Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferries Reviews 

I was born on the island and all my family live there. We are unable to visit our family regularly because of the astronomical fares that Wightlink now charge. £170 return average is beyond many people’s pockets. Add that to the fact that the ferries are often cancelled, sometimes at the last minute. What used to be an excellent service for islanders, their family and visitors to the island has become a prime example of capitalist greed. This will stop people having holidays on the island which will have a devastating affect on the economy. It’s much cheaper to cross the channel in the summer. Disgraceful company

Please could you inform your staff that the Hoverbus does not go to the car ferry. If your Catamaran not running you should arrange for taxis to take passengers from Portsmouth Harbour BR instead of sending on a detour of Southsea. Fortunately I am able to walk and told all the people waiting at bus stop L Hoverbus towards Southsea to walk with me to the car ferry. The Wightlink member of staff just wanted to get rid of us. A lot of the passengers had rail and Wightlink tickets. Not me I go By hover which wasn't running yesterday at all due to bad weather. Your app also said the 115 cat was running which I pointed out to Mr Friendly to change. Since lockdown (when you cancelled all the catamarans) I always go by Hover when available. And I travel twice a week by Hover no Bover.

Always have a great crossing with Wightlink and they really helped when we needed help with transporting our doggy who need room for his steps to and from the car. Can't fault our last few trips at all.

How you get away with charging what you do is shocking. Monopolies commission should be looking at you,how you can charge £170 quid for a return ferry is disgusting. They should allow other operators not just you

Rather rude crew member in the pet area, asking me to get my pet off the carpeted area. ?? Don’t put carpets in the pet area if you don’t want them used!! I don’t mind rules and regs but there is a polite way to be asked (I am the customer I think) ?

Epitome of a monopoly. Overpriced, with awful and belligerent customer service. Would say avoid at all costs but it's impossible for some. Time to build a bridge!

blue badge passenger. Excellent service on the 11 am ferry on the 23rd of December, Designated line for boarding and parked by the lift. Returned on the 26th even though we had booked for the 27th. changing the booking was very easy and the same Blue Badge service as going out. Thank you Valerie Riley (booking under the name John Riley)

If you’re a pet owner don’t be fooled. You pay an absolute fortune for a sailing and then there’s only one deck you can use. Then there’s a sign saying don’t use this side of the boat, go next to the kids play area, so I sat there and was told to move again. For the price of a ticket my dog should by all rights been invited to take the Captains chair!!!
Over priced rubbish!

Never had a problem travelling with Wightlink the staff have always been very supportive and offered solutions to my travel arrangements when I have spoke with them on the phone. The onboard staff are just as friendly and kind and approachable. The newly refurbished ferries are much nicer and it is a very relaxed atmosphere when travelling.

The people at Yarmouth are not very bright, the person in the box told at least a hundred cars they could get on the early ferry so we all queued up and was not allowed on , why on earth he didn’t say no to everyone I don’t no , what a dinlo !!!!!!!

If I could give zero stars, I would. The staff are aggressive and Wightlink oversubscribed our sailing, only to then blame us for not leaving longer than the 30 minutes necessary to board. That we arrived, 35 minutes before our sailing, to a sea of cars - every lane was full - was apparently down to a busy crossing. Mmm... When we asked why we weren't allowed on the sailing we were booked on, I was told that only those that had arrived before us - presumably for other sailings - had priority (over my booked sailing). Why should she let me board, the Wightlink staff member growled, before another person, who had arrived 5 minutes before me, for the same sailing? Er... surely, if we are both booked on the same sailing, we should both be on the same boat? Unless of course, Wightlink had mistakenly sold too many tickets for the same crossing? Surely not. The male member of staff actually leaned into our car through my window, which I didn't overly appreciate, to tell my partner in great detail how us missing the sailing we had booked a month in advance wasn't his fault. When I pointed out we would now miss our ongoing connections, I was told I was cutting it fine in the first place! Strongly suggest, Wightlink, that you train your team better. As a paying customer I do not expect to be spoken to in the manner I was, and a little honesty and transparency, as a company, wouldn't go amiss. If you've sold too many tickets don't kid on it's my fault for not getting to the boat on time.

I’d give 0 reviews if I could. £30.40 for a foot passenger is disgusting. For my brother and I to visit our disabled mum who lives on the island, it’s over £60. I do not understand how they are allowed to keep upping the prices like this I have written to the council and to the correct authorities as they have the monopoly for the crossing so they are putting people in a situation where they can not afford to visit family members. They should be disgusted with them selves the amount of money they take.

