new Channel ferry option/paging anyone with a Speedferries ticket

From next month the Dover-Boulogne route will be available again. This time
operated by LDLines. I've used their service from Portsmouth which was
pretty good.
http://www.ldlines.co.uk/index.php

They are offering a 75% discount for anyone with a "valid" Speedferries
ticket.

 

Seems to be very reasonably priced, pity about the crossing time.

 

Competition for the other POS tugs so may keep prices lower.

When on the bike I actually prefer a ferry, especially on the homeward leg
of an Alpine trip. I've generally ridden several hundred miles and would be
catching a late afternoon ferry. The hour and a bit on board lets me have a
rest and a meal in relative comfort, ready for the 230 mile final leg to
get home.

I've used Le Shuttle in the past, with a car. It was fine as you get to sit
in your own bubble, isolated from the tin can you are confined in. Pretty
shit when on a bike, I would think.

 

@news.individual.net:

If I used the train on the same journey then I would need to spend some
time finding food/having a rest on land. The overall journey time would be
much the same. In fact, I'd probably save time by using the ferry as a meal
in France would probably involve a 2 hour interruption of the journey.

 

Yes and no. While it's nice to veg out for an hour and a bit, the half hour
or so is adequate for scoffing a couple of sandwiches. When we took the
outfit to Chimay, we had plenty of time for food, airing wet garments and
chatting to a guy with a Magni Guzzi. And then, suddenly, we were in
France. Marvellous.

 

Well, it tends to annoy me to sit around for that long on a ferry, but
then again home for me is quite close to Dover anyway.

I've probably used it more often with the bike then with a car, and it's
OK. Yes, they don't have seats if you discount the bog, but that never
bothered me that much. Plus, no grubby tie downs that won't release like
it happened to me on the last TOG tour.

Of course my perception might be slightly coloured by the fact that I
tend to pay for the Tunnel using Tesco Clubcard vouchers, so the
additional cost on top of the ferry doesn't bother me that much.

 

AOL - I figure I am going to take a break for food and a leg stretch
at some point so I may as well combine it and do that on a ferry.

I used it for Chimay last year and it's OK,a bit of a PITA with the
bike kept wondering if the rocking would have the bike over.

 

wrote:

The will-it-won't-it-fall-over experience is one of the highlights of
taking a bike on the train. Dodger, of course, took a slightly different
approach when told how to park the wing.

 

Yonks ago, before they went titzup, I used to regularly use the overnight
Sheerness - Vlisingen (sp?) ferry. Good meal, bed down for the night,
decnt breakfast and away we go nice and ready for a long haul.

 

I use the shuttle if I'm pushed for time but the reality is that on a
bike it's shit. It might be quicker but you're treated like rubbish
and you don't even get to sit down unless you use the floor.

I had to argue with them because they insisted that I used the
sidestand on my BMW and I refused because the bike was heavily loaded
and I wanted to use the centre stand. They then insisted that I sit on
the bike throughout the journey in case the bike rolled off its stand.

 

I haven't used it on a bike since the very early days when they had
special roll-in, roll-out, cradles with tie downs on to the handlebars.
We sat opted to stay with the bike on that occasion, even though there
was a small seating area above the last carriage that bikes travelled
in. Don't know why, because with that system there was no way a Morini
350 was going to topple over.

I'll see how the Voxan copes coming back from 'the chateau' after the
French run in May.

We always used to use the long, slow, overnight ferry crossings in the
old days, but now I prefer to get a meal and a night's kip in Coquelles
and take advantage of the off-peak tunnel rates. I always found it
difficult to sleep in ferry cabins, and a better value decent meal can
be had on terra firma IME. A really long crossing (Portsmouth - LeHavre)
only saves an hour or so in the UK and a couple at the most in France on
our journey anyway.

The falling pound has cocked things up a bit though, as an Etap kip plus
a meal in the Cite Europe is no longer such a good deal.

--
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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
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