harriott ii riverboat tickets price 2023

Harriot II Riverboat

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Harriot II Riverboat - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

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Harriott II Riverboat Cruise

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(334) 625-2100

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255 Commerce Street Montgomery , AL 36104

http://www.funinmontgomery.com/parks-items/harriott-ii-riverboat

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Harriot II Riverboat (Montgomery) Travel Guide

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August 6, 2023

Amidst Montgomery’s rich tapestry of history and culture, the Harriott II Riverboat stands as a proud reminder of the city’s ties to the Alabama River.

Whether you’re a Montgomery native or a tourist eager to experience Southern hospitality at its finest, a cruise on the Harriott II is an experience you won’t want to miss. This guide delves into the magic of the Harriott II, offering insights and tips for a memorable voyage.

• Introduction to the Harriott II Riverboat

The Harriott II Riverboat, anchored at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park, is a majestic 19th-century riverboat replica. With its gleaming white facade, grand paddlewheel, and red accents, it’s a nostalgic throwback to the days when steamboats ruled the rivers.

• A Glimpse into History

While the Harriott II itself is a modern construction, Montgomery has a longstanding riverboat history. The original Harriott, for which Harriott II is named, operated in the 1820s, transporting cotton, goods, and passengers along the Alabama River. Today’s riverboat is a tribute to this storied past, ensuring that Montgomery’s riverboat legacy continues to thrive.

• Cruising Options

The Harriott II offers a range of cruising experiences tailored to different tastes:

a. Scenic Cruises: Perfect for those looking to relax and enjoy the Alabama River’s tranquil beauty. These cruises often come with insightful narrations about Montgomery’s history and its relationship with the river.

b. Dinner Cruises: A gourmet experience, these cruises feature a delicious spread of Southern dishes, live music, and dancing.

c. Themed Nights: From jazz nights to blues cruises, the Harriott II frequently hosts themed evenings, allowing guests to immerse themselves in rich musical traditions.

d. Private Charters: For special occasions, the riverboat can be privately chartered, offering a personalized experience for guests.

• Amenities Onboard

Spread over three levels, the Harriott II boasts a range of amenities:

a. The Saloon Deck: Featuring a full-service bar, concessions, and restrooms.

b. The Jubilee Deck: This is where you’ll find the dance floor, band stage, and another full-service bar.

c. The Patriot Deck: Perfect for taking in panoramic river views, it offers open-air seating and a bird’s-eye view of the paddlewheel in action.

• What to Expect Onboard

A cruise on the Harriott II is more than just a ride; it’s an experience. Guests can expect:

a. Engaging Entertainment: From live bands to DJs, there’s always something to keep guests entertained.

b. Delicious Southern Cuisine: Depending on the cruise, guests might enjoy a buffet dinner, snacks, or themed meals.

c. A Friendly Crew: Known for their Southern hospitality, the crew is always on hand to ensure guests have a memorable experience.

• Tips for Travelers

a. Reservations: Popular cruises, especially themed or dinner cruises, can fill up quickly. It’s advisable to book in advance.

b. Attire: While daytime cruises are generally casual, evening cruises, especially those with dinner and dancing, might have a dressier code.

c. Weather: Given the Patriot Deck’s open nature, it’s a good idea to check the weather forecast and dress accordingly.

• Nearby Attractions

The Harriott II docks at Riverfront Park, making it easy for guests to explore surrounding attractions:

a. Riverwalk: A scenic trail ideal for walking or jogging with picturesque views of the Alabama River.

b. Montgomery Biscuits Baseball: If you’re lucky, you might catch a game at the nearby Riverwalk Stadium.

c. Amphitheater: Located right in Riverfront Park, the amphitheater hosts a range of concerts, festivals, and events throughout the year.

• Reviews and Testimonials

Guests frequently highlight the Harriott II’s romantic ambiance, making it a popular choice for anniversaries and date nights. The combination of southern food, soulful music, and the gentle sway of the riverboat creates a magical experience cherished by many.

• Accessibility and Facilities

The Harriott II is equipped to accommodate guests with disabilities. However, it’s always a good idea to check in advance regarding specific needs.

Montgomery’s Harriott II Riverboat is more than just a mode of transportation; it’s a voyage through time. It’s an ode to the bygone era of grand riverboats, of sultry Southern nights filled with music, laughter, and the gentle murmur of the Alabama River. Whether you’re a history buff, a music enthusiast, or someone simply seeking a unique experience, the Harriott II promises a journey you’ll cherish long after you’ve disembarked.

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The ‘Montgomery Riverboat Brawl’ spoke to millions in 2023

The summer was defined by a viral video that will be remembered in 100 years

For many Americans, New Year’s Eve is a time for reflection, celebration and dedication. Whatever the previous 365-plus days have sent our way are looked back upon with some level of wisdom hopefully gained, while the upcoming calendar is anticipated in the most innocent way possible. The entire event is capped off with a tradition popularized by a newspaper man but invented for the sea.

