— from Laurel Rust, Orcas Ferry Terminal —
The ferry reservation system begins January 5, 2015. This does NOT mean you have to make reservations to travel off-island, only that it is an option. However, how traffic is handled at the Orcas ferry terminal will change starting January 5.
EVERY vehicle coming through the landing MUST now stop at the booth in the upper lot, no matter if you are traveling inter island or to Anacortes, or if you have reservations or not. This includes medical priorities and folks who need the elevator or restroom. Please slow down and be alert as you turn off the county road and enter the access lanes into the upper lot– there may be a ferry worker out on the road or in the access lanes sorting out traffic. This includes anyone driving through the access lanes who is not going to the ferry.
To expedite things, please have your reservation info readily accessible and in hand.
Please use the county road to enter the access lanes, rather than coming up the hill by the hotel. We need to keep everyone in line in the order in which they arrived, and coming up by the hotel will be considered cutting in line.
Medical priorities, please be aware that you will now need to make reservations through the reservation system, rather than relying on your medical priority status.
Please share this information with off island visitors.
How can you make a reservation for a Medical priority? If you don’t know you are going to be sick, it would be difficult
to reserve a place in line. I think there needs to be further
discussion on this or am I missing something.
Bill, the following is from the promo material passed out by WSF when they came to Orcas: “What if I have a medical emergency? 10% of the vessel is reserved for medical emergencies. Medical preference is given to passengers who find it detrimental to their health to wait in a ferry line”. Dwight Hutchinson, WSF Reservations Manager, spoke to the Orcas terminal crew and when questioned further on this, he said that “medical priorities will now be managed through the reservation system”. WSF is not legally required to get medical priorities on a fully-reserved boat if it is simply for a medical appointment (i.e., not an emergency. ) He also said customers can call customer service if they have a medical priority and they will then be able to get on a boat that is 90% reserved. I am copying over my notes here and agree with you that there needs to “further discussion” and clarity. Unfortunately, a small percentage of folks have abused the medical priority system over the years. The promo info also states that leaving 10% of each sailing open for non-reservations will “give us ample cushion” for medical priorities, i.e., medical emergencies.
Good job, Laurel, with the explanation. We can do this. Hopefully, with enough patience and humor, all of us will be able to continue to get on and off when necessary. Good luck to all of us! It’s going to be an interesting summer:)
Yes, thanks Laurel.
And speaking of reservations, I’m happy to talk to anyone who still needs help sorting out “accounts”, reservation protocol, and other goodies such as ferry alerts & space available on the WSF’s website. mshaworcas@yahoo.com. 376-3441
We are being urged to make reservations now though the constant need will come in a few months.
However, pasted below is a ferry alert from today, posted at 2:41:
“The 3:05 pm sailing from Anacortes to Lopez, Shaw and Orcas is full for vehicle traffic. The Anacortes terminal is now staging the 5:20 pm sailing to Lopez. the next sailing to Shaw and Orcas departs at 7:10 pm. Drivers are advised to arrive 60 to 90 minutes in advance. Walk-on space is available for all departures. “. The 2:10 boat for Anacortes-Friday Harbor was full by 1:30 .
Margot, Your info above refers to January 5, right?
Also, how can the 3:05 sailing be full if 30% of reservations are not available until 2 days before the sailing? Or are you referring to TODAY?
Anyone know if there is an RSS feed of the ferry alerts?
Marilee: My example of an alert was from Monday, when I read it. It was to show that, even now, we’re getting overloads.
And, yes, reservations may be made now for anything starting Jan. 5th.
Sitting in overload as we speak. The positive news is that I was just in line for the next boat. Under the new reservation system, I would likely have been stuck waiting for a spot on the late boat instead. Due to traffic and timing becasue i was 200 miles away when i started had I tried to make a reservation time I would have missed it.
Whoever said it is going to be an interesting summer is dead on.
Fortunately I did get to experience a reservation last Saturday when we took the PT-Keystone route. I certainly hope our system is smoother than that one. Only a single destination to deal with and it was 30 cars deep at the tool booth and workers had no idea where to put all the cars.
Should be fun!