Rottnest Island Round Trip Ferry from Fremantle

Poor quality bikes and bad experience

Writing this review because I completed a survey more than a month ago and have not received a response, so I have decided to share. Rented 2 bikes, one with kids trailer and the other with child seat. Bikes were old and of poor standard. They were also handed to us without helmets and when I asked for them we were provided a helmet that was too big for my 2.5 year old. They were in a rush as the ferry was about to leave so I didn't get a chance to ask for another one. The bike with the kids trailer attached also kept falling over because the stand didn't work. As a result, when we visited the tourist info centre, the bike with the kids trailer fell over and as my wife came to help me, she put her bike with my son in the child seat on the stand and rushed to help. This was partly our fault as we should never have left him even for a second but the wind was strong and the bike was too light and back heavy. it toppled over with my son in it and his head hit the pavement. He didn't have a helmet on as it was too big and had to be rushed to the nursing station. Thankfully he only suffered a large lump on his head and was cleared of concussion. 2 since arriving we were distressed and made the best of an already ruined day. The ferry ride itself was fine but the bikes are of poor quality and need to be replaced or maintained better.

Beautiful Rottnest!

Most memorable - quokkas, views, food available, cocktails and smooth ferry trips. The views on the island are spectacular and quite different on each side of the island. Take care on ship and slippery rocks on the beach walking trail.

Quokka Central.

Great trip on the Ferry from Fremantle with friendly crew. If going on this trip make sure you book ahead either the hop on hop off bus or e bikes. The Island has so many beautiful areas to visit. Great food available at the Main Settlement. Bakery was amazing. I would also suggest to spend the whole day to be able to take everything in. The Quokkas are so cute.

Day Trip

Great Day out excellent snorkeling cycling and brilliant food and facilities will recommend the trip to all family and friends in the UK

Great tour, we have a...

Great tour, we have a good day at the island. We will be there again. If you are returning on the same day and have young children with you, it is recommended to take a bus tour and then rent a bicycle for leisure activities. Don't forget to bring sunscreen, plenty of food and water.

Beautiful

A great little island, famous of course for its lovely quokkas, they really are easy to find, especially if you’re near the food outlets. The trip from Fremantle was great, smooth trip and took about 30 minutes. We also did the bus tour, the signage to the bus meeting point wasn’t the easiest to find but we enjoyed the whole experience.

Ferry trip was generally okay

Quokkas and the beautiful nature reserves are the reason to plan a visit to this island. While the cost to reach there is on the high side (i.e. close to 100AUD for a 2-way ferry ticket, excl. any rental of facilities on the island such as bike), it is still worth a visit if you have the time and loves the sea and sun!

Rottnest Express - always a great experience

As always, very professional, on time, efficient and the team are always friendly and helpful. Sasha was particularly great!

Dismissive company

Despite both my brother-in-law, who has Down syndrome, and me being injured and covered in blood after an accident on the island, the ferry company neglected to provide adequate assistance upon our departure. Even worse, they reached out to dispute our negative review on TripAdvisor after ignoring our initial email feedback. Their social media agent even laughed at the fact that my partner and I left reviews, saying, 'One wasn't enough? Hahaha. ----- What a surreal and unsettling experience I had with this ferry company – it felt like something straight out of Black Mirror. Despite providing feedback on the lack of empathy service we received, we received no response to our email. However, the moment we posted on TripAdvisor, things changed drastically. When both my brother-in-law, who has Down syndrome, and I experienced an accident on the island, leaving me with 8 stitches, 4 broken teeth, and my brother-in-law having to amputate a piece of his finger, we were shocked to find that no one from the ferry crew assisted us in leaving the ferry. Despite the nurses calling ahead to inform them of our injuries, we received minimal help. It's important to note that when the company contacted us afterward, they didn't want to speak to me about the accident or who was involved – they wanted to speak to my partner, who wrote the review. It was infuriating when the representative claimed our situation wasn't an emergency, suggesting we should have waited for the 500 passengers to leave first. I didn't cry from the accident, but I cried from the lack of empathy and self-absorption of people and crew. She even suggested it wasn't an emergency otherwise we would have been airlifted or taken a private boat. She even said how horrible the passengers were, not taking accountability for the crew, and also mentioned that the nurses never let them know we were coming, which was not true, because, my partner and his two other brothers, and I heard them speaking to the crew over the phone. And when I said that, the representative said, "Are you calling me a liar?" and I said I didn't lose my memory, and I was there; she wasn't. Is this really the phone call you want to get after a traumatic accident? Choose your people better. A simple apology and acknowledgment of their lapse in humanity would have sufficed, along with the implementation of procedures to prevent such incidents in the future. Overall, the lack of empathy and accountability displayed by the ferry company is deeply concerning. Potential passengers should be aware of the company's dismissive attitude towards customer concerns. ----- this was my original review where I even gave them two stars: "I am extremely disappointed with the service we received. After a bike accident on the island, I had to use a wheelchair to reach the ferry. Unfortunately, the crew was not accommodating. Even upon departure, they failed to ensure we were taken care of. Despite being in urgent need, I had to struggle to disembark and get to the ER, covered in blood along with my brother-in-law. People were running past us, yet the crew didn't prioritize our safety or create space for us to exit promptly. The lack of humanity from the crew was appalling. I submitted feedback before posting here, but as of today, there has been no response.

