Rottnest Express

I had decided to take the rottnest express from barrack street as I had a few friends visiting and thought it would be more convenient to take a quick ferry to rottnest islands for a day trip. Final boarding time on ticket was 0830. Yet they continued to wait for passengers until almost 0900. There was no apology in the delay and the boat inched out ever so slowly into the river for a one hour cruise to Fremantle. We were treated to a nice guide of the scenic spots on swan river by the onboard hostess over the Sound system, which is pretty much the only thing that allowed me to maintain my composure after the lengthy delay and the ridiculously slow speed the ferry was going. I must add that some of the facts were truly uninspiring i. e «we are now passing the deepest part of the river at 25m» «we are now passing the second deepest part of the river at 22m», but for the most part it was enough to grab your attention.
The pamphlet states it takes 60 minutes from Perth to arrive to Freo and an additional 25 minutes to Rottnest; once we arrived in Freo we waited for another 25 minutes for more passengers to board and had another 30 minute cruise to the island. We didn’t arrive until 1100 when we originally expected to arrive at 10. Needless to say, it really affected our trip planning. So believe me when I say the word ‘express’ is used lightly here.