everyone in the room had to yell to speak, which made the room uncomfortable. I don’t know if the servers are overwhelmed? But getting a drink, including water, was nearly impossible. Wife couldn’t even get a coffee. And the food was totally inedible - coming from a couple who are NOT picky eaters. The steak was tough and tasted like a block of salt, for example. The boat ride was fine, but the expensive dinner part was so so bad. Don’t do this lol.

My husband booked the sunset dinner cruise. It was almost as bad as it could get. The only thing that was pleasant was that it was a smooth sailing experience. The worst was that we almost did not get our meal . If not for an observant wait staff, we would have been missed. It seemed everything was an up charge. Our order was taken quickly,but after that everything fell apart. We stuck with the basic menu except for a glass of wine, which we did not get when we reminded our waiter we got some flippant answer. The appetizers were ok. And got our 2 rolls. When someone asked for more rolls they were told “ no”. Then, we watched and waited while EVERYONE around us got served. We began joking that we were at the forgotten table. As it turned out we were. Our waiter told us to go outside to take pictures and we were sure he did not realize, we had not eaten. Another wait staff Oscar, came to our rescue and brought it to our waiter’s attention. The waiter came over and tried to explain but couldn’t why we hadn’t gotten our meal. Finally when we got the meal. It was not palatable. My meat was overcooked and whatever was served with it was dry and had no taste. My spouse got the salmon and later that night got sick. Our waiter offered a complimentary drink and we again had to remind him that a drink was ordered that we never got. Since it was a sunset cruise, we thought it would be narrated and the monuments would be lit. Unfortunately it was cloudy, so no sunset, no narration even though there was a DJ and No monuments were lit. Lots of loud music. We were seated at a window and 3 people sat on the benches outside our window blocking our view for picture taking. Just not a good experience.

Worst dinner cruise ever. Welcomed by a photographer that does not like their job. It took 40 min to get our drinks which were not the ones we ordered. My wife's gnocchi looks like they were coming from a low budget cafeteria, my friend steak was grey, never seen a steak cooked that badly. We were informed that we can leave the table and go outside to take pictures at any time. So we did half through our meal to take advantage of a beautiful sunset. We came back and all our plates were gone. We did a similar dinner in Paris for half the price and the quality was 100% better. Coffee served with the dessert was cold....

This was an excellent experience! I organized a group of 60 people for a 78th birthday party for my father, and 71st birthday party for my cousin. My initial booking experience with my agent Mykala was fantastic. She was very helpful and responsive. The best part of the experience was the cruise. I had a lot of people in my party who are age 60+. The onboarding process was smooth and well organized. There were plenty of staff at the dock who helped us navigate through the process and on the boat. They were extremely helpful to my elderly guests and offered wheelchairs and assistance to get on the boat. As soon as we entered the boat, the setup was very nice and they were prepared for my large group. One of the best parts of the night was our waiter, Soren. He took great care of my guests and my family LOVED him. He ensured we had our drinks and whatever requests we needed, and he was super friendly. The entertainment (DJ) was amazing. My group was a mix of ages and he was perfect. He made sure that we celebrated in style, he recognized our special birthday guests of honor, and kept the party going. The bartenders were extremely friendly and service at the bar was very quick and efficient. The views and the scenery of the cruise was also perfect. The buffet options were excellent, and the food was really good. I read reviews where the food was rated as average, but that was not our experience. My family and I all thought the food was really good. The buffet servers worked really hard to ensure to serve hot food and helped us work our way through the buffet. I will be back again for another cruise. It's the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion.

First off, there are 2 different boats. Tripadvisor lumps these in together and it wasn't clear to me when I booked it. The Odyssey is the one you see in the pictures (big glass windows everywhere). The Spirit of DC/Washington is the other one... They call it Premium vs. Signature but that is misleading. I'm willing to give the Odyssey a try next year but the Spirit boat leaves much to be desired. The seats we got were on the bottom floor with nearly no view. If we craned our necks we could see things. Again, looking at the Odyssey photos, I didn't even think that was possible. We weren't served when we arrived. Our server didn't even look our way from helping the table next to ours until we finally got up and went to the bar directly to serve ourselves. He apologized profusely and seemed very nice but as the event wore on, it's clear he messed up since there weren't other opportunities to provide service besides getting us drinks. Side note, this was a group of co-workers on a lunch celebration to thank them for all their hard work... The real disappointment was the buffet. The food was recycled odds and ends. The only fresh item was the salad. Cold pasta salad, mushy red sauce pasta, dry chicken thighs, and a strange rice & black beans dish with shredded chicken breast and plantains. I'm Puerto Rican--This was unrecognizable. The desserts were fine but everything tasted old. There's no way the entire buffet cost more than $1,000 to cook. At $100+ per person and a full boat, that's unacceptable. All that said, there were 2 redeeming qualities about this cruise. 1) The picture at the beginning. It's a small thing but the quality of the photo was good and made a nice souvenir even if the event was sub-par. Worth an additional $43. 2) The DJ, dancing and drinking was fun and a nice getaway for an afternoon. If you are not excited about either of those things, I would hard pass or try the nicer boat.