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Now this makes sense!


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I have just seen in our local paper "Two nights in France from £7.5O" with Brittany Ferries. (Collecting vouchers or I assume for Property Owners with no Vouchers). Has anybody taken advantage of this deal yet? It would be great if we could in future stay for two nights instead of only the 24 hours.
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Usually this offer is in the Southern/Bournemouth Echo and only applies if booked from UK. This arguement has gone on for years with B.F. A bit unfair when we can be paying 350euros for a return trip and the passengers next to you are paying £35 on the same boat. We thought we'd struck gold with B.F. when they offered a return CRUISE St.Malo -Portsmouth for 50e. Ideal to collect our granddaughter for her hols., but no, you can't get off the boat, not even to collect someone.!!! As stated before, as one door shuts,another closes,especially with B.F.

I must be careful that I don't get banned as there is not an alternative,YET.

Regards.

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I can see why the want to maximise their profits in the height of summer, but I have often wished I could take a 24-48 trip to Plymouth just to do a bit of shopping but its always so expensive...i'm not after a holiday just some new shoes![:(]
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Having given B F a fortune over the past 12 months with trips over from Poole and Portsmouth I thought that this July I would give the crossing a miss and try out for the first time a cheapie via Dover....  I live in Dorset .so seemed a crazy long way round !

.In March I paid £59 for the car ....and the two of us.... return... for just over  a couple of weeks  on P&O  We stopped over in a BB Hotels  double room for 38 euros  in Rouen . I then took the new motorway South to the Vendee (85) .

 It was a doddle so much so I did the return without a hotel  stop as my wife drove a good motorway length for me .......I booked through SAGA  web site ( they dont ask for age and how many wrinkles you have ). and P&O even put me on the next ferry out as I got to the port over two hours early . Travelled back on a Sunday .........no problem...... so next time B.F even with the owners discount  will get a costing compared with Dover and a hotel ...plus tolls and fuel ......then I will decide if the extra time via Dover is worth it ......I saved  a lot this month as the BF fare was about £400 with cabin out of Portsmouth .  On LD Lines although cheaper you can never get a cabin in my experience !..

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This is what I always say to people.  Why not take the shorter, cheaper crossing and if you don't want to drive 400 miles plus in one go, then stay in a formule one for the night. 

Ok so it makes the journey longer, but saves heaps of cash.

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I still do not understand the logic of their pricing. The autumn we are visiting friends just outside Plymouth, provided we stay under 7 days and travel mid week Euros 314 inclusive for Roscoff Plymouth. Which when you add in tolls, an extra night in an a hotel and diesel means it just about makes financial sense versus Speed ferries via Dover.  In December we will probably spend a week in London, if Roscoff Plymoth for ten days was a reasonable price we would probably  travel via Plymonth and drop in for a couple of nights with same friends as things are no way and we may even drive down to Plymouth for a long weekend.
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Well, it's not as good as it sounds: I rung BF, 3 Adverts have to be collected from the ECHO, Friday, Monday and Tuesday. ( you need the reference number to book). Then I bought the ECHO and the rules are as follows: 

Then travel has to be from Sun - Thurs. Out: to Cherbourg or Caen after midday only

                                                             2 nights stay

                                                             Back: Cherbourg or Caen morning sailings only

                                                              £7.50 per person Car: 20.00

 

But I suppose it's marginally better than only 24 hours. Lets hope this offer will last through the winter.

I just can't contemplate a crossing with the other cheaper Ferries from Dover etc. as the journey here in England and in France would be so much longer. I rather pay the extra. But BF of course knows that!!!!

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  • 4 weeks later...

You need the vouchers ,not only the ref.no's as they ask for the vouchers at the port.I have a £500 bet with a pal of mine in Bournemouth who thinks the same fare applies FROM France. I've been telling him for about 10 years that the Echo offers are only to get the booze/fags buyers over to the Supermarkets.

Seems a bit like discrimination on us French residents.

Regards.

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Ferry companies have had these offers for years, as has the tunnel. There are always restrictions on travel, and they are generally promotions run with a newspaper or similar. They were particularly popular in the duty-free booze cruise era. Brittany Ferries and the Daily Telegraph had a very good one about three years back, that could be used in either direction and had a degree of flexibility - I used it several times and wish it would be repeated.

I am afraid time is very important to me, and I just cannot contemplate driving through the day and staying in hotels, the true cost of that would be greater than even Brittany Ferries' summer fares. But these are summer fares, on past form they will drop drastically in the coming months, though nothing is guaranteed of course.

LD Lines, and Transmanche come to that, do offer alternatives (though far less attractive for Roscoff-Plymouth travellers). True, the LD ship has very few cabins. But you can get them - Mrs Will managed to book one recently for a night crossing in September. You can also get a day cabin for a reasonable fee, and well worth it in my opinion. The single cabins are, frankly, superb (I suspect they were converted for crew use in the ship's Dover-Calais era. Transmanche has several drawbacks, but most of those should be solved when the second new ship arrives and they decide which of the several companies that has tendered will actually take over running the ships (LD Lines looks like the current favourite).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry scalehill, I was on holiday in France (I think you would have missed the deadline of booking anyway  which was18th August) but you could have had the Vouchers.

Hopefully they do some more for September. I will let you know. And if you don't live in Bournemouth or Poole area I could collect some for you.

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