I like to travel the islands a bit but have a hard time getting the various schedules at the different islands. Suggestions please
Best I can do for now, maybe you will have better smaller island to island ferry schedules when you get to the Bigger island. Maybe others can help later. Browse Cebu Ferries - Schedule.ph Google JP
You will need to adopt a "just wing it" mentality when traveling to the smaller, less known, islands. No way of knowing the exact times when the ferries will leave. Go to the port and when they have enough passengers to make a bit of money from the trip they will head out (or you can pay extra to make up for the missing passengers/make a "special trip"). Major routes between larger/developed islands will run roughly every 1-3 hours or have a posted schedule at the port.
Randy,most of the websites are never updated here for ferry schedules. There is only one ferry a day to bohol now which leaves around 3pm each day weather permitting and takes around 1.45 mins. There are several which go to siquijor every day but since delta is no more now the times have changed. Most of the travel agents will sell you ferry tickets or just drop by the port if you have patients to fall in line.
My last trip to the PI in April,2015 presented the need to travel around between Cebu, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran and Cagayan de Oro. Trying to figure out the ferries using the internet from my home in New York (in order to know when to make various hotel reservations) was an exercise in frustration. The websites are not comprehensive, nor up-to-date. After planning a particular trip between Dumaguete and Cagayan, a friend from Cebu informed me that the ferry company had long ago gone out of business...but nothing ever dies on the internet. When I arrived in Dumaguete, I sought out a travel agent who I thought would have a handle on the entire situation (that's their job, right?), but was told that they don't handle ferry tickets. Back to square one. I am happy to pay a travel agent to make arrangements for ferry tickets and let me know when I can and cannot get ferry travel. Does anyone know of an agency that does this? If not, a ferry-friendly travel agency sounds like a great profit center for some bright Filipino.
I have used the agency on the second floor of the mall for ferry tickets before,not Mindanao but bohol and siquijor and also Cebu. It's right behind the food court in the corner.
This should help you out a bit.. Philippines shipping lines, slow ferry and ro-ro shipping schedules, including SuperFerry, Trans-Asia, Cokaliong, Sulpicio, Carlos A. Gothong, Roble, F.T. Palacio, George & Peter, Maypalad, Kinswell, as well as other shipping lines.