Above All Cruises

This is a two-​part review.
First part:
After my 2012 cruise trip with my friends and giving a honest review on Unilocal,one of the employees at the time contact me via Unilocal message. He basically wanted to thank me for my honest review and offer me two tickets for their cruise. I was very excited about it. I had such a great time the last trip, I told my brother that we can double date when I redeem this special free tickets. I called and there were no answer. After hurricane Sandy, I knew they were fixing all the repairs so there wouldn’t be any cruise for a while. I started calling again in April. No answer. June, no answer. August, no answer. I reply back on the Unilocal message that I received from the employer that I’ve been calling to redeem the complimentary tickets they offered me. No reply back. After a year and half of trying, I gave up. That’s fine. Not a big deal.
Part two:
Fast forward to 2015. I purchased a groupon to surprise my boyfriend. When I went to their website to book the date we wanted to attend, that is when all the headaches started. I was having a hard time with the groupon I purchased for Above All Cruises. I can never seem to find any events for your booze or dinner cruises. After multiple tries, I was able to reach one of the staffs at Above All Cruises regarding why the website says «Sorry, currently we have no dates available for the 2014 season.» I explained to them I brought a groupon that I wanted to use right away because it is a gift for a friend, and in addition to wanting to redeem it before the weather gets too cold. The guy who picked up the phone told me there will have one more date listed for last week of November, and after that, no more dates until April. I told him that week is Thanksgiving week. He stated that it will be the previous week before that. It truly sounded like he was making stuff up. I checked their website November 18 and no date was posted on their website. I contact them again on Monday and they told me the same thing again, «one more date will be posted.» My groupon «expires» February, which means I would have to pay the price difference in order to use it in April. Wouldn’t this be considered as fraud? There was nowhere in the Fine Print did it say «must book by [certain date]». I contact groupon to cancel this purchase and they were giving me a hard time refunding me. First they told me to keep trying. I did. Second email they told me to give it to a friend as a gift since I no longer wanted the groupon. I told them that it is an idiotic thing to do since I am having a hard time redeeming it, I would not want my friend going through the same issue. And according to the Above All Cruises facebook, someone else encountered the same problem with making reservation in July. Therefore it is never a guarantee that groupon purchasers would be able to go on the cruise any weekend they want, and may still encounter the same problem in April. I found this groupon deal to be problematic with all the red flags I were encountering. This was exactly what I told Groupon Customer Support team for them to finally agree to a refund. There are too many inconvenience with this groupon and I would rather use the money to purchase a different groupon. I got groupon buck rather than the money back.
I’m so disappointed with this company. The first time was awesome. I was even questioning how so many people have such bad experience with Above All Cruise. I thought maybe those people were expecting too much. Now I know why.
TL:DR — DO NOT BUY GROUPON FOR THIS CRUISES!!! This cruise has it’s hit or miss moments, 90% of the time being a miss. So purchase with caution.

This is terrible! If I could give this zero stars, I would. I bought a groupon for this dinner & dancing for two with above all cruises for my boyfriend and I. I didn’t think it would be too bad. I really wanted to just have a romantic date with my boyfriend and see the sunset more than anything else. I honestly didn’t care if the food wasn’t great because it was only 35 bucks so I wasn’t expecting a gourmet meal. I didn’t even get to see the food because the cruise never even left the dock!
The cruise is supposed to leave at 7 and return at 10PM. We got there at around 6:50PM and waited on this long line to get into the boat. We get in and pick seats (it looks like lawn furniture with a table cloth). We wait as people filter in and fill up seats. I’m expecting that they will probably leave at 7:30 because we got in at 7:15PM. We wait… and wait… and wait… finally at 8PM there’s an announcement from the DJ saying that we can’t leave until the coast guard gives them clearance and that they can’t serve food until we are out of the dock. He says we should be leaving in 10 minutes. They play this terrible music the entire time. Many people decided to leave, others just drank and sat waiting. The couple in front of us clearly got bored because they were practically having sex in front of us. At 8:30PM, people start getting really anxious and the staff continue to say we’ll leave in 10 minutes. At about 8:45PM, this woman screams out «Oh my god! Listen everyone this boat is going nowhere! They don’t even have a captain! Who’s going to steer the boat?». My boyfriend and I got up and left along with many many disappointed people. More than half of the people left. This company is rude, unprofessional, unorganized, and just awful! Please do not purchase anything from this company. Anyone giving this more than the one star is probably the company staff themselves.

Everyone should know that it appears this organization is somehow associated with «Circle Line.»
We met several, unfortunate, people on our trip that bought tickets solely on that referral.

