If you have the time, this is a good and honest review about STARVED ROCK ADVENTURES @ Starved Rock Marina.
Fathers Day weekend my brother had pre-booked 1 pontoon rental thinking most of our group would not want to go boating. WRONG. Everyone wanted to go. We ended up renting 3 pontoons. Great for the business right? I guess not but we will get back to that later...
I rented my own + tube with my kids and their friends so in total it was myself, a 2o yr old + 5 kds from 6-15 yrs old. Tony quickly rushes through all the instructions... I mention the gas gauge is not working and he said "I assure you it's full even if you cant tell" so I head out with all kids in tow.
We realized 15 min. in this was a bad idea bc here I am trying to drive + manage the kids on the tube. Here comes Tony (owner) rolling up in his boat cursing up a storm telling me to quit watching my phone (what? didnt even have my phone out), he's glad he came out to check on us and how he "knew it was a f*cking bad idea let you (me) take a tube out alone with all these kids". In hindsight, he was right but the presentation was all wrong. I'm not a child and I def wont be chatised by someone who is clearly miserable with their job. He took the tube and said he would refund it. Okay fine. 1+ hr later the motor is sputtering and at this time Im starting to think it's something I did, or gas ran out and def did not want to call Tony back to help given our earlier interaction and then the boat "dies". Our 2 other family boats swing by and I had 2 very handy and capable men look at the boat and we realize the battery is dead. We load the kids on to the other boats, call the emergency # and me & my oldest wait for Tony to come check out the situation. 45 min sidelined about 20-25 min from the marina and after he switches the battery we head back. Nobody was happy in the end. We weren't happy with their demeanor or service and they def did not seem thrilled with us.
1) I realized they charged me for 3 hr rental but I def did not get that. I rented at 230pm, had to be back by 5pm and had been sidelined 45 min with a dead battery 2) They refunded the tube fee of $55 but charged me for the tow rope they claimed was damaged. 3) My brother was chastised by Tony when he docked saying we put him in a predicament bc my brother rented 1 boat for 10 and showed up with 20 more people and rented 2 additional boats. SIR, is that not a good thing you got your boats were all rented for the day??? I would think you would be elated bc the people hanging out at the Cove above werent clamering to rent boats.... so give me a break. That comment was unneccesary and out of line. Tony was also upset the other 2 boats were over capacity and he/ we could've been fined by harbor patrol, completely understandable however we made judgement call bc we couldnt leave small children stranded on my boat not knowing how long/ when and if my boat would get fixed
4) When I relayed to my fam how unstisfied I was with our boating day, my sister-in-law mentioned at the very beginning when they loaded on to the first boat she asked Tony about the speed boat rentals and his exact words were, "Honey, you dont have deep enough pockets.". What the actual F*CK?! You've got to be kidding me. Our entire family is full of successful business men & woman so he shot himself in the foot with that (again, unneccessary) comment bc we will never comeback and rent from them. EVER. Just the overall expereience was not great. Everyone there seems miserable except Erin (cashier and Tony's daughter) and the kid helping Tony at the dock. We are spending the remainder of our summer weekends on the fox river in Utica but going forward we will be giving all of our business and "deep pocket $$$" to Heritage Harbor rentals. read more
