Winnipesaukee Belle

dmjr · 07-12-2007, 12:03 PM

Does the Winnipesaukee Belle still do a Thursday night cruise?

Thank you

Bubba · 07-12-2007, 12:41 PM

Yes, it does. Check for info at the Wolfeboro Inn.

mcdude · 07-12-2007, 05:14 PM

dmjr:
No info on the WINNIPESAUKEE BELLE website....but there is a phone number. Maybe you could give them a call? The scroller states that the time is 6:30 to 9:30 but doesn't say what day?

nj2nh · 07-13-2007, 07:49 AM

We live in Alton Bay and have a view of the mouth of the Bay and a good chunk of the bay itself. One night last summer, it was pouring. Very windy. A bit of lightening and thunder, too.

And, there, chugging down the bay was the Winnipesaukee Belle. She looked none too sturdy out there.

I presume, the company does not take weather into account? I could see the Mount out in that mess, but the Belle? I wouldn't trust and won't go out on her because of that night. It was nuts.

Jersey Girl

MaidenCove07 · 11-15-2008, 10:43 PM

This is a long story.....get comfortable.

Whatever you do, DO NOT RENT THE BELLE for a special occasion.

I decided to rent the Belle for my wedding. We love the lake, could think of no better place to host our special day, but didn't know enough people to rent the Mount and didn't want to share our day with anyone else....the Winnipesaukee Belle is the perfect fit for such a thing, right? We certainly thought so....

Our disaster started right off in September 2007 when I couldn't get anyone from the Wolfeboro Inn to return my calls (a year in advance) looking to reserve our date, so I wrote then am e-mail AND sent them a letter asking for details about renting the Belle. NO response.

We should have taken that as a sign, but still had no other optimal options for a wedding with 50 guests ON the water. We kept trying. Finally in February, I called and actually got a person on the phone who put me in touch with the person who was supposed to have been in charge of functions on the Belle, a sweet girl named Hillary. She claimed that she never got my messages, e-mails of letter stating there had been an ownership change. OK....understandable I guess.

We reserved the boat over the phone an signed the contract by fax. We made arrangements to have a sunset cruise, get picked up at the Weirs, have their BBQ dinner buffet, special beverage selections because of ours and our guests preferences and a mixed toast of beer, wine or champagne based on the guests preference at our expense. All seemed well.

Come Spring, we made an appointment with Hillary specifically to get onto the boat to view the layout and make detailed arrangements. We showed up and she took us to the boat which was under re-construction. Hillary didn't mention this to us in advance, nor did she have the keys to the boat so we could accomplish ANY of our objectives. We chalked it up as bad timing and had a few beers in the Wolfeboro Inn Tavern.

We tried again 2 more times, once by appointment and once on the spur of the moment. Neither time was Hillary able to find anyone with the keys to the vessel to let us inside to determine what kind of power sources we would have, what sound system they had, as they claimed to have a sound system for music, or what the set up could look like. I expressed my frustration with this, but my concerns had no effect. I requested Hillary determine all of these specifications for me and call me with the details, the calls never came. I called and Hillary told me that"the captain" hadn't gotten back to her so I asked to speak with him myself. Still no good.

Less that 4 weeks from the date of our ceremony, I received a call from a guy named Chris, the REAL manager of the Belle (first time I'd heard of this despite asking for a manger in previous conversations), stating that the city of Laconia refused to let them pick us up at the Weirs. WHAT? I'd already made transportation arrangements for my guests, some of whom weren't arriving with cars of their own. How in hell was I supposed to get them 2 hours across the lake with less than a month's notice?

Long story short here, apparently, the City of Laconia protects the Mount Washington by not allowing any competition at the Weirs docks BUT the Wolfeboro Inn never requested permission to pick up and drop off there in the first place. He did say that they could pick us up in Meredith, but all of our guests would have to get from Weirs to Meredith of a summer Saturday, some with no wheels. Strike 6 by now.....but I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

I called the City of Laconia myself. As a non voting tax payer, I thought I deserved an explanation. Ms. Cabanel, the City manager was very helpful to me, but very resentful of the owner and staff of the Wolfeboro Inn. Can't say as I blame her. She suggested I contact the Akwa Marina and request that they allow the Belle to pick us up there. So I continued all of the leg work on my on behalf, and surprisingly, got them to agree as long as I put the Belle in touch with them directly. I did that AND had to do additional legwork to request that the City give the Belle formal written permission to enter Meredith harbor and park at Akwa...(Shout out to Mr. Mailloux of Akwa Marina for being so generous)

So it seems now that everything is in order, right? When we boarded the Belle on the day of the event, because we NEVER got on board in advance to determine what specific sound elements were on board, my DJ had a hard time connecting and had to send one of my guests off to radio shack for additional connections and wires.

