Brittany Ferries to Spain

[otherclive]

We plan to visit northern Spain next year and rather than trawling through France we will use the Brittany Ferry route. I have a few questions that would help in planning:
a. Has anyone tried the "economy" ferry and what was your opinion. If its on a par with the Dover-Dunkerque ferries with decent cabins I can live with that.
b. Brittany Ferries on line booking site just catagorises vehicles as "Car" or "MPV/SUV/4x4" and then offers a quoted price for each journey. This seems totally at odds with the normal ferry/Eurotunnel booking system where car length and height are used to calculate the price. Heck a Panda 4x4 could pay the same as a Disco 4!
c. Do Brittany Ferries tend to give discounts to CC, or C&CC members on this route to coincide with the major exhibitions ie NEC soon.

 

[AdifferentJim]

That's not my experience with BF. Their on line booking service gives choices via a drawdown menu for length, height, etc for cars and caravans. You can also select cabins on line easily.

The CC bookings, supposedly, give favourable prices for members but I've never found much of a difference, if any.

If you want to send me a pm I have a code that will give you 10% discount

 

[RayS]

I have not yet tried Brittany Economie service, but did once try ND service Dieppe to Newhaven. Not cheap enough for the poor service provided - think 1960's motorway service area.

Don't quite understand your comments about BF booking form on line. I use them regularly and certainly have to enter car and caravan length and height etc. If you tow with a vehicle with a roof box or bicycles put in the standard height of the car rather than the height over the box etc (unless this happens to be more than that of the caravan) or you will pay double height supplement. It also seems permissible to 'round' the length figures slightly. You will see 'car up to 5m' and caravan up to 7m as typical figures meaning you have booked a space up to 12m. long Therefore if the car is, say 4.5m it appears reasonable that a caravan with shipping length say 7.2 m can be entered as 'up to 7' since the total space occupied will be less than 12m

Eurotunnel don't seem overly bothered about length.

 

[otherclive]

Thanks for the replies. I went back to the original link which was on my mobile and sure enough it still categorised vehicles as "car" or "MPV/SUV/4x4" and then gave fares for each ferry sailing in the chosen date range. So when I had chosen the sailings I chose accommodation and obtained an all up fare. However when I then went onto the continue booking link the menu asked for the normal things such as length, height, roofbox, trailer etc. Now I have accessed it via the Mac onto the full Brittany Ferries website the selection of vehicle etc comes up in a normal menu set of options earlier.
We are going to give the economie ship a try as its considerably cheaper (without any discounts) than the cruise ships. And Ive spent far longer on ships with far less facilities, and at least the BF economie gives you two berths for two people ,so my bunk will be mine and not pre-warmed!

 

[otherclive]

Jim,

I think I am having a "bit thick" day as nowhere can a find a link for a Private Message to you. I have searched the Forum Website section and all it comes up with is one of my posts suggesting that PM would be helpful. In the past PMs always went via Parksy. If you can help that would be great.

 

[AdifferentJim]

clive

I thought there used to be the facility to send a p.m.

If the mods will give you my contact details I'll give you the code. If they won't I'm sure we can get around it

Jim

 

[otherclive]

Jim,
I have posted to Parksy asking him to let you have my email.

Cheers

Clive

 

[Raywood]

We have booked various Brittany Ferries including Santander but never used the economy booking so cannot comment on that. We have booked through both clubs and both give a discount on the Brittany web prices, not a lot but you might as well take it if you are a member.

 

[otherclive]

Thanks, I have been looking at Britanny Ferries own web site, Caravan Club, and Camping and Caravan Club. All are exactly the same price, so I rang the CC and asked if they could seek a booking using their operator links and again exactly the same price. The lady said that the member discounts tended to apply to those who are towing or motorhomes. So I plan to ring C&CC as they must have members who dont tow. For info the "Economie" return fares including cabins both ways for Portsmouth-Santander is £528, which compared to say taking the Portsmouth-Caen route and then driving to Santander is quite reasonable and only £159 more than the Portsmouth Caen and on that route it would involve some 650 miles driving and overnight stop each way plus fuel, tolls etc.

 

[Gafferbill]

Are you posting information and prices for a vehicle towing a caravan or trailer?

 

[otherclive]

As per my above post, I am traveling solo without any trailer or caravan. The latter plus XC70 were sold last March on account of not getting enough usage at times convenient to us. IE the three generation sandwich effect! So for 2014 it has been back to cottages, statics, B&B, hotels and with some camping thrown in for good measure. That's how it will be for another 5-6 years or so then we may buy another van, or perhaps join the dark forces and try a motorhome! Their prices don't seem as steady as they once were probably on account of their increased popularity and more now coming back onto the market as older owners sell them.

