Visit England Award for Excellence

Thames Rockets love to impress. It underpins everything we do - from the slickest speedboats to the sharpest skippers, from the greatest guides to the best boarding team, we know that it's the attention to detail that stands us head and shoulders above the rest. However, we are endlessly surprised and humbled when our love for what we do is recognised in the industry. In October 2016 we were informed we had been accepted in the running for the prestigious Visit England Award for Excellence. Our challenge? To deliver our #1 speedboat sightseeing experience to a mystery shopper who would arrive unannounced and unidentified at any given point between November 2016 and March 2017. The question - how to achieve making the shortlist?! Luckily for us we didn't need to search hard for the answer. Following a bumper 2016 summer we rocketed into our Autumn and Christmas season with the characteristic flair and slick service that have made us #1 on TripAdvisor for 4 years running. With special spooky Halloween experiences, and jolly old St Nick himself joining us for yet another season of our hugely successful Jingle Bell Blast, along with our trademark Ultimate London Adventure whizzing more passengers out than ever before onto the famous river Thames, we admit we were relishing the opportunity to show off what we do to the anonymous judge - whoever they may be! Christmas came and went, and into New Year's Eve with a sell-out partnership with the highly regarded Tom's Kitchen in St Katharine Dock launched us into the new year with more than a bang. Then finally, one day in February, as we were planning our next big adventures for 2017, we got the call. Our mystery shopper had been, experiencing our most popular trip, the one that started it all - the Ultimate London Adventure. 50 minutes of witty banter from one of our top guides Rory, and super-swervy speedboat thrills from the ever exciting Nick! Once again our team had done us proud, doing what they do best and having a whole lot of fun in the process. We have made the final three in the category of Family Friendly Attraction of the Year. On the afternoon of Monday 24th April 2017 we have been invited to attend the awards, presented over High Tea in the renowned Palm Court in the famous Hilton Waldorf Hotel. We'll be donning our best suits and smartest dresses and keeping our fingers crossed that we can zoom over the final line and scoop another proud feather in our ever growing cap. We'll let you know how we get on. In the meantime, we're just going to keep doing what we do best.