Ferries....

Doran

Doran

Doran

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SE London
Does anyone use these anymore?

I'm going on the overnight to Hook in the Netherlands from Harwich. Its a bargain; including a cabin for the night and train from London to harwich and from Hook to Amsterdam is just £48.

Havnen't been on a ferry for over a decade. I am actually a bit nervous!
 
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yep loads of people still use them. Just don't get a stupidly long night haul. As al the shops/restaurants/pubs shuts and you can't do anything on them bars.

But there cheap and quick. No standing around for hours like flying.

Anyone no of any deals for Calais deals on at the moment preferably for July. It's beer run time again.
 
Didn't you see from my post that I got a 'stupidly long night-haul'....

My view was that overnight, time is dead, so quicker than 3 hours in the day. Plus, I tend to get seasick quite easily and understand this is less of an issue when you are alseep.

The particular boat closes it doors at 11.30, where it stays for an hour and a half to allow everyone to get to sleep, and then it leaves at about 1 ish, and arrives in The Netherlands at 7.45am..
 
I use ferries quite often, usually on the Holyhead - Dublin route when I want to take my car home.

They're far from a bargain though. The average price is about £200 with the most recent one at £220. For a <2 hour ferry trip it's a bit of a rip off.
 
Only ferries I've experienced are Hull-Belgium/Holland. Again, far from cheap if you go anytime other than when nobody else wants to. Expensive food and drink on them too.
 
Overnight ones generally go slower than day ones. So they leave late nightish and get in early morning. So you can sleep. So that will make you sea sick more than a day one. Obviously depends if it is a longer on than a day though. But if you can't get to sleep there so boring on overnight hauls.

Yep they are a rip off, unless you find special deals. Which they often have. Never done a Netherlands one though, only France.
 
Don't know what your specific crossing is like but I've done a few overnight ferries to France (P'mouth-Caen and P'mouth-St Malo) - I know you've booked one, but a cabin is a must! - the people who don't look very uncomfortable trying to sleep wherever they can. I get seasick too and find that lying down cures it, unless in very rough seas.

Find out what time breakfast starts and start queuing 5-10 mins before that time, otherwise you'll be standing around for ages waiting to be served.

Your ferry crossing is probably cheap as less Brits are going to the continent on holiday these days with the high euro. The above crossings used to be cheap too before the explosion of Brits buying holiday homes in France.
 
Scuzi said:
They're far from a bargain though. The average price is about £200 with the most recent one at £220. For a <2 hour ferry trip it's a bit of a rip off.
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When my girlfriend goes back to Belfast by car they either go that route and drive up through Ireland or go to Stranraer in Scotland, and they both cost around the same!

Guess not so many people take those ferries!
 
Booking a cabin is compulsory now, at least on the Stena Lines, so no worries there!

the price I got is standard, and not subject to less tourists at the moment.

I think its jsut because going to Netherlands is cheap; I looked at the cost of the ferries to France and they are really expensive!
 
Been on
Dover - Calais (more times than I can remember)
Dover - Boulogne (when it was running, before the days of the tunnel)
Folkstone - Boulogne
Southampton - East Cowes
Lymington - Yarmouth
Oban - Isle of Mull
Weymouth - Jersey
Lake Windermere :D
Fowey -Cornwall :rolleyes:
 
Went across to France from Portsmouth on one at night.

Was so stormy I couldn't sleep so I went up on deck, sat in an area of warmth and sat there for hours. Was so peaceful after you knock out the sound of the engines, NOBODY about and can't see a think. T'was qualtity!!
 
Concorde Rules said:
Went across to France from Portsmouth on one at night.

Was so stormy I couldn't sleep so I went up on deck, sat in an area of warmth and sat there for hours. Was so peaceful after you knock out the sound of the engines, NOBODY about and can't see a think. T'was qualtity!!
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I'm going to find it hard not to do that, I think. Must be quite cool at night - I suppose at sea you can see quite a lot because it is otherwise so dark...

Whats annoying is that it doesn't leave the harbour till 1am, so if you do want to stay up, you've got to wait till then, and then get up really early!
 
Got the fast ferry across to ireland from Hollyhead in the summer when we were visiting Trinity College Dublin.

I won an ipod nano on a free scratchcard I got with a drink =]
 
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