Letter: Tahoe Queen ruins 50th anniversary

To the community,

We just celebrated our 50th anniversary. We saved up to have a little party and then take our family to Lake Tahoe for a few days.

Back in April we booked the dinner cruise on the Tahoe

Queen for 12 people on July 17, our last night there. Since there was thunder that afternoon, we called the office to make sure the boat was going out. They asked for my name and confirmation number. They said, yes it was going out and to be there 30-45 minutes before the departure time of 6:30. We were there at 5:45. When we arrived, the boarding gate was locked and the

office closed. A crew member came out and said “tonight is a private party.”

I showed him my confirmation paperwork. He then went and got someone who we found out was Rubin, the food and beverage manager. He told us in no uncertain terms we were not getting on the boat. We could see he didn’t want to help us. He was rude and obnoxious in his attitude. He basically said that this was a $30,000 booking and our 12 people wasn’t very important.

We asked what he could do to help us with this situation. We asked for a phone number to speak to some

one else in charge. We were told they could put us on the Dixie. By now it’s almost 6:30. The

Dixie had already sailed.

When my husband explained that “you could have called us and let us know this was happening” he was told we called and left a message. It’s now 7pm.

The kids are hungry and the adults upset with how the situation was being handled.

When we got home Saturday, I checked my answering machine. It was Thursday at 11:44am. The message was from the company stating “the boat isn’t going out tonight, but we can put you on the Dixie.” I’m away from home, having family time. I’m not thinking about messages. You don’t call five hours before to tell us our cruise wasn’t going out.

You can’t tell me that the party of 160 was a last-minute booking. They had plenty of time to notify us of this event. We’ve all ready paid for the dinner cruise. We were told. we’d get our money back. That’s not the point.

Our celebration was ruined. The whole situation with Rubin and his attitude was very unprofessional. He wasn’t a very good representative for the company.

Ron and Anita Pasch, Livermore