I rented a boat from Captain Verde's Party Boats-Lake Travis and it was such a great, seamless experience. Our party decided to rent from 10:30am-2:30pm on a Saturday to celebrate my husband's birthday. Captain Jon was my main point of contact throughout the entire booking process and he was very joyful to speak with and really responsive to texts/calls. We had booked the pontoon before the devastating July 4th floods, and for a time-being, Lake Travis was actually closed to all recreational activities due to debris and bacteria that had manifested in the lakes after such a tremendous downpour. I called Captain Jon multiple times between booking and the day of our excursion to ask questions about the conditions of the lake, how safe it would be and if they tested the water daily or weekly lol. Yes, I was that person. Never once did he sound annoyed or irritated with my multiple phone calls and I'm pretty sure he could sense that all of us moms were really worried about having our kids in the lake after we had heard about the rise in bacteria levels + the boating ban. To our relief, we were told the boating ban was lifted on July 13th, and our reservation date was set for August 2nd, but we were still on the fence about committing to the date.
I must have called Captain Jon like 4-5x leading up to our trip to inquire about cancellation policies and refunds (which were also noted in our confirmation e-mail), and he was super up-front about all the conditions of the lake and assured us he wouldn't let us go out on the water if it was unsafe even after the ban had been lifted. He offered to let us switch days instead of cancelling and losing our money altogether even after the recreational boating ban was lifted. Additionally, he said if we couldn't book a new date right away (bc we all know how difficult it is to align young families' schedules these days for one free weekend), he could offer us the option of a credit for the same type of boat and we could just let him know which weekend we wanted to reschedule to whenever we found a weekend that worked for everyone. I really liked that he didn't just 'take our money,' but rather, offered options to still have us out on the water to have fun even if it meant rescheduling at a much later date. The reschedule would also be made without further charges or up-charges for holiday weekends (we were thinking of rescheduling to Labor Day wknd), so that was a plus too.
We decided to go for it, and kept our reservation date with the double decker pontoon with a single slide+Lily Pad (aka) "Goldmember," and it was the perfect size for our party of 3 families: (6 adults, 6 kids between the ages of 3-9 y.o.). The boat we rented was for a max capacity of 12-14 people so it seated everyone comfortably. Since we had so many kids, the shaded part of the boat is where they sat and some of us adults were able to sun-dry or bask in the sun towards the front of the pontoon. Our captain was Captain Hudson, and he held great communication with us upon arrival; told us where to walk down from the parking lot, and guided us to our boat. He was super chill, sociable, and made sure we were all safe throughout the entire experience. Parking at Paradise Cove Marina was $25 via credit card for our car, or $20 if paying with cash. It was a very brief walk from our car to the meeting spot and I was relieved to see that we didn't have to walk down a ton of rocky hillside with our coolers to get to the docks. Fyi: the pontoon also came with a large cooler (probably could fit about 4 bags of ice) but we ended up just bringing our own. I am definitely bookmarking CVPB for our next trip to Austin and we're already talking about making this a yearly thing with friends! 10/10 recommend! Thanks Jon and Captain Hudson! read more