CalMac Reviews 

Utterly useless. myself and a group of friends booked some months ago on the 13.50 sailing from Malliag to Armadale (Skye). we have all booked time off work, and have booked accomodation. we are travelling from the central belt so will take several hours to get there. And today we got a message advising that our sailing now departs Mallaig at 12.30 that day. I phoned to ask if we could be swapped to a later sail that day and was told that no we couldnt. it was that sail or nothing. We have zero chance of making it for that time, so CalMac have wrecked our trip. Utterly useless!

We booked a ticket to travel to Arran from Troon. The boat was supposed to leave Troon at 10.50 (check in at 10:20).
We were caught in heavy traffic so we arrived at the check in at 10:30 (10 mins late). Because of that we were told the booked ticket is not valid as we are 10 mins late (!!) and directed to the "no ticket" queue. You never know, in that queue if you will get in the ferry or have to wait other 3h in Troon - it depends if extra space for 'no booking' and how full the ferry is.
Meanwhile the boat was late - instead of 10:50 it left at at 11:30 - 45 minutes late ! All in all - as customers with a booked ticket and more than 1h to wait we were made to and waste 3h+ in Troon, because we were 10 mins late (because of the traffic) for a 45 minutes late ferry ! ...

Every time I book holidays to Scottish islands, I either get the sailing cancelled or time amended - today included. I am used to their words: "disruption", "apologise", "sorry", "inconvenience", "rebook", "alternative". The following should be Calmac's motto:
"Calmac - forever sucking all the pleasure out of Scottish Island holidays."

If I could leave no stars I would. Rubbish service. No seat's available due to unfair loading system. Am disabled and couldn't get seat. No first class options. Unfortunately due to the sh** service I won't be travelling to anymore scottish Islands. Calmac ferries need competition. Rubbish

I have sailed with Calmac over 20 times and always found they're service to be excellent. We have only ever had one ferry cancelled due to bad weather but we were quickly refunded and found another route. I recently turned up at the ferry terminal only to find I had got my dates mixed up, Calmac still allowed me to sail without any additional charges.

Travel regularly on the Dunoon to Gourock route. On the 1245 ferry from Dunoon today and the crew member issuing tickets appeared out of his office just over 10 minutes before arrival. He managed to issue o ly around 9 tickets. There was probably 15 to 20 passengers who travelled for free. This is a regular occurrence. Calmac need to explain if this down to the malfunction of the ticket app, and what they are doing to resolve the problem.

I am only reviewing the app/website and not anything to do with sailings etc.The app/website is shambolic and pathetic.You would think it was designed by an 11 year old with aspirations to be a web designer.It is poorly laid out with little or no logical sequence to the links to open to get timetables and fare booking.It frequently crashes without warning.I had to hit approx.6 links to get to the fares page,and,even though I had selected the route I wanted to travel on in an earlier link,when I got to the fare page I had to select the route again from a drop down menu.Just one example of how user unfriendly it is.

Not worth the effort going into great detail about this shambolic company other than to say they cancelled our sailing date as well as our departure times on three occasions totally ruining my birthday trip and leaving us £400 out of pocket. They are a embarrassment of a company who are accountable to no one and treat their customers with the utmost contempt.

The new app is a complete shambles. Previous app was far more user friendly and did not continually freeze like the new one. Another faux pas in the CalMac never ending saga.

The new - updated - (but not improved) website / App is a complete shambles, sometimes it works other times you need to delete the app and reinstall it to get it to work.

Tonight some - but not all - of the timetables cannot be downloaded as there is no data.

I've used CalMac quite a few times now and personally not had a bad experience with them

Their fleet is pretty old overall but it depends on the boat.

Prices are reasonable, especially just passenger tickets. Good you can take your bike on for free as well.

They've been on time whenever I've used them.

Their staff are really great and friendly, especially the ones on board.

False information provided on tickets and website leaving passengers out of pocket, company take no responsibility and fob you off to Transport Scotland.

New App!

Even worse than the app it replaced.

As I have little choice but to use their deplorable service I am considering moving somewhere I will NOT have to use Calmac.

I keep saying this cannot continue/deterioate further then, the service worsens again.

The Calmac App, which used to be so useful, has been 'upgraded' and is now a horrible and unuseable mess. Who wants to refer to routes with abbreviations like 'GBBDI' and 'GBCAD'?

What a shit company. Website is continuously unavailable. Last minutes cancellation, phone isn’t answered. Let somebody else do the job please.

I cannot describe a worse experience than I had with CalMac ferries. We visited Scotland from the US and had a ferry booked to Islay on Tuesday, October 22. On Monday we stayed in an area closer to port Kennacraig so we could easily get the ferry in the morning. We wouldn’t have even known that the ferry was cancelled unless our hotel told us to check because they were cancelling rides. The ferry was cancelled due to mechanical issues. CalMac emailed me on Tuesday at 10:55am when our ferry was supposed to leave at 7am, almost four hours later to let us know the ferry was cancelled. Then bookings were placed on hold for the week so you couldn’t rebook. I called to see if they would move us to Wednesday and they said they had no availability. We had to cancel our hotel on islay who would not refund us. Then we had to figure out last minute accommodation for that night. The hotel advised I should submit a claim for passenger rights for the payment of the hotel accommodation. I did and they advised Of the following below. However, we did travel from the US to Scotland and then also to the area the day before. We then had to find an alternative accommodation due to a technical breakdown of the ferry. So exactly what falls into the passenger rights is what happened to us and they are still refusing to pay for the accommodation. It is outrageous the bad experience I had with this company. Also the only reason we travelled to Scotland was to visit islay. So if we do come again and want to visit, since this is the only ferry company that goes to islay I guess we are stuck dealing with the possibility of our plans completely changing without them even letting us know ahead of time.

Unfortunately, as you did not travel you are no longer entitled to passenger rights, you are however entitled to a full refund on your booking which I can see you have already applied for and this has been processed for you. 
Accommodation
Under The Merchant Shipping (Passengers’ Rights) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, there is no provision to provide a refund for missed accommodation costs. Accommodation is only payable if the customer has to find alternative accommodation due to a technical breakdown of ferry, when waiting for the sailing to resume. Unfortunately, we are unable to consider your missed accommodation as this is not covered under the aforementioned legislation.

I am slightly disabled & have a dog. I had to use the ferries between Stornoway & Ullapool recently & the checking in staff on both sides of the Minch were really helpful about getting me parked next to a lift. Nothing was too much trouble. Thank you very much all of you for making a worrying journey so much easier.

On the MV Loch Frisa and it stinks like a portaloo at a festival

If you want to take the ferry to Arran, don't go with CalMac!! We made a reservation twice, the first time it was canceled and the second time it was not canceled and we drove 3 hours to the boarding point for nothing. Gasoline costs and lost time will not be reimbursed. The Scots themselves also say that CalMac is a very unreliable company.

Just thoroughly unreliable.
I have hotel gift to use on Arran. I have booked three times to travel to Arran. Each one cancelled once due weather twice due technical.
I drove four hours to for a replacement ferry from Troon, only for it to be cancelled.
Asked to be reimbursed fuel.
A privately owned company be foreclosed on. Time to but this miserable operation out of its misery