 Poster: A snowHead
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Travelling February half-term so I decided to do something about the ferry today.
Speedferries came in at £54, P&O are £100 (including a £5 each way fuel surcharge), Seafrance will not be available to book for 2007 sailings until Mid to end of October.
Can't stand P&O, it may be me but the food onboard always seems awful. I remember coming back about 3 years ago and asking what the veggie option was in the restaurant, they went away to check and came back saying they had no veggie option !
Seafrance have been good in the past but their inability to accept my money now for a journey I want to undertake in just 5 months puts me off a bit !
Speedferries it is.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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bladeskier, Norfolk Line are also good option (Dover-Dunkerque).
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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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bladeskier, if you think the food on P&O is bad then you've obviously not been on Speedferries.
Still, the crossing is thankfully short.
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Helen Beaumont, Norfolkline not yet available to book, what's wrong with these ferry companies ?
PhillipStanton, Yep, been on Speedferries and agree that the food is awful, usually just a couple of sandwich options, the duty-free shop was also pitiful.
I'd probably go with Seafrance if I could book it now, I just want to get it done and forget about it, it's one more thing moved from the "to do" list to the "done" list.
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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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bladeskier, you're right , I had forgotten I was looking for a return crossing, and the January one wasn't available.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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We always stop in at the Tescos @ Ashford (same jn as Ashford International) to use up any excess time on the journey to Dover and pick up a picnic. From Tescos it is 20 minutes to the port.
Having used Norfolk Line, Seafrance and P&O in the last 2 months:
P&O were the most efficient. Journey time was 1:15 with very little waiting in the car to unload. Can also get a good big coffee (Costa) that lasts most of the journey. If you need a kids play area, pick the Pride of Dover/Calais ferries.
Seafrance also has a similar speed crossing but not quite as efficient. A decent coffee can be had from the bar but is somewhat small.
Norfolk Line was very friendly and clean on board. Getting through the controls at Dunkerque seemed to take forever though, even at breakfast time. They have new ferries which are passenger orientated but they still seem to be somewhat convoluted to load involving ramps and driving around the central island. We also seemed to be waiting ages in the car to get off. Coffee from the bar was good but not that big. Journey time is 1:45 and seemed longer due to the slow disembarkation.
We normally stay in the Villages Hotel Calais and get a breakfast ferry when travelling to the UK. Anybody know of a convenient 24hr service station in the centre and a boulangerie open at 6AM
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Helen Beaumont, Norfolkline not yet available to book, what's wrong with these ferry companies ?
PhillipStanton, Yep, been on Speedferries and agree that the food is awful, usually just a couple of sandwich options, the duty-free shop was also pitiful.
I'd probably go with Seafrance if I could book it now, I just want to get it done and forget about it, it's one more thing moved from the "to do" list to the "done" list.
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Also think about the Speed Ferries limited services, there are very few sailings per day. Only 3 each way in January.
Any minor disruption can knock your schedule back. Believe they are more prone to bad weather that the larger ferrys.
I have used them several times, a lot cheaper, I had no complaints as knew what to expect and wasnt in any hurry. Food is dire, limited shop. BUT at £25 it was OK.
For say P&O, be careful when selecting your ferry time, you can save lots by going later or earlier. Also if booking over the phone, they sometimes dont point out a saving option on the next service. 
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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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Best food on the cross-channel route, IMHO, is Langan's Brasserie on P&O - good food with good service at a reasonable price. Stay in the restaurant for the whole trip and avoid the crowds outside. Doesn't cost that much more than the cheapo canteen and well worth it.
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fraserp,
You can get an idea of the price via the web and then ask the girls to beat it...they are good at that...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We've used Speed Ferries & found them very efficient & definitely the cheapest. Guess it depends what you're after but I'd never really considered choosing the ferry company by the choice of food. Agree it's a shame Speed Ferries don't have more sailing times to choose from.
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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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We used P&O for our summer holiday, and didn't find the food too bad. Don't know if it's always available, but they were doing a family deal where you got 4 main courses and desserts for £19.95. One good thing with P&O is the frequency of the sailings. We've always found that if you happen to arrive at the port early, you can get on an earlier ferry than the one booked. Have used Speed Ferries and had no problems, but they are prone to more delays through bad weather, and as mentioned above their sailings are less frequent.