What you see in Times Square these days at the behest of Ryan Seacrest, and before that Dick Clark, is the brainchild of Adolph Ochs, who owned The New York Times and started the practice in 1908. Now commonly known as a ball drop, it’s an extravagant twist on a technological marvel that was initially invented for an entirely different purpose: marine chronometers.

Time balls, as they were known, helped boats set their clocks when they came to town. When ships pulled in, they knew what time it was, literally.

As 2023 comes to a close, there is not a more apt metaphor for what was the story of the year in Black America. A hundred years from now, its legacy will still stand. 

The “Montgomery Riverboat Brawl” likely won’t be forgotten in the yearly cycle of another league or awards season. The when and where is as important as what happened that afternoon in Alabama.

To begin August, the National Association of Black Journalists’ national convention descended upon Birmingham, Alabama, a welcome sight for folks in town. The annual confab for the industry was met with open arms and the sense of community was about as good as it had been between town and function since I’ve been doing this job. Black people had a ton of fun with each other, shared generational experiences per usual, and because of where it is, returned to many historical places that are a part of our shared lineage, such as Selma, which is about 90 minutes away from Birmingham.

Quite a few folks took the trip. Little did they know that barely a week later, the city most famously known for the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Bloody Sunday of 1965, would be back in the news via a previously humdrum Facebook business page .

During that span in Birmingham, Major League Baseball unveiled the logo for their next special regular-season game, this time at the oldest ballpark in America. The game will officially be called MLB at Rickwood: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues. It’s a genuinely magical place, for sure . As the state capital, Montgomery is home of the Montgomery Biscuits, the Tampa Bay Rays’ AA affiliate, which will be playing against the Birmingham Barons two days prior to the MLB game at Rickwood Field.

The Birmingham Times , the local Black community weekly, dedicated its issue to the NABJ conference entirely, with the headline reading, in part, “Birmingham welcomes the voices of a generation.”

Indeed, it did. 

In a summer in which blockbuster flicks made $500 million a pop, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé gracefully allowed us in their orbit in their different ways, and hip-hop celebrated its 50-year anniversary , the place known as the “Cradle of the Confederacy” sparked one of the most important historical moments this journalist can think of in many years, on many fronts.

You could teach an entire university class about the multiple layers of generational trauma unleashed in the confrontation. The immediacy of the news connected to the history of the site and the legal untangling that followed (six people were charged in the incident, including Reggie Bernard Ray, known best as the Black man swinging a chair) are the kinds of things people make entire seasons of longform podcasts about. If I were an author, I’d write a book about it.

Montgomery itself is like a choose-your-own-adventure of the most horrifically f— up racist s— you can imagine. All the American classics are there: First confederate capital. Vicious redlining and economic apartheid for generations. Domestic terrorism. It took 200 years for them to elect a Black mayor. That was four years ago.

In specific to the brawl, it’s borderline bizarre how on the nose the whole incident was. The night before, 45 held a campaign rally at that very spot. On the very day of the fight, a group of Black women concluded a two-day healing event with a ceremony sharing their happiness and thanks by laying flowers in the water at the Riverfront .

Two hours later, the pop-off heard around the nation went down. All of course happening at the very spot where enslaved people were brought to town. The very dock. On a boat, likely of the same name.

Of course, there are a million wild things that we could talk about the proceedings but those are for other avenues. What I simply cannot get over is how direct the line is between the very specific interaction of these people and where they came from most immediately.

The white folks were friends and family of an owner of a mini-mart in Selma, having a lovely day until they decided to get drunk and basically show their behinds. There are a trove of angles , deep dives, rumors and other things about this specific unfolding that are one thing. Here’s one , two , three , four … nine , if you need that .

But I can’t get past the riverboat. The carrying joke of the moment is that the boat was named the Harriet, like Tubman, making the whole situation much funnier as a solid pop culture joke of what happens when you get your a– whipped. The reality, while far more grim in its origins, not unlike the pugilistic proceedings themselves, makes me laugh a lot more.

That riverboat is named the Harriott II. It’s ostensibly a lovely time just like any other water cruise deep in the American South. It was dedicated in 2008. When it arrived, a lot of people showed up to watch. It aired live on local news . Sure, great. It was named after a boat that famously was the first riverboat that made the trip from Mobile to Montgomery to pick up cotton. … OK. In EIGHTEEN TWENTY ONE. Good lord.

The beatdown boat is named after a boat which a.) definitely carried enslaved people, but b.) was clearly a literal part of the economic engine that fundamentally disenfranchised Black Americans economically, nevermind tried to destroy us humanistically. And guess what that boat was likely named after? You guessed it.

