Dating in Korea: Hangang Dinner Cruise

For as long as I can remember my boyfriend and I have always wanted to take a ferry cruise along the Han River, but could never find a special enough reason to go. Well, Last month we celebrated our 10 year anniversary. We haven’t exactly celebrated every anniversary up till now, but we figured sharing a decade together is definitely something worth celebrating. So, we decided to finally book our tickets!

First I should start by telling you that there are several cruises to choose from. There are the ‘Theme Cruises,’ which include a live cruise, k-culture cruise and fireworks cruise. There are also Buffet Cruises for brunch, lunch and dinner. Since we wanted something on the romantic side, we decided to go with the dinner cruise on a lovely Friday night.

The ship had two levels, each complete with its own staff, chefs and buffet set up. The space was divided into three sections, the buffet area, the dinning area and then a small stage set with a grand piano and some other smaller instruments. The interior was set with a simple, but elegant nautical theme complete with romantic lighting to set the mood. The dining are was a little too cramped for my taste and since we were only a party of two, we got stuck in the middle. Fortunately, the view of the river was still pretty decent from just about any table.

Since we arrived about 10 minutes before departure, once we were seated we took that opportunity to drop off our stuff and go outside to take some pictures on the deck. We knew it would be impossible to get any photos without other people in them if we waited till after dinner, not to mention we’d be a bit bloated from porking out on all that food.

After the ship left the dock,  we decided to go in for dinner. The buffet was relatively well rounded. There was a nice variety of sushi and rolls, salads, fruits and meat based dishes. I really enjoyed the bamboo steamed rice. It was nothing fancy, but it was just so yummy! I didn’t really care for much of the desserts, mainly because cakes served at Korean buffets consist of a lot of cream (not frosting), so they all basically taste the same. Not my cup of tea. Other than that, it was all pretty great!

The boyfriend then purchased a lovely bottle of wine and we enjoyed our meal as we gazed at the shimmering lights of the city reflected on the calm waters. After a while, we arrived at the Banpo Bridge Rainbow Fountain and got to enjoy the colorful show right on the river. The ferry even went in a full circle so that passengers on all sides could enjoy the view. Soon after that, we were all asked to move out onto the deck to enjoy a firework display.  The colors looked so pretty sparkling over the river and it was such a nice clear night to boot!

By the time it was over and everyone had shuffled on back inside, we found a musician ready to play the guitar and sing for the rest of the evening. It was a really nice way to end the trip. The cruise was about 90 minutes, which I thought would be too short but it was actually very well timed. We had finished our bottle of wine just as we reached the dock and the friendly staff and crew lined up to bid us a fond farewell.

After stepping off the ferry, my boyfriend and I took a short stroll through the moonlight park on our way back to the subway station. The glittering city of Seoul looked so lovely against the various blue shades of the night sky. We couldn’t help but stop and admire the view of the busy city in its seemingly peaceful state and appreciate how far we had come in life… together.