FERRY MEETING ALERT!! Saturday, November 1, at the Orcas Library, WSF representatives will give three “Reservations 101” presentations: 2:00–3:15p.m., 3:30–4:45 p.m., 5–6 p.m. This is a change from the previous announcement.
— by Margot Shaw —
They tell us that, to keep young minds and bodies, we should change our habits and routines: sit in a different seat at concerts, church, at the movies; use a different hand for doing simple tasks; do tasks in the reverse from previously planned. The Washington State Ferries is helping us stay young…..
Starting January 5, 2015, reservations will take effect for vehicle travel between Anacortes and the San Juan Islands. Reservations may be made starting December 2, 2014.
For the past two years, I’ve been a participant in the Washington State Ferries Reservations Partnership committee meetings, helping to develop the best plan for our complex Anacortes/San Juans ferry route. Many of the details are similar to the Port Townsend/Coupeville, Sydney and our own commercial reservation plans, which are already in place.
The challenge was to find a way to benefit the local population as well as to encourage tourists to spread out their planned sailings to the less “popular” sailing times. Thus the tiered release system, whereby percentages of the vehicle spaces available on any sailing will be released for reservations at different times.
The plan is:
- Two months before the sailing day, 30% of the spaces will be available to reserve.
- Two weeks before sailing, the next 30% will be available.
- Two days before sailing, the next 30% will be released.
- 10% will always be available for emergency vehicles, medical preferential load folks, and drive-ups (no reservation).
- Unlimited reservations, changes or cancellations may be made up to 5:00p.m. the day before sailing.
- One change or new reservation may be made after that, up to 3 hours before one’s chosen sailing.For complete details on the new system, go to TakeaFerry, where you can find several PDF documents. I’ve created ”A Few Key Points & Guide to the Website“ to help clarify the system.Reservation accounts may be set up now, on-line or by phone: www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries 1-888-8088-7977. or 205-515-3885. It is the same account as for the current reservation routes.
Margot,
With all due respect- I don’t need the ferry system to help keep me young.
I do appreciate all of the work that the members of the committee have put into this. Those people that have participated in this have put in countless hours to try do develop a system and they have indeed come up with one.
At this point we are all playing the what-if game and for every “what-if” the answer is the response is “we think”. The truth is no one has any idea how this will work or what the impact on island residents will be.
The comparison group of Sydney and Coupeville are in no way comparable to the needs of San Juan County residents because of geography and level of service available to those locations. Show me how to drive from Eastsound to Burlington without a ferry, and then we can compare our location to Coupville. Sydney is not a “service necessity” route- it is essentially a tourist ferry for the benefit of international vacationing.
Neither of those locations depend upon ferry usage as their sole means of connection and neither of those locations have the economic isolation and proportional seasonal influx that we do.
I look forward to the WSF presentation on this issue and hope that they have hired the technical and customer service staff necessary to help us through the sociological experiment that they are putting before us. Should be… Fun?
Margot:
Just one comment tonight.
Using the numbers from WSF site on availability dated October 2, the numbers are:
Orcas to Anacortes: 32 reservations to high/wide trucks.
101-107(depending on boat)car reservations
10 spaces for “preferential”
On Orcas/Lopez to Anacortes
And Orcas/Shaw to Lopez-
Sorry, a slip sent it.
O/S/L has no break down as to who gets which these preferentials. WSF earlier changed their preferential allotment from 5% per sailing to 10% because there were usually 5-7 vehicles on average for medical and other priority cars each sailing. That will leave us with about 3 to 5 vehicles for Orcas or O/S/L. Not many left for what they call “preferential” including drive ups. 3-5 vehicles when it is only Orcas to Anacortes. When we share O/S/L is that 3 for all three islands? OK, if Shaw and Lopez are going to be no reservations East-bound, what is to keep us from Orcas taking the interisland to Lopez, having lunch, and being assured of a spot to Anacortes?
The tourists are already scheduling their vacations to Orcas for the summer season. They won’t have a problem. They already know what they will be doing, say on July 10. Weddings are already scheduled. They know when they will be coming and going. A large part of the problem is that there is not enough space as there is. There should be an increase of sailings and spaces for Orcas. Not a reduction as is being considered. Reservations do not solve that problem.
Can we make multiple reservations for July 2 and 3 next month and put them on EBAY if we don’t use them?
To use Coupeville to Port Townsend as an example is disingenuous. They would not generally use each other to go to the doctor, dentist, other shopping, etc.
Guess that was more than one thing, sorry.
