BlueBridge can suck it
I am at motherfucking home.
I am supposed to be in Wellington.
Why am I not in Wellington?
Bluebridge motherfucking Ferries.
This is a really long story and I am really tired, but I'll try to recount what happened anyway. If it's not coherent... sorry.
So, yesterday our ferry was scheduled to depart Picton at 2PM and arrive in Wellington at 5:20PM. Jason and I normally take the Interislander (which is the same route, just a different company & apparently much nicer ferries for about the same price), but since we'd never taken BlueBridge we thought we'd give it a go.
We get on the ferry, and find a seat outside on the top deck. We realized as soon as we got on that this ferry is a lot jankier than the Interislander, but whatever, it's still got plenty of seats and it's all good. We're happy to be up on the top deck, taking in views of the gorgeous Marlborough Sounds before the boat gets out into the Cook Strait. From our seat, we had a clear view of the smokestack. When the ferry engine started, there was a loud POW, like a gunshot only way louder, and a ton of black smoke came out of the smokestack. It cleared up shortly after, so we just figured it was an older boat and it did that every time it started up. And maybe it does, but it certainly wasn't a good sign for what was to come.
Not quite an hour into our trip, way out in the Sounds not far from Cook Strait, the power suddenly cut out. By this time we'd moved inside, and the cafe where we were sitting went dark, and the boat started drifting. Uh... really not good. The staff didn't seem terribly alarmed so we figured we'd be back on our way after a bit of tinkering. After a delay and a lot of drifting towards land, the captain announces that they've got engine problems and have dropped anchor. Oh boy.
On top of this, during the wait for them to get everything going again, Jason and I both have to go to the loo, and find them to be in horrible condition. According to Jason, the one toilet in the men's bathroom had the toilet seat torn off and on the floor. In the women's room, I find one toilet in exactly the same state, and the only in-tact toilet has shit on the seat. So I pretty much decide then and there that I'm never taking a BlueBridge ferry again.
An hour and a half later, they finally get the engine started again, but the captain decides that we're heading back to Picton because they were still having problems. By the time we'd get back to Picton at 5:30, we should have been in Wellington. At this point I try calling Sounds Air, a small airline that flies out of the teeny-tiny barely existent Picton Airport on the slim chance that they'd have a flight, and got no answer. We were feeling pretty annoyed, but they announced plans to put us on the next ferry at 7PM -- so even though it was going to be a really big waste of time and a lot of inconvenience, we thought we would at least get to Wellington -- albeit 5 hours late.
When we finally get back to Picton, they get everyone off the ship and take us back to the terminal. The passengers are then made to queue for new boarding passes, and everyone's really starting to get annoyed. Once we get up to the counter we find out that they're only offering 50% refunds, and actually they can't give us any sort of refund because we booked through a third party -- so it's our problem. Fine. You suck and we're never travelling with you again, but at least we're getting on the 7PM ferry.
So, 6:30 rolls around and they're not putting us on the shuttle for the 7PM ferry. Then it's 7:00 and nothing is happening. Everyone is crowded into the waiting area, where there's only a broken vending machine and people are getting hungry. Finally one of the employees makes an announcement that they're unloading cars from the ferry that just came in, and we should be getting on soon. We wait... and wait... and then it's 8:00 and still NOTHING. Through all of this Jason and I really tried to be good sports, because sometimes this shit just happens when you travel. But by this point, with the way they were treating us, we were starting to get angry, and so was everyone else. Finally a manager shows up, and she makes an announcement that they're "trying" for a loading time of 8:45. Jason asks if they'll be feeding us (because if we have to buy shitty overpriced food on the ferry for dinner, that cancels out the 50% refund), and of course they won't. And we have learned by now that the so-called 8:45 loading time will turn into 9:30 and who knows when we'd get to Welly at this rate. We were also starting to suspect that the reason for the delay was actually that they were trying to fix the broken ferry to put us back on it. All of this in addition to the fact that they were lying to us about when we'd be able to get on, was just too fucked up to put up with anymore.
So we cancelled our trip. It's against BlueBridge policy, but thankfully the manager was a reasonable person and had the authority to give us a full refund for both legs of our trip (regardless of the third party booking), even though she could probably get fired for it. But even the fact that she was reasonable did not make up for how we were treated for the 6 hours prior.
We got our bag back, got a taxi to our car, and went and got some dinner. In Picton. 10 hours after we'd left our house. We ended up staying in a motel there for the night, because by that point I was too exhausted and upset to make the 2 hour drive home in the dark.
We're going to reschedule our trip, and fly to Welly either this coming weekend or the next. So we'll get there... eventually.
I will never, ever, EVER use BlueBridge again. And I am going to tell everyone I know about it, so they don't use them either.
Also?
We found out later that the ferry we were on was bought from a Mediterranean company AFTER IT HAD SUNK. And was refurbished.
Yeah.
