We picked this to celebrate my husband's 65th birthday. It's definitely a splurge. But it couldn't have been more wonderful on a balmy September afternoon. We went on September 15 which turned out to be the day of the Rolex boat races, so the bay was full of very high end boats -- fascinating with their black carbon fiber sails. And when we passed under the bridge to the outer Golden Gate, we saw a humpback whale breach and hang around. To be fair, the crew said that's extremely rare, but it sure was wonderful.
Things I liked: the crew were all friendly and very competent. They explained what we needed to do clearly. It was great fun to crank the grinders to raise and lower the sails and the boat was wonderfully responsive to the steering wheel. The boat flew along, cutting through a choppy bay surprisingly smoothly because of the massive ballast.
Things to be aware of ahead of time:
1) If you use the Pier 39 garage, allow an extra 10 minutes just to move through the garage and find a space. It gets very, very busy on pretty weekends.
2) The meet-up spot is along the far, quiet side of the Aquarium. The Water Taxi sign is much easier to see from the main sidewalk than the small Sail -- that's the spot you want.
3) There are no bathrooms on the boat. The dock porta-potties were all being cleaned when we were about to start our trip. There was a long, slow line of people at the Pier 39 public restrooms. We were just lucky that this wasn't a problem. Allow time.