Advantages: Relaxing, cheap and cheerful. Disadvantages: Smoking only allowed on the outside of the decks.
About this time of year, I make a bi-annual, cross channel trip to Belgium and France by car, actually not so much a trip as a S.A.S raid……….shop and scarper!! This round trip is a non stop journey taking approximately 16 to 18 hours in total, depending on traffic conditions. Due to my ever advancing years, these excursions have become ever increasingly tiring. With my usual companion, namely my son, being unavailable this time, I had to find a solution, ... ...would not relish such an undertaking and I certainly didn't fancy making it alone.
One idea I considered was to make the same journey but with an overnight stay at a hotel in Calais, being fully refreshed for the return home the following day, thus making it an acceptable proposition for Mrs.P to agree to. Various internet searches were made and on conclusion, a rough total costing of approximately £160.00 was arrived at. Reasonable enough considering ...
plod591 03.12.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: exceptional Review of P&O Ferries
...grandmother lived in England using P&O Ferries (at the time it was called North Sea Ferries and not owned by P&O) was the main way of going to see her. Now, I live in the UK and my dad still lives in Belgium, I still use the service today although there have been a lot of changes since P&O took over and not all is good.
++ The ways to book your mini cruise ++
There are three ways to book. Through - Your travel agent,
- telephone 08705 980 333 ... ...Go to the main P&O ferries website and normally you will get a screen that asks you:
Country of residence
Language (only English at the moment)
Select your site. Normally, you would click on passenger
Then when you've selected what you want click the enter button. Then a blue box appears on the screen with various things you can choose. Type of journey
- Land bridge (only for going to Ireland Liverpool to Dublin and Cairnryan and Troon to Larne)
...
galaxynicole 18.08.2005
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Advantages: Lots of Ships. Regular Reliable Service. Langan's Brasserie. Disadvantages: Dysfunctional Website. Elements of "Cattle Herding". Poor "own" Catering. Lite Nights Service.
...from the (g)olden days when P&O was the Peninsular and Oriental line, specialising in transporting our diplomats and their families and assorted staff to and from the Indian sub-continent. Those regular travellers "in the know", who had suffered the stifling heat in the Indian Ocean, always booked a port cabin on the way out, and a starboard one for the homeward trip. This ensured in those pre air conditioned times that their cabin stayed shaded, ... ...via the internet, then the P&O Ferries website is the place that I must start this review…..
…..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 ...
RICHADA 24.02.2006
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Advantages: Cheap and Cheerful - does the job! Disadvantages: Not much to do on the boat, not good if you get motion sick!
...a return ferry crossing on P&O ferries from Dover to Calais for £120 (inc. £10 fuel surcharge) or go on the tunnel for £140, we decided as this was so last minute we would go for the cheaper option and boyfie went ahead and booked it.
In the interests of writing a tres bon review, I decided to check out ease of use of P&O's website, so I googled it and came up with two websites - poferries.com & poferries-online.co.uk.
~poferries.com~
Ok, this ... ...and turned up at the P&O window and were told that we could actually catch the earlier 17:20 ferry (for no extra cost - even though the booking form says that you have to pay to alter your journey) - result! Or is that just what they wanted us to think?
We pulled up into our lane and parked the car in the queue and decided to look and see what there was to offer in the little service building....not much at all, there is a B*gger King, Costa Coffee ...
tazzywazzy 12.07.2006
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Advantages: Inexpensive, wide variety of things to do. Fun for the whole family Disadvantages: Not much time in Bilbao, not for those prone to motion sickness, small cabins
...of the details on the P&O ferries website (www.poferries.co.uk). The website is so easy to navigate and very informative, I found myself getting excited about the trip just looking at the pictures! The minicruise departs from Portsmouth twice weekly all year round. It arrives at the port of Santurzi, North Spain after around a 36 hour journey. From the port you are given the option to take one of the various excursions or just to wander the area ... ...than be sent the tickets, P&O Ferries prefer to save paper and just give out a booking number for you to quote at check in. I found this an efficient system, although I must admit i was a little anxious in the days running up to the minicruise (not having the tickets to clutch in my hand) that our booking hadn't been confirmed. All my worries disappeared when we got to the ferry terminal in Portsmouth and were checked in without delay. The ship was ...
Gladallover 30.12.2007
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Advantages: Modern ship, fast crossing, comfortable seating Disadvantages: Staff on car deck, high prices
...link there is served by P&O direct to Larne which is about 30 minutes driving time to Belfast, traffic permitting.
