Empress Events

We had originally booked the smaller yacht months in advanced and a few weeks before my wedding Deborah upgraded us to the larger yacht witch was a great plus, my wedding was a hit everyone absolutely loved it, my guest and myself are from Bakersfield a 5 hour drive from San Francisco and most of them have never been to a wedding like this. Deborah was great helping me from such a distance emailed me everything I needed we did have a bit of a problem with payment as we are so far away and paid a bit late but she was understanding. The day of my wedding she was unable to coordinate my wedding as she had a personal event but left Sophia in charge (amazing as well) bar was a hit as well as the food and set up. The only thing that did bother me was the DJ don’t get me wrong he was good and he was bilingual witch was awesome as my family only speaks Spanish but a few things I did not like is that he played happy birthday as soon as the ceremony was over it really bothered me but didn’t have time to point it out since i was busy the hole night also I asked if he could do a mix of 2 songs as my husband and I couldn’t decide what song to choose for the first dance instead of doing the mix he played both witch made it longer than I wanted. Over all my wedding was phenomenal empress events over exceed my expectations and my guest I’m so happy I had the opportunity to get married there. Thank you for everything!!!

I was here for a party and had a great experience.
The bartenders were not stingy with alcohol in the mixed drinks, the crew are like ninjas with the cleaning (I never saw them), and the captain was nice.
Not for people who gets sea sick easily, don’t blame the boat. Nobody can control the waters.
We boarded a bit late but all in all it was great

My review is for the customer service, so far it’s been very pleasant experience.
Gerry is an absolutely amazing captain and boy is he charming :), such a gentleman. He was kind enough to show us the boat himself.
We had already booked and had $ deposited in different place, BUT this boat took my breath away. It is just perfect for our special day.
Deborah was very attentive to the details and very understanding on what I needed. We booked June 2016! Can’t wait to have the best day of my life there! :)
Thank you Gerry, Deborah and Chris for all your help with scheduling! I’m looking forward to having THE TEAM for our wedding :)
Will be updating after June 2016!
Regarding the bad reviews from «the party of 100 people». I was surprised to see those, when I talked to Gerry regarding that, he explained everything. Apparently they came to the boat absolutely drunk and some of them were underage. For what it worth they should be happy they didn’t get arrested. Just my opinion.

YOUR ENTIRE TRIP CAN BE CANCELLED FOR NO APPARENT REASON.
Our party of 100+ people never even got on the boat. The captain called off the trip for some vague «safety concern» and wouldn’t even elaborate. Multiple paying passengers (including myself) tried to ask him and he simply would not tell us what happened. Through the grapevine, I personally heard several rumors ranging from issues with the cash-​only bars on the boat to people just being rude to the captain. When all was said and done, nobody got their money back, nobody got a real explanation, and nobody got on the boat.
A poor situation was made extremely worse by how terribly the captain and his crew handled it. I will never use this company/​captain again and would most definitely not recommend it to anyone.

I used Empress to host a large function with over 100 people. The trip was canceled arbitrarily while we literally stood on the dock. Huge waste of both time and money. Additionally the captain started a physical altercation with one of our party. Not professional in the slightest. Save yourself the ordeal and book elsewhere.

Be Aware When Signing the Contract: The company has a few clauses in their contract that give them unilateral control over cancelling a charter without providing any refund.
«We reserve the right to suspend the charter if any guest jeopardizes the safety of the other guests, staff members or operation of business.»
«If the charter is suspended due to any of the above reasons, the client will not be refunded any amount for suspension of the charter»
The first may seem reasonable but it gives the captain the sole right to claim violation of safety. When the captain has a vendetta against a passenger, claiming a passenger unsafe becomes arbitrary.

Empress Events was entirely unprofessional in their handling of our event. Their captain had a very bad temper and even used physical force on one of our guests. I would highly recommend other places if you’re looking to have a stress-​free good time. These guys are very rough and rude about everything which is ironic with how long it took to get it booked and figured out!
Would never use these guys again.

We recently had our vow renewal ceremony on Empress and it couldn’t have been more perfect. The Sausalito Empress was stunning, and the space was perfect for our ceremony, dinner, cake, and dancing — Deborah brought together all the details beautifully. Excellent food, excellent DJ (I was so nervous about ending up with one of those terrible wedding DJs — but DJ Rene Ortiz was *perfect*). Every little detail was exactly what I had hoped for. Thank you, Empress Events!

