Steamship Authority

They do the best they can with dealing with the weather and arrogant passengers. They have never let me down, the only bummer is the high auto cost to get to nantucket. Other then that they are ok in my book…

Very disorganized. Their website claims that they have service from Hyannis to Martha’s Vineyard, so we stood in line for 25 minutes, only to arrive at the counter and be told that they never have service to M.V. They even have signs up in the building claiming that they do have service to M.V., but they then tell you that they do not.

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Have been going to Nantucket for years and always tried to roll with the rudeness at steamship chalking it up to summer stress… but I’m done.
When they walked the luggage cart with my backpack back on to the ferry before I retrieved it they treated me like it was my fault. I asked what happened and was told by one of the 4 – 5 handlers now circled around me «hey what about a thank you» and sarcastic «have a nice day». All of this in front of a group of other passengers. Now I’m done. They (especially the grumpy gang unloading the boat) have the attititude and customer service skills of ditch diggers working for the DPW. Maybe that’s what they should be doing. Sad to say that with some real management and effective training they ‘a hole’ factor could be significantly diminished. When I can I will steer my business and families to the Hyline from now on. And their website is one of the worst!!!“
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

I left my car in the overnight lot of the steamship authority over Memorial Day weekend. Upon returning I noticed significant damage to my rear bumper. When I brought it to the attention of the manager in charge, he looked at it and laughed despite there being at least a few hundred dollars in damage. After he claim was filed, I was informed that the steamship authority would not be covering the cost of damage on their lot. For ignoring a customer’s need to be reimbursed a few hundred dollars, the steamship authority will now lose the business of me and my family for life. I will choose to take hyline ferries from here on out.

Great way to get to Nantucket.
They have parking, and if they try to get you to go another lot with a shuttle back look around and see if there are spots in the lot next to the boat, there usually are.
They sell food and drinks on the boat, but you can bring whatever you want on as well.

My experiences with the Steamship Authority have been mostly positive. I have taken both the high-​speed and slow ferry (when the high-​speed is sold out) for the past few years. The boats are clean and the employees in the ticket office as well as on the boats have always been friendly to me. Their prices can’t be beat. They are lower than their competitor who I have heard horror stories of not refunding after booking errors and so on.
The only downfall is their online reservation system. I’m not sure if anyone else has had problems but I have never been able to successfully make an online reservation. There is always an error that reads something about my information being invalid. Yet, when I look at my credit card transactions from the several cards I’ve tried using there sure are pending payments yet no reservations. The upside is that when you call they are nice enough to book over the phone and usually the charges are removed from your card before you even call. The down side, not only is it way more inconvenient to have to call during business hours instead of going online, but that I had to take a slow ferry to the Christmas Stroll because by the time the office had opened the next morning the high-​speed tickets had sold out. Yes, I know… the problems of a 30-​something year old suburban white girl.

If it were socially acceptable to curse on Unilocal I would tell Steamship Authority to go eff themselves. Not only is the staff completely disorganized and on entirely different pages but they extraordinarily discourteous and incompetent. One previous Unilocaler described the staff as «salty», which hit the nail on the head and then some. There at no signs anywhere telling patrons to trade in their online barcoded reservations for a paper ticket, they just wait until you reach the top of the line to send you all the way back. One staff member specifically told us we could carry on our duffel bags, another didn’t say anything and then when we finally get through the ticket line another staff ever so rudely shouted at is to deposit our bags (that we lugged back to the ticket line) on the luggage cart. When slightly dazed at his request he continued to be ill-​mannered and disrespectful. I can only imagine how the rest of this ferry ride will play out bit rest assured I’ll be taking Hy-​line home and for any future ventures to Nantucket Island.

The ferry I was on had ample room on all of the decks, which was great to get some air on. The employees were friendly, especially our shuttle driver. He was very quick to load and unload everyone’s luggage and he was very pleasant. The major down side is that there is no parking near by and it was very confusing to find at first. It’ll be much easier next time but because if the initial confusion, we ended up missing our ferry and we had to wait for the next one.

Have to give a shout out to the people at the
Hyannis port yesterday. My fiancé and I were frazzled getting back to ACK – I had to work and was under a time crunch – and bc it was midweek, could find 0 places to park. Not only did the man at the gate allow him to park in a place he probably wasn’t allowed to (an employee lot) but they held the ferry 6 minutes for us! I kid you not.

Standard ferry service. Staff is «salty» but friendly. No nearby parking so plan on taking the shuttles which can be a hassle when the boat unloads back in Hyannis

Beware: if you are handicapped there is no hope. We purchased tickets on line from out of state, arrived 2 hours early. Waited in line with other passengers for a long period. We were told to go back to the ticket office and get to the back of the line when our scanned tickets were not accepted. Our carry on was tossed in a bin while others were allowed to bring on larger backpacks.
My sister went back to get physical tickets while I was struggling as all the passengers filed onto the boat.
Leaving the boat same said person was publicly humiliating crew members at an audible volume. As a passenger, I was spared his worst behavior. Can you say «Bully»

Fine ferry. We took the high speed over to Nantucket and it was fine. The guy at the ticket counter was LESS than friendly. Like, we felt like we were in the worst DMV office on the planet. We were overly friendly and he didn’t even crack a smile or say anything pleasant. We boarded the ferry and took a seat at a table. Everything looked clean and taken care of. The announcements were clear to hear, the TV was a bit loud.
Major cons are the costs. The ferry is super expensive and over $ 400 to bring your car. I understand they don’t want a lot of people driving around on the small island, but seriously, $ 400+?? Even bringing a bike is expensive. That was a bummer. But a rental on the island is only $ 60−70/day which is fine. The other terrible thing that happened was when we got back to Hyannis after the vacation and the gate was not working to leave the parking lot! There’s no phone number to call to get to the office so someone has to physically walk into the building and tell them the gate and ticket box was not working. We sat for almost 15 minutes with a line of cars behind us. Now, with this confusion, most places would credit us something for the inconvenience. If your machine isn’t working… it’s not our fault. Finally, someone came out and basically blamed us (the people in line) that they weren’t using the machine properly. We were the second car, and had the first guy not been in a huge truck, we would have peaced out without paying. It was ridiculous. He had to manually open the box and work the gate and payment machine for each car. After he sat there and told us it’s working… only for it not to work. That gets some points off. We were not happy for this to happen after such a pleasant vacation.
Get your stuff together, do better on cost and maybe we’ll be back.

