Seaport Elite Private Yachts

I chartered the Seaport Elite for my company Christmas party. I must say from start to finish I was completely impressed by the service of the staff. The ship was beautiful and food was fantastic. Everyone enjoyed it so much. They went above and beyond all expectations. .Thank you Seaport Elite
Amaral & Associates

My husband and I got married on the Seaport Elite this August. Everything was fabulous. Everyone is still talking about the wedding. Some said (not directly to us but we were told) it was the best wedding they had ever been to.
The wedding coordinator/​company was very thorough at making sure all the details were covered.
There is a bridal suite on board, the staff was very helpful, the food was delicious and they even provided a DJ for a few extra hundred dollars. We went with the portside lunch menu which included all the appetizers and a buffet dinner with carved beef, salad, two pasta dishes (one with ample shrimp and mussels) and the appetizers were plentiful and scrumptious. With the portside menu the food is continuously replenished until everyone is done eating (which is great). Also included were chocolate covered strawberries served with dessert. Our cake from Kondeiter Meisters was amazing.
We also chose to provide free beer and wine for our guests for the first hour and it was nice because the staff butlered beer and wine. Everyone was able to have a few in that first hour. After that the drinks were $ 6 to $ 8 each. The company offered us a $ 500 credit towards a drink package so it made the hour much more affordable.
We had our ceremony on the rooftop overlooking the Boston skyline, which limited our guests to 70 people. My only complaint of the ceremony was that a microphone was needed and the set up of the chairs made it impossible for me to walk down a full aisle with my father. If the staff had spent more time pondering the setup it would have been possible. That was my only real disappointment.
It was hard for the DJ to keep track of what was happening since the boat has 3 floors but everything went fine. The views were absolutely amazing. For a wedding I recommend 5 hours; we had 4 and it was too short. It is also not a handicap accesible boat, but the staff will help anyone who needs help walking or with stairs.
You also need to consider the conditions that will affect your wedding once leaving the dock: waves, wind, rain, other boats, etc. We happened to have a windy day with 2 minutes of rain right during the ceremony. There were sailboats everywhere.
We highly recommend a wedding on the Seaport Elite. The one downside is that the wedding coordinator who helps to plan your wedding may not be the one who is there on the day of and that can cause some small issues (ex. the chair and the aisle issue we had). You also are not expected to tip on top of the price for the wedding, although we did tip the food manager and the dj since everything was so great.

I chartered the Elite for an event for the Boston Irish Business Association back in June. Everyone and everything was perfect. The sales director MaryBeth was very accommodating, and helped guide me through the process of creating a great event for our organization. We coordinated with them and had live music, a cigar roller on deck, and we were able to pre-​pay for tickets for the bar for our members. Needless to say, we will make this an annual cruise for BIBA.

If you think of chartering a yacht as a luxury service this is not the company for you. This is a glorified booze cruise with an unorganized and unpleasant staff. I have worked in the service industry for over a decade and have seen it all and I was still taken aback by this company’s complete lack of care for it’s customer’s needs. They left a bride, a wedding party, and all their guests waiting on the dock for over half an hour with no contact as they were late. Once we finally boarded the ship’s crew were pleasant and professional but the service staff was abysmal. Don’t spend your hard earned money on this terrible service.

We booked an August wedding with 32 guests in 2010. The venue was great and the staff were very helpful! There is a 40 person minimum, so we did end up paying for more, but that was ok with us. The day was perfect (but there is plenty of indoor space if it is not) and the captain was accommodating with our request to have the Boston skyline as the backdrop for our ceremony.
My husband and I do not drink, so in addition to the traditional bar and beverages, they brought in diet Dr. Pepper and diet Mt. Dew, which made us very happy.
The boat is small, as others pointed out, but was great for our group. I cannot imagine over 100 people on board, but I guess it happens sometimes. The benefit to the small boat, especially for a ceremony, is that you have more control over the the course and, since it has GPS, and you are the only client, you can have your ceremony on-​board and end up with a GPS location as your wedding location. On the Spirit and Odyssey, you are sharing with others and cannot do this.
The bathrooms are small, so don’t expect to do anything more than relieving yourself there (no changing into a dress, really), but we did not have a problem with that.
Our DJ was not my favorite person, but it was just a personal preference. I wanted control of the music and he said that guests would expect certain songs to be played. Even though I assured him that my guests were not fans of dance music and preferred oldies and alternative, he mostly played what he liked. When these songs came on, everyone just looked at each other and laughed.
Also, since our ceremony was brief and small, we did not rent chairs. Instead, we turned some of the deck couches for those who needed to sit, and the remainder of our guests stood for the fifteen minutes or so. This save a lot of money.
The food was great! We had filet mignon, something chicken (I never pay attention to chicken when filet is around), and a vegetable lasagna. What was most impressive is that all the food came out hot, at the same time, and cooked properly. This can be difficult with filet, but as I said, we only had 32 people.

So I got married on the seaport elite and all in all it was a great service. There are a couple of things to consider though when doing this.
1) If you end up not liking what comes with the package it is going to increase your costs immensely to get what you want. I found that the people that were coordinating with the elite seemed to try and talk us out of the customization that we did. (To be fair we were looking for a pretty fancy look).
2) The yacht is not HUGE like the Spirit of Boston so you are very quickly going to run out of spots for guests.
3) The DJ they arranged for us was pretty awesome and really helped keep us on schedule for the night.
4) The food is pretty plain, meaning that its not spectacular but its not bad. The hors d’eouvre options they give you are pretty sweet. I would definitely suggests purchasing individual platter as opposed to going with the packages because the options are better. (Note they change the offerings from time to time so that might not be the true anymore)
5) The Ceremony spot on the boat is just the upper deck so you may need to do some things to spruce it up. We actually added our own chairs to the mix.
6) Look at the chairs in the pictures they have. Not very wedding-​y in my opinion. We also rented chairs from a separate vendor which added to the amount we paid.
We loved the venue but we gave it three stars specifically for people considering using this place for a wedding because I have a feeling it won’t be for everybody

Friend: So my company is having our office party on a yacht this summer.
Me: That’s soooo cool.
Friend: Yah I know. And I’m allowed to bring a guest and since I’m single I figured yo–
Me: YES!
The Seaport Elite Yacht is charted by the same company as The Spirit of Boston — but this yacht is smaller so it works well for more intimate parties.
So what goes on here? Let me tell you.
*A young DJ plays some of the WORST music you could ever imagine-​so bad you HAVE to love it. Thankfully he takes requests like Britney Spears’ «Piece Of Me» to which my friend and I ended up horrifying a bunch of 40-​somethings who work with her. But don’t worry, they eventually got drunkies and embarrassed themselves to Earth, Wind, and Fire.
*Unlimited appetizers followed by a lovely dinner below deck in their dining room (the food was better than average, I’d say 3 or 4 star worthy).
*Gorgeous views of Boston Harbor and its surroundings – from skyscrapers to bridges, ships to islands. Check the attached photos.
*Oh, and there was something else… oh yeah… FREE BOOZE!
The staff on board was fantastic — polite, attentive, and quick to serve. Be sure to bring cash because although you’re not buying anything on board, these people definitely deserve tips for their hard work.
All in all, there’s nothing quite like sipping a Corona with lime on the deck of a yacht on a gorgeous day in late May – probably one of my most memorable experiences as a Bostonian. If you ever have the opportunity to plan an event, I strongly recommend checking out this charter yacht. And if you’re ever invited to an event and need a buddy, well, I’d be glad to be your boyfriend for the evening. Kissies on the poop deck, natch!