After a 4-year absence, the Waverley paddlesteamer will be returning to the Isle of Wight and the Solent region this September.
Passengers are being invited to go aboard the Waverley for the 2022 South Coast season – and her first cruises from Southampton, Portsmouth and Yarmouth since 2018.
One of the first boat tours of the return to the South will be on Friday 2nd September when the paddlesteamer calls at Yarmouth for a trip out to The Needles and around to Freshwater Bay.
Keeping the last seagoing paddlesteamer afloat isn’t cheap with the vessel having recently undergone a multi-million-pound boiler replacement.
Due to the significantly increased cost of fuel, a £2 surcharge has been applied to each ticket this year. It costs around £13 a minute in fuel to keep the Wavelery’s paddles turning.
More information about trips along the South Coast – between Poole and Portsmouth – can be found at https://waverleyexcursions.co.uk/.
Will the company improve the standards this time as when I traveled 5 years ago it was overloaded and many passengers hadn’t even paid owing to payment system not working, they were told to pay when they disembarked. The prepaid ticket holders seemed to be the only genuine fee paying customers. The food was disgusting as they couldn’t even get the fish and chips defrosted enough before cooking.
And presumably it will be dangerously overloaded as it always seems to be…
Well, if it’s like all the other public transport on the Island, the crew will demand a 16% pay rise and go on strike, or they will be off for Covid, or it will be cancelled due to breakdowns and repairs. So it’ll great having it back, but only on the days it is operational.