Riverfront Yacht Services

TAMPA — believe supper at Ulele, after that a liquid taxi ride to a concert or hockey game at Amalie Arena.

Troy Manthey already features, so he's starting three these types of water taxis this thirty days.

Manthey, 49, is the owner of Yacht StarShip Dining Cruises and announced a week ago he's expanding their fleet with three pirate-themed (think Gasparilla) liquid taxis which will get into solution Feb. 27.

"We constantly understood Tampa would support something similar to this given that waterfront evolved, " stated Manthey, which moved Yacht StarShip to Tampa from Biloxi, Miss., in 2001.

Initially, the organization came to ferry people for Super Bowl XXXV in 2001, but Manthey said he fell in love with Tampa and thought about liquid taxis right away.

"We were just looking forward to the right time, " he stated. "With record tourism, our company is doing perfectly."

The 50-foot vessels will be able to carry 40 to 50 individuals, have actually restrooms and concessions. Their captains are going to be dressed as pirates and certainly will offer trips and a light historical narrative in character.

"what exactly is great about these is they will be the maximum amount of destinations as they will be transport, " Manthey said.

They will operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 10 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. They will make what are expected to be 14 stops along the Riverwalk, into the Channel District and on Davis isles.

Tickets will be offered onboard also on line at PirateWaterTaxi.com. The passes — $15 for grownups and $8 for kids — enables passengers to get on and off the taxis for limitless boarding throughout the day from the stops. A one-hop, one-way pass would be $8 for grownups and $5 for children.

Water taxis are getting currency as the town converts more to a riverfront that it historically treated as a zone for delivery and industry, perhaps not tourism or entertainment. Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik often talks about liquid taxis offering a transportation alternative on $2 billion redevelopment he and his lovers at Cascade Investment program near Tampa's downtown waterfront.

The taxis is one of the ways, it is thought, for University of Southern Florida's medical students to have from USF's brand-new downtown building to Tampa General Hospital.

And, if speaks under way cause ferry service between downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg, Manthey said he would coordinate his taxi schedules so guests from St. Petersburg might get off the ferry on Tampa Convention Center and get east toward the Channel District or up the Hillsborough River. He also would like to finances for it with restaurants and businesses along the route to provide discounts to individuals.

This isn't the first occasion Tampa has seen an endeavor at water taxis or something like that like all of them. The Tampa Town Ferry provided tours from a dock behind the Florida Aquarium beginning in 1994, but nearby retail did not develop needlessly to say, and business sputtered. The organization was dissolved in 2002, relating to state files.