Spirit Of Melbourne Lunch Cruise

Had a wonderful lunch onboard and thoroughly enjoyed just sitting watching the sites on the Yarra from our seat. Very relaxing

Boarded at 1250 , simply booked under name so no paperwork or QR codes needed. Captain welcomed all. Tables are pre assigned so no need to crowd the boarding area. Restrooms on main level are clean. Now to the main event. Very helpful busy staff immediately serves sparkling, red and white wines or soft drinks. All included. Then first course of sliced meats and seafood. The main event for us was delicious Aussie filets. Desert either a chocolate tart or passion fruit cheese cake. Coffee and tea too. Weather protected if you have a less perfect day. Grand loom of the city.

I would highly recommend this relaxing lunch tour. You see the beautiful city from a different perspective. Team looked after us well. Food was delicious.

Great experience. Friendly, helpful & efficient staff

Food was excellent. Staff attentive but not intrusive with refilling drinks and clearing plates. Would definitely recommend

Exceeded all expectations. Faultless service. Outstanding food and presentation. Inclusive free flow drinks were top quality and plentiful. Onboard welcome by Captain was informative and very entertaining. The trip up the Yarra River was beautifully scenic topped off by perfect weather. Staff on board were amazing and a special Thanks to Rhett for his wonderful service. Definitely recommend this cruise and great value for money - Thank you all so very much - Pieter & Kerry (May 15th 2026)

This was an excellent day out very relaxing and staff were wonderful and service was great. The meal was served and it was all delicious. Would recommend this to anyone just wanting to relax for a couple of hours

Outstanding Lunch cruise. Our 2nd time in consecutive years. Great service by friendly staff. Food and drink is of the highest standard. Will go again next year at about the same time.

Went for a friends 70th - Super friendly and efficient staff , food was beautiful , loved the views and we were so lucky to get the most magnificent Melbourne day !!

Relaxing lunch along the yarra river. The food was good, but this is not a guided tour explaining what you are seeing. There are some nice views and opportunities for pictures.

While the weather wasn't great, the crew and food more than made up for it. There was nothing we didn't enjoy, the food wasn't fancy but well cooked and tasty. The service was prompt and our glasses were never empty, unless we wanted them that way. I thought we may have been a little cramped inside, but the seating was comfortable and we didn't feel like sardines.

Wonderful from start to finish. The staff were lovely and very accommodating, the food was delicious and the drinks kept coming right through until the end. Everything was included to make the day very memorable.

A fantastic experience from start to finish. Attentive staff, amazing meal, not over packed with people. Relaxing and fun. Honestly could not fault anything. A perfect way to spend a couple of hours. Well done guys! We will be back.

We gifted our parents with this experience and we absolutely loved it! The staff from the beginning to the end were friendly, professional, attentive, knowledgeable and always willing to help. The food was absolutely delicious from the entrees to the main and the desserts, simply wonderful. Our parents were very satisfied and happy with the whole experience as they saw some great sights of Melbourne and ate fantastic food. Highly recommend this to everyone.

No aircond upstairs in the hot day in a crappy boat Never given option to be seated in the aircond area downstairs when booking Were sweating whole journey paying the same as those seated downstairs with aircond Food were average Not worth the price

Did the lunch cruise with my dad as a thank you for hosting me from UK. We were on the top deck, where tables were laid out thoughtfully to maximise personal space. Very happy. Food was lovely, wine was plentiful and staff were fantastic: very smiley and attentive. Boat travelled at a sedate pace, no commentary so we were left to chat or just take in the view. Will definitely do again on my next visit.

This lunch cruise really surprised and impressed me. Amazing value for money with quality food, beautiful scenery, attention wonderful staff, 2hrs of relaxation, lovely drinks. This was definitely outstanding and a must see/experience when in Melbourne! 🥰

This was a very pleasurable experience. The crew were excellent as was the food and the drinks service excellent. A lovely day!

Cruise, food, service where all excellent, the only complaint was the weather which the cruise organisers had no control over it was a summer 42deg day and the air conditioning could have been a little better! Still we enjoyed ourselves and would do it again!

