Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries Reviews 

I would give no stars if I could, absolute shambles of a company in this day and age.. Arrived on 8:22 train at Portsmouth harbour to find the ferry had left, didn't bother waiting for passengers on train, is there no coordination between the services? then to make matters worse not another cat until 21:45!!!!! Unbelievable what we have to put up with in this day and age.

Please be aware you’ll get no refund if for whatever reason you can’t make your journey.

Unbelievable extortionate thieves over 300 pounds for one adult and a small campervan. Jobsworth ticket clerk trying her hardest to escalate the cost and holding me 2 hours late whilst they decide how much more to charge me. Utter disgrace, the grey haired lady is out to squeeze every penny they can put of you and then when I exclaimed 'phuck' at missing my ferry and the tripled cost threatened to not let me sail for saying a swear word. Absolutely disgusting thieves run despicably.

The corrupt UK government needs to cap the fares for these jokers. £10 per person per journey, £20 per car per journey MAXIMUM. If you cant provide a service for those numbers hang your heads in shame. The islanders detest your offerings and look forward to a day where your company has ceased trading. Your staff are jumped up jerks replicating that of your dishonest shareholders. Youve been warned, your time is coming to an end......

Yet again family members have had to cancel their trip over because of ridiculous fares :/
Greedy Wightlink sending ferries with empty spaces rather than allow people with less available funds to travel.
Elderly and disabled people are being isolated at times we need a little support and company !
MERRY CHRISTMAS SCROOGELINK !

Should gave sailed at 10am on 29th November, however there were cancellations - usually one ferry an hour - reduced to 1 every 2 hours. We arrived in plenty of time to board (on a coach trip), however vehicles - including coaches - were allowed to board before us! Then told we could board the 1200 ferry - again - other coaches and vehicles that had arrived later than us were allowed to board - finally allowed on the 2pm ferry. Due to our coach driver's driving time and this delay - arrived home over 5 hours later than anticipated.

We travelled with Wightlink early November for a week's holiday, we arrived early to the port in Portsmouth and put on a earlier ferry which was great. The staff were all very efficient and friendly. On board was lovely on the Victoria of Wight roomy and a smooth crossing, in no time the announcement was to return to your car, unloading was efficient and quick. Also on our return a week later again we arrived early and was loaded on to a waiting ferry which left about 5 minutes later. I can not fault Wightlink I recommend checking with your accommodation to see if you can get a discount.

Good Lord. The prices for the short journey from Portsmouth to Fishbourne return for June 2025 are just mind boggling high. I'm afraid that after 50 years of our holidaying on the IOW it has come to an end. Over £350 for a car and two occupants is ridiculous. This monopoly needs to be sorted. Per mile of sea this has to be one of the most expensive ferry journeys in the world, if not the most.

Helpful, kind staff. Such an easy company to deal with.

I arrived early for both journeys, but it was no problem they just let me take an earlier ferry.

It’s nothing short of outrageous that an Island Resident with a Multilink Pass is not able to travel with a bicycle on the roof of their car using their pass as a form of payment. To be told I have to purchase a ticket at full price is for want of a better word “disgraceful”.

I bought return fares for two people on the WL fastcat for our holiday. I then phoned WL and amended the time of one person's outbound journey. This evening, my friend and myself returned from holiday and needed to use the pre-booked return fares to be told the barcode was only for one person. Two WL personnel attempted to deal with the situation - one insisting we had only ONE barcode for ONE return fare. At that time, the fastcat was boarding and after a very long return journey, I was desperate not to miss it. One member of staff appeared absolutely determined to deny us boarding whilst I became more and more distressed. Eventually the other member of staff overruled and said we could board. What a totally unnecessary affair and a very upsetting end to our holiday. Wightlink - I hope you're ashamed - absolutely disgraceful behaviour...............thank goodness you had ONE efficient human being on your staff!

Never run on time, queue was unbelievably long despite there being no cars in the lanes. Unhelpful staff, who were also incredibly rude. Not to mention overpriced.

I arrive half hour early to catch the 7am whitelink ferry to Portsmouth, exapecting to be across the Solent by 8am as advised ion timetable, No coffee, drinks or food available as the tills had broken
Only half seating area available as water was leaking into lounge floor
Ferry left an hour late with no explanation as to why, just sat in dock fully loaded
Got to Portsmouth an hour late only for the ferry to be stopped by harbour master in Portsmouth because wightlink had missed its entry time into the harbour.
I ended up arriving an hour and half late and missed my planned appointment by there incompetence

Our ferry was cancelled 6 minutes before it was due to sail with a member of staff announcing ‘this boat isn’t going anywhere…’

The excuse today was ‘a family emergency for a critical member of the crew’

It’s surprising that no one saw a critical member of the crew rushing off the boat…

And why did they not inform the customers before we traveled to the harbour… ?

What a terrible way to treat customers

Shocking service

Just another unchecked rip off uk company akin to any other rogue trader just backed by a bit of box ticking to conform

When on board etc OK it is the cost ridiculous high Look at some of the prices it can be cheaper to go to France I live on the island be nice to have NOT in school times so we can have a really cheap trip you say you think about the people on the island you might ONLY to see how much you can rip us off

I travel to the island regularly to visit my elderly parents, and because I want to make the most of my visits to them, I always take my car across to help with chores and outings. It routinely costs me over £200 pounds to traverse the three miles of water between Lymington and Yarmouth which is, quite frankly, obscene and unjustifiable. For context, In April I flew to (and from) Rome and it cost me less than a weekend return to the Isle of Wight. Wightlink do not provide any discount or assistance for mainland family members of island residents.
I have occasionally tried switching to Red Funnel as their fares are sometimes marginally less disgusting than Wightlink's, although not by much, however that ferry adds an hour each way to my journey so not a viable option.
The ferry companies are holding the Island residents and their families to ransom.
Despicable.

Easy to book online. Good price for one minivan and 9 passengers return.
Staff were friendly. We actually arrived early on both crossings and were able to travel earlier than our booking time. Probably won't return to Isle of Wight but if we did we would definitely use Wightlink. The only teeny negative for me was that you couldn't use cash onboard. Obviously that wouldn't be a problem for most people.

100% recommend wightlink for using to get to IOW. Easy booking system online and the system works really well at port. I changed our return ferry to a day earlier and the new return ferry was cheaper therefore admin change was incorporated so I had nothing else to pay. Very good customer service on the phone. No stroppiness at all! 100% recommend.

Holy Mackeral! Wightlink wants £347.25 for crossing 5 miles from Portsmouth to IOW. Is this for real? We're booked for Devon instead. PS. Came back from Europe on P&O to France in March for £178. Love the IOW, but we won't be used as a cash cow.