I am considering taking a 6 yo and his family on the fire engine ride as a birthday gift. Due to the large size of our group it will run over $200. The boy is a huge fan of firemen and is having his birthday party at a firehouse.
We are also doing the duck tour as part of our trip to SF. Is the fire engine ride worth the $45 per adult? I know thats rather subjective; it won't send me into bankruptcy but if its not
great I will be unhappy!
Thanks for the advice.

Anyone?

We've done many of the tours in San Francisco. We went on the Fire Engine Tour in July 2004. We booked it because it looked like great fun when we saw one going by on a previous visit. But, was not one of the better ones, for us, anyway. We did not find it "fun" to be required to dress in all that "gear" (yuck!). It took a lot of time to distribute the gear and wait for everyone to get ready. Then, seats were assigned. Views throughout the tour were often obstructed, depending on your seat, because the sides of the fire engine are so high. If you are very, very lucky, and because you have a child along, you might be assigned one of the front seats behind the driver, where you can see much better all along the way. The tour guides talked about themselves a lot. I, personally, would not recommend it.

We really enjoyed the motorized cable car tour and the boat tours, though.

Thanks so much.

For $200 you might be able to get a limo!

Yeah but the kid wants to be a fireman when he grows up not a limo driver.
Also the limo driver doesnt sing kids songs.

LOL! What if he wanted to be a garbage truck driver?

Sorry. That comment just reminded me of the pre-school son of my family's doctor (many years ago) who DID want to drive a garbage truck when he grew up.

I do not mean to critize your wishes or plans for a great day for your son. Please forgive.

Well, if you want to do this, my recommendation would be to e-mail the "Captain" (so you have it in writing) and tell them you'll book if they can assure you the seats behind the "Captain" and not in the back of the truck. I suspect that the folks that got those seats on our tour got them with an advance promise.

We are a large group...5 plus 2 "laps."
I gather you did not find the entertainment all that engaging..did you have kids? Did the kids on the ride seem thrilled?
Thanks.

As mentioned, the Captain and wife talked a lot about themselves and told (I thought) corny jokes and sang silly songs (to my recollection, they considered themselves a fantastic vocal duo).

The kids on our trip, especially the ones up front, really enjoyed the tour. Actually, it was more fun watching them have fun.

Double check on the 2 "laps" to ensure they will allow that (seatbelt laws?).

He's lucky the kid wants to be a fireman....my daughter wanted to be a baseball bat... no kidding!

Now that she is 21, it probably wasn't that bad of idea come to think of it.

Aluminum or wood?

Why not just arrange a tour of the fire house and a climb on one of the trucks?

There is a fire house museum next to the fire station on Presidio @Bush/Euclid. The museum is free, but opened limited hours. Bus lines # 1,2,3.

I do not think there are trucks there.
Its pretty small.

In the museum, you mean? I remember there are 2 old horse-drawn fire carriages (minus the horses )