Inexperienced staff seemed confused/compromised when 20% of passengers were made to stand in the sun during appalling heat conditions. Staff were badgered into re-arranging the seating of a passenger and her group who refused to go upstairs on boarding saying "they had booked downstairs" which could not have been true because there was never an option of placement when booking. As a result the remaining customers (about 22 persons) were left stranded on the boarding ramp in searing 42 deg heat while staff reconfigured tables downstairs to accommodate the customer. This left a drastic health and safety concern for the elderly customers who were given no thought to their predicament or advised of length of delay or the reason for the delay in boarding. No offer of water. All passengers should have been ushered on board to escape the conditions and the belligerent passenger be asked to wait. The lunch cruise left 1.22PM. Everything else was fine and staff were great under trying conditions.

I loved the cruise and the food and drinks were great. Unfortunately the day we went it was 42 degrees in Melbourne we were waking on the gangplank to go onto the boat. One person a few ahead of us wasn’t happy with her party of six seating plan. A large group of us were left on the gangplank in these sweltering temperatures for 15 minutes while the crew sorted her out. She of course was under cover as was the crew. When I asked how long we were going to be in the sun for a crew member said to me “this is an outdoor activity after all” no apology at all for the large group who were stuck in the sun with a very small umbrella for shelter. Customer service in this regard at its worse. I believe the health and safety of passengers is paramount. The woman who complained should have been asked to wait while the other passengers were seated first. Such a shame that it left such a bad taste as it was a really good trip but because of this a real shame.

We had a wonderful lunch onboard our yarra cruise. Its a 2 storey boat and we were up top but it was very stable and no issue. 3 course meal was delicious and our waitress was excellent. Beer, wine and soft drinks were included and they topped up regularly, and you could buy spirits at reasonable prices (2 canadians and coke $24) The wine is what you would expect for a bottomless lunch. Scenery was really pleasant and offered a view along the Yarra we dont often get with CBD, parklands and bike trails, families enjoying riverside facilities and historic buildibgs. A couple of things to know though, the roughly 100 seats are a little tight, the roof height is about 1.85m on top level and stairs leading up has a section lower so us tall people can hit your head if not careful. The toilets which were modern and clean are on the ground floor, with a single person wait towards end of cruise. None of these things detracted from our experience at all, just things we noticed.

We thoroughly enjoyed the lunch cruise. The food was lovely and there was lots of it. We were lucky to also have beautiful weather. All of the staff were friendly and always seemed to appear when we needed a drink top up! Everything was seamless for them. I highly recommend this cruise!

Awesome awesome awesome lovely staff was great to see Melbourne in a different way and the food was cooked to perfection

Thoroughly enjoyed this lunch cruise. Staff very friendly and welcoming. Great table service. Food was amazing and the bubbly free flowing. Would definitely recommend

We had a lovely 3 course lunch whilst cruising down river. The food was great & staff friendly, also had good sense of humour. So pleased I decided to do the lunch cruise! The bubbles was nice too!

What a wonderful crew and experience. Friendly, plenty to eat, cruise along the river on a ‘houseboat’, just wonderful!

The river cruise was very relaxing and pleasant the team were very attentive ensuring we had everything we needed even a couple of wine top with having to request. The food was better than I thought it would be we had the eye fillet for our main and was delish. Would recommend a lovely afternoon on the cruise. Well done guys Jeff & Tracey NSW

This was my second lunch cruise - very very pleasant. First cruise was with my husband up the Yarra past Docklands and this time, opposite direction with lovely greenery to view. Relaxing with lovely food and bottomless wine glass. Gorgeous mini trip for your girls' outing - not too long, just a couple of hours. So nice!

What an exceptional enjoyable day, great food, endless drinks scenery and friendly service. Of course we had a beautiful sunny day. I would highly recommend this cruise and I’m sure I’ll try to do it again, Coming from the country a great way to appreciate Melbourne.