Hillary and her manager, despite specific arrangements and several discussions, did not have a video screen on board as we contracted and they didn't get ANY of the beverages we had contracted to have.

The crew didn't bring out the additional trays of food in a timely manner so some items ran out, and when the reserve food was brought out, we'd already moved to cake, so much was paid for and then wasted. All of our guests were charged for their own toast beverages despite our specific instructions NOT to do so, and the crew accepted sizable and individual tips from both families who thought the other side had forgotten to tip them.

We were never credited for the extra food their crew failed to provide to the guests in a timely manner, nor compensation for the hours and hours of wasted time and effort to make sure our own arrangements were carried out.

I will strongly recommend against renting the Winnepesaukee Belle. While she's unique and interesting to look at, the Wolfeboro Inn doesn't deserve the business seeing as it's staff is completely incapable of servicing the public appropriately. Too bad the old owner gave up on the place, the new ownership and lackadaisical staff will drive it into the ground in the end.

On a good note, the ceremony we prepared went very well, the flowers we ordered from Linda's Flowers in Wolfeboro were beautiful, the cake we got from Jacques in Suncook, NH looked EXACTLY like Spindle point and was VERY GOOD and the little bit of food that did get served was very good.

ApS · 11-16-2008, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nj2nh

"...She looked none too sturdy out there...the company does not take weather into account...?"

The Belle has trouble maintaining a straight course regardless of the weather.

I'd be very concerned.

tis · 11-16-2008, 08:13 AM

MC. I have had several functions at the Inn and share your frustration with Hillary. It is very difficult to get her to call you back. I had to hound them to get responses. That is so common today, I just don't know what is wrong with people. When you see how they do business you know why the country is in the trouble it is in! It is too bad that it was you WEDDING, but at least you will have a lot to tell your grandchildren!

Mee-n-Mac · 11-16-2008, 01:53 PM

Well we had just the opposite situation when we were married @ the Wolfeboro Inn and used the Belle for a post reception cruise. Everything went very well and we can't find anything bad to say about Hillary and her staff.

I don't think it much matters to other readers as the prior owners of the Inn and Belle are now gone last I heard. I have no idea how good or bad the new owners are.

PS - Agreed on Jacques for wedding cakes .

Grady223 · 11-17-2008, 09:43 AM

I understand the new owners plan to shut down the inn for the winter and complete extensive renovations. This inof was as of mid October, of course with the economy in the tank, those palns may have changed.

beaner · 11-19-2008, 03:13 PM

As someone who has been both a guest and host on the Winni Belle, I wanted to share my most recent Winni Belle experience. After attending a couple of our friends' celebrations aboard the Winni Belle in the past, we decided we wanted to celebrate our 25th anniversary on the boat with 70 of our closest friends and relatives this past August.

We work long hours at least 6 days a week, and we rarely have anyone to the house for dinner, much less throw a big party. Our stress level was high. We started planning early, reserving the date a year in advance.

We invited a mix of locals and people from away, many of whom spent twice as long driving as the cruise lasted. Everyone had a wonderful time, and we received many comments such as, "This is without a doubt the highlight of our summer", "Best party EVER!!" and several of our guests begged us not to wait 25 years before doing this again.

The food at Wolfeboro Inn is not very good to start with IMO, and we had serious reservations about how it would taste after being tranported to the boat. We asked Hillary which cruise dishes received the most positive response. By choosing from her suggestions, we ended up with food that far exceeded anything we have ever been served at the tavern or the dining room. We, and many of our local guests, were blown away! Go figure! There was certainly no skimping on the amount, either. If you give the Inn an accurate head count, your guests can stuff themselves silly.

Although the contract stated that no outside food may be served on board, Hillary allowed us to serve cake from Riverstones. (If you've been there, you KNOW what I'm talking about!)

