It all worked out well- actually better than expected.,
We scoped out the bus to Ravello the day before and noticed the lines were always very long, buses were packed --the buses are smaller than the regular SITA bus and you have to take your luggage on the bus with you (at least that is what we saw that day). As we were watching all this I noticed a red City Sighteeing bus parked there- Amalfi to Ravello in an open air bus - we asked them if we could bring luggage on and she said yes no problem!
So we decided we would try the SITA bus next day- then if too crowded we had the option of that City Sightseeing bus.
Next day we purchased RT ticket at the tabac on the corner (Note--if you take luggage on SITA bus you need a ticket for luggage)- we did not know that and were not asked when we bought those bus tickets)
We lined up a good 20-25 min early, were told the bus was already 15 min late or something like that- OK fine. We were the 5th/6th people in line. The bus pulled up and stopped short so front of bus was actually where the middle of the very long line had formed. All the people way back in line rushed onto the bus leaving those of us at front of line behind. We knew by then we were not going to make it on to that bus and certainly not with luggage- so we just walked over the to City Sighseeing girl and bought a 5 Euro ticket from her. That bus arrived min time in about 10 min- nobody on it- the driver came out and picked up our luggage and put it on the bus behind his seat, there was another family of four that also boarded and that was it. We basically had bus to ourselves. Best part was it is OPEN AIR. It dropped us just a short ways from where the SITA bus stop is in Ravello.
Note: there were taxis trying to get our business when we got off the bus- we thought we were close enough to not need- and we definitely DID not need- took us all of 5 min to walk down the hill, thru tunnel and we were in Ravello. Our hotel was just steps from the center.
Next day we walked to SITA stop in Ravello- since we had that RT ticket already- we were able to board- it wasn't super crowded, lots of empty seats- I think it must have been for the 10:55 bus?
When we boarded the driver told us we were supposed to have tickets for our luggage but then just shrugged when I said we didn't and didn't know about that.
The bus goes up to Scala first when leaving Ravello which had us worried for a minute that we had boarded wrong bus but it then turns around and goes down to Amalfi. The guy across from us was getting sick out the window. Very very windy roads. Sorry TMI!
We were back in Amalfi with plenty of time- bought our ferry ticket AND our luggage ticket! for the 12:45 ferry to Salerno and sat at the cafe for a coffee while I did a bit of last minute shopping right there.
