Brittany Ferries

[Robbo SPS]

It was the SPS crews first year without P&O.

We had a great routine with P&Oto LE Havre, including a nice place for Brekie on the way down.

This year i wasnt sure what P&O were doing so booked Brittany to be safe and get what i wanted.

At £2468 for the 5 cars, 2 trailers, 16 people, 5 cabins and 2 on the return i thought it a little much, but its a premium sailing, you get what you pay for !!

P&O always had great entertainment laid on and there seemed lots to do, day or night sailing. The food even improved lots in 2003 onwards, to the point it was "good value"

This year i was very impressed with the speed of check-in, but they only have 1 ferry to do, so thats probably why.

The Mont St Micheal was huge, new and clean. Cabins were ace, showers tidy too. Very good.

Then the bar, very busy, but lots on board, then at 0100 it shut !! On a night sailing the more hungry beer monsters like to stay up later. I hadnt realised there wasnt a casino on-board either.

Getting off was a doddle and no real wait.

Check-in at Caen was very friendly and i was impressed as they were very busy.

The return was good, the food good, but i was in before the baot sailed. The other SPS lads went in later and said it was poor ?, maybe the kitchen was a little busy by then.

My only realworry was that there didnt seem as much to do as last year on P&O ??  Did i miss the swimming pool or other hidden entertainemtn areas

We will still be with Brittany Fisheries next year.

What did you think.

[Ballast]

Mark ensures that we budget for taking some beer and wine on the boat with us so that we can carry on drinking when the bar shuts

Entertainment can very wildly from year to year. Sometimes you get a live band, sometimes just a disco. Your best bet is to make your own entertainment.

It was lovely to be able to have a shower on the way back but they seem to only make them in hobbit size. It was a tight squeeze in there for me!

[smokie]

My best memory of entyertainment on the "long crossing" to LM (not sure which one) was a bloke on an electronic organ and a girl on a full sized harp. They were probably used to playing a few tunes then packing up and going to bed.

But we got them doing all kinds of singalong stuff and the stewards had trouble getting them to stop! I think they could hardly believe that they had an appreciative (albeit somewhat pissed) audience...

[rcutler]

I will post my HUGE letter to Brittany Ferries about thier more than C**P service later. I will not sail with them again unless they apologise constantly for the next few months!!

When we arrived at Caen they told us sorry no room!! Your vehicle is too big!! So I said but we booked it and checked in 6 hours before the sailing!! They made a huge effort to be awkward when loading.

Letter to follow.

Sorry Robbo to cast a shadow on the good service you had but I have to say it spoilt our trip a bit! Dad is prepared to dover Calais next year and pay the whopping fuel bill just to avoid BF.

[Lawnmower Man]

I've been using the Brittany Ferries Since 94 the last couple of years they do seem to close the bar earlier.  Or may be I'm slowing down.   On the Mont St Micheal they only ever seem to have a DJ.  The Normandie had a Duo most times.   I mush prefer the shorter drive down to Le Sarthe.   I cna normaly do it on a single tank of fuel and as I get my fuel paid for in the UK it an extra benifit.

T.

[Black Granny]

We will still be with Brittany Fisheries next year.

What did you think.

Robbo

If you plsn on using them next year and are thinking of Wednesday morning out, they don't run to Caen on a Wednesday morning at present. Thats when they service the boat. That's not to say they won't in future years but it's mucked us up in the past.

With regard to alternatives we tried the Transmanche bunch (or should that munch bunch?) this year. Check in was a farce, as  they were looking through the following days tickets and were suprised when they didn't match the names of anyone there. The boat was an hour late sailing as a result and facilities on board poor.  If the boat has sailed on time we would have got there before the rain, but such is life.
The check in on return was much better but the faciltities (entertainment) were not. Cabins clean and showers OK though.

Bear in mind it was CHEAP!!!. Car, Trailer and three motorbikes came to less than £270 so it was worth the extra drive to Newhaven.

