Tiki Boats
 

For a few years now, my kids and their cousins have made it an annual ritual to go out on the Tiki Boat. This year, they convinced Ma and Dad to go along. I have to say that it was actually more fun than I expected. 90 minute ride. You bring your own drinks/snacks/food. They have a bluetooth speaker that you can connect to for tunes. Highly recommend wearing water shoes. I made the mistake of wearing socks & sneakers and my feet got soaked and of course I got the "we told you so..." from the fam.

Not something I would do every year, but definitely a fun adventure, especially if you have out-of-towners in your group

Thanks for the report back, I LOVE seeing them on the lake, they make me smile every time. Any time we have guests on our boat I go out of the way to find and point out the Tiki boats.

That said I'm surprised to find you bring your own food and snakes and drinks, I thought they would be selling your these items??? Very unexpected, and maybe a little disappointing. If its an escape/recreation activity I would be happy to pay for them to serve adult beverages, snakes and lite food offerings.

Oh Well, I still enjoy seeing them, always brightens my day.

Now if I can only find a Wonkatania boat to cruise the lake in, I could really be a happy man.

I like them, too, and I've gotta think that the BYOB thing greatly simplifies their business—no coolers, ice, machines, extra expertise, etc. required and there's no (easy) way of pleasing everyone.

I'm glad they're doing well!

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No snakes; just snacks...
 

Some folks might bring snakes; we brought snacks...:laugh:

I'm guessing the "bring your own" keeps their business model very simple and they also avoid the liability of people being "over-served". I did ask our Captain if he had ever had anyone get out of control, and he told a story of one young couple who were doing shots and the girl said she was gonna flash everyone on the boat. The boyfriend told her not to, as did The Captain, but she did anyway. The boyfriend then smacked her, and she punched him back. That was it...ride over.

The Captain was in interesting guy. He drives the Tikis here in the summer and then when they shut down in the fall, he goes to FL and is the first mate on a large sightseeing sailboat for the winter, then back to the Tikis in May.

And me someone who really dislikes snakes! Stupid auto correct,,,

As for the drunk couple, I love it, best story here in a while.

And thats ok, I still LOVE the Tiki boats!

Thanks for sharing, made me laugh, even the "snakes" part ;-)

More than a Tiki Hut, its almost a Tiki building or maybe a Tiki Ship.

Looks like a lot of fun. Are children allowed or just adults?

I’m also surprised by the BYOB. I could have sworn I’ve seen bottles of booze inside the bar area but I suppose it has been somewhat from afar. So there’s nothing back there except some type of steering mechanism?


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There is a big difference in liability and licensing, and liability insurance cost, if you provide alcohol to your passengers.

When the worst happens it is way easier to say "I had no idea they had that much to drink" than "Yes Your honor, I did serve them 9 drinks"

The women on my boat haven't flashed since 1982, so I could be a customer. But transferring food, drinks and snakes (sic) from one boat to another seems like too much work. Maybe they'll just drive my boat and bring their own flashers?
What's the allure? For those of us who own boats, it doesn't seem like they offer much except decor. Lotta fun for vacationers who don't own a boat.

All allowed...
 

Kids can go on it too, although it is mostly adults drinking and singing along to their music. There are 10 seats per Tiki, and they are sold separately, so you could end up with mixed groups. This could get awkward if there were a group of say 6 20-somethings drinking and singing, and then a mom and dad or grandma and grandpa with a 10 year old. When we went a couple weeks ago there were 9 of us, so we had the whole boat to ourselves, which was fun.

Storage shelves...
 

The backside of the bar is all storage shelves, so customers can put their belongings back there. If someone were to bring bottles of liquor on board, it would make sense to put them back there on the shelves so they don't go flying off the bar when the Tiki gets jostled in the boat churn. The helm of the boat is also back there as well, (throttle, steering wheel, etc)

As a boat owner myself, I thought, "this is gonna be boring as can be", but the fun was just being with the family on the water singing and drinking, (soft drinks for me...the days of day drinking are looonnnggg gone). Could we just do that on our own boat? Of course, but there was something fun about having a lei around my neck in a kick-line with my son and daughter, belting out "New York, New York", along with Frank Sinatra, on a Tiki bar boat!