New Year’s Eve Cruises in London: Fireworks from the Thames

The six New Year’s Eve cruises compared

All six leave from Tower Pier and all six are on the water for the fireworks. What differs is how long you are on board, whether there is a proper dinner, and whether you have a guaranteed seat.

Prices are per person, and none are refundable.

The three cruises without dinner

These are the ones to look at if you plan to eat somewhere in London first and want the boat for midnight. They are also the cheaper half of the list.

New Year’s Eve Stargazer Cruise

From £244 per person. Tower Pier, boarding 10 pm, sailing 10.30 pm to 1 am. Two and a half hours.

The most affordable of the six and the one we point most readers towards. A welcome drink, a live singer, a full bar you pay at, and two and a half hours built around being in position for the fireworks.

Because it boards at ten, you can have dinner properly somewhere in London first, which for a lot of people works out better than eating on a boat at eight. Dress code is smart casual.

Book it if what you want is a place on the river at midnight and nothing more elaborate than that.

New Year’s Eve Celestial Cruise

From £488 per person. Tower Pier, boarding 9 pm, sailing 9.30 pm to 1 am. Three and a half hours.

The Celestial sails on modern glass-roofed boats, so when the fireworks go up you can see them through the roof rather than crowding the open deck.

Canapés, a glass of champagne on arrival and another at midnight, live music, and soft drinks for children make this one of the six set up for families.

There is no allocated seating on the Celestial, and you are not guaranteed a seat. With three and a half hours on board, it is worth considering if anyone in your party cannot stand for long stretches. If that is a concern, one of the dinner cruises, where you have a table for the evening, is the safer booking.

New Year’s Eve Galaxy Plus Cruise

From £379 per person. Tower Pier, boarding 7.45 pm, sailing 8.15 pm to 12.45 am. Four and a half hours.

The party boat. Champagne on arrival and again at midnight, canapés through the evening, a DJ, a dance floor and two full bars, with four and a half hours to use them. Dress code is semi-formal.

Unlike the others, the Galaxy Plus sells several ticket types, from a standing ticket up to tables for two and VIP areas, each including different extras, so read what you are buying rather than assuming the cheapest gets you a seat. The canapés cater for all recognised allergens and for vegetarian, vegan and Halal diets.

Book it if you want a party rather than a dinner, and you would rather be dancing at eleven than sitting down to a fourth course.

The three New Year’s Eve dinner cruises

All three give you a four-course dinner, champagne on arrival and at midnight, wine, live music and dancing, and a table for the evening. They are £600 or more per person and include dinner, drinks, the party, and the fireworks in one booking.

New Year’s Eve Dinner Plus

From £611 per person. Tower Pier, boarding 8.15 pm, sailing 8.45 pm to 1.15 am. Five hours, on the Millennium of London or Millennium of Time.

The cheapest of the three dinners and the most straightforward: four courses, welcome champagne and champagne at midnight, half a bottle of wine and a bottle of water each, live music and dancing, and five hours on the river. Semi-formal dress.

New Year’s Eve Dinner Cruise

From £624 per person. Tower Pier, boarding 8.45 pm, sailing 9.15 pm to 2 am. Five hours.

Very similar to the Dinner Plus, with a four-course dinner, champagne twice, half a bottle of wine each, a live vocalist and dancing. It boards half an hour later and runs an hour longer, coming back alongside at two in the morning, so it is the last one off the water.

And seating is at shared tables of up to ten, so you will see in the new year with strangers, which some people love and some very much do not.

New Year’s Eve Gala Dinner on the Diamond

From £629 per person. Tower Pier, boarding 8 pm, sailing 8.30 pm to 1 am. Four and a half hours, adults only.

The grandest of the six, on the Diamond, the City Cruises flagship. Champagne on arrival and at midnight, a four-course dinner with canapés and petit fours, a full bottle of wine per person rather than a half, a live band rather than a vocalist, and dancing. Adults only, semi-formal dress.

