Fine for a day cruise - but awful for group sales
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 09/12/07
I have enjoyed many day cruises aboard the MinnieHaHa, Lake George is a beautiful area and the steamboat rides take you along a pleasant trip around the lake. My fiancé and I planned to be married in the fall, we love the mountains and I have always wanted to be married on a lake so we decided to how our wedding aboard the Lac du Saint Sacrament. Things started out OK, the price seemed great and the woman we spoke with was personable, until we got into planning.
The woman who handles weddings and group sales is very unreliable, it often took 3 or 4 emails, phone calls etc. before I got a response. If she said she would send me some information, it usually took several reminder calls/emails before I got it. The bar fees were exorbitant, they were 30%-50% higher than other venues in the area. To have a semi-private, shared buffet wedding with open bar would have cost more than my sister spent on a 5 course, sit-down, private wedding with open bar at Glen Sanders Mansion.
For that kind of cost I would expect impeccable service, attention to detail and at the very least a response to emails or calls. When we were at 3 months left until the wedding I asked the coordinator for timeline of events, I needed this information for invitations and programs - she told me "your wedding is so far away you really don't need this yet, but I will send it to you anyway" 3 months is too far away???? Invites go out 2 months before the wedding and time is needed for printing. After 3 weeks I had still not received the information she promised. Between the excessive cost for a semi-private wedding and the actions of the "wedding coordinator" I had had enough and we changed our wedding location to Beardslee Castle (who have been incredible!)
I called the steamboat company to tell them we had decided to have the wedding elsewhere and all the coordinator said was "OK" she didn't ask why, or seem to even care in the least. I am very happy to be done with those people and doubt I will ever board one of their boats again.