 Poster: A snowHead
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I used to love the overnight crossing from Portsmouth to Le Havre (used for getting to Northern Provence, rather than the Alps).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Boris, it is timing for us. In the past it meant an earlier start from home to get to ferry and across into France for a similar time to the tunnel. We stopped years ago as son was seasick and we had to leave dogs in the car.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I used to love the overnight crossing from Portsmouth to Le Havre
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The outward trip now is during the day time - overnight coming back. But not at the moment - summer only. And a return costs around £400. But they do have some quite good food on Brittany Ferries.
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I've given up on the Tunnel after using it religiously for the last 6 years, there always seems to be an issue, on either side of the channel.
I used the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Caen last weekend, without issue, and the journey time in France is almost identical to that from Calais. Think this maybe the way forward for us in the future....
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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My problem is that I don't sleep well on the ferries - it's a short night, quite noisy and they wake you up early. So I then start the long drive (because with such an early start you don't need an overnight stop) unrested. I've not travelled on the newest BF vessels yet but a friend who has used them a lot, for years, grumbled terribly that there's nowhere sensible to sit. And there are fewer crossings than there used to be - we used to get cheap travel on P&O with Tesco Clubcard points.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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We did Plymouth-Roscoff with a family room in August, slept well but then I was only driving a couple of hours either side. Not cheap think it was just shy of £1k for the return for 4 of us.
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| Gilly76 wrote: |
| I've given up on the Tunnel after using it religiously for the last 6 years, there always seems to be an issue, on either side of the channel. |
Not my experience tbh but it may depend on when you go and what you deem "an issue".
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Anyone ever travelled on the Tunnel on Christmas Day? We will be doing this, and am rather hoping for an easy trip...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Harry Flashman, Xmas no, but New Year's Day yes. Was very quiet
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We went semi flex as I'm rather hoping a four hour window is sufficient! Returning 12th Jan, so ticket was not outrageous. Used ratios, so was under £200 plus burning a load of points (but I get them from work travel, so don't really care about using them).
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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A friend of ours who we went away with the ferries last year did the Portsmouth to Cean. We considered it given we live just outside Southampton but with the Eurotunnel we can use our Tesco points which can make a real dent into the costs, its flexibility of timings also won the day as there are limited ferries over.
I think its swings and roundabouts RE never going on the tunnel again due to issues as there are just as many issues on the ferries i.e. last time the strikes killed the ferries but the tunnel worked fine.
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DFDS are my ferry of choice. Excellent customer service, lovely onboard service, decent food and the ability to purchase multi-tickets at a lower rate that you can then share with friends and family. Brilliant company.
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You know it makes sense.
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Fewer issues today. Arrived 11:15 for a 12:56 train, got offered an earlier departure for no cost. It’s now 12:56 and we’re on the train but it’s not moving yet…
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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its flexibility of timings also won the day as there are limited ferries over.
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Certainly true from Portsmouth - now far fewer crossings than there used to be. And timing the journey to catch the "one boat a day" can be tricky.
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Poster: A snowHead
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And the tables turn today with loads of delays at Dover. It really is swings and roundabouts as to the “best” option
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| @Doccam, OMG, glad you sorted the doggies, what was the problem ? |
Sorry just checking after a hectic couple of days. French vet had misrecorded the microchip number- there was a run of 3 or 4 zeros and she added one. The french CDC paper work (I think its called) was accurate and it was clearly a clerical error actually writing in the passport but they said it made it illegal (correctly I guess- but it hadn’t been picked up previously and she hadn’t blown up either the ferry or erutunnels she’s been on earlier this year). Anyway they were otherwise very helpful- 3 lots of people involved so queue growing behind us- and the fix was we were given an exit voucher and went to easy pet who had done our AHCs pre-passport. They were super helpful at 7am in the morning - but hilariously when we got back to pet control they spotted they had cut and pasted our last visit and left one date the same- so Illegal AHC as well! I was losing the will to live but they didn’t have the heart to send its away again (and said as much) and accepted (a very apologetic) email from the vets of the relevant page with the correct date.
We are now going to have to get our french vet to re-issue the passport. We hope that won’t be a problem - and don’t intend to ask for £135 quid as the cost of their error!- but let’s see as I know getting the dates of rabies pre passport issue date can be problematic.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Saw a random reel on insta today... Apparently, if you turn up late now, you don't get on the next train for free, it's new ticket time. Did everyone know that?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Charliegolf, read your T&Cs, it has been that way since March. Random reels rarely tell the whole tale though.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Charliegolf, Yeah, after an hour late that’s it. That’s why I changed to DFDS this year.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Charliegolf wrote: |
| Saw a random reel on insta today... Apparently, if you turn up late now, you don't get on the next train for free, it's new ticket time. Did everyone know that? |
Somebody on another forum I'm on has posted that same info today too, not sure if true, eurotunnel arent making themselves any friends with their heavy handed tactics
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It's why we plan to arrive 2-3 hours early and so far have been put on an earlier train foc
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We've always planned to arrive well before our crossing time. If you are delayed en-route, and are likely to arrive late, log into the app and change your train time. A £20amendment fee is surely better than losing the whole fare and having to rebook. Many of the problems I think have been people booked on day trips or short stay. I agree it is a PITA that is it now less flexible, but there's not a huge amount you can do. Book a more flexible fare perhaps?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Hells Bells, +1
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Can you miss your boarding slot on the ferries and get on a later one free?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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heavy handed tactics
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@robs1, at a time when trains are heavily booked AND there are masses of flexiplus people paying a huge premium to he guaranteed to get on, why should people who pitch up late without having changed their booking be given any special favours?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| robs1 wrote: |
| Charliegolf wrote: |
| Saw a random reel on insta today... Apparently, if you turn up late now, you don't get on the next train for free, it's new ticket time. Did everyone know that? |
Somebody on another forum I'm on has posted that same info today too, not sure if true, eurotunnel arent making themselves any friends with their heavy handed tactics |
It is exactly the same thing that would happen if you turned up at an airport too late to catch your flight (and did in fact happen to us once).
