Club 80-90 Forums

I tried out the DFDS/LD Lines shared ferry last weekend that replaced Seafrance between Dover and Calais. The ship we travelled on was an old LD Lines ship that was briefly used on the Dover Bolougne crossing a couple of years ago. Ok but not as nice a ship as the newer ones on the Dover to Dunkirk crossing. I would not want to be on this in rough seas. Food was ok though. Very limited choice of cigs for the smokers. You'll have to buy your poison in France - same price anyway.

Also the amount of time waiting to get through Immigration at Calais was horrendous. If you arrived a bit late for your crossing home on any ferry there you would miss the boat literally. I'm returning to the Dover-Dunkirk crossing for the summer. Newer nicer ships that include 'pirate captains' and far less waiting to get processed at Dunkirk and its only another 10 minutes dwon the motorway from Calais.

Patrick

Good to know .... I wonder if it was the old LD lines boat that we went on to Boulogne 2 years ago ? That was a bit of a rickety old tub and they've since dropped that service.

Ian

Ian Hulley wrote: Good to know .... I wonder if it was the old LD lines boat that we went on to Boulogne 2 years ago ? That was a bit of a rickety old tub and they've since dropped that service.

Ian

Certainly it was the same old tub that we crossed over on that crossing. Even the floor covering is lifting off the floor inside the ship. It is a shame because P&O need some competition to keep the prices down.

Patrick

We have a house in france and use the LD Lines ferry at Newhaven. We think it's the best allround for normandy when you consider crossing time,price, and ports access.

Newhaven/Dieppe was my favourite crossing when Hoverspeed did it. We always used to have a seafood lunch in one of the many harbour restaurants on our last day and then get the ferry home. A wonderful last goodbye to France. Then they had convenient times and reasonable price. Unfortunately since then the timing options of LD lines have been limited and it costs at least three times(£246 return) as much as the Dover/Dunkirk which is about £80 return. A shame but, as I always head South for the summer hols it is no great shakes.

As far as the new combined DFDS/LD lines crossing Dover/Calais goes, unfortunately the ship they are using is the same old tub they tried out on the short lived Dover/Boulogne crossing. It probably saw 20 years service in the Med before this. If they operated the lovely modern ships that DFDS uses on the crossing to Dunkirk it would be a much nicer experience.
Patrick

Its cheap and cheerful and(hopefully) gets you across the water , couple of hours and jobs a good un ..
Do we really need fancy ships with fancy prices ?

T'Onion wrote:Its cheap and cheerful and(hopefully) gets you across the water , couple of hours and jobs a good un ..
Do we really need fancy ships with fancy prices ?

Depends if you like 'morbidly' blocked toilets and no duty free shop (which we never did find )

Never been on a ferry with a blocked bog , tried to block a few but never managed it
and always manage to find the giant toblerone shop .. cos you can't but giant toblerones anywhere else in the world

Don't get the PnO thing , twice if not three times more expensive and for what ?? Same crossing , same bit of water.

T'Onion wrote:Never been on a ferry with a blocked bog , tried to block a few but never managed it
and always manage to find the giant toblerone shop .. cos you can't but giant toblerones anywhere else in the world

Don't get the PnO thing , twice if not three times more expensive and for what ?? Same crossing , same bit of water.

Sorry, but this 'aint quite right, I may be a bit biased but here's a few facts
Yes P&O is more expensive than DFDS.. BUT... they have more ships running on the route (6) so,
If the weathers bad or there are delays for some other reason you still stand a good chance of boarding A ferry (even though it might not be THE one you were booked on) close to your booking in time.
DFDS run to Dunkirk, its a 2 hour crossing, they have 3 ships
The..."new" (cough)... LD line service from Dover to Calais only has 2 ships and a crossing time of 1.5 hrs,
If I were going on holiday all packed up with wife, kids, dog etc, and there were delays due to weather I would want minimum time sitting in Dover docks and would happily pay a bit extra to minimise that delay, I would also prefer to travel on a ferry where the shops, bars and eating areas are open and actually have staff working in them.


I have just checked out some fares.

Outward bound Sat 19th @ 0600 Return Sat 26th @ 2100 (approx times, all for a van and 2 adults)

P&O = £88.80
DFDS (Dunkirk) £62
LD/DFDS (Calais) £60
Tunnel £153

As with most things these days, the earlier you book the cheaper the fare, and keep your eyes out for special offers,
playing around with the departure and return times on the website can also save you a small fortune.

As an aside to this, in case anyones interested,
there is a meeting being held next Monday in the French courts to consider a buy out deal of the ex-Sea France fleet by Eurotunnel,
They propose buying the business as a whole, and renting it back to the ex SeaFrance employees fronted by the French seamens union.
If that deal comes off you could see some good deals going next year.

