London - Best River Cruise?

AMO

Hi all,

I'm struggling to work out what's what with river cruises at the moment - hoping someone in the know can help out.

Firstly, there's City Cruises:
http://www.citycruises.com/rrrinfo.php
They have 4 pier stop off points and seem to be the largest company doing river cruises. They also have a River Red Rover option which allows you to get on and off whenever you like. Not sure if this is limited to only certain boats.
They do 2 for 1 if you travelled in by National Rail (or got a Travelcard from one of their overground stations).

Then there's the river cruise bundled with the London Eye:
http://www.lastminute.com/site/entertainment/event-product.html?skin=engb.lastminute.com&eventID=445033794-1&dayVal=0&keyword=london+eye&eventType=&catID=&maxPrice=&monthVal=0&location=I+don%27t+mind&dateAllowance=&searchRadius=&numTickets=&sortBy=defaultDSC
You get a discount if you buy both. Not sure if they run the river cruise themselves or use another company. Not sure if its any good.

Lastly, we'll be staying at Kew and there is a company there (found it through Kew Gardens website):
http://www.wpsa.co.uk/fares.html
They do 1/3 off if you have a Travelcard.

Any recommendations or should I just go for whatever seems best value?

Thanx

AMO

seahawk

I took the City Cruise from Greenwich to Westminster Piers in July. I highly recommend them. I printed off the 2-1 coupon from National Rail I traveled with my adult daughter and 15 year old. So I paid 8pounds for us adults and children under sixteen are half price. When I purchased the Cruise tickets nobody asked to see my train tickets i just gave them the 2-1 coupon so you probably dont have to go buy a train ticket to take advantage of that.. Also i walked on to the boat without anybody asking to see my tickets. I'm positive they don't keep track of where you have paid to go to so if you paid to go St Katherines pier and you stayed on the boat you would ride for free till the end of the Journey. Between Greenwich and St. Katherines piers theirs not really that much to see except Tower Bridge. Between St Katherines and New Westminster Piers they had a nice young man give a witty and informative commentary as we passed all the sites. At the end of the Journey he asks for donations because hes not paid by city cruises. I gave him a quid. They didnt collect tickets on departure either so its pretty much run on honesty. Theres an on board bar if u want to purchase drinks i didn't get any so not sure what the prices were like.