Furthermore, she waived the cake cutting fee because we cut it ourselves. We wanted the opportunity to serve each of our guests, but in hindsight, it would have been a lot easier & less messy if we'd paid the fee and let the staff cut it!

Every one of the staff on board - crew, bartender and waitstaff - could not have been more friendly, professional or helpful. In fact, shortly after we had left the dock, one of the crew members suffered a serious medical episode. Within minutes, a boat pulled up alongside to whisk him to Huggins and drop off his substitute. The incident was handled very discreetly, and only 1 or 2 of our guests (a couple of folks who had been on the Winni Belle before) were aware that something was up.

Did we have trouble getting Hillary to respond as quickly as we would have liked via phone? Sometimes. We seemed to have better luck with email. However, any time we stopped by in person (usually with little or no notice), she was always extremly patient while answering our gazillion questions. If you don't live in the area and you're planning a once-in-a-lifetime event here, maybe hiring a local event planner would be money well spent? Just a thought.

One important consideration is this: How many things do you want to cram into a 3 or 4 hour cruise? Did you book enough time to serve appetizers, dinner, cake, champagne and still have time for dancing? We ended up bagging the champagne toast we paid for because the party was hopping and we didn't want to interrupt the flow. No one complained. The BEST party ever, indeed!

tis · 11-19-2008, 04:39 PM

I have to agree with you beaner. The problem is communication more than food or anything else. If you can finally get something booked, it is usually very successful. It is just stressful getting there. We have had many parties (our own and others which we have just attended) both at the Inn and on the Belle and have never been disappointed. It's too bad they couldn't resolve that communication problem.

07-12-2007, 12:03 PM	#1
dmjr Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Moultonborough, NH Posts: 273 Thanks: 2 Thanked 10 Times in 8 Posts	Winnipesaukee Belle Does the Winnipesaukee Belle still do a Thursday night cruise? Thank you __________________ DMJR Moultonborough, NH

07-12-2007, 12:41 PM	#2
Bubba Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Merrimack, NH & East Alton, NH Posts: 65 Thanks: 2 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thursday Nights Yes, it does. Check for info at the Wolfeboro Inn.

07-13-2007, 07:49 AM	#4
nj2nh Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: NJ Posts: 518 Thanks: 62 Thanked 42 Times in 23 Posts	We live in Alton Bay and have a view of the mouth of the Bay and a good chunk of the bay itself. One night last summer, it was pouring. Very windy. A bit of lightening and thunder, too. And, there, chugging down the bay was the Winnipesaukee Belle. She looked none too sturdy out there. I presume, the company does not take weather into account? I could see the Mount out in that mess, but the Belle? I wouldn't trust and won't go out on her because of that night. It was nuts. Jersey Girl __________________