Excellent

Very efficient; friendly employees; superb and entertaining safety video. Hired e-Bikes at ‘perth electric bikes’ in Fremantle; then pedaled only 5 min to Rottnest Express B-Shed Dock. (Be sure to add “own bike” when buy your Ferry ticket). Rottnest Express gets you to Island in only 30 min; then you can start e-pedaling!

Turquoise water at Rottnest island 🩷

The beaches are phenomenal! Love this amazing tranquil place! The bus around the island was great. The tour of the quokkas was really informative and interesting. Sun guarantee. Lovely place!

Complaint and no recompense

ATTENTION - Left stranded at North Terminal Freemantle. Outgoing the ferry starts at Northferry and then goes to the Southferry to pick up further passengers. Perversely on return it goes to Northferry first and then onto Southferry second. On the return we got off at Northferry which left us stranded and with a $25 taxi to pay for. I understand that the ferry is supposed to warn passengers going to Southferry on return not to get off. On this occasion they did not. I was on the lower deck and my wife on the upper deck and neither of us heard any warning. This should be made clear in their booking process but we were not told anything. SO BEWARE fellow travellers from abroad. Rottnest Ferries should have paid for the taxi as this their error.

Informative and picturesque

A full day filled with informative commentary and spectacular scenery. We started our tour with a train ride up to the Oliver Hill battery. This was followed by a light lunch and a full loop of the island which highlighted the natural beauty of the island. Clive our guide was friendly and made our tour enjoyable. He also gave us the opportunity to see some quokkas up close. The day went too quickly. Would love to return and spend more time exploring the island.

10 out of 10

We hired e scooters and Jen from Rottnest express was the best. I forgot to get them registered and she got it all sorted for us . The best customer service. Thank you Jen

Helpful crew, comfortable seats . Last trip back very crowded, some passengers had to sit on floor.

Previous travellers gave a heads up to look for the red ticket office in the car park near Shed B, which you need to do to receive your bording pass!!!!

Amazing

What an amazing day! We could not recommend this enough . Great day out for all ages young and old. Fast ferry ride over and such an amazing place awaits. We hired e-bikes to make our lives easier to ride around the island . It’s beautiful coast and amazing pink lake . You feel very safe riding around with only few buses passing by . Great places to have lunch on return . Something for all budgets and families. There’s fancier restaurants and pubs and a bakery and subway . We ate at the pub on the beach and everything we had was delicious including the drinks. Great service and very friendly . Quokas are so gentle and beautiful and good to see plenty around . Did see a few snakes also on the roads so just be mindful and go around them.We wish we had spent a couple days. Had a great ferry trip home after a long but very amazing day !

Just perfect

Had an awesome time with my family from New Zealand my little nieces just loved Pinkies beach and the quokkas

Great experience

I had only booked the return ferry trip, however ended up hiring a bike when I was on there. Super easy and fun way to see the whole island, just remember to wear sunscreen and being a bottle of water with you, the bike track is long and there isn’t really any shade and water stations are limited.

Rottnest

First trip for some time. Loved it. Great to not have to worry about a lot of traffic. Enjoyed walking around and to see improvements in town centre.

Great Service

Very easy to book online and decided to catch 30 min train ride down to Freo and walk 5 minutes to Shed B rather than leave on the ferry direct from Perth. Partner is not great on boats and for that reason got on board at 9:15am and headed straight outside to the stern seating upstairs to secure a spot. Best place to sit if someone is worried about travel sickness. Boat left exactly at 9:30am and arrived on Rotto at 10:00am. Head straight into the main settlement and you can load up on supplies and you'll be bound to see some photo friendly quokkas around there too. We spent a magnificent afternoon on the island with perfect weather. Clear skies, sun shining and not a breath of wind. It was so much fun I completely forgot to get on the 2:15pm ferry and watched as it headed back to Freo without us. a quick call to customer service and the friendly staff had us onto the 4pm ferry with no fuss or stress. Outstanding service in what was a slightly stressful time. Highly recommended

Drop off was a different point than pickup

Very exciting trip and ride. Only when we were dropped off at Fremantle, we realised it was not the north port ferry terminal where our cars were. We weren’t informed that the drop off is not the Sams location and had to pay $21 to take a taxi to our cars at north port terminal. They should have informed us if the drop off is a different location. The taxi driver said they get customers like this daily !

Don't use Rottness Experess.

I received an email from Rottnest Express notifying me of the cancellation of my trip on June 6th due to inclement weather. I made multiple attempts to contact them on June 5th and 6th in order to cancel my booking, but their phone line was consistently down, preventing me from reaching them. Today, when I tried to rebook the trip, they refused my request. I am extremely disappointed with their service and feel that they have mistreated their customers. Consequently, I have decided not to use Rottnest Express in the future and I am considering taking the matter to the Department of Fair Trading. Their behavior was unacceptable. Instead, we purchased tickets from Sealink, as they offered similar prices and additional ferry options.

