FAQs

All cruises are by advance reservation based on availability, so please book through our website or call us to make your reservation. All available times are currently open for online booking under the Cruises tab.

Absolutely – gondola cruises make wonderful gifts!

Gift cards are available in any amount and can be redeemed for all cruise types! Certificates can be purchased over the phone by calling 949-646-2067.

In order to make sure your gift covers the cost of a complete cruise (including tax), or if you wish to include custom items with your gift, such as a bottle of champagne, additional guests, or a pre-included gratuity, please give our office a call at 855-GONDOLA or 949-646-2067.

If you would like us to email you a customized certificate you can print and gift to your recipient, please reach out to us via phone or email.

**Please note that at this time due to high amounts of fraud, we are only accepting gift card payments in the form of Zelle or Venmo transfers, or a direct in-person bank deposit. Please call us for more information. We can provide you with a custom estimate as well as direct instructions on how to pay through any of the three available methods.**

All of our upgraded cruises come with a complimentary bottle of sparkling cider, sparkling water, or plain bottled water. We do offer the purchase of a bottle of wine (merlot, chardonnay, moscato, pinot noir pinot grigio, or cabernet) or champagne as an upgrade to the beverage provided. Guests must be over 21 to purchase alcohol. Because we offer wine and champagne as an amenity on the gondola, you will find our prices to be pleasantly competitive. Click here for current brands and prices. If you would like to bring your own bottled beverage, we provide you with a silver bucket, ice, and real glassware. There is a small corkage fee.

Although the most popular time to cruise is during sunset, the best time to cruise can really only be determined by you. Consider a romantic picnic lunch cruise on the water. A late afternoon cruise is a great way to start off your evening before a dinner reservation, or you may want to take dessert to go with you after the sun has already set for a moonlight ride. You can find Newport sunset times here.

On the contrary, we frequently host family cruises (for birthdays, holidays, or Mother’s Day).  We’ve hosted business lunches on board the gondolas. Our lunch cruises are a delightful way to break the ice or conduct business informally during a pleasant midday cruise. We can accommodate two to six people on one boat or larger groups in several boats cruising in close proximity.

All of our cruises are non-refundable, but they are transferrable. Once you make a reservation, that date and time are held specifically for you. If you are unable to make a scheduled cruise, we suggest having a friend or family member cruise in your place instead of letting the gondola sit empty for your reservation time.

Cancellations or changes of date and/or time will incur a $35 fee but must be made at least 48-hours before the cruise and are based on availability. Reschedules requested the day of the cruise will incur a minimum $75 reschedule fee, which will increase if food and/or other consumables have been ordered. Reschedules within an hour of the cruise, after the scheduled cruise time has passed, or on days when cruises are sold out, will be significantly higher and may be forfeited entirely.

We do recommend arriving 10-15 minutes prior to your cruise time in order to check in with our office, find a parking spot, use the restroom, etc. While we do suggest giving yourself a safety cushion of time so as not to be hurried, early arrival doesn’t necessarily mean you depart early. The gondolier may be preparing the boat, especially if he has had a cruise prior to yours. Your cruise departs at the appointed time.

We row by reservation, so your gondola and gondolier’s time are blocked specifically for your cruise. If you are running late, your gondolier will be waiting for you by the gondola (for at least 45 minutes into an hour cruise and 90 minutes into a two-hour cruise). Depending on the gondolier’s schedule, your cruise may need to pull in at the scheduled end time. Because all of our cruises are non-refundable, please still plan to arrive if you are running late so at least you can enjoy a portion of your cruise.

At this time, we do not allow any outside food aboard the gondolas. This is for a variety of reasons, but is mainly due to the additional clean-up time that is typically needed when clients bring food that we aren’t prepared to handle. It is often messy and our gondoliers don’t have extra time in between cruises to plan for cleaning additional crumbs, frosting, etc, in addition to the regular cleaning and turnaround time of the boats.  Additionally, we are unable to provide dishes, napkins, or cutlery for you, as these are not something we keep stocked in our office.

We offer a variety of food cruise options (Lunch, Dinner, Dessert, etc) and small bite add-ons that will be sure to satisfy your snacking needs!

Please note that while we do offer individual cake slices and dessert options on our Dessert Cruise, we do not allow any birthday candles or open flame aboard the gondolas due to fire safety regulations. Your gondolier will be glad to sing “Happy Birthday” for the birthday guest if we are notified in advance!

We strongly advise against attempting to have friends or family present to witness surprise proposals.

Providing information for a group of guests to surreptitiously follow a moving boat through a complicated, specific area (that is on the water and therefore doesn’t have map addresses) is difficult. Pairing the difficulty navigating the area with the parking issues of Newport Beach and with the possibility of large groups being seen and spoiling the surprise, is the reason we don’t encourage spectators.

