Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries Reviews 

Absolutely Disgusted with Wightlink!

I’ve been a loyal customer of Wightlink for 50 YEARS, and I am absolutely outraged at how they’ve treated me. Due to an hour’s traffic delay — which was completely out of my control — I arrived at the port to find that they had cancelled my ticket and forced me to pay £39 just to get home. This included a £25 ‘amendment fee’ for a process that took them less than a minute to sort out!

No flexibility, no understanding, and certainly no loyalty reward for half a century of custom. Their staff were unhelpful, treating me like an inconvenience rather than a valued customer.

I understand that companies need to run to a schedule, but life happens — a little human decency and common sense would go a long way. Other ferry services manage to accommodate unavoidable delays with a degree of compassion. Wightlink clearly does not care.

Sadly, after this appalling experience, I will be looking for alternative ways to travel. I strongly urge others to think twice before booking with Wightlink — they’ve lost my trust completely.

The website can be quite a challenge and if you wish to make a very minor amendment, as I did, it is a hopeless case. I am very surprised to see an overall Trustpilot rating for Wightlink as high as 2 stars. My advice is to look elsewhere.

Train late and catamaran pulled out with 25 people running to it tonight. 7 minutes all we asked! Public service not. Thanks Wightlink. Make living IOW a problem.

2nd time in a week catching the 5:40am passenger ferry from iow to ports. 1st ferry of the day so no option to get an earlier one. Both times ferry is 20 mins late meaning I missed my connecting train both times to London.

No updates just a screen. They don’t care and no explanation. I wouldn’t mind if other options but at 5am there is only this, they know this and they still don’t care.

Terrible company and try everything to not use them

We came to say our final goodbyes to a much loved family member on 7.June. The St Clare crew were fantastic and respectful. Even driving into the port (we came in several cars from far and wide in England and Wales) we we diverted into one lane so we could be together as a family at this poignant time. Thank you all.

Beware the Tesco Clubcard / Wightlink scam
Tesco supposedly offer double the value of your clubcard vouchers if you book Wightlink ferries with them. Yes the Tesco part of double the face value is correct, BUT. when you use the link provided, you are given an overinflated price. Yes you do save a bit, but nowhere near what is being advertised
Booked two return tickets Ryde to Portsmouth on the passenger ferry.
Price on Wightlink site £44
Price on Wightlink site using the link from Tesco Clubcard £62.80
Absolute rip off.

For what you done for us as a family today we cannot thank you enough.. staff were absolutely amazing xx thank you all xx

Wightlink is very expensive for what it offers. Unfortunately, I found the experience didn’t justify the cost. A ferry to France costs around £40, yet the much shorter Portsmouth to Fishbourne route is priced at approximately £100 one way. Given the short distance, the fare seems unreasonable. I would expect either a lower price or a significantly improved service at this rate.

Those of you who have been on the Wightlink will understand the attitude of some of the people directing cars onto the deck, not the majority, just a very small minority need to get some anger management help. Most of the time not an issue and, to be fair, I appreciate they need to be firm because some people new to the experience won't know where to go
I've always had a pleasant experience personally.

This afternoon. Directed to the left lane, I'm moving along and there is a little pigeon in my lane, so I move slightly to the middle, I'm not going to squasha pigeon. No cars next to me. No issue, or so I thought. The man who told me, no, actually the man who abruptly pointed which lane to get in, looks up the ferry and literally screams and I mean screams down the ferry at me to get back in my lane. I understand basic direction. There was a reason for it. I should have known as soon as I got on by the strict movement of the finger over to the left lane he means business. Laughable.
Anyway when I got to the top I apologised to his colleague, explained the situation and he was lovely.
To be honest there are some truly lovely members of staff on the Wightlink, they've always been very kind and polite. This man, the screaming man who absolutely lost it, must have assumed I hadn't respected his authority was an embarrassment to the company and to himself.

It was the 15:20 Portsmouth sailing. Never experienced it before.
This rating is purely based on my experience of him, however he was representing the company.

Do better pointy finger screaming man.

Just had to call Wightlink to amend a booking, to say I am shocked is an understatement.
The call was answered in much less than sixty seconds and the young woman that I spoke to could not have been more pleasant. I am afraid I did not catch her name I was expecting the usual customer service rudeness and unpleasantness but to my surprise I got above and beyond customer service and the shock "twisted my melon"! Man!
My problem was solved in less than three minutes, which in this day and age is phenomenal by usual customer services standards, well done Wightlink. My booking number is 20537244, please find my call handler, give her a big pat on the back and a pay rise, she cheered my day up.
For all you complaining about the price of this service, you have to pay for class, alternatively though, you could buy some water wings and swim, also take into account more unscrupulous owners could be charging you double!
This is between my thirtieth or fortieth time using the Isle of Wight ferry and I have not once had need to complain.