This time I chose Troon in Western Scotland close to Ayr as it meant less driving time for me to get there & it went direct to Larne. It too is operated by P&O & for this trip they use a high speed ferry which has a journey time of around two hours.
P&O's website quoted £245.00, a little steep I felt but after spending the good part ... ...real dirty looks when the P&O staff member waved me through!
You drive another 500 yards to the ship & then make your way to the car deck. This particular high speed ferry (unlike most others) is very tight to manoeuvre on the car deck. Even with a modest sized car many people were having difficulty turning around each level. It didn't help when the staff members just stood & watched with their hands in their pockets whilst some people were reversing ...
ScottishWestie 10.09.2008 (12.09.2008)
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Advantages: Great, Friendly, Relaxing, Casino, Bars, Cabins, Restaurants, Cinema, & more. Disadvantages: None unless you are sea-sick or rough seas !
...to have a look at P&O web site to compare prices by booking over the internet. I was quite shocked in my opinion to find them pricey and also noticed that when you tried to book online there was either a problem with the booking page or the "offers had either run out "or was fully booked even though the web page clearly said places available. Not to be outdone i decided to ring the company direct.
I was looking for the special 2 for 1 deals that ... ...was 2 adults sharing one cabin for the price of 1 adult. A fuel surcharge for the car was additional and worked out that by taking your own car would only cost an extra £6.00. Taking your own car has greater advantages if you dont mind or dont get confussed with driving on the other side of the road. I was given a reference number by an operative and a quote for £95 for the both of us and the car. I told the operative i would get back to her as soon ...
Jimmi5bellies 23.10.2006
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Advantages: Can be a cheap getaway Disadvantages: Queues, delays, smoking still allowed in some internal areas
...To be fair to P&O many of the problems that have resulted in my desicsion not to repeat the experience were not problems that they had much influence over, but I still feel that there should be a better system in place to cope with delays.
I arrived at Portsmouth at 18.30 which was the ticketed boarding time with a departure time of 21.30. On check in I was told that there had been adverse weather conditions in the Bay of Biscay which resulted in ... ...the walking sticks again!. P&O did organise a number of different excursions from the port to places of interest not too far away, a trip out to the shops at the nearest big town or the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, all at £12 per person. At least I could leave the baggage in the cabin.
Once back on board, the ship left port for its return journey at noon. By now I had found the best places to hide from the hoards of kids and a number of adults dressed ...
seamaster30 02.11.2007
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Advantages: Very comfortable ferries, loads to do, generally good service Disadvantages: The occasional slip-up
...(N.B. despite keeping the name, P&O Cruises is no longer a P&O subsidiary, it is owned by cruise-giant Carnival) this is a hopefully brief history of P&O Ferries.
P&O offered ferry services from the early seventies to 1985, when the ferries division was sold to Townsend Thoresen. This was all part of a master plan though as in 1986 P&O actually bought Townsend Thoresen out. Things remained as usual on the surface, the ships keeping their Orange ... ...re-painted into a dark blue, P&O livery. In an attempt to eradicate all memories of the Herald, any vessels with ‘Free Enterprise’ in the name were re-named to the ‘Pride of..’ prefix (E.g. Pride of Dover).
The company re-braded itself as P&O European Ferries. Until 1992 not much happened, then 4 huge new freighters were introduced to the Dover-Zeebrugge run. Well, 3 were, the fourth became the passenger vessel ‘Pride of Burgundy’ which operates ...
monkfeesh 06.07.2003 (04.11.2004)
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Advantages: They don't do it now. Disadvantages: I wish they still did!
...And after a lifetime, P&O lost out last autumn to a more competitive bid.
A “new” company, Northlink Ferries, won the route.
That’s when the fun started.
They built a brand new ship, the “Hamnavoe”, specifically for the route. Then found the Scrabster harbour couldn’t accommodate it. So vast sums of money have been spent deepening and extending Scrabster harbour. And for the last six months, the Hamnavoe has been lying up in the docks at Rosyth. ... ...in your oxter.
P&O on the world stage have a few questions to answer, but here in the far north, P&O are to ferries what Hoover is to vacuum cleaners, and McAdam is to a decent road surface.
While contractors toil long overdue, and penalty clauses are invoked, and the Hamnavoe clocks up berthing charges at Rosyth, those of us who have crossed from Caithness to Orkney on a regular basis for many years don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I don’t ...
