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LD Lines Portsmouth to Le havre


raymer
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It works. I use them as a freight customer & they are very helpful & completely useless. If you can book a ticket & get on the boat, you'll be fine. They seem to run on time. If you can get a cabin (unlikely on any o/nite x'ing in June not booked in January) then they will be clean.

Restaurant not bad and not expensive (by P&O standards, at least). No pool or cinema to keep kids entertained. Playroom is just a padded cell devoid of toys....

You will fare well if you speak Portugese.

Yer pays yer money....

 

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[quote user="john and sue"]

[:)] and prithee tell; what car meeting is that?

[8-|] might need the sunscreen then [B]

[/quote]

 

The Probe Club de France AGM ( Ford Probe that is [;-)]) followed by the MOPAR Nationals at Lercy-Levis .I help run the United Kingdom Probe Owners Club and I have forged close links with the French club over the last few years[;-)]

 

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[quote user="Alan Zoff"]We are going over later this week to our house which is 7kms from Lurcy-Levis. I thought the circuit was used only for private testing - does it in fact hold events open to the public?[/quote]

 

We attended the MOPAR nationals there in 2004 and on 28th May this year it is on again with run what ya brung drag racing event

http://www.circuit-lurcy-levis.com/uk/html/circuit.htm

 

Looking at the website they hire it out for events so it may be that the MOPAR events are classed as private testing if they hire the circuit out for the day

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[quote user="raymer"]Oh, I thought it was a problem on their web site the fact that it was not displaying cabins!!! That is no good then. As this is the case can anyone tell me what Transmanche are like?[/quote]

Transmanche is owned by a consortium headed by the Conseil General de Seine-Maritime, though the company desperately wants to stick to just operating ports (it owns Newhaven ferry port as well as Dieppe) and find a proper shipping company to run the ships. It has recently had a new ship, the Cote d'Albatre, built in Spain, and another is being built. Previous reliability problems will hopefully be overcome with the new ships, though there is still a big question mark over the crewing. There have been some close encounters with fixed objects in the harbours, and official inquiries suggest alcohol may have played a part, though Transmanche will probably say something different.

It is, like LD Lines, primarily a freight service, so offers something rather basic but perfectly serviceable, bearing in mind the comments above. One big benefit is that the crossing is short compared with the western channel routes, and there is a much more frequent service on offer than with LD Lines. If Transmanche's own web site is not working, which most of the time it isn't, you can use www.aferryto.com.

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  • 2 weeks later...

[quote user="Rosiegirl"]We have used them several times.  They are clean, reasonably efficient and the staff are friendly.  Even better, the price falls every time we book.  Long may they continue and may they soon acquire a second boat.[:D][/quote]

 

We came home with LD on Saturday and were suitably impressed (if a  little hot) - however a bit hairy on the booking front!!! Tried a couple of times before we left the UK to book online but couldn't. Took the laptop down with us and thought we'd try whilst we were out there to book. Tried both the French and English sites and still couldn't get it to accept our Carte Bleue! Meanwhile the price had risen from £84 to £120!!! and we were beginning to panic a little. Eventually telephoned the UK office and explained that I was having problems with the CB and they put it through on their system and emailed me the reservation and it only cost 84 Euros (how's that for an exchange rate)! That was for the 17:00 LH to Pmth crossing with a single cabin 2 adults and a car.

Will remember this in future and telephone straight away with the CB if I can get it that much cheaper!!!

Jo

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There are some very good prices available at present from LD Lines. These seem to be getting lower all the time, particularly for long stays or single fares. LD is basically a freight company and is still feeling its way as a passenger operator. What is particularly impressive is the way that the senior people in the company, from the CEO downwards, listen to their customers and try to give them what they want - subject of course to not actually losing money.

A bit of a shaky start saw them offer a no-frills service at fares comparable with the opposition, but they soon realised why this was not attracting enough custom and introduced some good fares, with the result that the service is fast gaining popularity. The problem with it is that there is only one ship on the route, with, despite the England-France leg running overnight, a very small number of cabins. The crossings are timed to suit freight drivers (for whom the majority of the available berths seem to be reserved) so are not ideal for the likes of us. When a second ship is added, it should really shake things up on the western channel.

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