I'm planning a day trip to the Isle of Wight -- out to Cowes with Red Funnel, walk to Ryde, return via Portsmouth; I'll probably buy a day return to Eastleigh and then singles to Cowes and from Ryde. The outward journey is fine -- you can't reserve on the Red Jet service even if you want to. Coming back, I see from their websites that neither Wightlink nor Hovertravel are insisting on reservations as strictly as they did some weeks ago, but both give the impression that it's a good idea to have one if you want to travel on your preferred crossing; do people have an idea how feasible it would be to turn up at Ryde and buy a ticket on the spot for the next crossing? That would mean that I wouldn't have to decide on my route or crossing time until I get to Ryde, but on the other hand I can imagine that both catamarans and hovercraft will be busy on an August Saturday, particularly if the weather is good.
Will both Wightlink and Hovertravel at Ryde be able and willing to sell through tickets to mainland railway stations, with railcard discounts?
Hovertravel's website says here that if you have a hovercraft + rail ticket and want to make a reservation, you can fill in an online form, which asks for 'rail ticket number'. E-tickets have a number explicitly labelled as 'ticket number'; for an orange card ticket, is it the 19-digit number near the bottom right? (On Wightlink you can, or at least could in June, phone or e-mail for a reservation without needing a ticket number).
Finally (not a ticketing question), I see that the Hoverbus appears to be timed to leave the terminal only a minute after the arrival of the hovercraft; is it normally possible to make this connection?
Will both Wightlink and Hovertravel at Ryde be able and willing to sell through tickets to mainland railway stations, with railcard discounts?
Hovertravel's website says here that if you have a hovercraft + rail ticket and want to make a reservation, you can fill in an online form, which asks for 'rail ticket number'. E-tickets have a number explicitly labelled as 'ticket number'; for an orange card ticket, is it the 19-digit number near the bottom right? (On Wightlink you can, or at least could in June, phone or e-mail for a reservation without needing a ticket number).
Finally (not a ticketing question), I see that the Hoverbus appears to be timed to leave the terminal only a minute after the arrival of the hovercraft; is it normally possible to make this connection?