Easy booking, great ride, friendly staff, great ferry, good seats, nothing but an awesome round trip.

Very easy booking, called and changed our departure time was easy, staff very friendly, easy boarding, great trip Evan in some good swell, bags were delivered to our room and collected when leaving, very easy - all good

Fast and efficient

As always Rottnest express provided a fast and efficient ferry service. We had to change our booking and they were so helpful in getting our plans sorted.

Great company

Efficient company with clean facilities, very friendly staff and were exactly on time. We only wished we had known about the electric bikes before we went.

Smooth ride to Rottnest island!

I took the Rottnest Express on a day outing to Rottnest Island and it ran smoothly - no issues with the timings of my booked shuttle and the shuttles are really comfortable. Recommend for a day!

Rottnest Island - perfect day out

We took our grandson over to experience the Quokka’s and we were not disappointed. He also enjoyed going to Pinky Beach and have a swim in the ocean. We only booked for a 4 hour trip and in hindsight we should have stayed longer. Weather was on our side and we had a smooth trip over and back. We hope to be back to do the historical coach tour.

Locked in at Rottnest Express Rous Head Car Park. No escape, no contact number, very scary.

20:00 11/4/2023 My wife and her friend were (are) locked in at Rottnest Express Car Park at 1 Emma Place North, Fremantle immediately after being dropped off by the last Rottnest Island Ferry. No escape, no contact number, very scary. The Rous Head Rottnest Express car park is run by Wilson Carparks. Multiple phone calls by my wife, daughter and myself end up the Wilson Melbourne Office, who do not have the emergency number for this car park.

Emily is the STRANGEST employee you'll ever come across

This review comes across with personally having 15+ years experience in Customer Service Management. Emily working at the B Shed in Fremantle Rottnest Express ticketing office is one of the rudest and strangest employees you will ever come across. Having personal management experience i came to the conclusion quite quickly that this person should definitely not be put in a customer service position let alone a supervisor position. Hopefully, this review will be taken seriously by management and the appropriate action being taken as this person easily could become a liability to the company. My partner and I arrived at the ticket office as commuters to get across to the island for work, we already had our commuter tickets on our phone given to us by our manager. We thought it would be a great idea to bring across our child for the day and have a fun day out. We presented our tickets to Emily and advised we already had communter tickets for ourselves and that we needed to just purchase a ticket for the child 11 years old ( even though kids under 12 travel free). Emily then became very weird and rude by coming to a personal judgement that we didn't "look" like workers and refused to sell us a child ticket. We physically showed her our tickets and she could see the equipment we were bringing across to the island as the cases were right in front of her. She then also advised that she CANCELLED our commuter tickets without zero explanation as to why, even when we asked for one. As a supervisor she never come to a resolution or a conculsion on how to resolve the issue (an issue she solely created on her own as there wasnt one). We just wanted to get on the ferry to work. She then went out of her way to exit the ticket office to walk over to the ferry to speak to the ferry driver. When she returned she provided zero communication on what was happening, just basically ignored us and sat down at her desk not saying a word. We missed our ferry because of this. We actually could not believe the nerve this person had acting like this in front of her other 2 colleagues. What learning example was she setting for them? I told her that we would be making a serious complaint and she refused to give us her name at first when she was asked. This is a person in management? I have never in my life come across such a rude and strange individual like this. We have never had an issue before as we had done this many times beforehand and never encountered a problem. We ended up leaving and going to the NorthPort ferry point and the staff there were lovely and assiting and sold us the child ticket, they then scanned our communter passes (Yes they worked even though Emily told us she cancelled them) and we got across to the island luckily on time. It gets worse. Once we got across to the island and arrived at the venue the venue manager had told us that Emily had personally called the venue, which he thought was quite odd, she then proceed to lie and tell him that we were trying to get 4 people onto the ferry for free and that we didn't have any equipment or luggage with us and asking for his advice if she should have cancelled the tickets. We could not believe it! She was actually trying to make us look really bad to our employer! He said to her "NO you shouldn't do that because we need the staff here today and also asked her why she didn't call him whilst we were at the ticketing office not once we had left and he would have confirmed the info to her. She never responded to him when she was asked this. We all could not believe the attitude of this person and the length she had went to succeed her own unknown personal agenda. This is a person we had never met in our life! I will definitely be bringing this up with management at our next business meeting to change business bookings with a different ferry provider. Not Rottnest Express. Solely because of this person working for this company.

Pleasant journey.

Very efficient service, both booking online and ferrying to and from the island. No hassles. The music when boarding at Rottnest for the return trip was somewhat ordinary and loud and some of the announcements for the safety check were hard to hear if outside. Otherwise a good experience.

Clean and comfortable ferry ride to Rottnest

Park at B Shed Terminal carpark and follow the signs that leads to the ticketing booth. Carpark is under Wilson Parking and you need to pay for the ticket in advance. Buying tickets was a breeze and the ferry leaves on time. Ferry is clean and comfortable. They sell drinks and snacks on board too.