Clearwater Ferry — Attraction in Clearwater

I'm going to start this off saying that my experience is based on what is likely a very busy time for the ferry - but it was my first exposure to them.

We recently moved to the area and wanted to check out the Sugar Sand Festival at Pier 60. The first Saturday it was open was the only day we could go. After reading the website for the festival, they strongly suggested taking the ferry. I don't know if they relayed that to the ferry company because they were severely overwhelmed with business that day. Traffic just getting through downtown (from Palm Harbor) was pretty crappy but we found the parking lot relatively easy enough. As we approach the ferry landing we saw the line of people waiting for boats. Their larger ferry can only accommodate 41 people and based on what we saw we figured we'd be on the 3rd boat- which at most should have been about an hour based on their weekend/high volume schedule. The person coordinating the boat loading process informed us they are coming by every 20 minutes. That didn't seem to be exactly the case because 90 minutes later we were finally moved through to the dock to board the boat. Our reverse trip wasn't much better. We waited about 40 minutes in line (there is no shade by the marina) and we made it on the first boat. While standing in line we were told they had a boat that needed gas, so that's what caused the delay. Presumably, their schedule has gas fills built into it, but I guess not that day. When you approached the ferry station in downtown there is no signage about ticketing, so every person was going up to the attendant and asking what the process was. You just pay on the boat - but you could have bought them online. I looked on their website today and it seems like they have a different boat/process setup for the Sugar Sand Festival transportation- which is good.... because that experience was awful. We're likely not going to use the ferry again. Outside of seeing a few dolphins on our travel, it just wasn't that convenient and it definitely wasn't reliable. And, if we were actually going to the beach there isn't much room to bring a...

ZERO stars! Do NOT risk going after dark. Be VERY careful with 'Capt Cord?' Claimed no problem he's driven the ferry with 1 engine many times. That alone shows poor maintenance by Clearwater ferry, if he has used one engine many times on this boat. Ferry had 1 engine barely working, terrified it would sink. Only light was a 6"x6" light on top of boat. No way anyone could see the ferry on the water at night.Then dropped off solo woman passenger in the dark, had no idea where she was going, gave her $10 told her to go walk around the pier up the hill and find the Starbucks and the jolly trolley to get back to Dunedin!! FYI no Starbucks anywhere visible, streets were empty and this idiot captain told the solo female to go walk in the dark to look for a Starbucks that was who knows where. Obviously poor boat maintenance and dangerous captain. Absolutely terrifying experience!

This owner completely lied as to the passenger having any other issues. The passenger was terrified and immediately put a life jacket on, in the absolute dark unlit boat. How dare this owner try to put any level of blame on a passenger when they clearly fail to maintain their boats in a reasonable manner. There is no way to confirm whether or not there is any truth as to the owners claim that the passenger was not in danger.

It is disturbing that this business believes that leaving a solo female at a dark, virtually uninhabited area after dark area is considered handling the experience or situation well, and is pleased with their employees behavior! Clearly the standards for reasonable conduct or bare bones and extremely minimalistic.

I would strongly suggest NOT taking this ferry after dark. And definitely do not trust the owner., As they clearly look out for themselves. Didn't even have the common decency to offer a refund, but then again you get what you pay for. SWFL has much higher standards than this garbage business, would never put passengers out in a dark, isolated area. Something like this would never happen and similar business in Lee or...

We were scheduled to take the last ferry of the night this evening, but arrived a few minutes before the 6:45 ferry in hopes of catching it back, and they were already pulling away and told us they’d be back in 30 minutes. Well an hour later they finally pull back up, and immediately Stephanie tells us rather rudely, that they have to park the boat for the night and they wouldn’t be taking us back, which is understandable because if there were safety reasons for not being able to run then we totally understand. But no solution was given to us, other than they weren’t taking us back. When we asked what we should do now Stephanie rudely stated that we could take an Uber or the jolly trolly back. To make matters worse she chose to take her bad day out on us customers who had nothing to do with any situation she had come across today. When my husband asked her for an address to put in for our Uber we now had to get, she yelled at him that she had helped 50 customers today how was she supposed to know what dock we got picked up at. As she walked away from our group she chose to keep making snide comments, even choosing to swear at us. I for one would never use this taxi company again if this is how their employee chose to speak to their customers. If you’re going to work in customer service you have to know how to put your problems aside and not take them out on their customers, and it is very obvious Stephanie does not know how to do customer...