Ways to cross number 2?

POSH?

So, thanks then to P&O, the word "POSH" (Port Out, Starboard Home) passed into everyday English language.

…..oh if only I could - make a booking that way! It is the most infuriatingly bad and frequently dysfunctional website that it is my displeasure to attempt to use on a regular basis. There is quite literally always something wrong with it - each and every time that I have used (or tried to!) over the last five years. Theoretically you receive a nominal internet discount by booking your own ticket in this way, we always finish up having to make a telephone call because it has thrown out our booking - listen to that awful corporate dirge music of theirs (you'll remember it from the TV advertisements a couple of years back) before booking on the phone at the internet quoted price.

At this point you will be thinking about prices here, sorry folks, you are affectively asking RICHADA 'how long is a piece of string'? The prices vary according to time of day, day of week, month of year and probably the chairman's prevailing bank balance. On P&O Ferries you'll never pay the same twice. Therefore once again I am going to break the rules here and give you the website address - you may or may not be lucky and get a ticket price from it: www.poferries.com

ORDINARY?

If, as the advertising people would have you believe, your holiday starts (in our case finishes) with a cruise aboard their clients ship, then how in the pleasure stakes does a sailing across the English Channel on P & O Ferries stack up against the competition? OK, the competition, in direct terms is Seafrance - a service that we have thus far avoided using, preferring to travel on at least a nominally British carrier. In actual fact, other family members' experiences have put me off of even trying Seafrance, plus my wife and I have one overwhelmingly good reason for travelling home each time from Calais to Dover on P & O. As you will read very soon, that reason actually has nothing to do with P & O or their service.

Our priorities as homeward bound passengers are different. Following a drive, starting at around 8.30am the same morning, of about 700 miles from Dresden, deep in the heart of Eastern Germany, we are ready by the time we arrive at Calais for a good meal and well earned rest. Eurotunnel offers no on board facilities and at thirty minutes, hardly constitutes much of a rest after around eight hours of high speed driving.

We always pre-book a crossing for about 8.30pm, and never take that crossing, always arriving hours earlier than anticipated. Fair play to P & O in Calais, they have never held us to a booking, on one or two occasions in the summer I have stumped up an extra £18.00 for a "rush hour" crossing at around 5.00pm, but we usually get away within about forty minutes of arriving at the port. We always purchase a Priority Loading ticket, at a £15 premium, this can save up to twenty minutes on loading and disembarkation time, we always consider it money well spent. These are big Ro-Ro ferries, you drive on at the back and off at the front, or in fact vice versa come to think of it on the Calais to Dover crossing. By turning up early on a Priority Loading ticket we are usually one of the first on board, the car sits right out on the bow of the ferry (getting covered in salt) and we are then the first to drive off at Dover.

Whilst all P & O ships are well equipped with café and restaurant facilities, plus the large Silverstones Bar, the food and service on offer is not what we consider to constitute a relaxing meal. The only time that we have used the P & O catering facilities was that "Light Night" crossing when we had breakfast, all the other facilities still being closed. It was not an experience that I would wish to repeat, hard plastic chairs, dirty tables and food trays and an abysmal choice of "English Breakfast" greasy spoon food…oh dear……

No, for us, relaxation and a good meal can reliably be found in Langan's Brasserie. This is a franchise outfit of the original celebrity owned restaurant in London. On board the P & O ships they are fantastically popular and are the very reason that we travel on P & O. The restaurant varies in size according to the individual ship, but the food and (usually) service is uniformly excellent - not expensive either at around £16 per head without drinks. We tend to while away all but the last twenty minutes of the crossing in these comfortable surroundings. I am not going to review Langan's in detail here - deserving, as it is, of a separate, future review in its own right.

As well as what were traditionally regarded as "Duty Free" items, there is also a good stock of toys, gifts and CD / DVD's etc, the prices of which vary, but are competitive with the high street stores.

Also not open on that crossing was the Bureaux De Change. In all honesty that would not have made much difference to us as I would need to be really desperate to change money here, the exchange rates are better anywhere ashore.