Well, you can just continue down the river, a.k.a. the supply chain in those days. There were not one but two slave ships, each at one point named Harriott or some variation thereof, that were active in triangular trade. Naming a boat after any of these vessels is certainly a choice.

There was a time when those white men would have been fully within their right to effectively single out and proceed to hurt that boat captain to their heart’s content. And way further back than Jim Crow. Look up Virginia’s “casual killing act” of 1669 if you want to ruin your day. But these days, not even close. Those same negroes who you dragged across the ocean on boats named Harriott are now jumping out of boats named Harriott to administer the fade of a lifetime when you wrong our people.

As many of my friends from other lands say often: Only in America.

Julie Bennett/Getty Images

Perhaps most satisfying about that entire ordeal is that so much of it was very specifically a function of social media. We learned about this through various posts that not only showed but featured incredible contextual narrative provided inherently from those documenting it. We learned everything we know about the offending parties from their posts earlier in the day.

Aaren Rudolph, aka Aquamayne, has a whole new future to consider. The fact that this news was spread, nevermind occurred, due to just the regular tendencies of Black folks just trying to be themselves and stay prudent is incredible to me. Black Twitter, which was once ruled dead but now has come to include basically the combined algorithms of our diaspora across platforms, had a legit rebirth. We told y’all the truth, showed it, too, and people just had to wear it.

Alabama has been about that action . Fun fact: The Black Panther Party began in nearby Lowndes County, too. None of this is news in terms of the resistance, but it was also a reminder that while we have a collective experience that we share and cherish, there is also very much the importance of understanding individual communities for themselves.

Yet, as my FYPs say — a win is a win.

It was a role reversal that was almost too fantastical for Forrest Gump , which won six Academy Awards but these days is widely regarded as hokey but touching. Too over the top, too conveniently aligned with too good of an emotional ending. In the 1994 Tom Hanks movie, Gump, the main lovable character from Greenbow, Alabama, plays college football, becomes an All-American and meets the president.

Perhaps the most laugh-out-loud scene comes when the title character makes good on his word to pay back his best friend. Their shrimp company blows up and Benjamin Buford Blue’s mother faints on the porch when she gets a check from a white man from a fictional town in Alabama.

In the following scene, there’s a reversal from when we are introduced to her as part of a generation of Black women whose lone job it is to serve white men shrimp in dining rooms dating back to plantation days. Now, Blue’s mother is the one getting served shrimp and it’s a white woman doing it. The joke obviously being that after years of having no option but to serve white folks, it was time for that to change. The role reversal is so swift and direct that you can’t help but laugh.

Montgomery, the town affectionately known as “The Gump,” is now ground zero for one of the most serious but somehow hilarious exchanges of the year. Last month, the man who threw his hat in the air — signaling he was in distress to his fellow people — held a press conference. One of the humans in the altercation has pressed charges against the boat co-captain, but the city has not.

“It was just so shocking. Now, for me to get charged for something I do every day, it’s my job? It’s just shocking to me,” Damien Pickett II said in November . “For me to get charged for something I do on the regular [to] make people happy, put smiles on their face?”

The last five years in the United States of America have felt like quite a bit of a reckoning. Over time, the long slow institutional battles we’ve fought to untangle have come to light, and many people understand what an uphill battle there is for any sort of sanity in society, nevermind justice. 

For a non-fictional event to play out so poetically, violently and publicly — while leaving many feeling like the result was satisfactory — speaks directly to the lived existence of millions of humans who call this country home by choice or by force. ChatGPT could not have created a scenario this complete.

Someday many years from now, someone will consider acting a fool on the dock again. And on that day, deep inside, something will tell them that’s probably not a smart plan.

When the ancestors speak to you, it’s a good idea to listen. Lesson learned for 2023.

Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.

• Anniston/Gadsden

What is the Harriott II, riverboat involved in Montgomery riverfront brawl?

• Updated: Aug. 13, 2023, 1:54 p.m. |
• Published: Aug. 11, 2023, 5:00 a.m.

The Harriott II riverboat sits docked in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. A riverfront brawl occurred on Aug. 5 when a crew member was punched for trying to move a pontoon boat that was blocking the riverboat from docking. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

• Mary Colurso | [email protected]

The Harriott II riverboat has been in the news lately, figuring into the infamous riverfront brawl in Montgomery that happened on Saturday, Aug. 5, and quickly captured national attention via viral videos.

The videos showed a Black riverboat co-captain attacked by a group of white people as other Black people rushed to his defense. As of Friday morning, Aug. 12, four people had been charged with assault in connection to the large fight, and another was being sought for questioning in connection with the incident.

The melee was ignited, police said, when the Harriott II, which had been out on the Alabama River for a dinner cruise, was trying to dock in a spot that had been designated and reserved for the riverboat. A private pontoon boat was docked too close to the spot, and the captain used a public address system to try to find the pontoon’s occupants and get them to move it.

