Are Dinner Cruises All You Can Eat?
Some are, some are not, and the listings rarely make it obvious. Which New York harbor boats run a real buffet, which serve set courses, and how many you get.
By Olivia Bennett, NYC dinner cruise specialist & harbor experience guide
Two boats leave Pier 61 on the same evening, run the same stretch of harbor, and feed people in completely different ways. On one you get up, walk to a carving station and come back with whatever you want, as many times as you want. On the other a server brings you three courses and that is the meal. Both are sold as dinner cruises, and the listings are not always loud about which is which.
Which harbor boats let you go back for seconds?
The buffet boats do: the Spirit of New York out of Pier 61, the Spirit of New Jersey out of Liberty Landing, and the Pier 40 brunch sailing when you pick its buffet option. On all of them you serve yourself from a laid-out spread and return as often as you like for the full two to two and a half hours.
The Spirit of New York is the one most people mean when they say buffet cruise. It runs a full hot and cold spread, a DJ and an actual dance floor, and the same boat sails the same route as brunch, lunch or dinner depending on the day. Dinner is $119.43 and holds a 4.2 across 1,401 reviews, which makes it the most-reviewed buffet sailing in the harbor by a distance.
Across the water, the Spirit of New Jersey does the same job from Liberty Landing Marina inside Liberty State Park, at $84.71, with a reserved private table and parking that costs a fraction of Chelsea Piers. It faces the Manhattan skyline head-on rather than sitting inside it, which some people prefer and others find disappointing. Its 4.0 across 123 reviews is the softest score of the three buffets, and it is fair to say so.
The buffet boats exist less for the food than for the room. A space where people get up and move is a different space, and it suits birthdays and groups in a way a seated dinner does not.
How does a plated sailing actually work?
A server brings you a fixed number of courses at your own table, chosen from a menu before or during the sailing. Three courses on the Bateaux and on the City Cruises three-course sailing, five on both Pier 36 gourmet sailings. You do not go back for more, and the portion sizes assume that.
The plated boats sell a different evening. Your table is yours for the whole sailing rather than a place to put your coat between trips to the buffet, live musicians play in the room, and the pacing is a restaurant's rather than a party's. The Bateaux vessel is glass-enclosed, enforces a semi-formal dress code down to no jeans and no sandals, and does not carry children under six.
Five courses is the outlier and it belongs to Pier 36. Both gourmet sailings there run five, with off-Broadway performers between them and gratuities already built into the ticket. The three-hour length is what makes five courses fit; a two and a half hour boat cannot pace that many plates without rushing you. If a long, slow, seated dinner is the point, that is the sailing to check dates for.
| Sailing | Boat | Service | What you get | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signature Dinner Cruise | Spirit of New York | Buffet | Unlimited, self-served, 2h30 | $119.43 |
| Brunch, Lunch or Dinner Buffet | Spirit of New York | Buffet | Unlimited, self-served | $84.71 |
| Signature Lunch Cruise | Spirit of New York | Buffet | Unlimited, daylight route | $93.05 |
| Skyline Buffet from New Jersey | Spirit of New Jersey | Buffet | Unlimited, reserved table | $84.71 |
| Bottomless Brunch, Pier 40 | TopView | Buffet or plated | Your choice at booking | $79.00 |
| Bateaux Premier Dinner | Bateaux New York | Plated | Three courses | $170.82 |
| Luxury Brunch, Lunch or Dinner | City Cruises | Plated | Three courses | $99.99 |
| Gourmet Dinner with Live Music | NYC Water Cruises | Plated | Five courses, 3h | $161.61 |
| Signature Dinner on the Eternity | NYC Water Cruises | Plated | Five courses | $175.00 |
Is the harbor buffet worth eating, or is it steam-tray food?
Better than the format's reputation, based on what verified reviewers keep saying. Variety is the word that recurs across the Spirit of New York reviews rather than any claim of fine dining. It is a good hotel buffet on a moving boat, and people who book it expecting a tasting menu are the ones who leave three stars.