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I've used Speedferries a couple of times this year and am booked again for February half term week. I think they are the Ryanair of the Channel and choose them purely on price. A couple of things with them to be aware of!
- When they proudly welcome you to Speed 1 what they dont say is that there is not a Speed 2 or any other Speeds come to that. What this means is that any delays can mount up during the day as it's the one ship going backwards and forwards.
- The small size of their ship means that crossing times are very good. However if the sea is rough they aren't anywhere near as stable as the large ferries P&O and Seafrance use. Can be a problem in February.
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You know it makes sense.
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Do you peeps generally prefer ferries to Eurotunnel? And if so is that down to price, comfort, the experience? I've always gone Eurotunnel 'cos I think it's quicker, isn't it? 
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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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slikedges, Eurotunnel may be quicker from departure to arrival, but the extra time spent travelling by ferry can be used for a meal, so you save time en route. P&O's boarding tends, IMHO, to be more efficient as well (Dover port is much slicker than it used to be), so the time saved by using the tunnel may be less than suggested by the stated crossing times.
If I'm on a day trip 'booze cruise', I prefer the tunnel. If I'm heading for the Alps, I normally prefer P&O.
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Poster: A snowHead
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slikedges, I go Eurotunnel, if we have the dog with us,as she doesn't like being left in the car when the ferry is at sea. We usually take a picnic with us and eat it in the car during the crossing anyway. I'm booking our New Year crossing today. As we have to drive north once we get back to the UK, the huge choice of trains is more convenient too. We find that Speedferries either leave too early or too late.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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slikedges, we've used Eurotunnel exclusively since it opened. My partner gets bad seasickness, so the ferries always made a traumatic start and finish to the journey for her. The tunnel is much quicker (although I think the ferry companies have reduced the time they take to get you across the Channel), but still gives you enough time to have a quick picnic in the car, or if you prefer a more leisurely meal you can eat something in the terminal before you get on the train. Departure times with the tunnel are also much more frequent than the ferry, so getting to to Folkstone or Calais earlier/later than your expected time isn't much of a problem.
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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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We used Norfolk Line for the first time in June - very impressed, obviously trying hard to win customers. Very clean ship with excellent service. Brilliant kids play area with slide etc. We arrived 2 hrs early and drove straigt onto earlier boat no problems.
We like to use ferries as breaks up the journey for us (we've been on the road 4 hrs by the time we reach Dover). Only worry I have is about cancellations due to weather, esp in winter. Speed Ferries run catamarans which can't cope as well as the more traditional ferries in big seas so tend to get cancelled more. Eurotunnel doesn't close for the weather but a rogue fire alarm can put hours on your journey.
Horses for courses I suppose. We'll book Norfolk Line as soon as they release their winter schedule. From £19 each way for car and 5 peeps not at all expensive.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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jonathancarty, Norfolk Line's new ships are a huge improvement on the truckers ferry I travelled on 3 years ago (especially with small kids). It's a shame that Dunkerque and their loading is so much less efficient than P&O/Calais. They even state there should be a 1 hour minimum checkin time - although I turned up at 30-40 minutes without problems.
BTW I phoned up to find out which ferries are the modern ones before booking online.
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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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We tend to leave in the morning, arriving at the M25 just after rush hour, so arriving at the Chunnel mid-morning after a 2.5-3 hour journey. As Rob says, we tend to either get a snack in the terminal or have a picnic in the car. Then we have about a 6 hour drive to Dijon where we break for the night. We like to stop at Dijon so we drive into resort by late morning, before the rush, and even get a bit of afternoon skiing in! I guess when the kids are older, if at some stage we might do an early start and all day drive  , breakfast on the boat may appeal! but the convenience of more frequent crossings and a quicker journey still sway it for us at the moment.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| jonathancarty wrote: |
| We used Norfolk Line for the first time in June - very impressed, obviously trying hard to win customers. Very clean ship with excellent service. . |
Glad you hear they improved it since Easter. Despite the ship leaving Dunkerque at 11am French time with a 2-hour crossing, the main restaurant was only serving breakfast - lunch didn't start until after it arrived in Dover! And those bars/shops/snackeries which were open had little choice, were extremely understaffed and had looong queues. Other than that, the ship itself was excellent.
