Bari Willard, of Orcas, traveled off island March 24 for a funeral and medical appointments. She made a reservation for the 12:25 p.m. ferry from Orcas to Anacortes. She recalled arriving at the terminal at 11:47 a.m., but because the incoming ferry was unloading, she had to wait before turning across the street to get to the booth. She said she arrived at the booth at 11:58 a.m. just three minutes after the 30 minute requirement and was directed to the standby lane.

“This has to change,” she wrote in a frustrated post on Facebook.

Willard did make her ferry that afternoon, but the incident made her question the logic of the new rule, which requires riders to be at the terminal 30 minutes prior to their sailing for their reservations to be honored.

“The Ferry Advisory Committee has been concerned about these changes since we first learned of them,” said San Juan County Committee Chairman Jim Corenman. “We continue to be concerned on how it’s going to work out for the traveling public.”

Last year the policy for reservation holders stated that ferry goers must arrive at the terminal 30 minutes prior to departure. This meant that at places like Anacortes where lines, just to get through the toll booth, have historically been long during peak season, required riders to be in the line a half hour before departure time. Once to the toll booth reservations would be honored even if by that time it was only ten minutes prior to the scheduled departure. The situation only got sticky when the stand-by vehicles had already been loaded in which case the reservation holder would be loaded as soon as possible and before the rest of the standbys. This year’s changes, effective March 20, state that reservation holders must be through the toll booth 30 minutes prior to departure, not just in the line. If drivers are not at or through the booth the ticketing agent will be unable to honor their reservation and they will only be allowed on the ferry as a standby.

For Ian Sterling, Washington State Ferries public information officer, the key for riders is to get through the toll booth with 30 minutes to spare.

“If you don’t make it 30 minutes ahead, your reservation is cancelled but you can go standby and hopefully still make the departure you hoped for,” he said.

Corenman notes that he has heard accounts of ferry goers arriving at a toll booth less than the required half hour before departure and having their reservations essentially canceled.

“You can probably still get on the boat, unless it’s full,” said Corenman “But you’ll be at end of standby and may not get on.”

The Ferry Advisory Committee’s worry is that long summer time lines at the Anacortes ferry terminal will cause drivers to miss the 30 minute deadline even if they show up 45 to 90 minutes ahead.

“Last year toll booths were managed well,” said Corenman, “but it was their [Washington State Ferries] responsibility. If lines got long they still had to honor reservations but now it’s changed to be the rider’s responsibility for the line length and that’s a concern.”

According to Sterling, last year the line to get to the toll booth rarely exceeded 15 minutes, which would safely put anyone, who gets in line 45– 90 minutes ahead, to the ticketing agent within a half hour of sailing time.

“Hours long waits essentially disappeared with the implementation of the reservation system,” said Sterling. “We continue to tweak our procedures to keep lines to a minimum.”

As far as the current $10 no-show fee goes, if travelers miss their scheduled ferry but travel on the same day they will not be charged.

Another concern of the advisory committee is how the public is being notified of these changes. Currently the change is shown on the website under “Arrival Window” within the Terms and Conditions page that pops up after scheduling a reservation and via handouts from ticketing agents.

“The question that needs to be asked is “Have the ferries really done as much as they can to let the public know what they need to know?” said Corenman. “What they did do was post, about a month ago, I agree to terms and conditions, check here. It’s a little bleep and folks miss it.”

Journal editor Cali Bagby contributed to this article.