Why should Eurotunnel be any different?
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| Origen wrote: |
| Quote: |
heavy handed tactics
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@robs1, at a time when trains are heavily booked AND there are masses of flexiplus people paying a huge premium to he guaranteed to get on, why should people who pitch up late without having changed their booking be given any special favours? |
If there are no spaces it might be reasonable, But if there are loads of flexiplus passengers who are guaranteed to get on the next train normal tickets can be bumped to a later train ,
Also flexiplus isn't anywhere near as easy as it was , yes you can change days but there doesn't seem to be a guarantee that you can change to any day, before there was limitation on travel. I guess as travel via the channel.becomes more popular they can change rules to suit
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You know it makes sense.
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| Origen wrote: |
| Can you miss your boarding slot on the ferries and get on a later one free? |
Usually +/- 4hrs yes. But obviously ferry crossings less frequent
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Arrived at Calais at 12.00 for 14.24 train. No queue, offered 12.36. Straight to border control - sitting in queue for that so probably won't make 12.36 but should get next one. Barely any cars parked at terminal building, so they seem to pushing everyone through as quickly as possible.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Origen wrote: |
| Can you miss your boarding slot on the ferries and get on a later one free? |
Yes, they'll bump U 2hrs either way as a standard as a minimum but some offer more.
I use the multitrip package with DFDS and there's an automatic grace period of 4hrs either way from the booked time.
Last week I wasn't sure if I could be bothered with the rush to make a 19:35 boat so booked 23:20. As it turned out, the road was good to me and I got bumped to 19:35 with a smile from the lady in the box.
Eurotunnel/Le Shuttle seem confused as to whether they are competing with ferries or airlines so seem to be slowly implementing more airline-like customer-hostile policy in order to squeeze a little extra margin out of people.
I used to use Eurotunnel 6-8 times/year with their frequent traveller deal. THere was a +-2hrs grace period on those bookings IIRC. U needed to buy a minimum of 10 crossings per year but it was still worth it if U wasted a couple. When they cancelled that deal, it drove me to 'try the ferry' just the once, out of protest, but I found I preferred it in many ways and have only used the Chunnel once since.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@admin, DFDS will bump you 4 hours on the most basic of ticket (at least for this season).
As for comparisons to airlines - it’s vaguely irrelevant. We are talking T&Cs for crossing the Channel either under or on top of it.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I'm not comparing them to airlines - they appear to be comparing themselves against airlines and re-modelling their customer service policy on that basis.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We mustn't forget that eurotunnel is a complete financial shit-show at the moment. They are in serious jeopardy.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@admin, My comment was about a post much further up the thread, not yours mi Lord 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Came back through the Chunnel yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Bit of a mare. Arrived at the Calais check-in booths about 16:25, for a pre-booked 18:36 crossing. Offered 17:52 free of charge which we took, then informed of one hour delays at French passport control.
They (LeShuttle) were being very strict about allowing you to join the queue for passport control, sending people back round the loop if your letter hadn't been called. Anyhow, our letter was called at about 17:30, and then it took over an hour to get to the French passport booths. Only three lanes open, and they seemed to be swabbing every car for explosives. Once through there it was straight through UK passport/immigration (8 lanes open IIRC) and onto the train. Train left at 19:26, and it was half empty.
So experience yesterday was that the delay wasn't directly LeShuttle's, but the French are being the stereotypical stroppy selfs, as the only reason for the slow passage was the 'flow control' being imposed by the French immigration and security staff.
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| admin wrote: |
| Origen wrote: |
| Can you miss your boarding slot on the ferries and get on a later one free? |
Yes, they'll bump U 2hrs either way as a standard as a minimum but some offer more.
I use the multitrip package with DFDS and there's an automatic grace period of 4hrs either way from the booked time.
Last week I wasn't sure if I could be bothered with the rush to make a 19:35 boat so booked 23:20. As it turned out, the road was good to me and I got bumped to 19:35 with a smile from the lady in the box.
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DFDS is even more flexible than that on their multitrip deals as the bookings can be changed right up until sailing. On one occasion my car broke down in the docks after check-n and had to be recovered home. The booking was returned to my unbooked pool and then utilised on the next day with a different car.
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That sounds good service. I wonder how much difference the volume of traffic make? The tunnel carries more vehicles than the ferries. If they disappeared, we'd miss them!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Judwin, makes a change for it to be the French, last few times we've come back it's been the UK border staff who have been on a go slow.
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| Boris wrote: |
| @Judwin, makes a change for it to be the French, last few times we've come back it's been the UK border staff who have been on a go slow. |
When we came back in Feb the UK border guards were trying to make a point of needing more staff by taking forever checking where you had been asking how many people were in the vehicle etc etc.
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FAQ