Really enjoyed it, staff were amazing , food was lovely, however we ordered chicken for all 4 of us and were given 4 vegetarian Lasange. They managed to find one chicken meal and one salmon meal. I am allergic to sea food so had the chicken, my daughter had the salmon, the other two had no choice but they said the vegetarian lasange was nice. Over all it was a fabulous day, drinks were flowing, I would recommend this and I would go again .

Lovely food and staff. Free flowing drinks (wine, beer or champagne) but you can pay for spirits. We sat upstairs and it happened to be a beautiful day and the perfect temperature. Everything was better than we could have hoped for. Loved it.

Melbourne put on a stunning day for our lunch cruise along the Southbank waterfront, 32° with blue skies!! From beginning to end it was enjoyable, food was amazing, views were spectacular, staff were extremely attentive and the never ending glass of champagne made the afternoon evening more wonderful!! I purchased this cruise as a gift for my husband's birthday...fully recommend you give it a go!!

Sisters weekend away Very hot day in Melbourne we were inside but the air con wasn't cooling us at all Food was dry , not fresh Young waitress could not understand English that well Took awhile to get drinks Overall not what I expected

Booked for 6 people for a Christmas lunch. It was a very hot day (30degrees) but was not too hot. Staff were lovely and friendly and served continual drinks, never had to ask for a drink. Food was excellent. Would recommend.

We were expecting a nice lunch and cruise up the Yarra River but it was far more than that! It was exceptional! Food was wonderful, extremely attentive and friendly staff, and great cruise seeing sights we hadn't seen before! We are planning on another one next year!

I would like to compliment the team at the Spirit of Melbourne. We had a company Christmas outing of 24 persons onboard. The meals - entre, mail and sweets were superb. They were brought out at timely intervals. There was a good range of alchoholic and non alchoholic drinks which were part of the package. We also opened a bar tab for the folks who wanted spirits. The catering crew was very attentive to our needs. The soundtrack being played during the voyage was good and just at the right volume level. The Skipper artfully avoided the rowers on the Yarra.

We received a gift voucher from family for this luncheon cruise and were pleasantly surprised and impressed by the cruise. We are locals, touring in our own city and the cruise showed us new aspects of Melbourne. Given that it was mid December, we knew it would be crowded but the staff handled the busy boat very well with exemplary service and delicious, well prepared meals. We will bring any overseas visitors on the cruise as it is world class.

Perfect Faultless! Excellent food and service Don’t want the trip to end as we were all do comfortable and happy. Will definitely do again

Loved this experience. Lunch was surprisingly yummy. There were 7 of us and we all loved our meals. We had the eye fillet, salmon and lasagne. Entrees were shared and were also yum. So relaxing, nice tunes, great scenery and the staff were friendly and couldn’t do enough for us. A birthday cupcake and candle was a nice treat. Would highly recommend

From the moment we stepped onboard the staff were friendly, professional and could not do enough for us all. The meal was restaurant quality and good size servings. Plenty of drinks to choose from and caters for all ages. Will definitely do this cruise again when we are in Melbourne again. Would highly recommend this cruise to everyone, we had the best time!!!!!

What a lovely relaxing cruise. The boat is very comfortable, there is a decent amount of space between tables, and the windows were immaculately clean. The staff were very friendly and attentive. Plates were cleared promptly, and glasses were topped up as often as you wished. The food was beautifully cooked, and the portion sizes were spot on. The steak was tender and juicy and the chicken was cooked to perfection. The entrees and sweets were superb. I highly recommend this cruise up the Yarra for couples, groups, and families.

Very impressed with the food, drinks and ambience - couldn't fault those at all. Few things to note (more for cruise company): 1. Menu stated assorted cake platter and this didn't occur. We were given alternate drop of two different types. 2. There was no commentary. I thought we may have been advised of a few landmarks we were cruising past. The captain advised "If we don't hear from him, we are having a good time"...great, but to know what some large landmarks were for out of state visitors would have been suffice and of benefit. Would I cruise again, Yes - it was a pleasant afternoon, those few things didn't ruin the afternoon by any means. *Note* - we asked for a table beside the window. Benefits were for the views but pitfalls were in the sun for part of the trip.