Aspen 03.05.2003
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Advantages: Standard Facilities, Good Routes, Clean ships Disadvantages: Some ships have a sterile feel to them
...to go to the main P&O desk to initially check-in, they will give you boarding cards. Boarding is normally via Gate 2 and they re-scan your tickets. Before leaving the terminal you will need to put your bags through a scanner and then yourself walk through a metal detector. (Advice: I normally shove anything metallic into my coat pocket and then put the coat through the bag machine.)
The Ship:
A small history of the ship:
The Pride of Bilbao is ... ...hours, (basically the morning). P&O do organise some shorebased excursions or simply wander off on your own. The port building here is basic, with a small shop and cafe. If you bear in mind the ship only calls twice a week it is not to bad. Crossing times etc:
Portsmouth to Bilbao is around 36 hours, and Bilbao to Portsmouth is 28hrs.
Departures are normally: Sat and Tues at 8pm from Portsmouth.
Overall:
The crew are a mix of Spanish and English, ...
ferryenthusiast 18.04.2004
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Advantages: Relaxing travel, good price, If you want a cruising taster a good option Disadvantages: Expensive onboard food, innacurate cabin, transfer bus confusion.
We have just come back from a 2 night plus 1 night in Brugge going Hull to Zeebrugge on 'Pride of Brugge' returning on 'Pride of York' travelling outbound on Brugge and back on York.
Trip cost £182 and was in a Premier 2 berth both ways (window out) and (inside) return.
I would throughly recommend as a different way to reach Eurupe and explore the lovely city of Brugge.
We took the trip based on an excellent trip to Calais earlier on in the year ... ...different to a Dover day trip.
While P and O have a detailed and relatively easy to use web site it can be glitchy sometimes needing several attempts to book both the right day and right direction. Differing cabin classes seems to cause problems. We had hoped to book both ways in club but were forced to book premier as club was fully booked on the way home. booking engine crashed out if we tried other combination.
We trained from Leeds on a cheap ...
likka75 22.08.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of P&O Ferries
Advantages: Brittish company Disadvantages: Staff can be rude
...little cheesed off about how P&O are cutting their services. P&O stated to the press that as of march 2005 all ferry services from Portsmouth to France will be axed, this resulted in many job losses on both sides of the channel. Brittany Ferries the company which is funded by the French government has announced that it is to take over the charter of the Pride of Portsmouth and Pride of Leharve, both are 33,000 gross tons and are worthy vessels for ... ...Irish Ferries who P&O charted her off, P&O are sub chartering her out to any one who wants her. One point what I am pleased about is the fact that the Pride of Bilbao (ex Olympia) is staying on from Portsmouth to Bilbao in northern Spain.
The history of P&O in Portsmouth.
Many years ago Otto Thoresen sailed on a ageing British Railways ferry and was not too impressed how they had the market and could charge what ever they liked, and his words was ...
skynet1 12.12.2004
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I have used P&O ferries quite a few times and each time it has been a pleasure. My most recent trip with them was at the end of February when I went skiing.
Right from the word go you can tell it is going to be a pleasant trip. When you drive on to the ferry there are people there who tell you where to go. When you climb up the steps and you see inside the ferry you think wow. It is nicely decorated, it is clean and it is appealing. There are a ... ...to do during the crossing. There are signs all over the ferry to direct you to certain places e.g. toilets The first place I went when I got on board was the ' International Food Court '. When I got in there I was very impressed. It was well set out, spacious and felt generally nice. The food was of a high quality, and was a great price. I bought a full meal a drink and a dessert for about £7 (and they were not small portions)
After I had finished ...
lfc-4-ever 03.03.2006
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Advantages: cheap break away Disadvantages: cost of food and drinks
...to amsterdam and bruges now. P&O are great (especially if you can get the 241 deals that they often do.
their cruises suit every taste and budget (we stick to the cheapies tho, with cross-They do channel shopping cruises, city breaks to Holland and Belgium - and even a taste of Spain with 3-night mini cruises from Portsmouth to Bilbao.
If you fancy a break with a difference P&O are great , they do special themed mini cruises with special bands ... ...in the party mood!
The only downside is the cost of the food. At around £18 for dinner its not cheap but you do have the option of a snack bar if you prefer. Drinks are also quite expensive but we tend to buy a lemonade and put our own vodka in!! cheeky - yes but saves a hell of a lot of money which you can spend on chocolates in bruges! ...
johanna18 21.02.2009
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