Did I imagine this??

[Jacqui Too]

In the new year I started to think about booking our first trip over this year and decided to look up other alternatives to our usual route of Brittany ferry's.

I thought  (pretty sure I did!!) I saw and priced up a ferry from Dover to Boulogne with Sea France, it was very cheap at about £115 for van, 2 peeps and 2 dogs return on 24th. April-12th. May. I even google mapped our road trip from Boulogne as we have not done that port before.

Now I come to look again and book it's not there! Sea France only do Dover-Calais!

Have I missed somthing! since the new year? Have Sea France stopped that service? or did I imagine the whole thing and gone doolally over the winter?

Help

Is there still a service Dover-Boulogne and if so with whom?

[minnie]

I think you'll finds it under L D lines.

[Jacqui Too]

Thanks but thats not the one I found, they are far more expensive the one I saw was only £38 ish each way before dogs!

 

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="Jacqui Too "]

Thanks but thats not the one I found, they are far more expensive the one I saw was only £38 ish each way before dogs!

[/quote]

Ah now I have done some more digging and found that it was LD lines[:$] but not the normal site that I have used in the passed eg. LD Lines Ferries BUT LD Lines Network! same times, ships, different prices,  different websites, much cheaper [:P]

LD lines Ferries =£160 return: Van, 2 passengers, 2 dogs or £70 return: van and 2 passengers

LD Lines Network= £130  return :Van, 2 passengers, 2 dogs or just £58 return : van and 2 passengers 

So if any one thinking of booking LD lines try the network site first

 

[minnie]

Thanks Jacqui for letting us know about the network, though I was convinced it was only LD that runs in and out of Boulogne.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Jacqui Too "][quote user="Jacqui Too "]

[/quote]

Ah now I have done some more digging and found that it was LD lines[:$] but not the normal site that I have used in the passed eg. LD Lines Ferries BUT LD Lines Network! same times, ships, different prices,  different websites, much cheaper [:P]

So if any one thinking of booking LD lines try the network site first

[/quote]

Could you possibly post the web addresses of the two?

I suspect the first may have actually been a booking agent masquerading as the actual company, they seem very good at getting to the top of google with what looks to be a link to the actual company.

[Will]

ldlines.ferries.org, and directferries.com, which both come high up in Google searches and have a page title 'LD Lines Ferry' or similar, are not company sites. They are, as Chancer says, booking agents.

The genuine LD Lines company site is www.ldlines.co.uk (English) or www.ldlines.com (international). These sites use 'LD Lines Network - Ferry Services' as page titles, so presumably these are the sites that offered you a better deal.

You will find plenty of other booking agents offering LD Lines tickets in a search on the internet, like aferry.co.uk and ferrysavers.co.uk, but these don't try to pretend they are LD Lines' own sites.

[Chancer]

I have on occasion saved some money with these booking agents but usually on bookings made within hours of the departure or for vans/trailers etc at times when the ferry companies start taking the P.

[BJSLIV]

For those willing to try Seafrance  (!)  (Dover-Calais) their £40 return UK-France-UK  is still available (one more week)  for travel during most of the year.

http://www.ferrycheap.com/seafrance

 

 

[PaulT]

[quote user="BJSLIV"]

For those willing to try Seafrance  (!)  (Dover-Calais) their £40 return UK-France-UK  is still available (one more week)  for travel during most of the year.

http://www.ferrycheap.com/seafrance

 

 

[/quote]

I found SeaFrance OK - only used them once (far prefer Eurotunnel). However, you then get constantly bombarded with emails as a most valued customer.

Paul

[ColinE]

Hi BJSLIV

Took your advice and looked into the £40 ferry crossing, I booked three MGs in for June, the only problem I had was paying for my friends trip, as their names had to be on the email confirmation, when I went to pay for their ticket, their name was on my credit card, so it would not take it, there did not seem any way round it, I telephone them and spoke to a nice lady who said she could do the booking over the phone but it would cost and extra £10 per ticket, which I thought was a bit much, in the end she did the booking and only charged one £10, so not to bad.

You would think the web designers would have thought about people buying tickets for friend, they never seem to get things correct, had many problems recently with web sites, one was even telling me my address was wrong for my post code, I have lived here for 9 years.

Colin

[Alan Zoff]

Just used the SeaFrance £40 return deal.

Outward from Dover to Calais - SeaFrance on strike. But they gave me a free transfer to Eurotunnel and I arrived in France hour and a half ahead of schedule!

Return Calais to Dover. Slight delay as they took on extra foot passengers due to aviation problem but no complaints at all with the crossing. Very fast loading/unloading compared with other craft I have used as its freight design means there's just one roll on/roll off deck.

Not bad for forty quid. Have same deal booked for next month but doubt I will get peak time use of tunnel for £20 again....

[Chancer]

Dont count on it, I returned to France a few weeks ago to find that they were on strike and was transferred to P&O, had it been Eurotunnel I would have been a very happy bunny!

The cynic in me looking for a consmiracy theory might think that it was because I was towing a trailer as I was not notified of the cancellation by phone or E-mail yet there was just one other vehicle other than I in the queue who was also towing a trailer, recieved no notification and was also transferred to P&O.

[Alan Zoff]

I was given the choice - another ferry or the tunnel. She said most were choosing the ferry. No contest as far as I was concerned.

[Chancer]

I will remeber that next time, that is if the syndicalists have not put them out of  business.

I just spent a week on the Côte D'azure with a group of diving friends, one is a very young wealthy retired cheminot who kept rubbing it in to the rest of us how much the voyage down had cost for us sharing the minibus; he of course having travelled down for free on the TGV.

Guess who was desperate enough to ask to sit on my lap on the return journey [:-))]

[Alan Zoff]

"He". Shame.

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="Chancer"][quote user="Jacqui Too "][quote user="Jacqui Too "]

[/quote]

Ah now I have done some more digging and found that it was LD lines[:$] but not the normal site that I have used in the passed eg. LD Lines Ferries BUT LD Lines Network! same times, ships, different prices,  different websites, much cheaper [:P]

So if any one thinking of booking LD lines try the network site first

[/quote]

Could you possibly post the web addresses of the two?

I suspect the first may have actually been a booking agent masquerading as the actual company, they seem very good at getting to the top of google with what looks to be a link to the actual company.

[/quote]

Sorry I'm a bit late coming back to this thread (forgot to look in 'My forums')

I think you are right about one being a booking agent : http://www.ferryto.co.uk/offers/ldlines.html Thats the one I used the first time we used LDLines, then I saw an add in one of the French mags this year for LDLines and a cheap fare, but could not find it on the site I had saved in my favorites, so found the mag and followed their link on the add and it came up : http://www.ldlines.co.uk/  and thats where I got the advertised fares, very good value [:)]