Victoria Clipper

NOT recommended. They lie. Booked a trip, never received confirmation. Attempted to cancel when it came up on my calendar and they said no. Tried to reverse charges on Amex, and Clipper Vacations gave Amex phony paperwork saying the email confirmation had been sent. GMail says otherwise. I am steamed at both American Express and Clipper Vacations. more

Save your money!!! This is the WORST company to deal with! VERY rude customer service. If they make an error they will REFUSE to fix it and blame you for it so BUYER beware!!!!!!!! Made reservations right after purchasing a deal. I called to find out about adding another child passenger to our fare and was told that our reservation could not be found... Then they mentioned that the deal that I purchased had to be booked 2 days prior to my calling and so they could not honor the promotion anymore and so sorry, but I could use the promotional purchased price amount toward another booking of something.WHAT!!!!! If I wanted to do that then I wouldn't have purchased the promotional package!!!! They have the same deal going on currently for $16 more then what I payed and they still REFUSE to make this right. I refuse to pay more for something that I already paid for and booked! Extremely POOR Customer service to blame your customers for something that one of your employees did!!!! I would gladly pay DOUBLE the amount to go with another company then to give this company one cent more! more

If you want a nice romantic getaway to Victoria DO NOT TAKE THE VICTORIA CLIPPER. If the weather turns bad or they have a mechanical breakdown, your romantic getaway will turn into a 6+ hour bus ride of the worst sort. Nothing quite kills a romantic weekend like getting the Greyhound treatment from the Clipper. When they had mechanical difficulties they wouldn't extend our stay for a night, they wouldn't refund our passage so that we could find our own way home. Our only option was to report to the terminal at 3pm, cue up like animals, and endure a 6+ hour bus trip home. Save yourself the grief and drive to Port Angeles park and walk on the Black Ball Ferry's Coho to get to Victoria. Much more reliable and a better maintained boat, better food, etc. Clipper management should be ashamed of how they treat their passengers. more

We took the VC from Seattle to Victoria for a day trip. When offered an opportunity to buy a Butchart Gardens High tea package, we were told we would get "right on" a bus from the boat to go to the gardens and that we'd have plenty of time for a half-hour high tea (for which reservations were "almost always necessary") and plenty of time -- about 90 minutes -- to tour the gardens. We told the tour sales person that we were only there for the day and discussed the other sites we wanted to see in addition to Butchart Gardens. She gave us advice on accessing a few of the sites after our tour. What we weren't told was that after we got "right on" the bus, we'd sit in the parking lot for AN HOUR. We arrived at the gardens a full half-hour AFTER our high tea reservation. Because the restaurant had to work us in, it took much longer to get served and we ended up with maybe 40 minutes to tour the gardens, much less time than the hour and a half we had been led to believe we'd have. When we complained, the bus driver had the audacity to tell us it was a "test of character!!!" Once the tour returned, we really had hardly any time to enjoy the rest of Victoria before we we had to back for the evening ferry. Victoria Clipper's response was that the tour departure time was on the ticket so they have no responsibility. However, we didn't know the bus departure time until after we had purchased the tickets because we were naive enough to believe the "right away" statement from the salesperson. Even then, we wouldn't have known that it meant we'd be sitting for an hour wasting time as we didn't know how much time was involved in going through customs. We weren't aware that we would be waiting for another ferry's group to board the bus. We also were not aware that it would take the driver OVER AN HOUR to get us there. And while the time was on the ticket, THEY are the ones who got us to the gardens a a HALF-HOUR AFTER our tea reservation. But they accept no responsibility for that. The company's approach seems to be to let the commissioned salespeople give customers the "sell" information up front and leave out details that may kill the sell in hopes that the customers are too unfamiliar with Victoria to realize how much time they'd be losing will buy the tour -- which is what we did. In all, our day trip (for 2) to Victoria ended up costing nearly $400 and for that we got the clipper ride, tea, a hurried, incomplete tour of the gardens, a rude bus driver, less than an hour to see anything else in the city, and a deluxe ONE-HOUR TOUR OF THE INSIDE OF THE PARKED TOUR BUS!!!! And this is all after we told the salesperson we were only there for the day and had other things we wanted to see. It was more than a "test of character" -- it was a display of very poor customer service. Having said that, the clipper service to and from Seattle to Victoria was nice. Just don't trust them on dry land! more

Poor poor service. We planned a nice weekend get away to Victoria and ended up losing 1 of the 2 days because the trip back was canceled because of wind. It was the most absurd reason as it wasn't THAT windy. We ended up being put on a ferry, then on a bus, then on another ferry before making it back to Seattle. So, 7 hours of travel. Don't take the Clipper. Ever. You can drive there is about the same amount of time and have reliable transportation for cheaper. more