Arrived at Portsmouth terminal in plenty of time for my 18h40 ferry. It was shown on the notice board as "on time". The next thing I knew was that the notice board changed and showed my ferry as cancelled! The ferry arrived at the port, unloaded, and promptly moved to the offshore mooring. I had to wait over an hour for the next ferry and that was 10 minutes late in leaving. No apology or explanation, but I can only surmise that there was not enough traffic (looking around the terminal) to make the run profitable so they just cancelled it. This would not happen with Red Funnel. What an absolute joke of a company Wightlink is.

You have a half hour window to reach the terminal. Too early and you are sent away. Too late and your ticket is cancelled and it’s pot luck if you get on. Miss the ferry and expect a rebook fee if you buy a budget ticket. Useless, firm. Lacks compassion and understanding. Pirates of the Solent.

Ferry was stopped due to mechanical fault as we departed, after a massive faff we returned and unloaded. After disembarkation we waited an hour and was put on another ferry however because of these delays I missed a crucial part of a course and had to return back to the ferry terminal where I then had to wait 4 hours (having to pay for parking because wightlink wouldn’t let me sit at the terminal). My biggest gripe here is not once was there an apology.

BEST CASH ONLY AS YOUR TOKE MINE £100 BANK CARD AND TAKE LONG TIME REFUND DUE AFFECT OUR HOLIDAY. THANK YOU A MUCH!!!!!! WE ARE STRUGGLING TO BUYING STUFF HOLIDAY BUT WE CANT NOW. YOUR FAULT!

Cross Solent travel with Wightlink has sadly become completely unaffordable for the average Isle of Wight resident. The reliability of services is also poor… every other week there’s some drama with essential crew not turning up to work, delays or cancellations. Wightlink is just one terribly managed company with expensive crossings you simply cannot rely on. Glad to be leaving the island for good next year.

Booked tickets on 1st April 2023 (perhaps that should have been an indication about the joke they call service) Filled out accessibility requirements for the journey as being near to lift and needing wheelchair and received a disabled person's discount and acknowledgement email of the requirements. Ticket clearly states "If you have any special requirements you have not already notified us about call etc" . Check in guy Portsmouth said there was nothing on computer but gave us a disabled spot. On return journey again no reservation and no disabled spots. Check in did not give a toss. Went down to service desk nobody home !! Had word with staff in high vis jacket one lady in charge of loading said complain on the website (we all know what round bin those are filed in.) Other guy arrogantly said "Well you should have booked then" and I know I had. Given there was a problem there was no attempt made to get us near a lift in a normal lane which could have helped. We were dropped in the middle of the boat and my wife who has no left hip, a 10cm short left leg, spinal fusion, and artificial right knee, no thyroid, half an airway, one kidney and ITP, an auto immune disease which means if she falls or hits herself she bleeds internally. She was forced to walk the length of the boat between cars avoiding wing mirrors. I would not trust these staff to do anything involving client interaction they are a bunch of jobsworths knowing their management will not do anything about it but gouge the public with criminal pricing.

I live on the Isle of Wight, had to travel to Southampton for NHS surgery. Wightlink claim to offer 50% discount for such journeys.
They do not.
Due to complications I needed to stay quite late at the hospital and could not leave alone but only be released into someone's care. Luckily a friend in Lymington came to get me and took me back to stay at his house.
The next day, barely able to walk and in quite a lot of pain, I explained this to the gentleman at the wightlink ticket kiosk and he couldn't have been less helpful. He was uninterested, unsympathetic, uncaring and quite rude. He seemed to think it was all some kind of ruse to get a cheap fare and barely glanced at my hospital admission letter. He simply said, "I can't help you, you'll have to pay full price."
Really, really poor attitude. Shameful in fact. Wightlink's NHS discount scheme is a marketing facade to convince you they care about the community they serve. They do not. Wightlink care only about squeezing every penny they can from you and if that means taking advantage of people who are sick and in need, they will do it.
Disgusting.

Cancelled at short notice due to "technical" difficulties" if I was being cynical I might notice that the crossing after was still not full. Often prohibitively expensive thereby holding Islanders to random. Schemes for Islanders are very restricted. There is a clear need for regulation of both Wightlink and Red Funnel and also both companies should be subject to tender. Also if they were required to pay a penalty as compensation regarding cancellations other than for weather conditions, it might concentrate their minds