Ryan K.
Yelp
Not very family friendly unless your older than 6!
The wife and I recently took this trip as it is the only boat tour in the area that stops at Fort Wool.
We arrived here early enough to get what we thought would be great seats on the boat but since we had a one-year-old that was being back-carried, we were told we could only go to the bottom of the boat.Huh? What happens of the bottom of the boat is at capacity? I can only assume that the Miss Hampton doesn't have enough money to afford to upgrade the upper portion of their boat to allow people of all ages.
So we proceeded to the back of the boat and unfortunately were met there by a family reunion on the bottom deck hooting and hollering.
The speakers on board the boat are not good at all but, I can't attest to what they sound like on the top of the boat because my family wasn't allowed up there!... If your hard of hearing, this trip might not be for you as you wont be able to hear much over the loud conversations and engine noise on the bottom of the boat.
What little bit of historical information we could hear was very interesting learning about Blackbeards Point and the Hampton Roads area itself in terms of shipping. The Captain seemed pretty knowledgeable about different ships that were also docked at Naval Station Norfolk.
And then we were off to Fort Wool the highlight of the tour! But it wasn't every thing I expected it to be. After hearing that it was just a park owned by the city of Hampton I could only imagine what lie in wait like the other unkept parks of Hampton. After stepping off the boat I was shocked to see how much of a disaster the civil war fort was in although it looks like workers have tried but gave up short of mowing the grass. The captain gave us pretty good brief summary of the fort and that was that. Nothing I would care to see again unless it was better taken care of.
**Overall, The trip felt very unwelcoming, after I was told I couldn't go to the upper deck because I had an infant 1 yr old, making this boat seem not very kid friendly. I wasn't able to eat any food while on board the boat as there is a $10 minimum to use a card. So I'd advise you to save your money and grab food after the boat or bring your cash.