Real Time “Seat Flip” Tracks Cancellations For Previously Booked Seats To Famed National Park
Key West, Florida — “Sold out” no longer necessarily means travelers have to give up on visiting one of America’s most remote national parks. Dry Tortugas Alerts www.drytortugasalerts.com announces a new real-time service that monitors cancellations on the Yankee Freedom III ferry and immediately alerts travelers when previously booked seats become available for purchase.
Dry Tortugas is one of Florida’s hardest-to-access national parks, and an extremely popular tourist destination, seventy miles west of Key West. The Yankee Freedom III ferry is limited to just 250 passengers per day, and demand frequently exceeds available capacity by 150%. Visitors to the park last year numbered 89,355 according to the Dry Tortugas National Park Service, and the only other way to access the park is by hiring a seaplane or a chartering a private boat. Roughly 75% of the annual departure dates sold out in 2025.
Dry Tortugas Alerts provides an automated “seat flip” service that monitors previously sold-out dates and sends travelers a text notification the moment a seat becomes available, giving them the opportunity to purchase directly through the ferry operator.
“Our data shows that the average open-seat window is only 30 minutes. Since launching in April, 3,200 previously unavailable ferry seats have flipped open,” said Todd Santoro, CEO and Founder of Dry Tortugas Alerts. “There are an average of 24 seats that become available per date, so we wanted to create a way for travelers to know immediately when those seats open up.”
Since April, the service has documented the equivalent of more than 12 fully booked ferry departures, turning canceled reservations into new opportunities for visitors to experience Dry Tortugas National Park.
Facts: Yankee Freedom III (high-speed catamaran to Dry Tortugas)
- 250 — maximum passengers per day
- 30 minutes — average window before a newly available seat is purchased
- 3,200+ — seats successfully flipped since April from Dry Tortugas Alerts
- 24 — average seats that become available per sold-out date
- 150% — percentage by which demand exceeds ferry capacity
- 89,000+ — visitors to Dry Tortugas in 2025
- 75% — percentage of ferry dates sold out in 2025
How Dry Tortugas Alerts Works:
Guests encountering a “sold out” selection choose seats on the desired date or dates and enter their phone number.
- Cost is $5 for a one time alert, or $10 for unlimited alerts for every seat opening.
- The minute a seat opens up, guests get a text alert to immediately purchase and book that seat.
- Dry Tortugas Alerts also offers a $150 concierge service which monitors everything for a guest and books the seat for them.
For more information, or to interview Todd Santoro, please contact Ruta Fox at 917-686-5408, rutafox@gmail.com.