Five Stars - Smooth, Reliable, and Professional Service with Wightlink

I had a great experience travelling with Wightlink Ferries. From booking to arrival, everything was smooth and well-organised. The check-in process was quick and efficient, and the staff were friendly, professional, and genuinely helpful throughout the journey.

The ferry itself was clean, comfortable, and ran right on time. There were plenty of seating options, a well-stocked café, and a relaxed atmosphere that made the trip feel easy and enjoyable. It’s clear that Wightlink values its passengers and takes pride in offering a reliable service.

Compared to other travel options I’ve used, Wightlink stands out for its efficiency and customer care. I’ll definitely be using them again and highly recommend them for anyone travelling to or from the Isle of Wight.

Was going to book a weekend over the IOW. After getting a price for the ferry, it was cheaper to fly to Malaga. That's not even a joke but the IOW ferry costs are. That's what a route monopoly costs!

Service is fine. It's just the price that gets me. £172 return is an absurd and unreasonable amount of money and they have the monopoly....feel sorry for the IOW residents

Used the ferry 4 times in 2 days- brilliant service from friendly efficient and professional team. Prompt arrival and departure so absolutely delighted and would highly recommend them to anyone travelling to the isle of wight

St Clare Ferry was cancelled at short notice due to multiple engine malfunctions. The initial support in the email was very much, "oops, tough luck" and I ended up panic buying an on the day ticket for Yarmouth to Lymington for 11pm as that was the earliest available departure from IOW, despite having a hotel booked in Portsmouth and originally being booked to travel from Fishbourne at 5pm.

Having called customer services and not being able to get through, a stranger overheard my conversation and provided me with a different number for Wightlink. After a five minute call, I was booked on a ferry from Yarmouth that was only three hours later than the original booking and my on the day purchase was marked for a full refund.

As it turned out, the St Clare was fixed ahead of our original sailing time so I could have avoided any issue if I had just ignored my emails for the day! I did not receive an email to tell me that my original sailing was available again, and only noticed after checking the Wightlink website on the way to Yarmouth, to then discover that our original St Clare Ferry had departed on time 20 minutes earlier, and that all original bookings had been reinstated.

We were only 10 minutes from Fishbourne at this point so we turned around and headed to the port. The attendant was happy for us to board the next Ferry (which had very limited availability), given the whole debacle that we explained to him.

If you are confused reading this, imagine how we felt on the day! The conclusion was that we ended up travelling one hour later than planned from our original terminal to Portsmouth. The support on the day was appalling to be honest and if it was not for a kind stranger giving me a different phone number for Wightlink, I have no idea how the day would have gone.

After the fact, however, the service has been excellent. I received a full refund for both the original return journey and my panic buy, as well as a £20 voucher for future crossings, all without having to request this.

I do feel the support on the day should have been better than "we've cancelled your ferry. Don't travel to the port", and the number I called should have been in the email so that people didn't feel abandoned. It didn't turn out too badly for us but I can see from the reviews that others were not so 'lucky".

I have travelled with Wightlink several times before and never had any issues so whilst I think this was handled poorly at the time, I would still travel with them and hope they will take customer feedback on board to make future issues less stressful all round.

Delays today due to weather conditions from Fishbourne to Portsmouth which could have been for me an absolute disaster for me travelling as a nurse.
Although I waited 45 minutes to check in.
I asked Sally team leader today if there was anyway she could get me on as a priority .
She did just that and handled this very stressful and difficult situation with utmost professionalism and care and got me on the next ferry as priority.
Thanks Sally it is much appreciated.

I had to go from the continental port and subjected to my car being searched to board a ferry to my home on the isle of wight. Absolutely ridiculous what on earth for they think I was carrying. Services severely disrupted due to constant so called improvements oh and hiking the fare to pay for it. The fares are a joke. I paid £120 to go across for 2 days. As a resident we should get a larger discount. But please 🙏 above all stop servicing your ferries at the busiest periods . It makes no sense and neither do your prices. I have to travel at midnight or 1 am to warrant travelling. I am 72 years old i dnt want to have to do that

Abysmal service 20th 21st feb 2025 Portsmouth to Fishbourne. Ferry cancelled with no option to rebook. Had to travel via Lymington 44 hours later.
Only one ferry running to Ports mouth, St Faith ,yet Wight Sun sits idle in Lymington!!!!!
Half term and Victoria of Wight having scheduled service
Could not get message sent via their
" contact us" email

You are a joke of a company.... Cancelled crossing, can't get across to the Isle of Wight... Yet again. No compensation for driving for an hour to the ferry port.... Wightlink can't even be bothered to answer these reviews, it just reinforces their values tbh

Both Ferry Companies that sail to the Isle of Wight are the true pirates of the water
I had a cancellation notification of 3 hours delays according to the T and C’s I can have a full refund and rebook however when I tried to do this I was told I’m only allowed a 50% refund
Wightlink and Red Funnel have been doing this for years robbing IOW Residents as well as holiday makers extortion at its very best and no one in Government or local politics does anything about it