I am going to start by saying that these people are the full meaning of the word irresponsible. It is imposible to get in contact with them before your event. Nor by phone or e-​mail. The 4^th of July Party Cruise was a total disaster! OMG! The boarding time was scheduled for 6:30, we did not get to see the boat more than 1 hour and a half after that. The crowd I won’t complain about because there’s all types of people everywhere. I will complaint about what these people could of control and did not. Me and my husband had dinner reservations after and missed it because of the delay of the ride. I was not lucky enough to get a Groupon so we paid full price. total waste of money. Stay away from this people! didn’t even get to the Statue of Liberty (promised in the package) because of «time issues» but who’s fault was that ?? I was a total disappointment specially missing our dinner date and the pain in our legs after standing up for so long.

Bought a Groupon $ 79 for six ppl plus an xtra $ 29 for two, to celebrate my bday 6÷6÷14. Didn’t know where the boat was docked, I called and got directions. It’s the Lucille by the BP gas station.
It wasn’t packed but, the Dj was good playing Hip hop, Reggea, Salsa and House. and since we were the only ones dancing @ first he played what we liked. my friends made it fun and we had a great time :-)
The boat can be better

Worst experience ever ever! My valentines day totally got ruined. They have the worst cruise which looks totally outdated. Horrible food. My boyfriend paid $ 100 for Valentines day cruise but it was not even worth $ 10.
I couldn’t wait to get out of the cruise. It was one of the worst experience of my life. Don’t ever ever not even by mistake get into this cruise. I would have given negative star if possible.

Thanks to this company my Valentines day was ruined. I booked the cruise for 9:45 pm and at 9:20 pm already in the area and on my way with my girlfriend I get a phone call from this company telling me that there is a malfunction with the cruise. This is totally unprofessional if there was a problem I should of been notified hours ago.
Don’t go not worth it.

I purchased a groupon for a Halloween themed cruise. Firstly I have to say that boarding the ship was a breeze and the sights were beautiful as well. Also the food was great. They also had a pretty good DJ on board. The cruise lasted about 3 hours but honestly it was 3 hours too long. I have to say I was very disappointed with this cruise. It may have been because I was expecting a lot but I’d recommend going with low expectations. The boat was very small to begin with and the décor within the boat was questionable. There was a bartender on board but whenever I tired to order a drink the line was long enough to go around the whole ship. Overall the price paid ($ 15) wasn’t bad especially if you’ve never tried it before; a true instance of you get what you pay for.

I got a Groupon deal for Above All Cruises for a Dinner Cruise last summer. And I had to use it before it expired in September 2011. It always said to make reservations through the website, but nobody responds to the messages sent to them through the website. I made so many calls to them and it goes to voicemail where it says there’s no room left on the machine. I tried so many times until I reached someone and gave me his direct e-​mail address where he confirmed my reservations via e-​mail. Even when I got there, they can’t find my reservation on their list, but they let us in anyways. So stupid! So unorganized! They need to get their shit straight! It is so ghetto too! I think we went on a Friday night in September and the cruise was supposed to take off like 7:30PM and it didn’t take off until after 8PM. We got there and waited on the line at 7PM and they didn’t let us in until like 7:45PM. There were like 5 lines there for a different boat. What if we got on the wrong boat? Nothing is clearly marked.
When we get on the boat, they have a buffet line going already and we’re each given a ticket for the food and 2 tickets for the drinks that are included. We grab a plate and the servers there serve us the crappy food they have there. They had shells, vegetables, some meat. They weren’t that good. And they definitely weren’t fresh because they were being heated up with those candle things placed under the buffet trays. We took our foo and went upstairs where we were near the dance floor and the bar. We went to get drinks only to find out that cans of beer were covered with the tickets we got. LOL! So funny! Whatever, we just relaxed at our seats and ate our food.
We waited for the boat to take off. It goes under the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, around the Statue of Liberty and downtown in a loop over and over until it was time to go back to the Pier at 23d Street on the East Side by the FDR Drive. The plus side is that the boat stops at the Statue of Liberty for quite a while for both sides of the boat to be able to have a good view of it and take pictures.
We finally return to the Pier by like 11PM. At least it is the 3 hours that they claim the ride to be.
I would never take a cruise with them again though. It is so unorganized and ghetto. And the food is not that good. There is no sense of customer service. You cannot reach anyone on the phone and nobody responds to the messages you leave through their website! It is UNACCEPTABLE! It is DISGUSTING! No thank you! Never again!

OH HELL NO. LOL. That was my first response when I stepped onto their boat for the after work cruises. The place was crowded (expected), dark, cold (expected), dingy furniture and décor and just straight up wack. The food served was also wack, but I expected nothing less from a buffet line.
The only thing that made me smile was being able to chill outside and look at the water and watch old couples get their groove on. But besides that, my goodness, never again.

