The four sailings that bring courses to your own table, compared by vessel, menu, pier and price. Real ratings from 4,175 reviews, and the one boat that will turn you away in jeans.
Four sailings, from $99.99 for a flexible three-course booking to $175 for five courses on a small yacht. 4,175 traveller reviews between them, and free cancellation on every one.
Listings, piers and prices checked against every live booking page. How we check
Short answer
Plated means a table that stays yours all evening and courses brought to you, rather than a buffet line. Four sailings run this way: the three-hour five-course gourmet boat out of Pier 36, the all-glass Bateaux out of Chelsea Piers, a flexible Bateaux booking that starts at its lunch price, and the small Eternity yacht with a VIP deck and hotel transfers. Prices run $99.99 to $175. Bateaux enforces semi-formal dress and does not allow children under six.
The difference between plated and buffet is not really the food, it is the room. On a plated sailing nobody queues, nobody leaves the table, and the evening has a shape to it: courses arrive, the band plays, the skyline goes past the window. It is the format people book for anniversaries and proposals, and it is why three of the four boats here cost more than the buffet fleet.
These four are genuinely different from one another. The gourmet sailing out of Pier 36 runs longest at three hours and plates five courses with gratuities already in the ticket. Bateaux is the formal one, an all-glass vessel with almost no open deck and a dress code it actually enforces. The Eternity is the small one, with hotel pickup nobody else offers. And the flexible Bateaux booking lets you take the same boat at lunch or brunch for substantially less.
Prices are the current from-price per person and move with your date, so the live listing is always the authority.
Most reviewed in this category
Five plated courses at your own table while off-Broadway singers work the room, on the longest dinner sailing in the harbor. Three hours out of Pier 36 on the Lower East Side, with the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges overhead early and the Statue lit up later.
The all-glass boat. Bateaux has no outer deck to speak of and that is the point: floor-to-ceiling windows, white tablecloths, a live band and a vocalist, and a three-course plated menu served to a table that is yours for the evening. Semi-formal dress is enforced.
The flexible way onto the Bateaux boat: pick brunch, lunch or dinner and the price moves with it. Three plated courses, live entertainment and narration throughout, with unlimited mimosas if you take the brunch sailing.
A smaller yacht than the City Cruises fleet, with a five-course menu, a private table and an optional VIP deck with its own bar. Hotel pickup and drop-off is included, which no other dinner sailing here offers.
Read the courses and the inclusions columns before the price column: two of these already cover gratuities, which closes most of the gap.
| Sailing | Time out | Courses | Already included | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Five-course gourmet, Pier 36 | 3 hours | Five, plated at a private table | Gratuities, unlimited soft drinks, one drink ticket, live off-Broadway performers | $161.61 |
| Bateaux Premier, Pier 61 | 2 hours 30 minutes | Three, plated | Live band and vocalist, unlimited coffee and tea, guaranteed table. Drinks and gratuity extra. | $170.82 |
| Bateaux flexible booking, Pier 61 | Varies by daypart | Three, plated | Live entertainment and narration, unlimited mimosas on the brunch option. Price shown is the lowest daypart. | $99.99 |
| Eternity, Pier 36 | Not stated on the listing | Five, plated at a private table | Gratuities, hotel pickup and drop-off, optional VIP deck with its own bar | $175.00 |
| Dress code | The strictest on the harbor. Bateaux requires semi-formal on dinner sailings: dress pants, dress shirts, skirts or dresses, dress shoes. Casual jeans, t-shirts and sandals are specifically not permitted. The Eternity asks for business casual. Dress as you would for a good restaurant and you are fine everywhere. |
|---|---|
| Children | Bateaux does not permit children under six on the Premier Dinner Cruise. The other three carry no stated age minimum, but the format suits adults and older children better than toddlers. |
| Which pier | Two of these leave Pier 61 at Chelsea Piers (West 23rd and 12th Ave) and two leave Pier 36 (299 South Street, Slip 9) on the Lower East Side. They are a half-hour apart. Check your ticket. |
| Boarding | Opens 45 minutes before departure and closes before it. A missed gangway is a forfeited ticket on all four. |
| Tipping | Already covered on the Pier 36 sailings. Not covered on the Bateaux sailings, where 15 to 20 percent is the going rate for table service. |
| Seating | All four guarantee a table for your party. Window seating is an upcharge on some options rather than a promise, so read which tier you are buying. |
One is the dinner sailing on its own; the other is a flexible booking where you choose brunch, lunch or dinner and the price moves with your choice. The $99.99 from-price on the flexible listing is its cheapest daypart, not its dinner price. Same boat, same three plated courses, different ticket.
On Bateaux, yes. The listing states plainly that casual jeans, t-shirts and sandals are not permitted on dinner sailings, and semi-formal attire is required. This is the one boat in the harbor where turning up dressed casually is a genuine risk. The Eternity asks for business casual and is more relaxed about it.
The five-course gourmet sailing out of Pier 36 carries the most reviews of any boat on this site, 1,600 of them at 4.2, and travellers consistently single out the portions and presentation. Bateaux rates slightly higher overall at 4.4 across 1,462. Neither is a clear winner on food alone; Bateaux is the more formal room, the gourmet sailing is the longer evening.
Only the Eternity, which includes hotel pickup and drop-off along with gratuities. Everywhere else you make your own way to the pier, which for Pier 36 means the F train to East Broadway and about ten minutes on foot.
On the two Pier 36 sailings, yes. On the Bateaux sailings, no, and 15 to 20 percent for table service is the norm. That is a real difference of $25 to $35 on a $170 ticket, so factor it in when you compare the from-prices.
Worth a look for the same skyline with a dance floor and a lower bill.
Worth a look for the view without the dinner, at a lower price.
Worth a look for the once-a-year Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve sailings.
Reading first: The Bateaux sailing reviewed in full · What the money actually buys · The dress codes, boat by boat
