Paris dinner cruise

I have never seen an opinion here that buying dinner on a Seine cruise is worth it. A boat trip in the evening is nice, but not with dinner. I would have dinner elsewhere and take the cruise afterward, just to see the lights.

Fact 1: The food is horrible. Fact 2: The river's in a concrete ditch - - the top deck of the boat is on the level of the lower quay, there's still an upper quay above you, so you can't see as much as you think you might. I've done it a couple of times over the years, but never again. When traveling with others who I can't talk out of it, I take them to the boat and desert them. Afterwords, they've uniformly said they wished they had listened to me. Ride the boat if you wish, but don't eat. A day ride is just as good - - and you can actually see more. For a good night view of the lights, walk the left bank from the Alma bridge to Notre Dame (the best view is across the river toward the higher terrain and buildings). It's only a couple of miles, so a half-hour should do it. Walking the same track in the opposite direction works just as well. An alternative in the winter (or early spring or late fall) is (if you already have a twenty-four hour batobus ticket) to ride another, night, loop on it at no cost. This won't work when the days are longer since the batobus shuts down by dark.

Ed is right. It might seem like a romantic idea, but everyone agrees it's not worth it. The food is bad. Imagine getting a table where you see little or get diesel fumes. The boats are nice to take without a meal, when you are free to get up and walk wherever you want; then you can go to a good restaurant on land.

I agree - eating on the Seine is highly overrated and overpriced. Take the cruise before or after and have a good dinner on land. I really liked Vedettes du Pont Neuf for the cruise. You can buy vouchers on their website and get a significant discount on the price. Then choose the time you want to go - depending a lot on the weather, of course.

Having been to Paris several times, I checked out the river cruise, with and without the dinner. I decided to take the river cruise without the dinner and we had two good meals for the price they wanted for their dinner. We also enjoyed the river cruise and would recommend it.

A tour I took last may in France ended up with the farewell dinner on a Seine Cruise. I agree the food was not great and rather than sit and eat with the group I was more interested in taking pictures on the top deck. I do think the cruise is better during the day.

We also did the Vedettes de Pont Neuf cruise this past August. They leave every half hour, and all you have to do is show up, there is no need to buy tickets in advance, though you can save money by printing the voucher off the web site. We timed it so that the sun was setting as we climbed on board at the half hour, then the Eiffel Tower sparkled at the top of the hour. It was magical.

Another vote for Vedettes du pont Neuf. Google will find it for you. We took it just as darkness fell. It was great - a highlight of our trip. Dinner on your own before the cruise. Print out the discount voucher. They honor it.

Thanks, all! We have nixed that idea. We'll likely still try some watery sightseeing sometime ... but won't spend our euros on a floating dinner. I really appreciate the input.

Aw, I think you should still take the cruise. It's only an hour, and as a couple of posters said, if you go right around sunset, it is magical.

We will still take a sunset cruise, for sure. No worries!