Rogbik wrote:

T'Onion wrote:Never been on a ferry with a blocked bog , tried to block a few but never managed it
and always manage to find the giant toblerone shop .. cos you can't but giant toblerones anywhere else in the world

Don't get the PnO thing , twice if not three times more expensive and for what ?? Same crossing , same bit of water.

Sorry, but this 'aint quite right, I may be a bit biased but here's a few facts
Yes P&O is more expensive than DFDS.. BUT... they have more ships running on the route (6) so,
If the weathers bad or there are delays for some other reason you still stand a good chance of boarding A ferry (even though it might not be THE one you were booked on) close to your booking in time.
DFDS run to Dunkirk, its a 2 hour crossing, they have 3 ships
The..."new" (cough)... LD line service from Dover to Calais only has 2 ships and a crossing time of 1.5 hrs,
If I were going on holiday all packed up with wife, kids, dog etc, and there were delays due to weather I would want minimum time sitting in Dover docks and would happily pay a bit extra to minimise that delay, I would also prefer to travel on a ferry where the shops, bars and eating areas are open and actually have staff working in them.


I have just checked out some fares.

Outward bound Sat 19th @ 0600 Return Sat 26th @ 2100 (approx times, all for a van and 2 adults)

P&O = £88.80
DFDS (Dunkirk) £62
LD/DFDS (Calais) £60
Tunnel £153

As with most things these days, the earlier you book the cheaper the fare, and keep your eyes out for special offers,
playing around with the departure and return times on the website can also save you a small fortune.

As an aside to this, in case anyones interested,
there is a meeting being held next Monday in the French courts to consider a buy out deal of the ex-Sea France fleet by Eurotunnel,
They propose buying the business as a whole, and renting it back to the ex SeaFrance employees fronted by the French seamens union.
If that deal comes off you could see some good deals going next year.

Excellent info there , when I booked my crossing P&0 was over twice the price , if it had been a few quid more I may have booked P&O , I have a slightly bigger van than you(i have to book over 3m and longer than 5m) so that could have been why
I liked SeaFrance so will be happy if they came back.

Rogbik wrote:As with most things these days, the earlier you book the cheaper the fare, and keep your eyes out for special offers,
playing around with the departure and return times on the website can also save you a small fortune.

Agreed, sometimes we've found P&O to be the cheapest option. It helps if you're willing to travel at odd times, which works well with a camper - we often get a late night crossing, park up at Calais for the night and then set off early in the morning.

horns wrote:

Rogbik wrote:As with most things these days, the earlier you book the cheaper the fare, and keep your eyes out for special offers,
playing around with the departure and return times on the website can also save you a small fortune.

Agreed, sometimes we've found P&O to be the cheapest option. It helps if you're willing to travel at odd times, which works well with a camper - we often get a late night crossing, park up at Calais for the night and then set off early in the morning.

That's just what we do,
For those that don't know, as the ferry approaches Calais, just inside the pier heads, keep looking to your right, you can see a campsie and a motorhome park, to get to it, as you leave Calais port, about 500 yards after the check out booths you can take a right turn, (towards town centre) follow the road to the end, take a right, then another right when you see the sign for the campsite. You can either stop in the campsite (toilet block, electric hook up etc) for about 12 euros (I Think) Or you can park on the motorhome parking outside, (this is free from end of Sept to about the end of April?) you have to pay 'in season' (about 7 euros, you pay the attendant or at the campsite) You really need your own facilitys if you are going to do this, the toilet block there is only open from June to September.
If you have a long drive ahead of you its a good way to start the day refreshed and ready to go.

See thats why my P&O quote was loads more , I told them when I wanted to travel and didn't fancy hanging around Calais

Good tip on the late , mid week sailing though

Rogbik wrote:That's just what we do,
For those that don't know, as the ferry approaches Calais, just inside the pier heads, keep looking to your right, you can see a campsie and a motorhome park, to get to it, as you leave Calais port, about 500 yards after the check out booths you can take a right turn, (towards town centre) follow the road to the end, take a right, then another right when you see the sign for the campsite. You can either stop in the campsite (toilet block, electric hook up etc) for about 12 euros (I Think) Or you can park on the motorhome parking outside, (this is free from end of Sept to about the end of April?) you have to pay 'in season' (about 7 euros, you pay the attendant or at the campsite) You really need your own facilitys if you are going to do this, the toilet block there is only open from June to September.
If you have a long drive ahead of you its a good way to start the day refreshed and ready to go.

We've camped there before - but most of the time these days we just park up in the ticket office car park at the terminal. It's secure, there are toilets in the terminal building, and there are usually loads of other people doing the same thing. Saves the faff of driving through Calais, you're straight on the motorway in the morning (or straight on your ferry, if you're on the way home).

Also the amount of time waiting to get through Immigration at Calais was horrendous. If you arrived a bit late for your crossing home on any ferry there you would miss the boat literally.

Patrick[/quote]

Quick question - how long is it taking to get through immigration at calais?