Inspiration Hornblower

Enjoyed an evening cruise around the harbor.

The food was way better than I expected from a boat.

The music was right behind me which made conversation a bit difficult.

Overall enjoyed it very much!

My family and I took my 5 year old daughter on a Hornblower Cruise around San Diego Bay for the evening of the 4th of July. The best part of the cruise was by far the fireworks.... which are not run or controlled by Hornblower.

You're paying for being out on a boat in the Bay. Don't expect any other aspect of the "cruise" to be fancy. And it's going to be expensive. Like, really, really expensive. Total cost for three adults and a 5 year old on the 4th of July cruise: over $800. Yes, you read that right. And for that you get an incredibly average buffet dinner. The food is cheap banquet/hotel food: a carving station, some chafing dishes filled with non-descript rice and/or veggies, etc. Want a drink? Yeah, that's extra! And so is the tip for the wait-staff. So with a drink for all the adults and tip, there's another $100 or so on top of the $800 just to get on board. The servers (who don't really serve anything given the food is a buffet) were very friendly and professional, no complaints there (5 stars to those guys and gals).

Entertainment is a guy with a laptop acting as a DJ. No live music here, you get cheesy wedding party style music, and you'll like it. I feel bad for the poor dude running the music though - there's nothing worse than trying to entertain people who are barely paying attention. He was doing his best.

On the upside, when it came time for the fireworks, the captain is able to maneuver the boat in to a location right between two of the barges the city launches fireworks from. The effect is that you feel completely surrounded by the show. It's an amazing location to watch this from. My kid was going crazy with how awesome the show was. She'll remember that for a long time to come... the rest of the trip... no so much.

Fun time. Excellent dinner, dessert an drinks. Great views of San Diego. Friendly crew

We had a great time because of Dereck B. He was very attentive to our need. What a great customer service!!! I will recommend this dinner cruise to all my friends and family.

Would not recommend. Friend had his wedding on one of the smaller boats, while the experience on the water was great, the other parts detracted from the night. The DJ that was included got his name wrong during the initial announcement; and even though was given a full list of songs to play, chose instead to play a generic wedding playlist. (We were given the reason that they couldn't find the songs, and when we told them that we had them on our phones so they could either stream or download, they refused). The food was mediocre, the instructions were that the steaks were all medium rare; they ran the gamut from medium to burnt. The veggies (potatoes and green beans) were all undercooked.