Grassi Junior - Boat rental, ferries and mooring in Positano — Attraction in Positano

For our 15 year anniversary, we were traveling from Montalcino to Positano. After a full day of travel via car, walking and train with suitcases, we made it to Salerno port for our ferry transport to Positano at 18:25. We organized the boarding passes through Ferryhopper and arrived at the port at 17:45. Grassi Junior was the Ferry company. The grassi junior boat arrived at 18:05 and immediately left after deboarding a couple minutes later. We waited for it to return and never did. After trying to figure out how to contact someone (too painful to get a live chat - no option to call) via the app I was given a number to call via WhatsApp. Via text with the Ferry company they said the trip was cancelled due to wind but there was no wind and other boats were coming and going. They said we could use our tickets for the 20:25 boat so we had to cancel our dinner reservations and wait for another two hours. They directed us to the port kiosk for their company and the two girls were clueless and basically said nothing. The Ferryhopper representative said it wasn’t their problem as they didn’t hear any issues from the Ferry company….Nice. So we got screwed and stuck with no responsibility taken by anyone. Seems like if you get screwed you get screwed and you just deal with it.

After review of the owner’s response, I want to clarify something as she suggests what I said was incorrect and that is not true. She did state the trip was canceled due to winds yet nobody was notified and it was not windy. Several other boats from other companies came and left with passengers. I did speak with the onsite representatives at the kiosk and I showed them the text where the customer service line said it was windy. They said no and giggled. They were honestly worthless and I felt they were just laughing at my situation. Yes, the customer service and the onsite representatives both suggested us to take the later ferry. We were not going to cancel as we had no place to stay in Salerno so why ask for a refund. The next ferry to note arrived 20 minutes late and took over an hour to arrive. Customer service said it would be fast and take 50 minutes. So we not only were not provided service as originally scheduled but did not arrive at our destination until 2.5 hours after we were supposed to. By that time we were tired from traveling since 9:30 am earlier in the day and had canceled dinner reservations. I find it very disrespectful and disappointing that the owner of this company has the first response to this issue that the customer is incorrect. I have posted the conversations to be fully...

WALK STRAIGHT PAST THIS PLACE AND BOOK WITH ANOTHER COMPANY. This place seems like a classic confidence scam. Paid for tickets two days in advance at the biglietteria for the 12:50 sailing. Got to the ferry dock 10 mins early (12:40) like we were told. There was even a sign posted still saying to line up there for the 12:50 sailing. Other people were waiting as well and had been waiting longer, for the same boat. Another woman said something was clearly wrong. We naively waited politely for a while as boat after boat from other companies came and went.

At about 1:15, my wife and I went to the ticket booth again and asked where the boat was, politely and in Italian. The two women there immediately became adversarial, telling us we we had “lost the boat” as in we had missed it. They wouldn’t hear it when we explained we already had purchased a ticket and told them we had arrived early (12:40 pm), but the boat never came. When we tried to explain further, the older woman jumped in with her voice raised telling us it was clearly our fault because our being at the ticket booth after the time of departure was proof of our mistake.

Of course we were there after 12:50. Why would we be asking why the boat hadn’t shown up before it was even supposed to arrive? As I said and we tried explaining to them, we had already purchased tickets, and therefore had no need to go to the ticket booth again before the sailing, but it was no use.

It reminded me of something I heard of in medieval times where if someone was suspected of being a witch, they would throw them in the river tied to a stone. If the person floated, you knew they were a witch. They created a nonsensical argument that was impossible to argue with, as it is impossible to prove a negative, like it’s impossible to prove Bigfoot doesn’t exist.

Anyway, I’m sitting on a boat belonging to another company which came and picked us up immediately with no hassle, enjoying the view...

I would rather swim from Positano to Amalfi with my luggage on my back than experience this ferry company EVER AGAIN! We bought tickets in Positano to return to Amalfi where we were staying. The ferry was 30 minutes late - we had to wait in a sea full of people in the scorching hot sun with no shade hoping the next boat arriving was ours. Finally, it arrived. We arrived back in Amalfi and were eager to get off and get a drink as it was a very hot, long, crowded day. However, the captain decided that, as he was already running late, he would not dock in Amalfi and would instead continue to Salerno - another 1.5hrs away. When we realised we were heading back out to sea, the passengers all began to panic. No one knew where we were going, there was no announcement to tell us where he was taking us, and the crew also had no idea what the captain was doing. When the crew did not answer the 40 passengers (including young families and babies on board), absolute chaos and panic erupted, with the men on board screaming for answers and half the women crying. Some of us believed the captain was going to dump us out at sea. It was absolutely terrifying. Finally after what felt like hours of uncertainty, we were told by a passenger who spoke English that the captain was running late so he decided to return to Salerno to drop off a few of the passengers before turning back around to Amalfi. No one boarded at Salerno. The captain made his 30-40 passengers who all needed to get off in Amalfi, spend 3 hours on that hot boat with absolutely no drinking water. The trip should have taken 15 minutes. Our last night on Amalfi was ruined, we arrived at 8pm. I am disgraced that none of us were informed, no apology offered. No explanation. No refund. Absolutely appalling. I am disgusted and I will be pursuing legal action to ensure the captain is held accountable for the distress he has caused...