So that's my weekend so far.
I am supposed to be in Wellington.
Why am I not in Wellington?
Bluebridge motherfucking Ferries.
This is a really long story and I am really tired, but I'll try to recount what happened anyway. If it's not coherent... sorry.
So, yesterday our ferry was scheduled to depart Picton at 2PM and arrive in Wellington at 5:20PM. Jason and I normally take the Interislander (which is the same route, just a different company & apparently much nicer ferries for about the same price), but since we'd never taken BlueBridge we thought we'd give it a go.
We get on the ferry, and find a seat outside on the top deck. We realized as soon as we got on that this ferry is a lot jankier than the Interislander, but whatever, it's still got plenty of seats and it's all good. We're happy to be up on the top deck, taking in views of the gorgeous Marlborough Sounds before the boat gets out into the Cook Strait. From our seat, we had a clear view of the smokestack. When the ferry engine started, there was a loud POW, like a gunshot only way louder, and a ton of black smoke came out of the smokestack. It cleared up shortly after, so we just figured it was an older boat and it did that every time it started up. And maybe it does, but it certainly wasn't a good sign for what was to come.
Not quite an hour into our trip, way out in the Sounds not far from Cook Strait, the power suddenly cut out. By this time we'd moved inside, and the cafe where we were sitting went dark, and the boat started drifting. Uh... really not good. The staff didn't seem terribly alarmed so we figured we'd be back on our way after a bit of tinkering. After a delay and a lot of drifting towards land, the captain announces that they've got engine problems and have dropped anchor. Oh boy.
On top of this, during the wait for them to get everything going again, Jason and I both have to go to the loo, and find them to be in horrible condition. According to Jason, the one toilet in the men's bathroom had the toilet seat torn off and on the floor. In the women's room, I find one toilet in exactly the same state, and the only in-tact toilet has shit on the seat. So I pretty much decide then and there that I'm never taking a BlueBridge ferry again.
An hour and a half later, they finally get the engine started again, but the captain decides that we're heading back to Picton because they were still having problems. By the time we'd get back to Picton at 5:30, we should have been in Wellington. At this point I try calling Sounds Air, a small airline that flies out of the teeny-tiny barely existent Picton Airport on the slim chance that they'd have a flight, and got no answer. We were feeling pretty annoyed, but they announced plans to put us on the next ferry at 7PM -- so even though it was going to be a really big waste of time and a lot of inconvenience, we thought we would at least get to Wellington -- albeit 5 hours late.
When we finally get back to Picton, they get everyone off the ship and take us back to the terminal. The passengers are then made to queue for new boarding passes, and everyone's really starting to get annoyed. Once we get up to the counter we find out that they're only offering 50% refunds, and actually they can't give us any sort of refund because we booked through a third party -- so it's our problem. Fine. You suck and we're never travelling with you again, but at least we're getting on the 7PM ferry.
So, 6:30 rolls around and they're not putting us on the shuttle for the 7PM ferry. Then it's 7:00 and nothing is happening. Everyone is crowded into the waiting area, where there's only a broken vending machine and people are getting hungry. Finally one of the employees makes an announcement that they're unloading cars from the ferry that just came in, and we should be getting on soon. We wait... and wait... and then it's 8:00 and still NOTHING. Through all of this Jason and I really tried to be good sports, because sometimes this shit just happens when you travel. But by this point, with the way they were treating us, we were starting to get angry, and so was everyone else. Finally a manager shows up, and she makes an announcement that they're "trying" for a loading time of 8:45. Jason asks if they'll be feeding us (because if we have to buy shitty overpriced food on the ferry for dinner, that cancels out the 50% refund), and of course they won't. And we have learned by now that the so-called 8:45 loading time will turn into 9:30 and who knows when we'd get to Welly at this rate. We were also starting to suspect that the reason for the delay was actually that they were trying to fix the broken ferry to put us back on it. All of this in addition to the fact that they were lying to us about when we'd be able to get on, was just too fucked up to put up with anymore.
So we cancelled our trip. It's against BlueBridge policy, but thankfully the manager was a reasonable person and had the authority to give us a full refund for both legs of our trip (regardless of the third party booking), even though she could probably get fired for it. But even the fact that she was reasonable did not make up for how we were treated for the 6 hours prior.
We got our bag back, got a taxi to our car, and went and got some dinner. In Picton. 10 hours after we'd left our house. We ended up staying in a motel there for the night, because by that point I was too exhausted and upset to make the 2 hour drive home in the dark.
We're going to reschedule our trip, and fly to Welly either this coming weekend or the next. So we'll get there... eventually.
I will never, ever, EVER use BlueBridge again. And I am going to tell everyone I know about it, so they don't use them either.
Also?
We found out later that the ferry we were on was bought from a Mediterranean company AFTER IT HAD SUNK. And was refurbished.
Yeah.
So that's my weekend so far.