Well, since you asked for my feedback:
I would like to suggest that a less vague instruction than “arrive no more than 60 minutes and no less than 30 minutes before the sailing you have paid money to reserve a spot on” be offered at the time of booking. It could also be plainer that should you show up less than 30 minutes before the scheduled sailing, your reservation is not worth the dog poop you just stepped in and now you are hanging out for the rest of the day on the highway with annoying European tourists who have flags wrapped around themselves. With a porta-potty a few feet back, there.
Because we arrived TWO MINUTES less than 30 minutes to the departure area in Nanaimo this afternoon (because of traffic leading to the terminal) we were put in the regular lineup. DESPITE our reservation for the 3 pm sailing we sailed at 7:20. What a fucking joke. Either have dedicated space for reservations (and make that space available ONLY to people who have paid extra to reserve, regardless of whether they are being penalized for being a couple of minutes later than 30 minutes before the sailing) or don’t allow reservations at all. Sitting in that fucking lineup for four hours, watching cars zoom by in the reservation lane simply because they had reserved for a later sailing made me so angry that here I am, at home, still spitting mad 8 hours later.
Not to complain incessantly, but once I got on the ferry, the only seats were at the back, facing the setting sun – which I do love, but having spent four hours sitting on the highway in 30 degree heat, I was not so keen to embrace – and some live entertainment in the form of an amplified celtic duo playing two rows away from my head. I like celtic music. Fiddles and guitars make me swoon. But not today. You want to make the ferry ride more “entertaining?” (because ocean, mountains, blue sky and other passengers aren’t entertaining enough, I guess?) How about instead of paying that duo to play, put more money into reorganizing your so-called reservation service and then open up a goddamn pub on that boat. By the time I was safely in my seat, I wanted a cold beer so bad I nearly bit off the head of a small child, despite her adorable clapping in time to “Whiskey In the Jar.”
Usually I travel as a foot passenger but I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach a ferry ride at all for quite a while. I think for future trips to the island, I will take the money I would have spent on reservation fees, overpriced burgers and bottles of water and spend it on the Helijet.
(No, don’t even get me started on the Hurler – I mean HARBOURLynx. Damn that boat can surf.)
BC Ferries: You done been smote.