Book it if this is a special year and you want the evening to feel like one. It is only a few pounds more than the other two dinners, and the boat and the bottle of wine are the difference.

What you see at midnight

The cruises take up position on the water as midnight approaches, Big Ben strikes, and the display goes up for roughly twelve minutes directly in front of you.

Every boat has a heated indoor saloon and an open upper deck, and you will want the open deck for those twelve minutes, whatever the weather. Take a proper coat, and gloves if you intend to hold a phone up for any length of time.

A third party runs the display, not City Cruises. If it is cancelled or postponed, the cruise still sails and they do not refund it.

Getting to Tower Pier on New Year’s Eve

All six cruises leave from Tower Pier, signed as Tower Millennium Pier, on Lower Thames Street, EC3N 4DT, below the Tower of London. The nearest stations are Tower Hill on the District and Circle lines, Tower Gateway DLR, Fenchurch Street and London Bridge, all within a short walk.

• Roads around the pier close during the afternoon for the fireworks operation, so a taxi may not be able to get you to the door. Assume you’ll walk the last stretch.
• Use the Tube, and go earlier than you need to. Central London stations get extremely busy from mid-evening and some close on police advice without warning. Check the TfL journey planner on the day.
• Arrive at the pier well before your boarding time. There is a coloured check-in desk system on the night: you are given a check-in card and directed to the queue for your cruise, and that takes a while with six sailings going out.
• Plan the journey home before you leave. The Tube runs through the night on New Year’s Eve, and it is not free, whatever older articles say. Coming off a boat at one or two in the morning with a few thousand other people is not the moment to start working out your route.

If you would rather stay within walking distance of the pier, our guide to New Year’s Eve in London has where to stay around Tower Bridge and the City, and how to get around London covers the Tube and the night services.

Before you book a New Year’s Eve cruise

• They are not refundable. New Year’s Eve sailings are sold on that basis, so book only when your dates are certain.
• For dinner cruises, submit dietary requirements at least 96 hours in advance through the confirmation page or Manage Booking after you have paid. Requests submitted later cannot be guaranteed.
• The menu you see at booking may not be final. Check the cruise page for the confirmed New Year’s Eve menu closer to the date.
• Check whether your ticket includes a seat. The Celestial has no allocated seating, the Galaxy Plus sells standing tickets alongside tables, and only the three dinner cruises guarantee you a table for the evening.
• Accessibility varies by boat and by sailing. The saloon is on the main deck, and the open upper deck is reached by stairs on every boat; the gangway down to the pier pontoon changes gradient with the tide. Contact City Cruises with your date and cruise before booking if anyone in your party needs step-free access, because the vessel allocated to a sailing can change.
• Book early. These sell out in the autumn.

A cruise or a ticketed viewing area?

The official riverside viewing areas cost a fraction of a cruise and sell out in minutes when tickets are released in the autumn. For the lower price, you get a standing space in a fenced enclosure, several hours of waiting with no seat and limited toilets, and the display from one fixed angle. On a boat, you get a heated room, a bar, somewhere to sit, and a view from the middle of the river.

Our full guide to New Year’s Eve in London covers the ticketed areas, when tickets go on sale, and where to watch without a ticket at all.

Which New Year’s Eve cruise to book

For most people, the Stargazer is the sensible answer. Eat where you like in London, board at ten, and pay for the part that is hard to get any other way.

If you are bringing children, the Celestial and its glass roof is the one. If the evening itself is the occasion rather than just midnight, the Gala Dinner on the Diamond is worth the extra over the other two dinners.

Whichever you choose, book it before the autumn is out and sort your route to Tower Pier in advance.

Planning the rest of the trip? These guides cover the days either side:

• New Year’s Eve in London: fireworks, cruises and where to stay
• Christmas cruises in London
• 20 Christmas things to do in London
• Events in London in December
• London in January
• Where to stay in London