WA state ferries: What to expect Memorial Day weekend
The summer season, which unofficially begins this Memorial Day weekend, is always the busiest time of year for Washington State Ferries. Add to that the extra load of international passengers expected for the FIFA Men's World Cup, and the agency expects lots of people to sail Puget Sound through Labor Day.
It all starts now, with 350,000 riders expected to board a ferry through Monday.
As usual, WSF is urging passengers to sign up for rider alerts and warning of long lines and extended wait times. The swell of passengers - and the delays to get aboard - will depend on the direction a boat is headed: Wait times will be lengthy for travelers heading west, or onto an island, before Saturday, and east, or off an island, Saturday through Monday.
As every year, the agency advises people to walk or bike on to a ferry, which guarantees passage and doesn't require a reservation. The agency strongly recommends that drivers reserve a space, if available, and consider an early morning or late-day sailing.
Most routes will operate on regular schedules throughout the weekend.
On Memorial Day, sailings on the Anacortes-San Juan Islands, Edmonds-Kingston, Point Defiance-Tahlequah and Port Townsend-Coupeville runs will see holiday schedule changes. The Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth triangle route will run on a holiday schedule. And the Seattle-Bainbridge sailing will run on a Saturday schedule.
As with last year, WSF is running 18 boats over the summer, with one on standby.
Early last year, Gov. Bob Ferguson ordered the agency to return to its prepandemic 18-boat domestic service, which boosted annual ridership to 20.1 million in 2025 - about a million more riders than the year before and the first time ridership topped 20 million since 2019.
Despite the thin margin of error in vessels, the 2025 summer season was largely untroubled. But Ferguson's plan was tested in the first days of the new year, as mechanical issues and planned maintenance took six vessels out of service from its full fleet of 21 - nearly a third of its boats.
Ferry officials said the vessel outage came at a good time. The winter is always quieter than the summer.
The work to rebuild the fleet begins in earnest this summer, as Florida's Eastern Shipbuilding lays the keel of the first of three ferries it is contracted to build.
For more information, visit wsdot.com/ferries.
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