The Harriott’s co-captain, Damien Pickett, was taken by a smaller boat to the dock to try to address the situation. That’s when a confrontation ensued between Pickett and some of the pontoon boat occupants.

READ: Montgomery riverboat crew says they were attacked by drunk people yelling n word, records state

“The co-captain was doing his job,” Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert told CNN . “He was simply trying to move the boat in just enough to where the cruise ship could park safely in its identified location. However, it quickly escalated.”

Police responded to break up the fight, and 13 people were detained and questioned for several hours Saturday, officials said. Meanwhile, videos taken by bystanders during the brawl were posted on social media, causing a national sensation. An investigation is ongoing, police said.

READ: Montgomery Riverfront Park brawl: 2 defendants jailed on assault charges

The Harriott II, a familiar sight on the river, might have been taken for granted by folks in Montgomery in the past, but no longer. Recent comments on the Harriott’s Facebook page , both positive and negative, have mentioned the brawl, and the incident has significantly raised the riverboat’s profile.

So what is the Harriott II? What role does it serve on the city’s entertainment and tourism landscape? What services does it provide, and how much does it cost to ride? If you’re unfamiliar with the riverboat, here’s a primer.

The Harriott II riverboat sails down the Alabama River in March 2013 at Union Station Train Shed in Montgomery, Alabama. (AL.com file photo/Julie Bennett)

What is the Harriott II?

The Harriott II, a 19th-century riverboat, offers public and private cruises on the Alabama River. The riverboat is part of Montgomery’s entertainment district, and was part of a downtown revitalization effort in the city that revved up in 2008-2009.

Right now, Montgomery’s website for parks and recreation and special events touts the Harriott II as “center stage of Montgomery’s entertainment district.” The City of Montgomery website lauds the Harriott II as a prime attraction on its “vibrant riverfront,” and also points to “ballets, sports complexes, museums, civil rights memorials, city parks.”

The Harriott II arrived in Montgomery in October 2008 , after taking a 1,400-mile trip that took about 28 days from its origin in Savannah, Georgia. The Montgomery Riverfront Development Foundation paid about $500,000 for the riverboat as an entertainment and tourist attraction, according to a report by WFSA TV , an NBC affiliate in Montgomery. Reports at the time said the riverboat could hold up to 400 passengers.

The Harriott II is maintained and managed by the City of Montgomery/Riverfront Facilities, according to an online brochure with rental information.

Right now, the riverboat offers regularly scheduled cruises for the public on Fridays through Sundays through October. There’s a two-hour dinner cruise on Fridays at 6:30 p.m., a two-hour getaway cruise on Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. and a two-hour blues cruise on Sundays at 4:30 p.m. Food, drinks, and live entertainment are part of the cruises.

Tickets are $30-$55 for adults, $15-$35 for children. Packages for birthdays and anniversaries cost $49.95-$79.95, the riverboat’s website says. The agenda trims to Saturdays and Sundays in November. (See this online brochure for details.)

People board the Harriott II about a half-hour before departure, at 255 Commerce St. near Riverfront Park . Tickets can be bought online or at the box office at 213 Commerce St. At least 35 paying customers must be on board for a cruise, the brochure says. About 227 people were on the Harriott when the riverfront brawl happened on Aug. 5, according to CNN.

Charter rentals for the Harriott II range from $3,700 to $10,500, depending on the day, the cruise and the services provided. There’s also an educational cruise that lasts one hour and has a minimum of 75 passengers, with historic narration and a box lunch, that costs $22 per person.

The Harriott II has scheduled several specialty cruises this year, including a Halloween costume party cruise on Oct. 28; a murder mystery cruise on Nov. 19; holiday cruises Dec. 1-2, 8-9 and 15-16; and a New Year’s Eve cruise on Dec. 31.

Food entrees on the riverboat range from barbecue chicken to beef tips over rice to spaghetti and meatballs, according to the rental brochure, and grill area offers burgers, wings, nachos and other casual fare. Beer, wine, liquor and specialty drinks are available at the bar.

The Harriott II has a rating of 4 out of 5 on TripAdvisor , based on 82 reviews. It’s got 4.5 stars on Google, based on 300 reviews.

MORE ON THE RIVERFRONT BRAWL:

21-year-old woman is 4th person charged in Montgomery riverboat brawl

3 white men in pontoon boat charged in Montgomery brawl; Black man with chair sought for questioning

Johnson: Montgomery brawl defenders embody broader Black resolve, ‘Not today, y’all’

Man seen trying to stop Montgomery riverfront brawl: ‘I don’t really think this was a racism thing’

Montgomery riverfront brawl: ‘Justice will be served,’ mayor says as police obtain 4 warrants

Man claims he was on Montgomery riverboat, tells radio host: ‘Made me proud of Black people’

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