Dana L.
Yelp
Booked the 4th of July firework cruise for my family. We got there about fifty minutes early and they let people on about 10 minutes later. My family sat at a table by the live entertainer in the back overlooking the back of the boat. We got underway, on time, and the first part of the cruise went well. As the sun went down we had a light breeze and they traversed the lake where we got to see the other boats and some novice fireworks along the shore. The singer was great and took requests, even though ours could not be accommodated. The Captain then stopped the boat about a mile off shore from the fireworks, which turned out would be launched either on shore or close to it. The show was okay, nothing special and the lights on the boat were dimmed for a better view. Once the fireworks started quite a few passengers stood up and blocked most of the view for others on their side of the ship, but it would seem as if the Captain either attempted to alleviate this by turning every minute or so to allow a better view, unless it was just to prevent drift. Either way, we did get to see half of the main show, but watching from the shore would have been the better vantage point. Maybe they should request guests remain seated during the display to allow others the chance to see, but the ones who were standing were clearly inebriated, so there's no telling if it would have worked. This is where the cruise turned for us. While the lights were out I noticed multiple spiders, slightly smaller than a quarter climbing on my son and me. After brushing them off so as not alarm my wife, I looked behind me to see the beam was swarming with mosquitoes. From there my son and I noticed that everything from the ceiling, tables and walls were the same. This is when my wife started to notice. I tried keeping her calm, but then the firework show ended and the singer turned his equipment and lights back on to sing us back into port. The only way for me to explain it was an Alfred Hitchcock horror movie about bugs. I am not exaggerating when I say that millions of mosquitoes swarmed us and the band stand. My wife ran to the bar area and we followed suit. After about a minute the singer shut off his lights and could not finish his set because it was so bad. As we were heading to the back, the bartenders jokingly said the mosquitoes don't bite and mentioned they were "senior citizens", as they laughed, which wasn't entirely true. We decided to go down stairs into the air conditioned space where they weren't as bad, which is when about 8 others joined us. My son pointed out the spider webs on the outside of the windows with the spiders and mosquitoes caught in the webs. I guess my question would be if the crew knew about the mosquitoes, why did the company not put out those repelling candles on the tables to alleviate the issue. As for the Charcuterie Board, it was nothing special as the cheese and salami was warm and the crackers were not crisp. Unless they fix the infestation issue, I would not recommend this cruise. Just to clarify, the mosquito repellent off would not workin this situation, unless I brought a lighter.