I would use again, but only if the price was substantially less (i.e. half or less) than the alternatives.
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Are people saying that Norfolk Line has gone mainstream and now has cars rather than just trucks?
Pah, the good thing about them was that because the boat was full of trucks the number of people on board was very low.
I've never bothered to go to the shop/restaurant on a Channel ferry - I'm only on there for 2 hours max and can last until I've got the option of something better on dry land.
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| RobW wrote: |
| I would use again, but only if the price was substantially less (i.e. half or less) than the alternatives. |
I'm with you on that one....we used them in August and were more than happy with the crossing/service but the extra time at sea, difficulties loading/unloading and inconvenience of arriving in Dunkerque mean we won't be using them unless they are very very cheap.
We've used them all over the last year or so summary of my opinions for what they're worth:
Sea France - good but a bit more pricy than the others
P&O - irritating sales pitch throughout the crossing, poor loading/unloading, one old boat that takes over 2hrs to make the crossing but you don't know you're getting on it!
Norfolkline - nice ferries, poor loading/unloading, long crossing, inconvenient arrival port
Speedferries - great value, unstable (one horrendous experience last year - can't imagine why they didn't cancel!), limited crossing times
Eurotunnel - lots of options for crossings, short crossing time but pricey
All that taken into consideration we're going to bite the bullet, pay the money and buy "frequent traveller" tickets for Eurotunnel as the best option for us. We'll save at least an hour each way using them, get the most flexible departure times and I won't have to put up with hours staring at the horizon to avoid throwing up!
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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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homphomp,
One old boat..which one? The fleet is newer collectively than any of the other carriers and if P&O have trouble loading so will everyone else because it will be the weather. Normally loading is as slick as a 200 coach, 600 car, 2000 pax when full load, can get. And you can blame the sales pitch on getting rid of duty-free which did indeed sudsidise the crossings. OT, I thought this was a ridiculous idea as it shifted money into the French tax system and forced up travel prices... The only people who wanted it would be the French and Eurotunnel as they needed the cash...
Norfolk Line have entered the Tourist market but have 2 hour crossiings to Dunkerque. The will work hard to improve market share and are supposed to be building a new port in Dunkerque, but their main concern has always been FR8.
I use P&O and Eurotunnel and Eur0star, the latter is the best way to the alpes....if you are close to a gateway station but if driving I like the chance to get a decent meal on a ferry as it saves a stop later in the drive. This is our key to getting down to the Western alpes in about 8 hrs or so. Geneva can be easily achieved in 6 hrs like this... 2 fuel stops with quick coffes breaks
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I don't really know why you think Dunkerque isany more inconvenient then Boulogne or Calais. The autoroute was empty anyway. It certainly wasn't inconvenient when we used them.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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As Eurotunnel are the only ones which take Tesco Deals tokens, we generally go with them. We tried Speedferries last year, good quick crossing, no complaints but our car (a Fiat Multipla same length as a Golf) is classed as a large car because of its height (with the ski rack), which makes them uncompetitive. I live near Portsmouth and mourn the loss of the P & O Portsmouth-Le Havre (which DID take Tesco tokens) but after struggling to try to help a group of French kids decipher their cafeteria menu (unclear even for native English speakers) I despaired of them. A letter asking why they didn't even make a tiny little attempt to provide some French language information in a cafeteria plying between England and France wasn't even answered. They deserved to lose the route. So far, in four seasons of travelling to the Alps I have, thanks to Tesco Deals, only paid for one ferry trip, and as that was Speedferries it didn't break the bank. The M25 bit is usually the nastiest bit of the whole journey and annoying when I can be in the Portsmouth terminal within 10 minutes of leaving the house. But I would not contemplate the prices being charged by Brittanny Ferries to travel Portsmouth/Caen.
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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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pam w, Tesco Deals=one reason we go by Eurotunnel too. I will have to pay £30 fot our New Year crossing whne I book tomorrow, but as that is the extra cost of taking the dog, not a problem.