When it is requested, we strive to do our very best to communicate where exactly your proposal might take place, but it is not always possible due to various reasons. Sometimes due to wind or weather conditions the gondolier isn’t able to get into the canals at all, and therefore the previous planned location for the proposal must be moved. Sometimes there are even several proposals happening at once so the gondoliers have to select alternate areas to drop a bottle message. Usually at the point when a proposal location must be changed, the gondolier is unable to notify any friends/family members as their focus is on safe operation of the moving boat, and providing the best experience for the guests aboard. The high probability of changes to the route can lead to friends or family getting lost, missing the proposal, or spoiling the surprise by ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Please be aware that due to all the above reasons, we are unable to guarantee a specific proposal location for family spectatorship. We always welcome friends/family coming to our home dock location to be present at the cruise’s end time as a good alternative to trying to witness the proposal itself. If you would like to discuss the options available for friends or family to be present during your proposal, please give us a call.

Please send bottle messages to bottle.CA@gondola.com and put your event number, last name, and date of your cruise in the subject line. Please consult your receipt for your event number. You also have the option of submitting your message text through your Cruise Customization Form, which is automatically sent to you in your booking confirmation email.

If you don’t have the event number handy, please at least include your last name and the date of your cruise so we can be sure to get the right message to you on your cruise.

Please note that after your bottle message has been formatted, any changes to the initial message text will result in a small fee.

Absolutely not! Our bottle messages are presented on beautiful parchment paper, rolled tightly and tied with a ribbon, placed all the way into a brand new clear glass wine bottle, and sealed tightly with a cork. The cork keeps the message 100% dry until the guest of honor retrieves it from the water, and removal from the bottle is accomplished by simply popping the cork and tugging on the ribbon.

Our policy for inclement weather is that we issue a rain check/gift certificate to the guest, who can redeem it at a time of their convenience.

All of our cruises are non-refundable. In case of inclement weather – if it is raining or too windy to cruise – we will contact you and either reschedule as soon as possible to a date of your choosing, or issue you a gift certificate redeemable at any point in the future. Your credit does not expire and will always be on file in our system. Please contact us for additional information regarding rain check redemption.

Our cruises are private charters. That means that the boat is yours for the time you reserve it. Only if you bring other friends along will you be sharing the boat. In fact, the boats are a unique way to relax with friends over a glass of wine before dinner or just to catch up. It’s a great way to impress out of town friends or guests.

You can bring your children aboard our gondolas. Children under 5 are free, except on the Gondola Experience and Dolce Experience cruises.  The maximum guest count on any gondola is 6 passengers (regardless of age), due to Coast Guard regulations. Please be advised that under California law, every child under 13 years of age on a moving recreational vessel must wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket. We have a large variety of child-sized life jackets and our staff members are trained to fit each child with the appropriate sized life jacket. Upon arrival, please check in at the office and one of our staff will outfit your child with a comfortable life jacket for them to wear during the cruise.

Yes, you may ask for a specific gondola. We do our best to accommodate you, but we cannot guarantee that all requests will be met (guests who do not receive their specified gondola will not receive a full or partial refund).

While some guests prefer to dress up for the occasion, especially if they are going to dinner or a show after their cruise, we always recommend that you dress comfortably and seasonally appropriate (for example, dress warmly in winter, although we do carry blankets on board). We find our guests generally dress in a nice but casual fashion, as they would to go to a restaurant.  Ladies with heels: remember you will be walking on a dock to board the gondola, so we advise against stilettos. Adults will not be required to wear life jackets while aboard.

Gondola Adventures is one of the only companies in the country fully licensed to sing and play recorded music on the gondolas. All of our gondoliers play romantic music (jazz, Sinatra, classical, opera, etc.) on the cruises – each gondolier has a different selection. Some of our gondoliers sing, again all with different selections (opera, Italian, French, Spanish, original compositions – we have crooners, opera singers, and singers of soft melodies).

If you would like a singing gondolier, please note it in your comments or ask your reservations specialist (please be advised requests cannot be guaranteed).

We have specialty glass flutes, which have a wide base for stability, and we also offer plasticware for beverage service. With our casual cruises, cruises with children, and with larger groups, we can provide plasticware instead of glass, but if you prefer glass, just ask your gondolier!

All of our gondolas have life jackets under the deck. That being said, please know that the gondolas are very safe and we’ve never had occasion to use any life jackets. If you or any of your guests would like to wear one, please advise us in advance so we can have them ready for you.

Please be advised that under California law, every child under 13 years of age on a moving recreational vessel must wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket. We have a large variety of child-sized life jackets and our staff members are trained to fit each child with the appropriate sized life jacket. Upon arrival and check in at the office, one of our staff will outfit your child with a comfortable life jacket for them to wear during the cruise.

No. Some of our gondolas are made completely out of wood, and some have many wood and flammable elements.

We don’t allow any outside food on the gondola, but we do have a variety of different food cruises — lunch cruise, appetizer cruise, dessert cruise, and dinner cruises — as well as specialty enhancements, adding lighter snacks (ex: charcuterie board, cheese board, cheesecake-in-a-jar) on our non-meal cruises.