11-15-2008, 10:43 PM	#5
MaidenCove07 Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Manchester in Winter, Weirs Beach in Summer & Fall Posts: 132 Thanks: 29 Thanked 17 Times in 7 Posts	Bad Experience renting the Belle from Wolfeboro Inn - NOT recommended This is a long story.....get comfortable. Whatever you do, DO NOT RENT THE BELLE for a special occasion. I decided to rent the Belle for my wedding. We love the lake, could think of no better place to host our special day, but didn't know enough people to rent the Mount and didn't want to share our day with anyone else....the Winnipesaukee Belle is the perfect fit for such a thing, right? We certainly thought so.... Our disaster started right off in September 2007 when I couldn't get anyone from the Wolfeboro Inn to return my calls (a year in advance) looking to reserve our date, so I wrote then am e-mail AND sent them a letter asking for details about renting the Belle. NO response. We should have taken that as a sign, but still had no other optimal options for a wedding with 50 guests ON the water. We kept trying. Finally in February, I called and actually got a person on the phone who put me in touch with the person who was supposed to have been in charge of functions on the Belle, a sweet girl named Hillary. She claimed that she never got my messages, e-mails of letter stating there had been an ownership change. OK....understandable I guess. We reserved the boat over the phone an signed the contract by fax. We made arrangements to have a sunset cruise, get picked up at the Weirs, have their BBQ dinner buffet, special beverage selections because of ours and our guests preferences and a mixed toast of beer, wine or champagne based on the guests preference at our expense. All seemed well. Come Spring, we made an appointment with Hillary specifically to get onto the boat to view the layout and make detailed arrangements. We showed up and she took us to the boat which was under re-construction. Hillary didn't mention this to us in advance, nor did she have the keys to the boat so we could accomplish ANY of our objectives. We chalked it up as bad timing and had a few beers in the Wolfeboro Inn Tavern. We tried again 2 more times, once by appointment and once on the spur of the moment. Neither time was Hillary able to find anyone with the keys to the vessel to let us inside to determine what kind of power sources we would have, what sound system they had, as they claimed to have a sound system for music, or what the set up could look like. I expressed my frustration with this, but my concerns had no effect. I requested Hillary determine all of these specifications for me and call me with the details, the calls never came. I called and Hillary told me that"the captain" hadn't gotten back to her so I asked to speak with him myself. Still no good. Less that 4 weeks from the date of our ceremony, I received a call from a guy named Chris, the REAL manager of the Belle (first time I'd heard of this despite asking for a manger in previous conversations), stating that the city of Laconia refused to let them pick us up at the Weirs. WHAT? I'd already made transportation arrangements for my guests, some of whom weren't arriving with cars of their own. How in hell was I supposed to get them 2 hours across the lake with less than a month's notice? Long story short here, apparently, the City of Laconia protects the Mount Washington by not allowing any competition at the Weirs docks BUT the Wolfeboro Inn never requested permission to pick up and drop off there in the first place. He did say that they could pick us up in Meredith, but all of our guests would have to get from Weirs to Meredith of a summer Saturday, some with no wheels. Strike 6 by now.....but I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I called the City of Laconia myself. As a non voting tax payer, I thought I deserved an explanation. Ms. Cabanel, the City manager was very helpful to me, but very resentful of the owner and staff of the Wolfeboro Inn. Can't say as I blame her. She suggested I contact the Akwa Marina and request that they allow the Belle to pick us up there. So I continued all of the leg work on my on behalf, and surprisingly, got them to agree as long as I put the Belle in touch with them directly. I did that AND had to do additional legwork to request that the City give the Belle formal written permission to enter Meredith harbor and park at Akwa...(Shout out to Mr. Mailloux of Akwa Marina for being so generous) So it seems now that everything is in order, right? When we boarded the Belle on the day of the event, because we NEVER got on board in advance to determine what specific sound elements were on board, my DJ had a hard time connecting and had to send one of my guests off to radio shack for additional connections and wires. Hillary and her manager, despite specific arrangements and several discussions, did not have a video screen on board as we contracted and they didn't get ANY of the beverages we had contracted to have. The crew didn't bring out the additional trays of food in a timely manner so some items ran out, and when the reserve food was brought out, we'd already moved to cake, so much was paid for and then wasted. All of our guests were charged for their own toast beverages despite our specific instructions NOT to do so, and the crew accepted sizable and individual tips from both families who thought the other side had forgotten to tip them. We were never credited for the extra food their crew failed to provide to the guests in a timely manner, nor compensation for the hours and hours of wasted time and effort to make sure our own arrangements were carried out. I will strongly recommend against renting the Winnepesaukee Belle. While she's unique and interesting to look at, the Wolfeboro Inn doesn't deserve the business seeing as it's staff is completely incapable of servicing the public appropriately. Too bad the old owner gave up on the place, the new ownership and lackadaisical staff will drive it into the ground in the end. On a good note, the ceremony we prepared went very well, the flowers we ordered from Linda's Flowers in Wolfeboro were beautiful, the cake we got from Jacques in Suncook, NH looked EXACTLY like Spindle point and was VERY GOOD and the little bit of food that did get served was very good. Attached Images

11-16-2008, 01:53 PM	#8
Mee-n-Mac Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 1,943 Thanks: 23 Thanked 111 Times in 51 Posts	Just the opposite Well we had just the opposite situation when we were married @ the Wolfeboro Inn and used the Belle for a post reception cruise. Everything went very well and we can't find anything bad to say about Hillary and her staff. I don't think it much matters to other readers as the prior owners of the Inn and Belle are now gone last I heard. I have no idea how good or bad the new owners are. PS - Agreed on Jacques for wedding cakes . __________________ Mee'n'Mac "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by simple stupidity or ignorance. The latter are a lot more common than the former." - RAH

07-12-2007, 05:14 PM	#3
mcdude Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Rock Haven Lake - West Newfield, ME Posts: 5,361 Thanks: 374 Thanked 1,044 Times in 490 Posts	dmjr: No info on the WINNIPESAUKEE BELLE website....but there is a phone number. Maybe you could give them a call? The scroller states that the time is 6:30 to 9:30 but doesn't say what day?