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| JT wrote: |
| One old boat..which one? |
Goodness me....I've no idea, all I know is we arrived early, got bumped forward to an earlier boat, it was old dishevelled and cranky and arrived just ten minutes before our scheduled ferry would have turned up anyway. Wasn't the sea conditions because the weather was just fine and dandy!
| JT wrote: |
| Normally loading is as slick as a 200 coach, 600 car, 2000 pax when full load, can get |
Again only quoting from my own experience....perhaps it was the particular crew? It took well over an hour and a half to unload....can't call that slick in anyones book!
| JT wrote: |
| And you can blame the sales pitch on getting rid of duty-free |
Yep...but every ten minutes for the full crossing?? Sorry, can't stand that!
| Helen Beaumont wrote: |
| I don't really know why you think Dunkerque isany more inconvenient then Boulogne or Calais |
Actually, I think Boulogne is even more incovenient because of the long drag on the RN to link back over to the motorway system. It just frustrates me to drive past the eurotunnel entrance/Calais harbour and then drag on up the motorway to get to Dunkerque and then spend even longer on the ferry than I would have done if I'd just stopped at Calais and picked up a crossing there.
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You know it makes sense.
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Helen Beaumont, can't you do Tesco Deals for the dog? A pity they won't do the frequent traveller with the Deals tokens. Someone on Snowheads said they had persuaded P & O to take tokens on the Dover - Calais route, but I had no luck when I tried.
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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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pam w, yes, but i don't quite have enough this time, probably because hubby went on a booze cruise to Calais, and went to Majestic instead of Tesco , hence our wine bill is much reduced. Also we changed gas suppliers, and we used to get points from them too. homphomp, you should probably take a diffferent route to Dunkerque, we didn;t go through Calais at all.
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Poster: A snowHead
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homphomp,
The oldest two boats are the Dover and the Calais which just happen to be the fastest crossing as they were built especially for the route
and I can see any of those as shabby. They undergo a refit every year so surprised at this.
As for unloading in 90 mins, thats almost unheard of...in fact I've never heard of it... They can turn the things arund in 45 mins so a pretty full unload should be an easy 30 mins... There must have been a very good reason for that and you were just very unlucky and there would be an inquest for that sort of delay. Most Masters want chapter and verse if they are delayed in any way and 90 mins would have a big knock effect as berths are shared between carriers
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Helen Beaumont, I get many of my points from using a Tesco Visa credit card. You earn them at a lower rate than in the shops, of course, but I put everything possible through that card, and pay it off every month. It's amazing how much it all adds up to.
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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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Have just got off the phone with P&O sales - absolutely no problem with clubcard vouchers on Dover - Calais.
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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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jonathancarty, excellent result, but I now have Eurotunnel vouchers. I did call P and O last year and was told I couldn't use them 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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pam w, Do you shop online with Tesco? If so then you might be interested in www.hotukdeals.com (is it OK to ref other websites here?) People post the latest discount codes there. I got a code last week that gave me an extra 1000 points on a £75 shop.  (XX-D4G2)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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JT, I'm beginning to suspect that we might have been on some kind of "stand in" - perhaps one of their normal fleet was off having it's annual and this was an old 'un dragged in to do duty?
Helen Beaumont, The RN across to Dunkerque was closed so we ended up going round by Calais on the autoroute....that said, I think we'd have done that anyway, prefer sailing up an empty motorway anyday.
I think it's different for us....we're only one & a half to two hours away from eurotunnel/Dover so we're not in the market for a long rest, on the way out we've only just started and on the way back we know we're on the last leg home....for us the ferry crossing is a drag and the shorter the crossing the better. We use all the various routes across the channel on a regular basis and they've all got pro's and con's. This year we've chosen the expensive option....we might live to regret that!
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homphomp, I think you can go to Dunkerque by autoroute if you leave A26 at Arras/Lille), don't remember it being an RN anyway. I prefer using the Eurotunnel because of the flexibility we have depending on the traffic (Uk side of course). It can take as little as 5 hours down to the terminal, or a much as 7. I usually allow 6 hours and arrive early on most occasions.
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Helen Beaumont, Ah, hadn't thought about cutting over so early....we stayed on the A26 until we were right up towards the end...lesson learnt! The flexibilty thing is what's persuaded us to go with Eurotunnel this year....Speedferries Superticket can't be beaten but it's nice to be able to turn up and go early!
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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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Helen Beaumont, that is a long way round to go via Lille. The ferry port is somewhat west of Dunkerque town as well. viamichelin shows the quickest route to be to get off the A26 at St Omer and follow the RN to the ferry port.
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FAQ
