This August, friends from France will vacation in the Pacific NW and they plan a ferry trip from Vancouver to Victoria and then one from Victoria to Port Angeles. I want to help them avoid long car lines, or, at least help make their trip go as smoothly as possible.

Of course, they should make reservations ASAP, right?

Days of week they plan to take the car ferry:

Sunday in August, 2009 - Depart Vancouver, BC for Victoria
Tuesday in August, 2009 - Depart Victoria, BC for Port Angeles

I do not know if this is still the case, but about 5 years ago, you could not make ferry reservations going from Victoria to Port Angeles. It was first come first served. What we did was get on line at the ferry terminal at 6:30 am, leave the car in line (which was allowed and encouraged), went for breakfast and returned a half hour before the scheduled sailing. If your friends have to wait for an afternoon ferry, they could also leave their car in line and spend some time at the museum which is walking distance from the ferry. Perhaps someone could tell you if the no reservation policy is still the case.

Yes, you can make reservations from Victoria to Port Angeles. I have not taken the other route, so I don't know. But the Victoria to PA is on the MV Coho, and you can make reservations on their website. I highly recommend doing that. They will need to be in line in Victoria 90 minutes before sailing to hold their reservation. We did this several years ago and it worked out well.

Is this the ferry your friends would be taking?
http://cohoferry.com/main/

They do have an online reservation form. If it were me, I would make reservations as soon as I knew the dates for sure, not worth it to take a chance.

Serendipity42

Yes, you can now make reservations on both routes (that didn't used to be the case on the Coho).

Book your BC ferry reservations early. They go quickly. If you don't book, you can get in line and wait and there is a nice terminal. If you book, I think you only need to be there 15 minutes early, but check when you reserve.

Unless something has changed since last summer, you need to be through the booth at the BC Ferries terminal at least 30 minutes before the departure time of the ferry you're reserved on. Even if you get there one minute late, your reservation will be cancelled (I found this out the hard way obviously ;-)).

Just a note...the BC Ferries are different from the Coho ferry...so arrive 30 minutes before the one ferry and 90 minutes before the other. As NWWanderer mentioned, if you are late you lose your reservation.