This is a long story.....get comfortable.
Whatever you do, DO NOT RENT THE BELLE for a special occasion.
I decided to rent the Belle for my wedding. We love the lake, could think of no better place to host our special day, but didn't know enough people to rent the Mount and didn't want to share our day with anyone else....the Winnipesaukee Belle is the perfect fit for such a thing, right? We certainly thought so....
Our disaster started right off in September 2007 when I couldn't get anyone from the Wolfeboro Inn to return my calls (a year in advance) looking to reserve our date, so I wrote then am e-mail AND sent them a letter asking for details about renting the Belle. NO response.
We should have taken that as a sign, but still had no other optimal options for a wedding with 50 guests ON the water. We kept trying. Finally in February, I called and actually got a person on the phone who put me in touch with the person who was supposed to have been in charge of functions on the Belle, a sweet girl named Hillary. She claimed that she never got my messages, e-mails of letter stating there had been an ownership change. OK....understandable I guess.
We reserved the boat over the phone an signed the contract by fax. We made arrangements to have a sunset cruise, get picked up at the Weirs, have their BBQ dinner buffet, special beverage selections because of ours and our guests preferences and a mixed toast of beer, wine or champagne based on the guests preference at our expense. All seemed well.
Come Spring, we made an appointment with Hillary specifically to get onto the boat to view the layout and make detailed arrangements. We showed up and she took us to the boat which was under re-construction. Hillary didn't mention this to us in advance, nor did she have the keys to the boat so we could accomplish ANY of our objectives. We chalked it up as bad timing and had a few beers in the Wolfeboro Inn Tavern.
We tried again 2 more times, once by appointment and once on the spur of the moment. Neither time was Hillary able to find anyone with the keys to the vessel to let us inside to determine what kind of power sources we would have, what sound system they had, as they claimed to have a sound system for music, or what the set up could look like. I expressed my frustration with this, but my concerns had no effect. I requested Hillary determine all of these specifications for me and call me with the details, the calls never came. I called and Hillary told me that"the captain" hadn't gotten back to her so I asked to speak with him myself. Still no good.
Less that 4 weeks from the date of our ceremony, I received a call from a guy named Chris, the REAL manager of the Belle (first time I'd heard of this despite asking for a manger in previous conversations), stating that the city of Laconia refused to let them pick us up at the Weirs. WHAT? I'd already made transportation arrangements for my guests, some of whom weren't arriving with cars of their own. How in hell was I supposed to get them 2 hours across the lake with less than a month's notice?
Long story short here, apparently, the City of Laconia protects the Mount Washington by not allowing any competition at the Weirs docks BUT the Wolfeboro Inn never requested permission to pick up and drop off there in the first place. He did say that they could pick us up in Meredith, but all of our guests would have to get from Weirs to Meredith of a summer Saturday, some with no wheels. Strike 6 by now.....but I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.
I called the City of Laconia myself. As a non voting tax payer, I thought I deserved an explanation. Ms. Cabanel, the City manager was very helpful to me, but very resentful of the owner and staff of the Wolfeboro Inn. Can't say as I blame her. She suggested I contact the Akwa Marina and request that they allow the Belle to pick us up there. So I continued all of the leg work on my on behalf, and surprisingly, got them to agree as long as I put the Belle in touch with them directly. I did that AND had to do additional legwork to request that the City give the Belle formal written permission to enter Meredith harbor and park at Akwa...(Shout out to Mr. Mailloux of Akwa Marina for being so generous)
So it seems now that everything is in order, right? When we boarded the Belle on the day of the event, because we NEVER got on board in advance to determine what specific sound elements were on board, my DJ had a hard time connecting and had to send one of my guests off to radio shack for additional connections and wires.
Hillary and her manager, despite specific arrangements and several discussions, did not have a video screen on board as we contracted and they didn't get ANY of the beverages we had contracted to have.
The crew didn't bring out the additional trays of food in a timely manner so some items ran out, and when the reserve food was brought out, we'd already moved to cake, so much was paid for and then wasted. All of our guests were charged for their own toast beverages despite our specific instructions NOT to do so, and the crew accepted sizable and individual tips from both families who thought the other side had forgotten to tip them.
We were never credited for the extra food their crew failed to provide to the guests in a timely manner, nor compensation for the hours and hours of wasted time and effort to make sure our own arrangements were carried out.
I will strongly recommend against renting the Winnepesaukee Belle. While she's unique and interesting to look at, the Wolfeboro Inn doesn't deserve the business seeing as it's staff is completely incapable of servicing the public appropriately. Too bad the old owner gave up on the place, the new ownership and lackadaisical staff will drive it into the ground in the end.
On a good note, the ceremony we prepared went very well, the flowers we ordered from Linda's Flowers in Wolfeboro were beautiful, the cake we got from Jacques in Suncook, NH looked EXACTLY like Spindle point and was VERY GOOD and the little bit of food that did get served was very good.