5 hour sailing wait, nanaimo to vancouver.
What a drag.
This is a very nice ferry terminal. The ferry that docks here is pretty nice too.
It provides heavily subsidised travel for all the wealthy and not so wealthy retirees on Denman and Hornby Islands, who enjoy complaining endlessly about the service, potential interruptions of the service, potential increases in the cost of the service.
Now that the free fares for the over 65 crowd are coming to an end, you may expect the howls of indignation to grow. Half fare is too much! They will cry. We can't afford it! They will cry. How will we get groceries?! They will cry. How will we get back and forth to our million dollar properties? It's an outrage!
They also love complaining about all things coal-mine related, but that is a different story. The Denman and Hornby residents made their killing in the 70's and 80's. Many of them still undoubtedly have resource industry based assets in their retirement portfolios. But God forbid any one try making a living now it's 2013.
Sorry, back to the Ferry.
I personally have enjoyed several rather pleasant rides on the nice ferry, and think the retirees should thank their lucky stars for the service they get, which I help pay for even when I'm at home.
Finally, google had this ferry confused with the one at Swartz Bay for a while, and so, quite a few of the comments here will be confusing to read.
I purchased a walk-on ticket to Hornby Island and found the waiting room locked!trying to rectify this by getting in touch with customer service I got#1we will get back to you .#2in will take at least 2 weeks for a reply.#3 was we fear for the safety of the females when they walk down to the well lit room with paying customers right close.Jeff West must be more concerned for the staff than a senior with 2 canes standing in a freezing gale.should be a easy fix?
We arrive at the ferry dock On Vancouver island With 15 minutes before our ferry left. We then paid 95$ for the 10 minutes ferry across the channel and parked in line at the gate, and they over sold the ferry without telling us so we had to wait in our parking line for an hour until the next ride was available. The staff was very unfriendly and the ticket was non-negotiable however, we had wanted the 3pm ride and were placed on the 4pm without our knowledge ahead of time. Very disappointed in this service.
An absolute rip off.Tourists get ripped off once, but those who need to use it everyday, well they get ripped off everyday. Terrible. Better off finding water taxis, float planes, bridges
Some of the other posters here have a lot to say but little local knowledge. First off, there is hourly public bus service from the Tsawwassen Terminal to the Canada Line trains. Second, the Washington State Ferries do run to Sidney, BC, and have for many years. Third, the BC Ferries website is easy to navigate once you know your way around. And finally, I'm quite surprised to hear an American say Canada is expensive. When I go to the States, I find it expensive. I guess it's just a matter of what's familiar to you.