Amazing! I was…read moredesperate to find an experience gift for my mother in law's 60th birthday. She flew us over on frequent flyers and put us up in an Airbnb, so it had to be something extra special for this milestone birthday. We also had the challenge of trying to do something that involved our 1 year old niece. Luckily I discovered Melbourne Boat Hire. They seemed to be the most affordable at $299 for 2 hours boat hire along the river. We had to change the date and time a couple of times and the owners were extremely patient with us. On the day we arrived at the boat I was blown away by how luxurious it was. In their professional photos it didn't look very flash at all. The boat seemed brand new and the interior was all fitted out in cream leather and the table had a fresh white tablecloth and champagne glasses ready to go. It's a self-drive boat and you don't need a skippers ticket. It was fantastic to see the city from the water and the boat is enclosed, or can be open-air if you like. This really was such a fabulous experience and I highly recommend to it to anyone looking to do something different for a special occasion or even a high-end date.

From the owner: Get ON A BOAT and experience Melbourne's spectacular Yarra River. Choose to Skipper Yourself or a…read moreSkippered Cruise, and you'll have a blast while seeing the city from new perspective!

I feel like the company has done a lot of changes, we had a great time, the crew were polite and…read moreporessional, the boat was clean ad we got. smiling welcome. The commentary was good nothing too out of the ordinary. The bar hada good selection of drinks and snacks. Also it was very busy so people do love a river cruise here. We would definitely recommend this as a must do in Melbourne.

great cruise spirit of Melbourne lovely staff and tasty…read moredinner.

Joined the club for both business and personal leisure. Great bonding time with family and the…read morekids. We sometimes take the boat to Wyndham Harbour and spend a night there. I also use my membership to reward some of my best employees. I don't have to worry about it. I'll just send them to the boat and the guys there at Pleasure cruising do all the work. I really appreciate it.

Scandulous, total rip off - AVOID Boat4Hire/The Pleasure Cruising Club at all costs…read more I regret not reading many of the negative reviews of this company on various websites (Yelp, Productreview, Truelocal etc.) prior to hiring a boat with them otherwise I would DEFINITELY NOT have done so. Bought a groupon voucher to hire a self-drive boat for half a day to go fishing with two friends from overseas and we had the worse experience ever. Poor customer service to start with and phone call just keeps getting re-directed and they never answered their phones anyway. We eventually managed to hired a polycraft from 2-5 pm and drove the boat just outside Docklands near the Bolte Bridge and drifted to fish in the middle of the channel (as suggested by 'Daniel' a guy who worked for them). We wanted to get moving again but then realised the propeller had fallen off... Yes, it was missing!! We were then stranded in the middle of the channel and a massive cargo ship was about to take off but luckily a nice Samaritan (looked like a tradie working at the docks) came with a little tinny to rescue us and towed us to safety anchoring us to a ladder at the shore. I then called the company to explain what had happened and to their credit they were quick to come out and tow us back to the Docklands marina, this was at 4 pm, one hour prior to the end of initially scheduled hiring session. By the time we got back to the office, Daniel and Sonya (who worked at the office) had already changed their tones and were saying things like "did you hit something", "this has never happened before", "the boat was fine when you left" etc. and said they will talk to the manager and call me the next day. We were not even CLOSE to hitting anything at any time as we were drifting in the middle of the channel and I told them my two visitor friends can also confirm this. The next day I got a call from Sonya who had called to "inform" me that they have replaced a new propeller and together with the towing cost they were going to take all of my $250 deposit. Apparently I did not have a case to argue because I've 'signed all the forms' and the boat was fine before we went out. She said they understood I may not have hit anything but this has 'never happened before' so the propeller could not have just fallen off. So, we lost 1 hour of fishing time, had a terribly stressful experience, was charged a further $250 instead for not having done anything wrong and the company was NOT sympathetic or apologetic at all. Being a professional who is also a fishing enthusiast, I just wanted to enjoy a hard earned day out fishing in the river with visitors from overseas, but it ended up being a horrible experience for us. I have hired boats for fishing on many occasions with both Mornington Boathire and Mordialloc Blueys Boathire and have never had any issues with them. I would NOT recommend Boat4hire or The Pleasure Cruising Club to anyone looking to hire a boat out.

Our group had the terrible misfortune of booking for a NEW YEAR'S EVE cruise aboard the MV John…read moreBatman departing from Williamstown on Dec 31, 2015. What a mistake to make!! We were crammed onto this dilapidated ferry, cheek to gowl, we couldn't work out whether we look more like a refugee boat or a live stock shipment. There was not enough seating room, there was supposed to be drinks available on board, but all there was available was hot beer, or half a plastic cup of Coke....not a can or a bottle but a half a cup of warm Coke. The 'Sparkling Wine' was vile and warm as well. For a tiny glass of 'rot gut Sparkling Wine' and a half a cup of warm Coke it cost us $13.00, on top of our already paid fare of $68.00p.p. There was also meant to be 'snacks' on board.....this turned out to be 3 bowls of dried up cheese and some corn chips.....that's it....nothing else!! We spent 3 hours chugging through the waters holding handkerchieves to faces because the diesel fumes where horrendous. When we finally arrived at the point where we would watch the fireworks from, 100's of other smaller boats were already anchored there, so instead of the ferry driver weighing anchor to stop us from drifting and to give us some relief from the fumes and the noise of the diesel engines, he decided to just drift around and around in circles....CRASHING INTO OTHER BOATS THAT SURROUNDED US!! The people on these surrounding boats were furious that their boats and their New Years Eve was being destroyed by these morons running the MV John Batman. Never in our lives have we had such a disgusting experience. Do yourself a favour, stay well clear of this company!! Their website is a crock of lies and rubbish. Very Very Angry!!

From the owner: Our Business is about Entertainment and Fun. The best way to see Melbourne is by water.read more