[DelBoy]

I'm with Robbo on this.

We had a cabin on the way out that was clean, tidy, and only marginally bigger than my gun cabinet at home.  Very claustrophobic, and VERY warm.

On the way back, same boat as Robbo, we went fairly early for a meal and it was cr*p.  The boat was also 45 mins late docking.

Come back Mr P&O - better and cheaper.

DB

[Brad Zarse]

we paid £50 return on Speedferries, the journey out was a nightmare - 6 hours delay in total.

The journey home was a hop on, hop off affair, no trouble.

You get what you pay for, but we were more than happy with a chair and £200-£300 extra to spend in france....

Fair enough we got screwed around at the port and it was a long drive, but on reflection, overall, we got a good deal.

Plus we got to see a phsycho frog go mental at the speedferries rep and threaten to barricade the lorries into the port in her golf tdi.

Supporters werent forthcoming, and she was informed that a 2 tonne golf vs 20 x 44 tonne articulated lorry wasn't likely to be a long argument.....

[MGZTT]

Hi Guys, we went speedferries, 1Hour delay on way out due to jetty being blocked temporarly. Easy quick trip but no duty free. On time on way back very quick excellent value, but no duty free...He needs a speed 2 for next year maybe with a duty free....Ian

[mal]

We went Hoverspeed to Calais this year mainly because we were transferred from the defunct Newhaven Dieppe service.

Couldnt fault the speed as it left on time and if anything was early both ways.

On the way back though with the whole crew starving after the blast up the Autoroute we found the they had no food.

When we asked why we were told that they were busy on the out trip and only took on supplies in Dover.

[Chris (Liverpool Boys)]

We went out on Brittany ferries on the vomit commit very fast and efficient but I wouldn't do it again it is far too cliinical abd cold, no atmostphere on the boat.

Also a point to note regarding the vomit commit is it is not roll on roll off, and they asked usif wecould reverse the trailer on up the loading ramp, Afterabout 15 minutes we stopped laughing at them.

On the way back the boat was good asusual clean pleasent nice cabin, my only complaint is that the restaurant wasn't open, by this i mean the proper sit down not the self service. Which was a dissappointment after being sat in a french lowloader for god knows how long.

[Doris]

Have travelled with BF for the past 8 years now and have discovered that since they started closing the bar at 1 the best way to beat them at their own game is...

Take a load of mixers on board
Buy bottle of something strong and tasty from duty free
Sit in bar and drink until alcohol induced coma kicks in

We've also had a lot of fun with the plastic palm trees in the past but that's another story...

[Nordic]

Like mal was bumped from the newhaven-dieppe to dover calais with hoverspeed.

I arrived early for the outward crossing and was put straight ont the next crossing and therefore arrived in France a couple of hours early. The crossing was fast and offloading quick.

The return was just as easy. Now the prices have dropped pretty sure I will use them again.

[Robspot]

We went Poole Cherbourg overnight on the wednesday and we were one houre late leaving. As a result, once onboard they announced that the self-serve restaurant would close in 20 minutes. We went in and they had 4 prepacked sandwiches and nothing else. As others say, bar shut early.

On the whole Brittany ferries are pretty crap and very expensive but as I live in Bournemouth it's worth it for the short journey.

P&O were always excellent, bar all night, entertainment and casino. Trouble is now Brittany haven't got any competition so they'll get away with it. I, for one, can't be bothered with the ten hour extra journey to go via Dover.

[Jay (Team Cannonball)]

We were on P and O (£82 after i couldn't get on the speedferries at the right time - sounds like for an extra 30 notes i made the right choice) Dover to Calais, we rolled up early in both directions for our ferry and were asked if we would like a earlier ferry. We said yes of course and onto the back of the boat we rolled - zero waiting.

After several years of Seafrance after booking with Travel Destinations, I was very happy with the service.

Only grumble was that on the way out we had to wait 15 mins for the boat before to clear the dock at Calais.