NANTUCKET HYANNIS Steamship Authority: It should be no surprise to anyone that because the Steamship is State owned and Union Run that they just don’t give a Sh## about the service. Individually there are some shining stars but, the women at the ticket counter in Nantucket couldn’t be worse. Never friendly, bordering on RUDE. In contrast the people in Hyannis are much much much more friendly. I know ‚… I take the boat almost every day.
FOOD: The food on the boats is priced like you were staying at a high end resort. Over $ 3.50 for a fountain coke. REALLY? Be sure to bring food with you if you go on the slow boat. The selection is the only thing worse that the quality. Apparently someone told them that everyone going to Nantucket is ultra rich, stupid with their money and they like to eat garbage. Price gouging is the name of the game.
INTERNET: WIth respect to the internet … I just don’t know where to begin. They advertise free intenet but when the boat is busy it’s so slow it is useless and reminiscent of the internet in the late 80’s. In addition, so many sites are blocked it is foolish as to how on might have decided to make the decisions. I try to do work on the boat each day but I am CONSTANTLY confronted with clean business sites that have blocked access. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. It’s like being in China.
I take the slow boat so I can work for two hours in each direction but it is not possible when the boat get a little busy. I used to love this ride ‚… now I HATE IT!!!
Why not a special discount food beverage card (that travellers would pay for) that would give discounts to frequent travelers? Stop ripping us off. Be user friendly. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
The guys on the slow boat are generally very nice and accomodating, especially the older black guy. He’s a real gentleman and a fine fellow. The guys on the ramp, not so much.
TICKET PRICING: It’s cheaper to buy RT day tickets on the fast ferry on-​line than to buy their commuter books of 10 RT tickets. FU STEAMSHIP! Just another reason that the STEAMSHIP Sucks. They take advantage of their loyal regular customers. No one ever told me I fould out by accident when on their site.
This is why I now take the Hy-​Line most of the time.

No problems with the Ferry and the prices are reasonable but the totally avoidable logjam of cars on the way out is just stupid.
You’ve got an entire Ferry full of people all getting to their cars at the same time and everyone is bottlenecked into one pay station lane with an elderly man taking half a century to count change. I sat there in my car for over a half hour without moving an inch and when I finally get up to the front of the line that’s when the opt to open up a second line. It’s not like the ferry is sneaking up on anyone. Act like you’ve done this before and get your personnel in place to handle the rush. We’re trying to give you money. At least be prepared if you’re dead set on making people pay when they leave instead of when they come in.

The only way to get to Nantucket if you don’t have your own boat. Take the Hi Speed its worth teh extra money.

Took the slow ferry for 2 hours for $ 35 round-​trip. It’s not a horrible ride, just grab a seat and take a nap.
Some areas of the ferry kind of smelly, but nothing disgusting. It works if you’re looking for a cheap way to get to Nantucket.

I’ve been traveling on the Steamship Authority since the days of the Nobska. Gritty and diesel driven; wouldn’t change a thing about it!

As far as stations go this is the nicest one I have been too. The bathrooms are clean and modern. They have a small café, vending machines, and pretty views of the water. There is free wi-​fi, which helps make they wait go by if you are habitually early like me.
They also have a free shuttle from the parking lot to the station, both drivers I got were very nice and helpful. The woman who worked at the ticket counter was super nice. She answered my questions and pointed me to a restaurant nearby because the café was not open yet.
If all travel stations were this nice, I would skip the long drive.

The Steamship Authority is a pretty standard way to get your Nantucket tickets. I’d say get them way in advance, especially if you have a car and need to get on the slow ferry.
The station itself is pretty sleek and low key. There’s only one café to get snacks — though there are options on the boat.
The set-​up is quite organized. You have to stand in a long queue to get your pre-​booked tickets, but the set up for getting cars on board is pretty streamlined.
The website for getting your tickets really sucks and is not fully intuitive, but take your time to make sure you’re getting the right dates!
Dogs are welcome on board the boats, which is a fun treat.
Be careful about sitting out on the back of the boat outside. You’ll inevitably be sprayed!

We took the fast ferry from Hyannis to Nantucket. There’s tons of parking in the off-​site lots, and shuttles run frequently. When you get there, a baggage handler will take your bags. I didn’t have luggage tags, so I was a little nervous, but it turned out fine.
Make sure you check in when you get to the terminal, even if you made your reservation online! The ticket agents are nice, and are more than happy to answer your questions, should you have any.
We got there early, so we got lunch at the café. Sure it’s overpriced, but the food was decent, and honestly. What on the Cape/​Islands isn’t over priced?
The ferry itself was clean and comfortable. Flat screen TVs are available, as is a snack bar. The ride to Nantucket took about an hour.
The only other ferries I’d taken prior to this trip were the two Long Island ferries, and this boat was in much better condition.