A 4.2 average across 1,401 reviews is a useful number precisely because the sample is large enough to include everyone who had an average night. Recent verified reviews describe a wide spread of options, quick drink service and a smooth ride, and one from July 2026 called the buffet outright excellent. Complaints, where they appear, tend to be about queues at peak rather than the cooking.
Set your expectations against the price, which you can check for your own date before you decide. At $119.43 for dinner with two and a half hours of harbor, entertainment and unlimited food, the meal is not the luxury item. The room and the view are. Our breakdown of what a harbor dinner cruise actually costs works through where the money goes on each boat, and the Spirit of New York review covers the buffet boat in detail.
What do vegetarians and vegans get on a buffet sailing?
More than most people expect, and this is one place the buffet format wins outright. A verified July 2026 review of the Spirit of New York singled out the selection for vegans as good, unprompted. On a plated sailing you are choosing from a fixed menu, so a dietary request has to be made at booking rather than solved at the counter.
This is the practical argument for the buffet if anyone in your party eats differently. A spread of hot dishes, salads and sides lets someone build a full plate without a negotiation, and go back if the first attempt was thin. On a three or five course plated menu a vegetarian option exists, but it is one option, and if it does not suit you, that is your dinner.
The same logic applies to fussy eaters, teenagers and anyone quietly worried about the food on a boat. Nobody has to explain themselves at a buffet. If you are feeding a mixed group, the New Jersey buffet sailing with its reserved private tables is worth pricing against the Manhattan departures, since it lands $34 cheaper before you count the parking.
Flag any allergy with the operator when you book rather than at the gangway. Boarding opens 45 minutes before departure and the galley will not redesign a service at that point.
What else is unlimited besides the food?
Rarely the alcohol. Coffee, tea and soft drinks are unlimited on several sailings, and three sailings pour bottomless mimosas, but every dinner boat sells its bar separately. A drink ticket or a single included drink is common. An open bar is not.
| Sailing | Unlimited food | Unlimited soft drinks | Bottomless alcohol |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signature Dinner, Spirit of New York | Yes, buffet | Coffee and tea | No, bar sold separately |
| Brunch, Lunch or Dinner Buffet | Yes, buffet | Coffee and tea | No |
| Gourmet Dinner, Pier 36 | No, five courses | Yes, soft drinks | No, one drink ticket, two on VIP |
| Bateaux Premier Dinner | No, three courses | Not stated | No |
| Luxury Brunch, Lunch or Dinner | No, three courses | Not stated | Mimosas on the brunch option |
| Bateaux Mimosa Brunch | No, plated | Not stated | Yes, bottomless mimosas |
| Bottomless Brunch, Pier 40 | Buffet option only | Not stated | Yes, bottomless mimosas, 21+ |
The bottomless mimosa sailings are all daytime, which is not a coincidence. If unlimited drinks matter more to you than unlimited food, the brunch and lunch cruises are the category to look at, and they start at $79.
Which sailing is the best value if you plan to eat properly?
The Spirit of New York buffet at $119.43, or the same boat at $84.71 if you take the brunch or lunch slot instead. Unlimited food, a DJ and two and a half hours of harbor costs less than three plated courses on almost every other boat in the lineup.
Value depends on what you are actually buying. If you want to eat well and eat a lot, the buffet is unbeatable on price per plate, and the daytime version of the identical route runs $34.72 cheaper than dinner. That gap is the subject of a whole separate comparison of the lunch and dinner sailings on the same boat, because the trade is not only about money.
If you want a long seated dinner where nobody gets up, the five-course Pier 36 sailings at $161.61 and $175.00 are the only ones offering that length of meal, and gratuities are already in the ticket, which quietly closes part of the price gap. The operator's own site lists the Pier 36 boarding details, and Slip 9 is a ten-minute walk from the F at East Broadway.
If you mostly want the evening and the view, do not overpay for food you will not finish. Compare the buffet dinner cruises against the plated dinner cruises on what the room is like, not on the menu, and let the format follow the occasion. A birthday wants a dance floor. An anniversary wants a table.