We booked a whale watching tour with the Victoria Clipper last spring (2010). My husband, myself and 3 young kids (4,6 and 8). The trip was supposed to go to Friday harbor where we would stay on the boat, and then head directly out for a 2 hour whale watching tour with lunch. Then back to Friday Harbor for 1 hour of free time before boarding back for Seattle. About 1/2 hour (current speed) out of Friday Harbor, I see one of the boathands run by and grab a fire extinguisher and go out the back of the boat. A few moments later, she came back in and opened up the fire hose - the kind mounted on the wall - and took that out the back of the boat. I was looking at my neighbors thinking "I can take them" if I needed to bust in and get the life perservers under their seats! Needless to say, apparently one of the engines blew up and was on fire. We managed to limp into Friday Harbor on one engine (1 hour later) with all the doors open freezing anyone on the first floor (which was everyone because they had all of the 2nd floor come downstairs). We were informed that there would be no whalewatching tour today but that we would have 3+ hours to wander around friday harbor - yippee! That's loads of fun with 3 little children wanting to touch every little object in every store. I can remember seeing the Kenmore Air plane at the dock when we arrived and thinking "it would be worth the price". After what seemed like an eternity in Friday Harbor, we went back to the Victoria Clipper dock. We all proceeded over to the Wa state Ferry dock to head back to Anacortes. Lucky us, the ferry was almost 1/2 hour late that day. Upon arriving in Anacortes, we all filed like cattle into greyhound style busses to head back to Seattle. We were informed that we would all receive 1/2 off our next trip "letters" upon arriving back in Seattle. For those that traveled far for this trip, they could fill out paperwork and "ask" for their money back. All of this I could have forgiven - it's not their fault the boat broke - I get it. But after a long, tired, cranky day with 3 very cranky kids, I get off the bus at their terminal and go up to the representative handing out the 1/2 off letters and say "5", he looks at me and says "kids were free". Seriously bad move on his part. First off, kids were NOT free, one was full price and the other two I paid a portion for. Second, did this idiot truly not understand what hell we had all gone thru that day? To this day, my kids still don't want to go anywhere near a boat! Not only did I rip him a new one, but then I proceeded onto another representative who appeared to be freely handing out "stacks" of 1/2 off letters to anyone in her vicinity. I would have possibly considered going back at some future time (and using one of the many letters the second rep shoved in my hand), but because of this jerk and his "penny pinching" attitude, NEVER!!!!!!! more

I went from Victoria to Seattle on Saturday. Nice smooth ride. On-board snack baskets are not too expensive. I sat on the 2nd deck which does not have a forward view but has a small outside patio. 1st deck holds a lot more people but has forward windows. There are 2 border inspections - 1 on departure and 1 on arrival. The wait was long and crowded at both ends but the government agents were mellow. A fair trade-off IMO, compared to the hellhole that is the bus inspection station near I5. Too bad there is no passenger train service from Vancouver BC to USA. The accomodations on Victoria Clipper 4 are relatively cramped. I think they are trying to present it more as a party boat rather than simple classy transportation. The wait for the customs inspection in Seattle was in full-blazing sunshine. The heat stress was exacerbated by the alcohol served on board. I hate being among drunkards. I think alcohol should be forbidden on all transportation accessible to the general public. I numbed my brain by daydreaming about raunchy associations with pier 69 (where VC docks). Anyway, I recommend VC as a more enjoyable way to return from Vancouver BC to USA, just don't fall for their on-board sales gimmics. They ripped me off for 18$. After repeated announcements advertising no-line tickets to the space needle I thought "how could this be possible" and "I want one" - dumb ass :-( Of course there is no such thing as a no-line ticket to the space needle, as I've been there before. So I'm out 18$ that I could have spent on a fat lunch or distributed among many bums, instead of donating it to some rich con artist with a boat company. Airports sell stuff and exchange money at high markups, VC just boldly sells u a piece of paper for 18$. Live and learn. Even better, get a driver's license and drive your own car to/from Vancouver BC. The last time I crossed by car was in '2, so I don't know if it is bad now. November update on Clipper: they did finally send me a refund but it was a check from Bank of America of Seattle, which charged 6 dollars to cash it. So they still had me for 6$ worth. (Better been spent on triple stacker at Wendy's.) I gave them fiat cash, they gave me a lame piece of paper to wipe my ass with, uncomfortably. In USA it's one rip-off after another. Abolish the Federal Reserve Company! more

