bazooka Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Booking ferry dover-calais decent times 38 pounds return Sea france high top van 5.200 m .long. bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 bazooka - 2009-11-12 7:32 PM Booking ferry dover-calais decent times 38 pounds return Sea france high top van 5.200 m .long. bas Sounds good. What dates & Times, each way?Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I thought SeaFrance were in deep financial trouble *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 JudgeMental - 2009-11-12 9:36 PM I thought SeaFrance were in deep financial trouble *-) I thought that as well Judge, but I can't see the French government letting it go down (pun intended) can you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 nowtelse2do - 2009-11-12 9:54 PMJudgeMental - 2009-11-12 9:36 PM I thought SeaFrance were in deep financial trouble *-) I thought that as well Judge, but I can't see the French government letting it go down (pun intended) can you.Why not.? I thought Brittany ferries was bigger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Grumpy Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Booking for March next year; 6.5 meter van, 2 adults plus dog. Sea France £63, Norfolk Line £121. Is this a sign that Sea France are trying to pull in customers at any cost or that Norfolk Line are finding it tough to pay for their new boats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Mr. Grumpy - 2009-11-13 1:14 PM Booking for March next year; 6.5 meter van, 2 adults plus dog. Sea France £63, Norfolk Line £121. Is this a sign that Sea France are trying to pull in customers at any cost or that Norfolk Line are finding it tough to pay for their new boats? Not really as we just booked two seperate crossings one for June one for September for a 6.7 metre van and four adults at good crossing times each costing £55 return with Norfolk Line (not our first choice of carrier but were easily the cheapest). Think it depends how well you look for the bargains with any carrier. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Grumpy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 "Think it depends how well you look for the bargains with any carrier." I agree Basil but we are tied to certain dates although we always choose the lowest fare for that day. Taking off the £25 charge for checking our dog's paperwork brings the return fare down to £38. We like Norfolk Line and even at £80 (55 + 25 for the dog) would have gone with them but they did not offer this fare to us. Did you enter a particular code or search for special offers as we could the same procedure when we next book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike 202 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Just a thought - even though the ferry times were close together, did you go into a higher price bracket. I looked at prices recently and found that just one sailing could make a big difference. Pays to check a few alternative sailings to keep in the same price bracket. Maybee a couple each side of your booking and a couple a day or two either side as well. A bit like flying, a bit of planning for alternate airports if your destination airport is closed is standard practice for commercial Airline Pilots. So a bit of forward planning for "What Iff situations" can give peace of mind and it is a no cost option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hi Mr Grumpy, I tend to agree with Mike 202. We also have fixed dates but I always do the same as him and check times either side going into previous or later days to get the best prices, I then do the same with all the other operaters, I do this at the same time using several different tabs open in one Window so that I can select the best deal as soon as it becomes apparent in case backing out of an offer loses it. I used no codes or special offer deals just a bit of button pressing and searching the various offerings (that includes the Caravan Club site that does its own comparisons that you can hone down). It just happens that Norfolk Line were cheapest on this occasion by a large amount. As I said not my preffered operator but ho hum, you can't have it all your own way searching out the best deals. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Grumpy Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Thanks for the suggestion chaps. We travel either late night of early morning so I do look either side of the dates I really want and at various times and the prices I quoted were the best I could come up with. I think it may be more critical when you book than the dates you want to book for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 I think I read on another thread that Sea France don't charge for dogs or am I imagining it? I usually go P&O as I still have their concessionary fare entitlement although I usually check with other operators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvin marvin Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Patricia - 2009-11-17 4:54 PM I think I read on another thread that Sea France don't charge for dogs or am I imagining it? I usually go P&O as I still have their concessionary fare entitlement although I usually check with other operators.. Sea France charge £25/animal, P&O charge £30/animal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 We went earlier this year on the ferry at last minute (see below thread): http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=16890&posts=22 We found that Sea France only charge for the dog on the leg from France to the UK to cover BOTH crossings, so if you go out with them with your dog there's not charge. But if on only come back with them you pay the whole lot!!! If you then get a cheap crossing back with one of the other ferry companies which splits the fee so that its 50% each way, you pay the half of the return fare, ie with P&O it was £15 per dog. It's also worth having a trawl of the web before booking too to see if you can find any voucher codes, it saved us 10% on our Sea France fare. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Starvin Marvin and MelB - thank you both for your explanations and tips for future reference. Unfortunately I have already booked to go out with P & O in January and just looking for the return crossing in March or April! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Dwight Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 We use Sea France and have never been charged for the dog yet. Sea France always charge more for the crossing from France. We found this out when not having the dog with us. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Mr. Grumpy - 2009-11-17 4:09 PM Thanks for the suggestion chaps. We travel either late night of early morning so I do look either side of the dates I really want and at various times and the prices I quoted were the best I could come up with. I think it may be more critical when you book than the dates you want to book for. Hi, not sure what the reasons are but for interest our travelling times out for both June and September are at 1400 on a Saturday and returning at 1000 and 0800 on a Sunday, which for us are good times having used late night and early mornings previously. I did start with late night and early mornings but these times came out cheapest direct with Norfolk Line, the others did not get close even at absurd times of the night! Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 David Dwight - 2009-11-17 9:09 PM We use Sea France and have never been charged for the dog yet. Sea France always charge more for the crossing from France. We found this out when not having the dog with us. David Have you used them both ways? If so, then how do you manage not to get charged ... you don't stuff the poor thing in a cupboard do you! 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Dwight Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Mel B Yes used ferry both ways, Dog scanned and papers shown we have used Sea France for many years, they are always sending me offers for crossings though. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 So how are you doing it then? Don't you 'declare' a dog when booking your crossing??? (?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Dwight Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Yep all done legal and above board. Must be lucky. David PS now that I have said that bet we will get charged now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camperdude Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Referring back to the original thread (not dog charges!), I've just done a check on the price for Brittany Ferries Poole to Cherbourg return when I usually go in late June returning early July 2010, and the price has increased by £100 from last year! I read somewhere that the increase may be due to the ferry companies buying fuel at a fixed rate for the following year. Unfortunately, fuel prices were sky-high last year so maybe this accounts for the price hike! *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.