Missed Trips, Late Arrivals & Rescheduling

We understand that nobody plans to miss their trip. However, because our trips operate to a strict schedule and seats are reserved specifically for you, there are some important things you need to know before travelling.
If you think there is any chance you may be late, please leave earlier than you think you need to. Most missed trips occur because customers underestimate travel times, traffic, parking, queues for parking machines, or the time needed to walk to the departure point.
We strongly recommend arriving in New Quay at least one hour before your departure time. There is plenty to see and do in the town, and arriving early is far less stressful than risking missing your trip altogether.
Unfortunately, once a boat has departed, there is usually very little that can be done. Taking a little extra time at the start of your journey is the best way to avoid disappointment later.o easily load up, as over low water this can sometimes be a problem.

If you arrive after the boat has departed, book the wrong date or time, go to the wrong location, cannot find parking, cannot find the departure point, or miss the trip for any other reason, we are unable to offer a refund or transfer your booking.
This policy applies regardless of the reason for missing the trip.

When you book seats on a trip, those seats are reserved exclusively for you and cannot be sold to anyone else. If you do not arrive and the boat departs with your seats empty, the revenue from those seats is lost.
Offering a refund or moving passengers to another trip after the departure time means we lose the opportunity to sell those seats to other customers. For this reason, missed trips are treated in the same way as unused tickets for events, flights, trains and many other time-specific activities.

A common question we receive is: “Why can’t you just put us on a later trip?”
While this may seem like a simple solution, rescheduling a missed trip has the same financial effect on us as issuing a refund.
When you book seats on a trip, those seats are removed from sale and reserved exclusively for you. If you do not arrive and the boat departs with empty seats, that income is lost. Moving you to another trip means we are providing a second set of seats without receiving any additional payment.
In effect, we would be giving you two opportunities to take the trip while only receiving payment for one. Unless the later trip would otherwise have departed with empty seats, this also prevents us from selling those places to other paying customers.
For example, if a family of four misses a trip and is moved to a later sailing, we have already lost the income from four empty seats on the original departure. If the later trip then fills up, those four seats could have been sold to other paying passengers. The result is effectively the same as providing a refund and then giving a free trip.
For this reason, rescheduling a missed trip is not something we can offer as a matter of course.

In some circumstances, and entirely at our discretion, we may consider offering seats on a later trip on the same day. However, this is not something we can usually confirm in advance.
The reason is simple: we do not know whether spare seats will be available until shortly before the later trip departs. Customers may continue booking throughout the day, and we must ensure that all paying customers with confirmed reservations are accommodated first.
As a result, anyone hoping to travel on a later departure may need to wait in New Quay for several hours while we assess availability. Even then, we cannot guarantee that seats will become available.
For example, if you miss a morning trip and ask to be moved to an afternoon sailing, we may not know until shortly before departure whether there is enough space to accommodate you. If the trip fills with paying customers, we will be unable to offer seats.
For this reason, customers should not make plans based on the assumption that a missed trip can simply be transferred to a later departure. Any alternative sailing offered is a goodwill gesture and remains subject to availability right up until departure time.

Our trips operate on fixed departure times and there are no waiting periods for late arrivals.
The skipper must depart on time to ensure the safety and enjoyment of all passengers and to keep later trips running on schedule.
If you arrive after departure, you will be considered a no-show.

Unfortunately, we regularly see customers miss trips due to:
Booking the wrong date or time
Confusing New Quay, Ceredigion with Newquay, Cornwall
Traffic delays or road closures
Car breakdowns or mechanical problems
Punctures and other vehicle issues
Difficulty finding parking
Long queues at parking machines
Arriving at the harbour too late
Not allowing enough time to walk to the departure point
Not checking confirmation emails
Phone signal issues while travelling
While we understand that many of these situations are outside a customer’s control, they do not qualify for a refund or transfer. The seats have been reserved specifically for your booking and cannot usually be resold once the trip has departed.

We recommend:
Checking your booking confirmation carefully when you receive it
Double-checking the date, time and location before travelling
Allowing plenty of extra time for traffic
Arriving in New Quay at least one hour before departure
Allowing time to find parking and walk to the departure point
Calling us if you are unsure about any aspect of your booking
There is plenty to see and do in New Quay, so arriving early is always better than arriving late.
The easiest way to avoid any disagreement about refunds, transfers or exceptions is simply to arrive early. 

Any issues relating to missed trips, late arrivals, or requests for exceptions to our policy must be dealt with by telephone.
Please do not email, text, or send messages through social media regarding a missed trip. We receive a large volume of messages and cannot guarantee that they will be seen in time. A phone call is the only reliable way to discuss time-sensitive matters.
Please also bear in mind that we operate with a small team and only have one person available to answer the phone. During busy periods, particularly in the summer months, that person is often handling bookings, customer enquiries, operational issues and trip departures at the same time.
As a result, conversations regarding missed trips may sometimes need to be brief. We apologise if this occasionally comes across as rushed, but our business operates within a relatively short season and our ability to take new bookings is essential to keeping trips running. We appreciate your understanding.

We are based in New Quay, Ceredigion, West Wales.
Unfortunately, every year a small number of customers mistakenly travel to Newquay in Cornwall, which is over 150 miles away and requires either a very long drive or a sea crossing to reach us.
We appreciate that internet searches, sat-navs and mobile phone bookings can sometimes cause confusion, particularly when bookings are made quickly. However, it remains the customer’s responsibility to check the location, date and departure time before travelling.
If you travel to the wrong town and miss your trip, we are unable to provide a refund or reschedule your booking.

Where we choose, entirely at our sole discretion, to make an exception to our standard booking terms and provide a refund, any non-refundable payment processing fees, card transaction charges or other direct booking costs incurred by us will be deducted from the refund amount.
These charges are retained by the payment provider and are not returned to us when a booking is refunded.

Any exception to this policy is entirely at the discretion of the operator and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
By booking a trip, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.
We appreciate that unexpected events can occur and we always try to be helpful where circumstances allow. However, we must balance this with fairness to other customers and the practical realities of operating a seasonal boat trip business.