My family and I went on a cruise on the Spirit of Boston on June 1, 2007.. As we waited for the ticket window to open we noticed a great amount of high school-aged teens coming out of buses and limos all dressed up in their gowns and tuxedos. We figured the teens would be attending a private party on another boat, but to our surprise they jumped right on the Spirit of Boston.
As we picked up our tickets we were told we had to stay on the basement floor and were not allowed on any other deck at any time during the cruise. We reserved our tickets weeks in advance and the Spirit website had no notification of this event, nor did we receive any prior notice before our boarding date. We had no other choice but to go along with our plans and boarded the boat.
As we got on the cruise was great, and the sites we saw were awesome. The cruise overall is superb, the food is fantastic and the staff is very entertaining.. The singing/dancing staff, that is. The security was a different story.
My sister and I wanted to go on the top deck just to look out at the Boston skyline for a few minutes, but were immediately approached by three uniformed security guards pointing their fingers down the stairs as if we were dogs and had to follow their commands. No words were spoken, only a point-- as if they were saying, quite simply, "Leave."
We were appalled by this and my sister's boyfriend demanded to speak with the manager. The boat's manager came up to us and offered to invite us on another cruise, which I will say was nice, but offered no option to travel to any of the other decks on the ship.
Overall the cruise is great and is the perfect idea for a family or group of friends looking to get out into Boston, but definitely needs to be looked at as a suspicious option.. Make sure you call the Spirit of Boston ahead of time to make sure there are no "secret", or unlisted, events booked for the boat.
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