Ferry Guides

Just an idea but I thought it might be an idea to put a quick ferry guide on to the forums( forgive me if been done before) for people who are new to Euro work or using a different ferry line for the first time.

You know what I am after Food (price/quality), wi-fi, etc,etc. Anything that can inform and make the journey more comfortable.

Please Feel Free to add your own ferries.

Transeuropa Ferries… Ostend-Ramsgate.

OK not the newest of boats, You get a cabin (shared) which is quite spacious and comfortable. These are not ferries that you would choose for the quality of the (free) food alone.All in all a comfortable crossing and a good rest can be had.

LD Lines…Le Havre-Portsmouth.

The boat I sailed on was the old P+O Aquataine. After sailing on this boat many a time on the Dover-Calais run I can honestly say I have never seen it so clean now it is run by LD Lines. Good comfortable cabin(shared). Free food which is more than edible also accomodating chef who will cook anything he has got if you ask.
Wi-Fi on board £5.00 for 3hours.

The only thing that spoiled this crossing for me was the balls up of a port that is Portsmouth and their Traffic directional skills.

It has been a nightmare getting out of Pompey at 10pm all summer… every day the Le havre and Caen boats arrive more or less together and then at weekends there is the Normandie Express coming in at 10 as well. Took me 45 minutes to get off the boat one night as all three arrived at the same time and all were full

i agree bear , its a nightmare . 2 boats kicking off at the same time you can queue for ages eating into the 1 hour movement . you got cars coming from the right needing to go left for their exit and trucks coming from the left needing to go right :confused: how does that work (badly thats how)
then you get put in one of 4 lanes going into 2 exits at the control point , can work ok if you take it in turns untill you get the driver whos out for himself only trying to push in which then starts winding everyone up (why not put a bloke there to direct)
apart from that its a nice ferry port :smiley: :smiley:

DFDS Tor Line…Immingham - Cuxhaven

These are very much trailer only vessels but they can take about 6 or so drivers at a push. More often than not I’m the only driver onboard but at times it can be fully to capacity, especially when you get the Poles using it to bring back old British trucks they’ve bought for export as was the case last week.

The standard of food on the Tor Belgia I found to be very bad, it is simply left in the drivers mess by a member of the crew at the set time, its up to you wether you go and eat it, let alone remember to go and eat it. The food on the Tor Dania is substantially better, maybe due to the fact that the cooks on there are Polish rather than Filipino as on the Belgia and you actually eat the same food as the crew, with the crew who on the Dania are a mixture of Poles, Russians, Romanians, Lithuanians and Latvians…and ofcourse, this vessel is under the British flag ironically.

The cabins are generally quite spacious and all are en-suite with toilet/shower etc. All have two or three beds in them which does sometimes mean you have to double up with a total stranger, not something I like but they do try and keep different nationalities apart where possible. The main problem is that these ships are getting pretty old now and some cabins have terrible rattles that cannot be stopped, the Tor Belgia seems worse for this, to the extent where sleep is almost imposslbe at all.

There is very little to do for entertainment, the Tor Dania does have quite a large collection fo videos to watch. The Tor Belgia has all the equipment but absolutely no videos or dvd’s, only shelves of empty boxes.

The crossing itself is on average 24 hours, although it can be a few hours shorter, or longer and it does tend to leave at very unsocialble times of the night and get into Cuxhaven the same time the next day/night.

The length of the crossing can be handy if you wish to use it was a reduced 24hr weekly rest, or if you’ve had a short weekend at home, you more often than not make up the reduction of rest on the boat before you disembark. Also there is quite a lot of parking directly outside the dock gate if you dont wish to start driving at 2am for example when the ship docks and the A27 autobahn is only about a mile from the port and very easy to get to.

All in all I dont enjoy the crossing, its very long and boring but the Tor Dania is bearable, the Tor Belgia is another story. Sometimes they do operate other ships on the route, but as of yet, I have not sailed on any of those.