This cruise was a Christmas gift to my partner which started and ended in a shambles and completely let down both our highly anticipated expectations and especially since this Christmas gift is not a pleasant memory, we were both more than happy to disembark the boat by early evening due to the way everything was, but obviously this was easier said than done. There were over 600 people tightly confined onto this vessel. The brochure states you can comfortably seat Up to 420 diners, however for the 600 odd people on board those that were destined not to obtain a seat were left to stand around the bar, house their dinner on their laps or finally either take a prime seat on the floor or even the stairs!

The buffet food provided was more suited to a meal than a finger food buffet that would not have been essential to consume with cutlery, so in this case I have to say that seating was required to dine, and 600 guests were far too many. My partner and I had no choice but to stand around the bar and eat our dinner, I booked a dinner and at least expect to have a seat at a table where I can sit comfortably and appreciate the food, with a bottle of wine and enjoy the moment. However this was sadly not the case and we were stood around the bar trying to eat our dinner in conditions you could most defiantly not relax in, and could not let our hair down with a bottle of wine as there was simply no where to put it.

The staff all seemed to be on their first ever cruise in terms of the their training ability and did not seem to know what was going on, they could not answer any of my questions, one of which was how the reserved tables had come about? Considering this was not an option: tickets and confirmations clearly stated seating and tables were non reservable! Despite being informed we would be witnessing the fireworks at the Big Ben at midnight this did not happen. Our positioning upon the river was just abysmal and we saw absolutely nothing.

I can only agree with the last person who posted. I paid £160 for this for myself and my wife through lastminute. Com and feel completely ripped off. The reasons why I felt it was such a poor experience were: 1)general atmosphere/environment - Ship was shabby looking and not big enough for the number of people onboard. As per the last reviewers note this meant not enough tables to put your food down on to eat and not enough places to put drinks down. People ended up sitting on the stairs to try and eat. 2) Bars and service - Not enough people working at the bars hence took far too long to get served. Beyond that the beer was flat. In fact in general it felt like there was hardly anybody actually working on the boat as demonstrated by the fact the cloakroom was empty for half the night so people ended up walking in there to get their own coats. 3)The buffet food - The sad thing is that despite paying £80 a head I had a strong feeling the food would be very poor and sure enough it was. Cold potatoes, tasteless rice, something resembling a quiche and a rubbery chicken breast floating in a white watery sauce. 4)The fireworks - The most disappointing thing for me was that at midnight we were on the wrong side of Tower Bridge and nowhere near the fireworks and could just about see them around the corner in the distance. Although this is made very clear in some adverts it wasn’t mentioned on lastminute.com.

If you're thinking about booking this for nye 2010 then I would strongly consider whether or not you would rather spend £80 to stand up for 5 hours on what is fundamentally a very average undersized floating local pub and then try to fight your way home at 01.30 in the morning from freezing cold central London. Or book a meal somewhere along the river and eat some decent food and see the fireworks. At least after reading this review you can make your own decision.

I am writing to say how disappointed I was with the New Years Eve Party, for the following reasons.
1. Insufficient seating for number of people on board especially as the buffet was a meal that needed to be eaten with knife and fork
2. No music at all on the bottom level - consequently no one on that level heard the chimes at midnight
3. 2 x bars stocked differently with wine although the list at the bar indicated a variety of wines only house white and house red available in bottom bar.
I was in aparty of retired people and ended up making our own entertainment.

I would not recommend this trip for New Years Eve unless you want to be packed in like sardines in the dance area which was justa bit bigger that a postage stamp.