We scheduled an overnight with Clipper for my wife (me) and her grandma who was visiting from Minnesota. At the time we were experiencing the worst snow storm in Seattle in 20 years (12/2008), however the Nat'l weather service had been predicting a change to rain a few days before our scheduled departure. The afternoon before we were scheduled to leave, out of nowhere we got blasted with another 5" of snow on top of our already 19" snowpack, and we were stuck at home. I called Victoria Clipper to cancel and request a refund, since this was obviously an extreme circumstance (at this point the Governer of WA had declared a statewide state of emergency because of the snow). Long story short, we got the run around, and my wife was spoken to rudely and at one point hung up on. They offered us 2 bad options: 1) reschedule for a 15% fee....which was stupid since the trip was for my wife and her VISITING grandma who was leaving soon thereafter. OR 2) cancel and send in a refund request with NO guarantee that a refund will be issued. It was bad enough being snowed in but then to have this sorry excuse for a travel company holding our money hostage made it even worse. They could have earned a customer for life if they would have just played fair. We even called the hotel directly that we had booked through Clipper Vacations, and they agreed right away to cancel and give us a full refund do to the extreme circumstances (this was Mike at Executive Suites in Victoria...they were awesome to deal with, and they aren't even in Seattle!) We decided to cancel and send in the form, so now we're in the waiting period to see what they say....it can take up to a MONTH....like they're some national travel agency. What do they do all day, sleep? Anyways, we filed a complaint with the Better bus bur and will be doing more than that if they refuse refund. Nobody should have to gamble their money away on 'maybe's' when they are already facing a difficult situation. SHAME ON CLIPPER. WE WILL NEVER TRAVEL WITH YOU OR RECOMMEND YOU TO ANYBODY, EVER! Addendum: We did finally get a voucher but it is not enough to cover a new trip. Which would not involve my grandma anyway since she can not afford to travel back to WA. Pros: None! Cons: See the review for the many cons more

Booked 3 seats for a day-long trip to San Juan weeks before we came to town. The day prior, we stopped by the pier and checked at the desk. They were courteous and helpful, printed our tickets and instructed us to arrive between 6:45 and 7:15 to board, and we could step right on board,. We arrived at 5 past 7:00 to board. We approached the gate and were instructed to go back to the ticket counter and join the 40-50 other passengers waiting for their tickets. "Don't worry, you won't miss the boat." After 30 minutes, the ticket agent informed us that, "There's a problem with the boat and today's tour has been cancelled. We'll give you a credit towards our (far more expensive) trip to Victoria. " I inquired about a rescheduled San Juan trip and was told, "We're not sure what's wrong with the boat." and can't offer book any more seats. After passing on their bogus upsale scam, we demanded a refund and were presented with a 2 page "Refund request" form that would take weeks to process. Then the bozo at the desk insisted we'd only paid $168 (rather than $215) and had the wrong bloody mailing address for us. It appears to me that VC is simply CANCELLING UNDERBOOKED TRIPS at the last minute and pressuring passngers to upgrade to their lengthier tours. more

This is a special weekend kind of outing! They have packages with hotels for a good price and you just park downtown nearby and off you go! The reservations people were very helpful and friendly, too! more

My Clipper ride to Victoria on Dec. 20/05 was much better than I expected. We left on time, the staff sold dramamine for the rough "wintertime" open water Juan De Fuca crossing (only 25 cents each -- I took one and felt just fine on the upper deck). There were plenty of attentive staff on both decks who frequently circulated to look after any need we had. The foggy windows were wiped off shortly into our cruise with an anti-fogging liquid... they were clear the rest of the ride. Disembarking is a process... those without checked bags exit first, followed by those with bags to claim. After claiming bags, you see Canadian Customs and Immigation and you're free to go. A very decent ride and MUCH better than I expected based on the other posters here. Good job, Clipper. Keep up the good work. Pros: easy ticketing, on-time, good staff Cons: non-ideal travel time more

I recently took a Clipper Vacation to Victoria. I expected a first class fun trip based on their ads. Unfortunately it was more like being crammed into the back of a greyhound bus. The staff on board ignored my group, the windows steamed up and were not able to be seen through, the life safety drill was inaudible and passengers were not aware of where the life jackets were (I asked). Wish I had read the previous review here before I bought tickets. Sent letter to CEO indicated my concerns... got a note back saying they were sorry it was a disappointed trip... but it was my own fault.... I would not recommend the Clipper as a way to travel at all..... They were concerned with selling tickets, not the safety and comfort of their customers. Cons: Rude staff, Bad food, inconsiderate company more

Do not be fooled by attempts to make the Victoria Clipper trip sound elegant. The "champagne breakfast" we were served was a plastic wrapped danish, a granola bar and a split of champagne, served in a plastic basket (like the kind fast food is sometimes served in.) I was floored that this "water greyhound" was sold as part of a package with a stay at The Empress Hotel. No two experiences could be further apart. I would have been happier to take Greyhound to VIctoria, because at least I would have known what to expect. All of the downsides of air travel (long lines, slow customs, uncomfortable waiting areas) and very slow. At least ff you take the Clipper, recognize that it is low class travel. I felt really ripped off by what I was "sold" and what I got. Pros: none Cons: , long lines, declasse more