 

[Gafferbill]

OK thanks.

The cheapest crossing to France I have found for next year with a car and caravan is £112.50 return.
This is with a DFDS short sea crossing Dover to France booked via Caravan Club........has to be booked by October 31st.

I know you want a western crossing but information is useful for comparisons.

Anyone found cheaper?

 

[otherclive]

That's a good price. As we are restricted to two weeks in Northern Spain the short Channel routes are a non starter. Going via Dover would add 160 miles in UK plus another 800 miles to Santander, so that would probably be neigh on three nights en route, or a minimum of two nights plus extra fuel and toll costs. Going the Western route gives us a relaxing 60 miles to the ferry port and disembarkation just about an hour away from our first accommodation halt. Must admit though if time wasn't an issue just plod
long through France as part if the holiday would have been nice.

Cheers
Otherclive

 

[Grahamh]

Yes we used Dfds this year. Was much cheaper than BF and we did wonder if if it would be a wise decision. We went in May and were warned by friends that the ferry was a bit smaller than BF so if you not a good sailor and the weather was rough you might suffer a bit. Well the weather was not bad and we enjoyed the crossing. The facilities are basic but the cabin is just as good as BF. I found the facilities on BF rather expensive in the past. The restaurant - only one on dfds, is adequate, TV lounge(if you want it) and bar ok. Quite a few of the cars are parked out on deck - but not caravans/cars. The biggest difference is that you drive on and turn round on the ferry, can be a bit awkward but not hugely so. The down side for us was that you arrive at Gijon at 8 in the evening so want to arrange a site within an hour of Gijon. Luckily we used a site at Cudeliro - about 45 mins. Great site, very friendly and in the ACSI book. Stayed there for 2 nights on the way home as well. We intend to go there next May again and then travel up through France over the next 5 weeks before coming home.
HTH's

 

[otherclive]

Thanks but at the moment neither DFDS not LD lines are showing routes from UK to Spain. Even LD Lines St Nazaire to Gijon is suspended. At least BF are a consistent and reliable operator on the UK Spain routes.

 

[Grahamh]

Aah, I see that they stopped that route after Sept 5th. Thats put my plans for next spring back a bit. I expect BF fares will now go back up. It would seem that EU emission rules strike again!

 

[otherclive]

Why do you sat EU emissions rules as the ex LD lines Econmie ferry was built in 2008 in Italy and the owners would have been well aware of the future International Maritime Organisations emissions rules under Tier 11/111 standards adopted in 2008. All engine suppliers and shipbuilders were aware of the requirements of Tier11/111 standards well in advance of their adoption in order for their engines and exhaust systems to be compliant and to run on the low sulphur rules introduced along with the new emission standards. So its not the EU in this case which so often gets blamed for others decisions and actions.

 

[traficman]

hi, I've just come back on B F Economy vessel "Etretat" from Santander to Portsmouth. as mentioned above basic facilities and having to turn around on board the ship is a bit of a pain. It did take ages to load because of this due to the amount of lorries boarding. I was surprised that it was an older ferry and not a new ship as BF website shows it in a better light than reality. The ship wouldn't be so bad except it seems to break down on a regular basis. I had a 9 hour delay due to it breaking down twice due to engine problems. Another passenger who had travelled out to Spain on the same ship several weeks before had a 6 hour delay on board due to engine breakdown. Yet another passenger had looked on Tripadvisor after making their booking and discovered yet again another 5 hour breakdown report so were apprehensive and quite rightly so. Apart from engine trouble the other big problem we had was a very poor dog exercise area. We chose this ship so we could have a pet friendly cabin but did not expect the totally inadequate area set aside for dogs to do what they need to do and lack of thought for the dog owners eg if you didn't want to sit in your cabin the whole journey with your pet (including eating in your cabin as you're not allowed to leave your dog alone in the cabin) there were only a few plastic chairs where you could sit with your pet in the pathetically small toileting area. not at all hygienic so bad mark for BF. However, in total contrast, we sailed out from Portsmouth to Bilbao on BF vessel "Cap Finistere" which was brilliant, such a very different experience, great ship, great pet and pet owner facilities. Just like a mini cruise! I've been told the "Pont Aven" is also a great ship. I'll never travel on the Etretat again. Rant over

 

[otherclive]

Built in 2008 doesn't make it old in ship terms, but if it's build spec was for a different type of ferry route then the standards of outfit would be more spartan than those of a custom designed cruise ferry. But having such reliability issues is quite rare on commercial ships, as downtime is money and ship owners expect their ships to make money.