CalMac Reviews 

Return Ferry cancelled, notification by SMS. Absolutely no understanding of the implication this has on tourists stranded with no accommodation. When you do manage (using half a day of your holiday) to eventually secure an alternative crossing at a later date, finding accommodation etc you find that the reimbursement of cost is really limited. So not only are we stressed but significantly out of pocket. This doesn't seem right . Calmac take no responsibility and have no duty of care for their customers. The charm and attraction of The outer Hebrides gone in an instant.

I just visited the Outer Hebrides and travelled from Ullapool to Stornoway then travelled from the Butt of Lewis down to Barra.
It was an amazing journey and the ferries were all on time, the crews both on ship and on shore were friendly, helpful and polite. The ships were all clean, comfortable and a delight to sail on. On the Ullapool to Stornaway and the Castlebay to Oban ships the food was excellent! I give CalMac and there staff 10 out of 10.

Terrible. One ferry on our route was cancelled with no alternative available, leaving us with a choice of cancelling a whole holiday or setting off and risk being stranded half way through. CalMac then declined all responsibility for reimbursing us for non refundable hotel deposits. Appalling!

Bloke at Ullapool ticket counter says pedestrian check in over the road (why not at the main desk?). No it isn't, that's the harbour master, then the car park check in does cars. To and fro. Sign says foot passengers check in 30 mins before. Ticket says 45 mins. No definitive sign in thekr expensive terminal, just a mess about. Pentland Ferries operate out of a shed and yet know what they are doing.

Our Ferry from target to UIg was cancelled and I was notified by sms with a phone number to call, as we called, the person advised us to stand by even though we had a ticket and it wasn’t our fault that the ferry was cancelled! We ended up seiling from another port to another destination which has ruined our trip!!! Terrible experience somebody need to take over the company because as I understood it’s under the government and nobody really give a 💩

Trying to register an account is a waste of time, it just doesn't work. Booking tickets ends up with frequently having to start again as the system falls over. It took me 1 and a quarter hours to book a simple return ferry crossing. Absolute shambles.

This website is as much use as their ferries.I have never wasted as much time trying to book ferries in my life.Not fit for purpose and needs major overhaul.😡😡

I am surprised to see so much negativity towards CalMac, much of it for trivial things that can happen when you are dealing with ships that are dependant on so many factors, not least of which the Scottish Weather. Whilst I have experienced occasional minor issues with CalMac, overall this is a good company to deal with for many good reasons. Their prices are fixed, so if you buy 3 months in advance you pay the same as if you buy the day before, they don't price gouge closer to departure date with dynamic pricing the way that train & plane companies do. If you phone them you talk to someone in this country, not a call center on the other side of the planet with no idea what is going on. If you need to make a change you can do so for free, again most other travel operators would charge a fee for that, many simply wouldn't let you change & you would have to buy a new ticket. Even if you have to cancel, they just charge a flat £10 fee, which is fair enough as they have unrecoverable costs associated with your booking (card transaction fees etc) We recently had to make changes to a booking involving multiple vehicles, plus passengers, plus dogs & CalMac were incredibly helpful & sorted it all out for no charge. There are very few companies that will do that for you.

Book our tickets months in advance for a holiday in Tiree. For a a car, child, dog and two adults. At the last moment my son was available to come with us. So we amended our ticket to add him.
Now our return tickets for a week later were for the 10am sailing. The night before we were about to leave we checked our tickets to make sure everything is OK. We are a neurodivergent family (I'm autistic as are my two children and my wife has ADHD). So we're very particular about our routine and schedule.
Anyway when we checked we found that they'd changed our departure time from tiree to 19.00. We phoned customer service and they couldn't give an explanation and were less than useless.
We got up extra early after not sleeping well with worry to try and resolve the issue at the ferry port. Same result. Spoke to customer service, same result. No one could give us a reason why it had been changed. Because we certainly wouldn't have done it. On top of that we needed to be back to relieve my mothers carer the next day as she has dementia.
It's a shocking way to treat disabled people. I'm currently sitting in the standby queue hoping we'll get on worrying about my mother who is unable to look after herself and whether I or my kids are going to have a meltdown as a result of this ineptitude.
The online booking system seems to be unable to distinguish between a 17 year old boy and a ford kuga. And does what ever it likes.

