Interislander, North Island, New Zealand

5Beeisforbrooke 5:00 PM Feb 10, 2020

Ideal crossing of the Cook Straight
I went from Picton to WLG with my son who was 14 months at the time. He is very busy and has trouble sitting still but also needed his day nap at that stage but struggles to sleep around to much noise. I prebooked a cabin for $40NZ and let me tell you..BEST DECISION EVER. My son got car sick on our way to Picton so we were able to use the showers in the cabin as well as have privacy and settle him for a nap (while I had sushi and a drink from the cafe) and then keep him entertained inside the cabin without having him run wild (we did have a look around the deck also). The cabin was tidy, fresh linen and had 4 bunk beds. I would 100% recommend booking a cabin if you're in a similar situation or just want a rest, totally worth the extra $. Pre-kids I used to go in the VIP lounge instead but times have changed and with a noisy active toddler, I found this quiet peice of heaven a godsend.

3johnrebain 5:00 PM Aug 16, 2020

Regretfully we booked thru Direct Ferries
During the planning of a drive trip from Auckland to Invercargil and back so we needed a south and north sailing on the Interislander. I did the internet thing and looked up the Interislander page and made a mistake in openining Direct Ferries which is directly under the official Interislander page. Hoever I booked what I wanted and was invoiced in USD. I thought this strange but tried to pay with Visa. They demanded I use Paypal and the payment failed. So I then went to the Interislander page and the price was $100 cheaper but I could not book the Picton Wellington sailing mid morning. I went back to Direct Ferries and my desired sailings were still held subject to payment. This time it was succesful and altho more expensive we had the desired sailings. Trip south was 18 August but due to Covid we got locked in Auckland. On Sunday 16 August I tried to cacel on line via DF 'my account' but as it was less than 48 hours to the sailing time, they would not allow cancellation. I went back to the web. No phone number, no email address. In desperation I phoned the Interislander office & was put thru to the wholesale team and I was assisted by a very professional person. She got my Interislander reference number and I had my DF booking number. Karen found an email address & offered to cancel the booking for me but suggested I also send an email. We both got the same reply 'Due to the pandemic, we are currently experiencing an unprecedented demand for our customer service team. To answer our customers questions as quickly as possible we have closed this email address and are asking customers to use the links below to direct their queries based on the type of question' The address given...'MyAccount' which locks me out so this support of DF is going to cost me over $500 & there is no way to talk to these people. What service do they offer to local New Zealnders who pay a premium to travel via DF? Amazingly bad in my opinion especially when it is a Government edict that has caused us to miss the scheduled sailings