Ferry services on the Adriatic sea by Croatian shipping company Jadrolinija
Jadrolinija is the name of the ferry company that takes care of transporting goods, people and cars across the Adriatic sea between the islands and the continent. Although we have not experienced any trouble during our holidays in Croatia and meanwhile another interesting part in Balkans, e.g. Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have learned from the year 2008, that anybody who depends on the services of the Jadrolinija ferry company, has to take some things into account. In high and low season there is a different time table. Do not rely on those in the prospects you receive together with your travel tickets. They might be copied from the previous year. To make sure you got the right departure times and avoid surprises you should visit the online sailing schedule on the homepage of ferry company Jadrolinija or take a walk to the harbour if it is not too far away. It might save yourself some misery. At home we found out that we did not read the sailing schedule correctly and focussed on a high season departure time.
We also experienced that you will only get back your money for a ticket at the ticket office where you bought your ticket.
On ticket Korčula I did not only buy the ticket for the transfer from Dominće to Orebić, but also that one for the transfer from Trpanj on the peninsula Pelješac to Ploče on the Dalmatian continent, so that I did not need to queue up for the tickets that afternoon and risk that we would miss the boat. We were not allowed to get on the boat because it was full already, three quarters before departure. No wonder it was full because it was way too small. I went to the small office where there was already some arguing going on between the Jadrolinija staff member and other victims. "Tomorrow morning next boat", the unkind employee answered my question how I would get to the other side. He also said that I had to go to the office at Korčula to get the money back. "Or Split !" I was not that stupid to go back to Korčula and fortunately we were going to Split anyway on Thursday when we wanted to visit the island Brač on scooter.
That Thursday the woman in the harbour office in Split told me that I should have come that same day. How could I have done that when the last ferry? just departed right before my eyes. She left and after a while she came back to the counter and let me know that by way of exception I was going to get my money back except 10 percent, because of administration costs because I am not a customer from Croatia. I objected that the Jadrolinija company had sent a way too small boat and did not want to send another one that afternoon. When I told her that I was going to inform the press about this way of making money, she realised that I was not going to leave without all the money and started another phone call, probably with the Jadrolinija headquarters. Then she came back to refund the complete amount to me.
