Betty Lou Cruises

In a word: Like a floating wedding buffet (or Buffet, you choose).

The specs: #0032
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; Betty Lou Cruises web site;

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We took the Sunday dinner cruise. JM ate the prime rib and Nichole ate the roasted chicken.
JM gave Betty Lou Cruises a B-; Nichole gave Betty Lou Cruises a C+ (see our grading rubric).

Ways in which we were reminded of a wedding reception:

• The food is spot on for wedding fare - choice of beef, chicken, or veggie lasagna, and the best course was dessert.


• It's a party, but you don't really know anyone and there's not much point to making new friends.


• You have to eat at the same table as people you don't know.


• People claim they come for the show.


• People actually come for the booze.


• There's no polite way to say that you want to leave.


• It's not a good place to take a date.


• There's an undercurrent of forced "romance" that some guests try to foist on others.

JM lamented the lack of steak sauce, and couldn't finish the ultra-generous slab of beef. He observed that the clam chowder tasted a lot like sausage gravy with clam bits.

Nichole wants to point out that the C+ she gave Betty Lou was due more to her own temperament than to the cruise itself. The crew were nice, the scenery was lovely - but an inner tube for two and a floating cooler is more Nichole's speed.

We even saw a couple having just such an outing behind the Langdon frat houses, and it looked like fun until the guy pushed his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend into the lake.

One highlight of the evening was when Od Tapo Imi's steel drum version of "I wanna be sedated" came on the sound system - but the steward quickly skipped that track. We were "treated" to three repeats of the Happy Feat album by the end of the night.

Thanks are due to Kayla, who found us a snazzy new notebook.

Comments

[John Sams]

Was it expensive?

Or can you just and dive off the side without being noticed?

[John Sams]

I meant "just eat and dive"...

[nichole]

Naw, you book your trip ahead of time and they take your credit card number when you call.

Our dinner cruise was $35 each. They list all the prices on their web site. Cheaper than keeping your own boat, I guess...

[Bethany]

My experience on the Betty Lou was similar, but worse: it combined a severe thunderstorm with massive lightning and driving rain, a tornado watch, similarly non-descript wedding food, a repeating CD (probably the same one?), a slight case of claustrophobia, and a business outing made up of people I didn't know trying overly hard to enjoy the experience. The idea sounded good on paper, but reality disappointed.