Deals and Anomalies

[just john]

Recently compared a return trip with a van same dates & approx times via
Brittany Portsmouth Caen, @ £470  
LD lines Portsmouth  - Le Havre  and . . . £250! Lol! no contest,

Then again

Norfolk Line Dover - Dunkerque £202
LD Lines Dover - Boulogne . . . £86

No prizes for guessing which trips were booked,
I've had a bad experience in the past with LD lines, but so was my last expensive trip with Brittany which was appallingly over crowded and not something I'd like to repeat.

I can't ignore LD's new approach, but does anyone have any cautions?

 

[Chancer]

I have taken that crossing many times, they seem to change the boats quite a bit and often they are not the cheapest but I prefer them to all the others and will even pay a little more to use them.

Probably the only downside is if you miss the boat or it is cancelled you have to wait longer for the next one than a Calais to dover ferry, that said Norfolkline have often consolidated night crossings citing technical problems causing me to wait a couple of hours.

[just john]

Norfolk line do have an offer on in the Telegraph for £29 return, but when I tried to book, it came up as £25 for a ''car or camper van up to 2.4m high'' but £202 for a ''van/ minibus up to 2.4m high''. Why the different designation, I asked? they replied that vans and minibuses were commercial vehicles, I replied that mine is privately owned and not operated commercially and pointed out that a camper van and van carry the same number of passengers and occupy the same space but it cut no ice.

Hence my booking with LD; but having not used them for a little while I wonder what their services are like currently?

 

[Chancer]

Yes you are right, in the past when I borrowed vans I travelled Norfolkline because they were by far the cheapest for vans, trailers and caravans, not any more.

I think all the operators constantly change their strategy.