11-16-2008, 08:13 AM	#7
tis Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 6,410 Thanks: 719 Thanked 1,381 Times in 957 Posts	MC. I have had several functions at the Inn and share your frustration with Hillary. It is very difficult to get her to call you back. I had to hound them to get responses. That is so common today, I just don't know what is wrong with people. When you see how they do business you know why the country is in the trouble it is in! It is too bad that it was you WEDDING, but at least you will have a lot to tell your grandchildren!

11-17-2008, 09:43 AM	#9
Grady223 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: New Hope, PA & Barndoor Island Posts: 464 Thanks: 93 Thanked 24 Times in 18 Posts	I understand the new owners plan to shut down the inn for the winter and complete extensive renovations. This inof was as of mid October, of course with the economy in the tank, those palns may have changed.

11-19-2008, 03:13 PM	#10
beaner Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Wolfeboro Posts: 178 Thanks: 17 Thanked 37 Times in 23 Posts	"the highlight of our summer"... As someone who has been both a guest and host on the Winni Belle, I wanted to share my most recent Winni Belle experience. After attending a couple of our friends' celebrations aboard the Winni Belle in the past, we decided we wanted to celebrate our 25th anniversary on the boat with 70 of our closest friends and relatives this past August. We work long hours at least 6 days a week, and we rarely have anyone to the house for dinner, much less throw a big party. Our stress level was high. We started planning early, reserving the date a year in advance. We invited a mix of locals and people from away, many of whom spent twice as long driving as the cruise lasted. Everyone had a wonderful time, and we received many comments such as, "This is without a doubt the highlight of our summer", "Best party EVER!!" and several of our guests begged us not to wait 25 years before doing this again. The food at Wolfeboro Inn is not very good to start with IMO, and we had serious reservations about how it would taste after being tranported to the boat. We asked Hillary which cruise dishes received the most positive response. By choosing from her suggestions, we ended up with food that far exceeded anything we have ever been served at the tavern or the dining room. We, and many of our local guests, were blown away! Go figure! There was certainly no skimping on the amount, either. If you give the Inn an accurate head count, your guests can stuff themselves silly. Although the contract stated that no outside food may be served on board, Hillary allowed us to serve cake from Riverstones. (If you've been there, you KNOW what I'm talking about!) Furthermore, she waived the cake cutting fee because we cut it ourselves. We wanted the opportunity to serve each of our guests, but in hindsight, it would have been a lot easier & less messy if we'd paid the fee and let the staff cut it! Every one of the staff on board - crew, bartender and waitstaff - could not have been more friendly, professional or helpful. In fact, shortly after we had left the dock, one of the crew members suffered a serious medical episode. Within minutes, a boat pulled up alongside to whisk him to Huggins and drop off his substitute. The incident was handled very discreetly, and only 1 or 2 of our guests (a couple of folks who had been on the Winni Belle before) were aware that something was up. Did we have trouble getting Hillary to respond as quickly as we would have liked via phone? Sometimes. We seemed to have better luck with email. However, any time we stopped by in person (usually with little or no notice), she was always extremly patient while answering our gazillion questions. If you don't live in the area and you're planning a once-in-a-lifetime event here, maybe hiring a local event planner would be money well spent? Just a thought. One important consideration is this: How many things do you want to cram into a 3 or 4 hour cruise? Did you book enough time to serve appetizers, dinner, cake, champagne and still have time for dancing? We ended up bagging the champagne toast we paid for because the party was hopping and we didn't want to interrupt the flow. No one complained. The BEST party ever, indeed!

11-19-2008, 04:39 PM	#11
tis Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 6,410 Thanks: 719 Thanked 1,381 Times in 957 Posts	I have to agree with you beaner. The problem is communication more than food or anything else. If you can finally get something booked, it is usually very successful. It is just stressful getting there. We have had many parties (our own and others which we have just attended) both at the Inn and on the Belle and have never been disappointed. It's too bad they couldn't resolve that communication problem.