Thanks to Margot and the others who have worked on this. I agree, we don’t really know how it will work for us as residents (I live on Lopez). My main concern is that WSF will continue to listen and be willing to make changes so that it works for all.
The intent here is to get the message to as many people as possible before the rollout of the system. If one reads the article, the links and the material offered on the WSF website it explains the release system, designed especially because the San Juans are NOT comparable to Coupeville and Sydney.
WSF fully intends to monitor the project, and make adjustments where necessary, including the percentages “released” and held back for Preferential Loading & drive-ups.
Study the material….then ask questions.
Margot,
You have done an extremely good job of setting forth the pertinent facts and links. Regardless of what people think of the system itself, all of us should be grateful for your work on this system.
Thank you, Elly
I second Eleanor’s statement. Margot has done an excellent job of trying to get the information out and been very good at responding to questions with information as it comes available.
While we may not share the same opinion as to viability – I do appreciate her effort.
I work in Seattle often. Sometimes quite spontaneously. If I have to leave on the spur of the moment in the summer it might be impossible. Coming back is the same problem. 25% of the tickets should be held for same day reservations. The reservation system will help WSF not have to expand there facilities but we who live out here are going to be screwed.
Harvey: I suspect that, leaving & coming back on the “spur of the moment” in the summer becomes a problem, even now, when you have to hedge your bets and arrive at the landing at some intuitively designed time ahead of the sailing in order to get on. Rather than waste your time sitting 4-6 hours in line, when booking your reservation, even as late as up to 3 hours before the sailing you want, you can find out which sailing will give you a reservation; you secure that one, and travel off, or home. Seldom will you find that all boats will be 100% full on all sailing times. You would not be wanting to travel on the few that are…holiday weekends, leaving here on a Sunday, or coming home Thurs., Fri. or Sat.
I agree that the 10% for drive ups is way too low and it is now possible to get off the island if you need to at the last minute if you are willing to put in the wait time. With the new system it may well be impossible during the popular summer months. I think that the committee has done residents a huge disservice by agreeing that 10% is in any way a reasonable number. Sure, the WSF started at 5% and the committee got them to compromise all the way to 10%, but that doesn’t make 10% fair or reasonable!
Merry
First, thank you to Margot for the work you have put in on this, though I have concerns about how this is going to work. My comment involves a discrepancy between the information you are giving and what it says on the website. You say the first tier is 2 months prior to the sailing day, but the website says 1-2 months prior to the first day of the season. The current seasons run from less than 3 months to nearly 4 months long. This would mean, as I read it, that 30% could get reserved not 2 months but 5 months or more before a sailing date. Am I right?
I go back and forth every week for the past four years, to get to school in Bellingham. I walk on and take public transportation back and forth to my school. I have spent a lot of time at the ferry landing and on the ferries. My questions concern the issues of access that are implicit when you begin to rely on credit and debit “card” methods of paying for essential services.
How will the system work for people who don’t use debit or credit cards? As well as those who do not have a cell phone, if say for example a local family wishes to come home from a trip where the exact time of arrival to the ferry landing is not or cannot be preplanned? I think one of the problems with reservations is that is gives preference to those who already have these forms of transactional convenience. By doing this, we have yet another reason to use credit and debit cards for transactions (and furthermore will pay a percentage for that). Has this been discussed?
Creating a system to access the public highway that requires having a credit or debit card in order to be equally-accessible, reminds me of how when the walk-on ticket booth is un-staffed in the winter months, youths and seniors, and anyone who doesn’t have a credit or debit card, must walk up to the vehicle toll booths (usually at night, the length of a football field at least..) if they want to purchase a ticket. I have seen people miss the ferry because of not having a credit card in this situation already. And what if the internet goes down? Will all of the ticket booths now be fully staffed with extended hours so that people who don’t pay electronically can purchase tickets? How will WSF maintain fairness between those who pay electronically and those who don’t? What percentage of collected tolls will go to the card companies, and who is responsible for that cost?
Natasha: I hope you read this and give me a call 376-3441, or e-mail me mshaworcas@yahoo.com. I’d love to get your observations from this past year, when we’ve seen such an increase in ferry use, particularly vehicle traffic.
Your comment shows you are confusing two ferry-related tasks: purchasing a ticket and making a reservation.
Ticket purchase will continue as it has always been…either on-line or at the terminal/ticket booth whether it is for car & driver or passenger/walk-on.
With a reservation, the need for a credit/bank card is for charging a no-show fee if the reservation is not used during the day it’s planned for. Remember that a reservation is for a VEHICLE SPACE on the ferry.