Total waste of time describing anything as an integrated Transport service.
If there is a single tourist driving it less than 60 miles an hour between Lochranza Brodick .
You will never arrive in time to make the connection for 5 to the hour. After this job's worth on the gate at Brodick ferry terminal and you have no chance at all and I getting on the ferry you were the connect with.

Tried calling them twice today to change booking, listened to messages then held for 5 minutes listening to awful music, voice said connecting you then cut off.
Useless

We had traveled with CalMac from Portavadie to Tarbet, ferry staff are very good , they refund us the extra tickets we got by mistake , just I like to said thanks so much to Lorna the assistant and Fiona from the office , they made our day . Very professionals and very friendly and kind, Thanks

Ardrossan-Campbeltown ferry cancelled for the entire 2024 season! Fortunately I am just a tourist and don't depend on these incompetents

The Gourock - Dunoon CalMac ferry should not be described as a “service”. The vessels are old and not fit for purpose resulting in multiple cancellations. Transport Scotland has arranged the timetable to maximise the delay in connecting to the rail network with the ferry arriving at Gourock pier in time to give its passengers a view of the Glasgow train pulling out and facing the longest wait. Contrast this with the highly dependable private, unsubsidised, Western Ferry service a mile along the road. Why don’t we let them replace Calmac, provide a service, and save taxpayers’ money.

I arrived on terminal 18:19, I appreciate that last sailing was 18:25 and the check in close 10 minutes before so should close at 18:15 and I was late technically but when I arrived, ferry already departed so why on earth ferry left 6 minutes early but kept displaying on the board sailing 18:25? This is not right and I was not the only one stranded as another driver arrived a minute earlier to same experience. I called customer service to find out why ferry left early and he had no idea and was not helpful at all. Next time, remember to come much much earlier in case ferry goes earlier!!

Your male staff need some training in customer service. I say that as a retired professional woman who has helped senior leaders develop their own skill sets. Recently travelling to Tiree and back… there was a huge difference in the treatment and the way staff spoke to women and men in the restaurant. Men were addressed as “sir” no one addressed women as “ma’am”. They were courteous and helpful to men as they chose their full Scottish… barely patient with women. I found it altogether offensive and quite honestly given such changes in society, behaviour from a world way in the past. I expect to be given equal respect. That is my right.

I was the 10th car in line at the Tobermoray port. Despite there only being 8 spaces in the first line the staff on the ferry boarded cars cars from line one, which included two cars chancing their luck. They then would not remove the cars from the ferry leading to me having to spend two hours waiting with an 18 month old infant for the next ferry. Clear lack of a suitable process to fairly manage boarding. It’s put me off using their services to go to any other islands while on holiday due to risk of getting stranded or heavily delayed. How hard is it really to count up to 8 and then take cars from the second queue, or put a member of staff monitoring the queuing process.

I'd booked tickets to the Isle of Mull and needed to make some changes. Called customer service and spoke to Grant. What a really helpful person. He sorted out most things but couldn't get into one of the sailings so asked me to call back the following day. When I called back he again was most helpful and sorted everything out for me. A great credit to the company.

Arran ferry
Booking cancelled at short notice and was then rescheduled for TWO days later.
Reason given was bad weather. It wasn't and I have the photos to prove it.
Real reason is that their ferry fleet has been decimated by lack of maintenance.
To avoid claims the weather is given as the reason which makes it much more difficult to claim. Cynical, very cynical.
As you will see from other reviews this is their normal operating procedure.
What is really sad is that the CalMac staff have to deal with this and it's a thankless task. What also became apparent is the the islanders are totally demoralised because it is adversely affecting their lives.
Visitors numbers are suffering because the service is so unreliable.
Nobody in a position of authority is prepared to admit how bad this or to commuting to fix it.
We like the Scottish Islands but will not go if Calmac are involved.

You cancelled 2 of our planned ferry journeys at less than 24 hrs notice, the second one depositing us back on the mainland over 50 miles from where are accommodation was booked. What a shambles. This does nothing to encourage tourists to visit the islands, let alone what it must do for the lives of locals