The manager of this cruise invited me back because of the experience I had last time and what a different compare to only a month ago… the food although is not high end food like other cruise but consider you are only paying ¹⁄₃ of the price and included TWO drinks. I think that is a very fair deal… the food quality is not bad. they have someone serve it this time around which is a lot BETTER that you dont have to fight for food. the music was great that night and however they can use some upgrade on the speaker. bartender was great. and drink are reasonable price. biggest improvement of all was the line to get onto the cruise this time. For the price and the fun, I would go back again …
Thanks Alex
Thomas

My bf bought a groupon for this cruise and before we went I came and read all these reviews, even the filtered ones. I was really afarird after all the comments and the food and the waiting. So I made some we picked up some food on the way which was a good thing becuase even though the food was hot the servings were very small and the food have no seasoning. It was like eating nothing. After we finished that then we ate our real food. We did not have to wait long online, maybe becuase it was October and starting to get cool, the boat was not packed and did not have to wait long. The boat did leave on time but returned about 25 minutes early. Drinks were $ 9 for top shelf, which is good. The DJ had everyone dancing. He played a good set.
All in all in was pretty good but I just if you go in the dead of summer when the boat is packed you will probably face some issues.
Eat before or bring your own food!

Ok, so its me being my usual self. I always say «never again» if I have a bad experience while trying something and stick to it. Well, not always cuz every sunday morning I say «never again I would stay up all night and take part in a shot contest» but the life likes to repeat itself every other saturday night ;)
So my first experience was really bad and I had been notified that recently the company made changes and things are different. Oh well, I was a bit curious and bored (on tuesday night-​no action is happening). so, me and my friend went to see the improvements. I didnt even bother to dress up cuz I was secretly scared that the staff will just take me to the end off a parlor, shoot me and throw into the ocean-​for my previous review.
So-​they improved a lot from my last visit. Wait was short, no more a la Calcutta bazaar style roaming, crowd was decent (not for hunting thou so single ladies and gents-​its not ur scene), staff is very friendly and helpful.
Hear me out thou-​its low key, after work drinks cruise for bored new-​Yorkers. Its not upscalish (well, for the price u pay, excuse me). Just chill and nice lil boat trip around Manhattan. can be very romantic if u want it to be since the 3^rd floor is completely opened and provides an amazng view. second floor-​is dance floor w bar and tables to eat.
Overall, me and my friend had a blast. Music was rocking (thanks to DJ Ray), first slow and romantic-​while everybody ate, and then when crowd was drunk enough to think that they can dance he put some booty shain stuff whcih was pretty awesome.
P. s. make sure thou you will take on this trip someone you actually like or at least enjoy spending time with, cuz its a boat. if u dont like ur date there is no fire exit

Ok after reading the HORRID reviews I was pretty scared to go, but then my friend gave me her tickets cause she wasn’t able to go and I figured why not?
Wait time: When I got there at 6:45 there was a group of people waiting to board and by 6:55 people were already getting their tickets checked and boarding the boat, so there was no wait.
The boat: was surprisingly nice and spacious — enough so that EVERYONE had seats and tables. The bathroom was CLEAN! I was pretty surprised at that lol.
The drinks: free drinks included canned bud, bud light, small plastic cups of soda, lower shelf cocktails, water, juices. $ 6 for a bottle of corona and you also had to pay for bottled water.
The food: buffet style, one large plate and one small plate of salad. Food wasn’t awful, I thought it was pretty okay, especially at $ 35 for two people.
The DJ: started out the night with awesome popular 70s/​80s/​90s music at a very reasonable volume while people were dining. Then switched over to dance, pop, and r&b as the night went on. People were going nuts on the dance floor lol
Staff: Was well organized and polite.
BOTTOMLINE: I think this cruise has it’s hit or miss moments from what I can tell from other reviews. BUT I had a blast and definitely would shell out $ 12.50 to do that again.

I went in with low expectations & this dinner cruise definitely met ‘em! The food is awful, the servers are stingy with the portions, presentation is on plastic plates (awful), their water is tinged with a dirty light brown color and I could wait to get off this darn ship within the first hour. There is a one-​star because Unilocal doesn’t allow for 0 stars and also because a few members of the staff were nice to us.
Like many before me, I was quite enticed by the Groupon deal they offered: $ 39 got you a 3-​hour dinner cruise for two people, but apparently, you only get what your money pays for and not a penny more! High UN-​recommended. It was easy enough to book and make the reservations, but it wasn’t a good time in the least. I went expecting bad and this was even worse than my expectations.
And a last-​note WTF is that the gates were locked when we arrived at the dovks. Why? Because the guy on duty fell asleep.

