City Cruises (Bar, Restaurant)

Top 10 things you need to know about City Cruises’ Dinner Cruise:

1) As you step off the ever-so-slightly-swaying deck of Westminster Pier a different type of sway comes over you: the spontaneous kind that happens of its own accord when a glass of wine is placed into your hand and gentle jazz music wafts through you.

2) You’ll no doubt eat your salmon mousse, the starter of your four-course set menu, before you even set sail and so you’ll be free to enjoy the twinkling lights of the city as you pass underneath Tower Bridge and head towards Greenwich.

3) As you’re serenaded by Broadway hits and 70’s classics, you’ll sip glasses of wine - half a bottle included in your ticket - and excitedly point out landmarks to each other and other guests who you feel may benefit from your boundless knowledge of London’s architecture.

4) After warming yourself with a bowl of soup (and an endless supply of bread rolls), you’ll be ready to hit the top deck for a 360-view, or curl up on the indoor viewing platform where the floor-to-ceiling windows afford a warmer, brilliant vista.

5) En route you’ll see the Tate Modern, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and the London Eye. Cool, huh?

6) You’ll return downstairs to a main of chicken, vegetables and a “delicious creamy potato thing,” as the women next to you so eloquently puts it.

7) Expect there to come a point, somewhere between your main and your chocolate-y dessert, where you’ll be waving your hands back and forth to Abba as the Canary Wharf lights go by, and you wonder what it is you’re doing with your life. Don’t worry, this feeling passes fairly quickly as Blame It On The Boogie comes on and you lose that trail of thought.

8) At around 10pm, the dancefloor opens (you’ll know this because the flashing disco lights will be on, sending you right back to your first school disco) and you’ll dance the rest of the journey back to shore.

9) The dress code is smart-casual – some people interpreting this as cocktail attire (said people don’t last very long on the open top-deck).

10) All-in-all: an ideal evening for anyone who has always wanted to go on a cruise but doesn’t have the time, the money, or the commitment to do so....read more