VELTRA tours & activities, fun things to do

Carry On up the River!

We knew this would be a value trip given the price, however, certainly expected the basics for it to be proper value for money. Getting onto the boat was v disorganised, noone at the pier knew where we were to board from & there was nothing in the paperwork which stated what boat we were looking for....in the end, it was a bit of a free for all working out which boat it was. It was a further free for all to get a table that allowed the group to be together. There were no reservations & many of the 5+ seated tables had been taken by groups of 2-3 people, which meant we struggled to find a table as a group, there was no one directing or helping from the staff team. Once at the table, noone then explained where & when we could get food or drinks. The queue for the bar was long & the staff weren't speedy. Once we were served, we were told that the bottle of sparkling white wine & the bottle of water we'd ordered were the 'last ones' & hadn't been chilled. We eventually realised that people were heading downstairs to get food; by the time we realised this & got in the queue, the staff were bemoaning the fact that they were worried that the food was running out. The food itself was average......1 burger, 1 sausage, 1 chicken drumstick plus a limited amount of salad and pasta, there was a reasonable amount of bread on the table. Whilst this was called a BBQ, I'm not convinced the food had seen a BBQ as it tasted more like it had been fried. The boat was silent on the way out (apparently there was music playing but this couldn't be heard) & there was a form of commentary on the way back. The commentary was difficult to hear both due to volume & the accent of the commentator. He was also fond of swearing & making crude jokes throughout his commentary. We have been on several guided boat tours up the Thames, so have a reasonable knowledge of some of the more famous stories, thus we didn't believe what he was saying as it didn't match anything we'd heard before!