I didn’t initially deal with this company but they gave me a card after the cruise I was supposed to be taking was cancelled due to weather and NYC refusing to move its barge from the ship’s path.
Based on STILL not being contacted despite being told I’d hear something about make-​up dates the next day (last Friday) & that story about the ship crashing, I figured it was best to go get a refund from the site where I initially purchased vouchers.

yeah… SO…where does one start? the weird wait? the gross food? the bad sound system playing crapass music or the fact that… OUR BOAT CRASHED!
OUR BOAT CRASHED!!! right into the side of the pier. it was seriously like this crazy titanic moment where the windows started popping and spraying glass everywhere and metal crunching sounds were heard and women were screaming and running for the other side of the boat. and what did this so called «above all cruises» do? they didn’t even make an announcement or ask if people were ok… or I don’t know… turn around and give everyone a refund and switch drivers?! nono… they just kept right on going, so we were all held hostage on a crazy boat covered in broken glass and a crew pretending nothing was wrong for three hours. one guy even said «you can sit back down now if you want…» …pointing to our food, now covered in glass… everyone just looked at him like he was crazy and after some sufficient photo and video coverage of the crazy surreal moment, went upstairs. you know… in case we run into anything else… we could at least all see it and just jump off and see if we can make it to shore in an emergency raft.
worst crazy ass ghetto cruise on the face of the earth. seriously. AND someone has gone through and flagged all the bad reviews so that people can’t see them on Unilocal.very disturbing. probably the same people giving it five stars. it’s really messing with the reliability of Unilocal.
even without the crash, the boat was in poor shape, the food was disgusting (as one Unilocaler described aptly… it’s school cafeteria buffet food), the staff were unprofessional, the music was overly loud and tinny over crappy speakers poorly dj’d.
honestly, if I were you I’d read every single one of those filtered reviews to see how people responded before purchasing any groupon or living social or any other deals for this cruise. all the reviews are legit except the crazy ass five star one. seriously… there are 19 filtered reviews and 4 posted ones… how is that possible, Unilocal???
note: we have called groupon and gotten a refund for this insane trip. if you were part of this party, I’d suggest you do the same.

They get one star because I do not know how to give them a ½ of a star! We were suppose to board at 6pm and leave port at 7pm. This was not the case. We boarded at 7pm and left at 8pm but they made sure to bring us back on time, so sweet. The food was surprisingly ok, the drink menu was less than desirable. There were hardly any alcoholic drinks available with the tickets. You had to purchase most of them and the drink prices went up to 15 $.
The staff was extremely rude, not helpful, and demeaning. I am very sorry I purchased these «all inclusive» tickets, it was definitely not worth it. Please do not buy tickets for this cruise!!! ITS NOT WORTH IT!!! Very disappointing!
Someone has to tell LIVING SOCIAL & GROUPON don’t have this as an option on your site!!!

You know there were a ton of terrible reviews before, but somehow it was removed. How convenient for the 5-​star reviewer, who reviewed nothing else, to jump in there to try to redeem the company. What shady business is going on here between them and Unilocal?
I will tell you honestly that I didn’t even make it through the scheduling process. Terrible customer service. Luckily I was able to get a refund from Living Social before the 5 day refund period was up. When they were advertising the deal, they offered only Friday and weekend sail dates. By the time I went to actually schedule something, they had a whole new schedule (Tues and Thurs – but who wants those dates?). The Sept expiration on the voucher was looming in, so I tried scheduling anyway and received no response. Then I contacted Alex and he told me to send in my request to the site in bad English. If I am communicating with him directly, why can’t he schedule me in himself? Long after I got my refund, I received an e-​mail from them saying a simple, «OK.» What kind of confirmation is that?

What an absolute shitshow this was!
To those of us that had fallen victim from the $ 40 Groupon, my boyfriend and I thought how bad could it be? Well, it was a hot mess complete with a fight that nearly broke out on the pier before we even boarded because of classless people that can’t wait like everyone else on line. Security did a great job putting up a front, but I soon saw the line cutters board almost immediately after we did; we waited over 40 minutes in line for a 7PM cruise, which didn’t start on time but did promptly return to port.
Cold food with Chef Boyardee sauce was served over hot stenos and served on plastic plates with matching plastic utensils. The sorry excuse of a «live DJ» played Spanish music all night long, leaving those of us that were looking for a better and broader spread of music to either sit and sulk, or drink until an oblivion.
We were given «tickets» — one set to eat, and two for drinks. A bottle of water counts as a DRINK! Water isn’t free on this?!! Are you dreaming?! Want a Long Island Iced Tea? No more tickets? That’ll be $ 15!
One star of the view that the boat actually offer, and one star for the lovely couple we made friends with; it was a blessing we found another couple that was just as confused, disappointed, and well mannered like us.
Someone people re-​organize this STAT! What a horrible way to go!