Why celebrate at a boat party
On 31 December the viewing areas along the Thames are ticketed and fenced, the roads around them close hours before midnight, and most people count down behind a barrier, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of strangers.
At a New Year’s Eve boat party your place is booked before you arrive, the music and the bar are already on board, and when midnight comes the party is on the river itself, with London lit up along both banks and the fireworks filling the sky over the water. On the one night of the year when everyone wants to be by the Thames, you celebrate on the Thames, with the people you came with.
Boat party or dinner cruise?
A boat party is built around the music and the bar rather than a seated meal: the boat itself is the party, and the fireworks are the moment everyone is waiting for. If you would rather sit down to dinner first, on board or at a restaurant before the cruise, see all New Year’s Eve cruises in London: every card there shows its format.
Will you see the fireworks?
Yes — the whole evening is built around them. The display is centred on the London Eye, and the boats head out on the river to watch it. The captain chooses the position on the night, reading the river traffic, the tide and the weather, so the exact spot is decided then rather than promised in advance, and the pier you board at doesn’t limit your view.
What happens at midnight
In the last minutes before twelve the boats settle on the river and the countdown starts on board. Then the sky over the Thames bursts into colour, the water catches every flash, and for a few minutes nobody looks anywhere else. When the last rockets fade, the party carries on all the way back to the pier.