Thank you Empress Events! My husband said it was the best 40^th birthday party he could ask for! All of our guests said the food was amazing! Water was a little choppy (if you easily get motion sick I would recommend taking something). Views were breath taking. I will definitely book the Empress again,

Wow, where to begin? We are from the UK and held our wedding reception with Empress Events. Deborah was absolutely superb in her communication prior to the wedding, and without doubt the perfect host on the day. Her attention to detail is second to none and ensured every single guest was well looked after. The yacht was stunning and the crew were fantastic, so friendly, professional and fun. We cannot thank them enough for such a wonderful service that felt personal, reliable and would urge anyone to look no further and book with this company. We had the perfect wedding and empress events played a major part in making our day one we will never forget, thank you so much.

I used Empress for a sunset yacht cruise reception for my wedding. I wish I could say the process was seamless but we were constantly having to push Deborah to provide us with details we needed. It was unclear up to the last minute if everything was actually secured for our big day. I would have been happy to let this go because the event itself went well, but the three star review is for the treatment we received on the week of our wedding with aggressive emails from both Deborah and Gerry demanding we resign the contract, even though we had asked them for months to provide us with one once we understood the docking location needed to be moved (which was not our fault but per a mandate by the city of SF).
A snippet from one of the emails says it all:
«PLEASE … WE need our contract signed along with the credit card authorization form signed and filled out today please to keep this charter on the calendar. We are looking forward to your event but We Can Simply NOT proceed without the payment in full and our contract signed.»
Note that we had previously completed the credit card authorization, signed the original contract and had asked for an updated contract several times. This type of unprofessional (not to mention stressful) behavior would prevent me from recommending them to others. Sending this type of demanding email to a bride the week of the wedding is inexcusable.

Best specialty drinks! Ask him anything you like and he’ll make it on the spot! the bartenders are so nice and friendly, they will make you anything

We had a Memorial Service for our Father on Labor Day. Everything was perfect from start to finish. I was impressed with the staff and their attention to detail. We spread his ashes under the Golden Gate as request and it was a perfect day to be on the bay. We can’t say enough how enjoyable it was to work with these folks. We would used them again in a minute. Thanks again for the great service.

Empress events what can i say! They did a great job over the weekend for my brothers 21^st birthday party. To the food to the drinks everyone enjoyed every single bit. Deborah worked with us from last year til the very minute the party was over. I wish I can plan something else in the future with them! Totally great party enjoyed every minute!
Thanks Empress for having us!

Captain Gerry is so friendly and Andrew the bartender is wonderful. His dark and stormy and gin and tonics ate great

So I went on a event cruise with this company and it was totally awesome! The boat was very cute, clean and the staff was amazing. Andrew went above and beyond to make our parties experience great. I will totally recommend this business to my friends thank you

Andrew is literally the happiest bartender I’ve ever experienced. He is amazing to be around. And his gin tonic elderberry is delightful

Elle N and I had a perfect wedding reception aboard the Empress. Everyone commented on how they enjoyed the evening and what a wonderful idea it was to have the reception in the Bay and under the GG Bridge, especially our out-​of-​town guests.

We had our evening wedding reception on The Empress and we had a FABULOUS time! Deborah and Gerry (the event coordinator and the captain) were very welcoming and accommodating to all of our needs. We came to check out the boat several times, as a couple, and also with my parents. Deciding on the menu, the drinks deal, and the event details was an easy and smooth process, and Deborah was always available on the phone to double check details. The Chef (I forget his name now, so sorry Chef!) was *fantastic.* We were a little late in getting our guests dietary requests to him — but he was so adaptable and accommodating. The food was beautiful — many of our guests commented on the mouth watering tilapia in particular :)
We had a sit down meal for 74 people — and it was the perfect space for that. It was big enough to hold everybody together on the same level, and yet small enough to make it feel like a close, family occasion. To have a sit down meal with all your family and friends with you on a beautiful boat while going under the Golden Gate Bridge was… well, a dream come true.
We would *highly* recommend Empress Events — the boat is beautiful, the team is friendly, and the experience is one that will stay with us for a lifetime :) :)

It may seem like a great idea to have a wedding on a boat, but be warned, many people get seasick pretty easily. I attended a 3 – 4 hour event put together by Empress Events on one of their chartered boats, but many people got sick at the end of our short trip… and most of them were not even drinking! It was not a windy day. When the boat is in motion in the middle of the water, ill guests could not leave either, so that made things worse. I’m sure Empress Events are great from an administrative perspective, but I just did not have a great time on one of their boats.
1 star off: Waaaaaaaaayyyy
1 star off: toooooo…
1 star off: …whoa…
1 star off: …whoozy!