Brittany Ferries

[Lorry]

I think Brittany Ferries suffer from the French way of life - the whole country appears shut, and the staff on the night boats have to have their beauty sleep under the labour laws. (as did Mr T and JPC by the looks of it)

The answer is to hit the duty free(?) first before it shuts (for les fags anglais) and buy a few bottles for later.

The other trick is to avoid the self service cafe.  The cold slimey breakfast with a drink is about £5-6 whereas in the posh restaurant for £7.80 you get served something better plus all you can eat from the buffet.  Buffet alone is under a fiver, for cereal, ham cheese bread croissant toast etc, fill yer boots! and tablecloths.  I don't think the evening meals are that expensive either, until you hit the wine list.

No chavs please.

[Stu]

This year we went Brittany, overnight both ways. out on the Sunday via St MAlo and back on the Sunday night via Caen. 2 cabins out and 1 back. £472 thank you. It is a nice crossing with a short drive on the other side. Now the gripe. My mate booked using his Owners Abroad discount card. In the queue on the way home was ten tenths motorsports, 2 vehicles pulling a legend car each in a covered in trailer. Talking to the bloke and he booked through Motor Sport travel and paid £308 return, a whopping £164 cheaper with a trailer. Brittany Robbing Bastards more like it. Speed Ferries next year. 3 hours extra driving each way,£420 to spend on extra fuel and food and drink for the week.

[Nobby Diesel]

Speedferries all the way for me.
Yes, it's a longer drive both sides of the water; but isn't the drive down there and back a huge part of it ?
Yes it's basic on board but we felt the £10 upgrade was well worth it. Priority on and off, table service for tea, coffee, soft drinks, pastries, news papers etc. Booze available via the table service too, but extra cost.
Ok, no "Duty free", but there isn't anywhere travelling within europe. Just wait the 45 minutes that you are on board and stock up in the Carrefor or L'Eclerc.

£50 for a car and up to six passengers ! Can't go wrong.

Just don't try to get hold of Customer Services - it's a nightmare apparently.

[smokie]

I used Norfolklines, Dover to Dunkerque, due to cost. Dunkerque is about 25 - 30 miles in the wrong direction... It was £180 for car + caravan and takes 2 hours.

Frequency of ferries is less so unless you are really early you won't get an earlier one. Likewise, if you miss one, it's a long wait for the next.

The service is designed for trucks, and the food reflects that - good food, cheap and plentiful (although one meal was a little cold).

The truckers have their own lounge with free coffee etc. The passenger lounges are smallish but plenty of room for the few passengers... Drinks were reasonably priced, and they would refill your coffee for half price.

Check in at Dover was OK. However at Dunkerque it was a nightmare. The signage is not good around and in the port. They have a "queue and hop on" service for trucks. So there is a huge truck park for those waiting, and there was a very long line of trucks (a mile or more maybe) all the way along the access road to the port.

Luckily when we joined the back of the queue we realised that we had missed out sailing ( ) so I called Head Office who swiftly arranged for me to go on the next sailing, and told me to drive along the wrong side of the road past all the waiting trucks to get into the port. Otherwise I could have been there for days - you don't deliberately get yourself into difficult positions on the road when towing!

I would use them again if pushed. The long crossings are cost prohibitive for me with the 'van, despite the additional driving time and fuel ( - I get free fuel in the UK so tank up at Dover, and arrive back at the French port on vapours). P&O Dover were way too expensive in January when I made the booking. They later brought their price down to about £180 but the Norfolkline ticket was non cancellable. Door to door journey time was about the same using Dover or Portsmouth IIRC.

I've used Speedferries a number of times for work/pleasure but they won't take caravans. I believe they are getting another boat for the summer...

[Bob U]

I've used Speedferries a number of times for work/pleasure but they won't take caravans. I believe they are getting another boat for the summer...

Is that because of the height?
Can they take a Landy Disco?

[Nobby Diesel]

Bob,

Vehicle restrictions as follows:-

Standard - 1.85m high x 5m long.
Large - 2.9m high x 7m long
Car & trailer - 2.9m high x 7m long

But as the Smokester say's "no shed pullers".

[Andy Zarse]

We have used Beastly Fisheries for donkeys years, with the odd defection to P&O.

Yes, they are often expensive but the cost in 2003 was £320, in 2004 it was £240 and this year £340, all for day time sailings with the Commer.

Some of the staff are a disgrace, with a few exceptions. There is a woman who often works on reception on the Normandy who must be one of the rudest people I have ever met. They all appear to be absolutely bone idle, the Duty Free Shop is only open for a total of about three hours on the whole crossing.

The cooked breakfasts in both restaurants are absolutely awful, although the posh restaurant cold buffet is very pleasant.

Will keep using them probably, although actively looking at Transmanche to Dieppe for next year.

[Bob U]

Thanks Nigel. I think I was talking to one of your merry men on Saturday, big lad works on security in Loudwater Tesco. Didn't catch his name but we had a good chat after he had spotted my LM t-shirt

[Nobby Diesel]

No, not one of our mob. Unless someone has a second income that they don't want to divulge - you never know, Black Granny might be watching!!!!!!

[Bob U]

That means that there is even more Le Mansters lurking around the area. Strange to think you could pass someone in the village or stand next to them at Tetre Rouge and yet only live a couple of miles from them

[Lorry]

Re Speedferries
Is that because of the height?
Can they take a Landy Disco?

I think its because there is only one door, so all cars have to uturn on board.  Lets hope the new boat has two.

[Lorry]

Yes, they are often expensive but the cost in 2003 was £320, in 2004 it was £240 and this year £340, all for day time sailings with the Commer.

I'm impressed I only paid £360 for Sun night with cabin out and Tuesday morning back - WITH A CARAVAN (which they broke)

Mind you I stalked the websites for about 3 months

[geoffd]

My mate booked using his Owners Abroad discount card. In the queue on the way home was ten tenths motorsports, 2 vehicles pulling a legend car each in a covered in trailer. Talking to the bloke and he booked through Motor Sport travel and paid £308 return, a whopping £164 cheaper with a trailer.

Ferry prices are fluid and discount cards usually mean discount from standard list, ignoring the fact that there maybe a special offer on!  Friend of mine was a P&O shareholder and they were supposed to get cheaper prices, but usually found that cheaper prices could be found on the web, to be fair though P&O usually matched or beat them for him!  Time to book your ferry is usually January as thats when the offers are on.  People like MotorSportTravel also negotiate special deals, as do others.  I know all this cos .... Now the plug...  Company I work for runs www.aferry.to and there are details of current offers on display, also if you signup for the newsletter (can't call it spam as boss will shoot me!) then you can keep an eye on prices (especially at the start of 2006)....  Also has price comparison section too.  Plug over!  

[smokie]

I've used www.aferry.to before to try to compare prices for the same crossing with different operators. In the past I couldn't get the compare thing to work so I ended up typing all the details in three or four times. It seems to work better now.

Are their prices cheaper than those from the operator themselves? A quick test gave me the same price as P&O were quoting.

[geoffd]

Unless management have got a deal they are usually pretty much the same as the operators as they get a bit huffy if we try and undercut them without some sort of agreement (of course, I didn't say that as that wouldn't be allowed now would it...)  The one good thing with aferry.to is that most of the operators prices and offers can be found in one place, only odd one out is Speedferries as they won't let us sell their crossings.  Sorry more plugs.