Taking the Santander ferry

[Oldhippy]

That's just stupid! Nice green credentials there then.

 

[scragend]

Am I missing something? I can book a crossing to Santander with a bicycle:

 

[grldtnr]

Am I missing something? I can book a crossing to Santander with a bicycle:

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Possibly, if after the conversation I had with customer services was anything to go by.
But to ambivalent about it , I said I wanted to go out end of Jan 22, come back end of Feb '22, crossing are often cancelled that time of year.
Fair do's if you make it over!

 

[yello]

It's one helluva journey. I looked at it once (yonks ago, before the days of Eurostar) and decided against. I ended up training it to Paris, having some time there and then the overnight train into Spain.

Blimey, just thinking about it takes me back... must have 1985ish. Someone stole my Walkman on that journey, now doesn't that date it

 

[grldtnr]

It's one helluva journey. I looked at it once (yonks ago, before the days of Eurostar) and decided against. I ended up training it to Paris, having some time there and then the overnight train into Spain.

Blimey, just thinking about it takes me back... must have 1985ish. Someone stole my Walkman on that journey, now doesn't that date it

Just a little!

 

[geocycle]

Done the journey a few times, excellent restaurant and a great cabin. On one occasion it was very rough so didn’t venture out of the cabin. Feel better prepared for that prospect now after self isolation experience! I hope you can use he ferry again as a foot passenger or cyclist. The reason they gave for banning them for last few years was the cost of opening up the passenger terminal.

 

[grldtnr]

Done the journey a few times, excellent restaurant and a great cabin. On one occasion it was very rough so didn’t venture out of the cabin. Feel better prepared for that prospect now after self isolation experience! I hope you can use he ferry again as a foot passenger or cyclist. The reason they gave for banning them for last few years was the cost of opening up the passenger terminal.

Panicdemic aside, someone is being economic with the truth, it can't be right to offer large discounts to motorist, and refuse Peds & cyclist, surely we are a revenue stream to onboard services once we are on.
The shoreside costs don't cut it, they will have to supply facilities for workforce, storage of supplies to service the ferry,even with low volumes, I wouldn't think these costs are insoumontable.

 

[matticus]

See also: MacDonalds. Apparently it's just too much trouble sometimes to serve cyclists 🤷‍♂️

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

Presumably it will be for reasons of economy, but whether or not they will admit that is another thing.
Cabins are mandatory on that crossing, I believe. So they would rather fill the cabins with people who are also forking out £xxx to take their car with them, rather than a cyclist taking a bike for free.

This is exactly it and I had a Brittany Ferries customer service advisor admit this directly to me (for the Saint Malo crossing rather than the Santander one). I ended up taking the Caen sailing instead which fills up less quickly.

 

[grldtnr]

This is exactly it and I had a Brittany Ferries customer service advisor admit this directly to me (for the Saint Malo crossing rather than the Santander one). I ended up taking the Caen sailing instead which fills up less quickly.

On a long crossing to Spain , I certainly would book a cabin ,mandatory or not, night crossings to Hook of Holland is the same.
Perhaps ,it's the customer servic s being duplicitous, here to get you of the line onto them next customer ( complainent?) to achieve the target qountant.
Fortunately ,normally there are 2 companies on this route, and when they start running again, P&O will likely get my business for this trip

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

That’s not the problem - I wanted to book a cabin on the Saint Malo crossing. The issue is as @Brandane explained: given the cabins are going to fill up, BF would rather they fill up with car drivers (who pay more) than cyclists. If the ferry sails with empty car spaces, they’ve lost out.

 

[Brandane]

Fortunately ,normally there are 2 companies on this route, and when they start running again, P&O will likely get my business for this trip

P&O stopped operating the Portsmouth/Bilbao service many years ago. Same applies for Portsmouth/Le Havre.
If you want to go by sea from UK to Spain, it's Brittany ferries or a long swim.

 

[mike chadwick]

Travelled with Brittany ferries several times and never had to book a cabin just a Lounge seat ,
Maybe things have changed since 2018 , pandemic and all but they have / or had a lot of Lounge chairs
Which you could book £10.00 each way don't like cabins so it suited me

 

[scragend]

Travelled with Brittany ferries several times and never had to book a cabin just a Lounge seat ,
Maybe things have changed since 2018 , pandemic and all but they have / or had a lot of Lounge chairs
Which you could book £10.00 each way don't like cabins so it suited me

Still the case - some kind of "accommodation" is mandatory but it doesn't have to be a cabin, one of the lounge seats will do. Currently £9 for the Santander route when I looked. Two nights in a seat isn't something that appeals to me, but each to his own!

The Brittany Ferries web site will let me book a crossing with a bicycle this month, and in May or June 2022; apart from that it shows "sailing full".

 

[mike chadwick]

The trick is you don't sleep in the seat you take a mat and
sleeping bag on board and sleep on the floor , it's normally clean
though finding the ideal bit of floor can be tricky .