I've just returned from a trip to Brittany on Brittany ferries Bretagne.
We had a broom cupboard cabin on the outward journey. Unfortunately the en suite lavatory decided to flush itself, noisily,at random and intermittently after we retired.
The on ship lavatories are like aircraft ones, in that they loudly suck out the contents before flushing.
After half-an-hour of this torture I went and found a member of staff who looked disbelievingly at me, but came to the broom cupboard cabin. The lavatory promptly performed its party trick - several times, in succession.
I asked the member of staff if they could sleep with that noise going on and they honestly replied NO. We were found another cabin around midnight.
On departure we had to pass this cabin and heard the lavatory flushing itself!
The moral of this story is, if you find yourself in a cabin on the eighth deck of Bretagne, wait before you tuck yourself in to see if the damn lavatory's behaving itself.
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You posted this the other day first didn't you.... or maybe earlier? Because what you say I recall reading before 8pm tonight!
We're off for a short break mid-week - a day in Bruges. I'll make sure the toilet etc. is working :-)
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Having once been caught out by unpacking and settling into a hotel room only to find a faulty non flushing toilet and having to change rooms, it is always the first thing we check
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We crossed Plymouth to Roscoff about a year ago on Armorique. I've a vague recollection of loo self flushing a couple of times too but managed to sleep through. OTOH if you're waiting for next burst then, like neighbours dogs barking or neighbours rowing, it stuffs your chances of dropping off.
Western crossing is a lot of extra money c/p short crossing and night at camping municipal (or BB/Accor/Campanile hotel) down route. We thought about Portsmouth>Caen or Le Havre this year while bound for Le Mont Dore. From an 08:00 start at Caen we could just make Le Mont Dore in one day. It made no economic sense whatever though versus Saturday at Caravan Club Hawkinge, P&O Dover to Calais and Sunday on small campsite near Chartres.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sun 16 Jul 17 at 20:52
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Never mind the higher cost of the Western ferry crossings, haven't the autoroute tolls shot up in price..?! I was shocked to pay around 40 euros each way between Paris and the Vendee last week. I was expecting about half that amount!
10-15 years ago I used to drive Toulouse-Calais a few times each year, goodness knows what that costs nowadays?!
I'd prefer to stay off the motorways, but the going is so much slower.
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The Bretagne, once the flagship of the fleet, is being retired in about 18 months, to be replaced on the Portsmouth-Caen route by a new boat with hybrid power (I read the other day). The Bretagne will, I understand, be used on the 'economique' cut-price service between Le Havre and Portsmouth, so beware.
In my fairly wide experience the lavatory facilities on Brittany boats these days vary between adequate and disgusting. It never used to be like that. The food, too, has gone down in quality and up in relative price. But there isn't much choice if a western channel crossing makes logistical sense.
We have given up on night crossings and now go early or late, using the Ibis Budget hotel on the outskirts of Caen itself, ten minutes from the port.
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I've only used a ferry about twice in the last 15 years but used them quite a bit in the 90s. But I've noticed that as well mike, the prices seem to have shot up in price over that time. And the couple of times i did use them the food didn't seem as good.
Perhaps I'm totally out of touch with price increases over the years for ferries?
Anyone else noticed big jumps price wise?
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In Dec'15 friends of mine travelled Portsmouth>Santander with Brittany Ferries ( I think) when en route to Moraira near Alicante for 3 months. It was a Tiguan, full of toys. Apparently the return journey was very expensive.
The following year, same time same place, they flew to Alicante, paid excess baggage fees for their bikes & wet suit gear, and with exceptionally cheap car hire for 3 months it proved cheaper than the ferry.
For 2017/18 they are flying again and giving the ferry a miss
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My last experience of BF was 16 years ago, Plymouth Roscoff, a very, very rough crossing, most people on board ill including my wife and sons, very young daughter and I were fine, had to wait a couple of hours outside Roscoff before docking so very late in, then as I mentioned elsewhere on here the other day we ended up in Quimper at nearly midnight with 10 miles range left and no filling stations that would take a UK credit card, asked a gendarme, he took us to a filling station, put 100 francs of quatre vingt dix huit sans plomb into the Vectra and I gave him a note of equivalent value and we hit the rue.
The return was Caen to Portsmouth, a great crossing as I recall.
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It would have been nice if the channel tunnel had been usable for cars to drive through.I think that was one of Maggy Thatchers suggestions which was quickly kicked into touch.
The ferries here from Hull are expensive if you take a car.I believe Arabs own the company we are paying for their sand castles..;)
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Did the Harwich to Esbjerg crossing a couple of times in the late '80s, that was great, DFDSs Dana Anglia, like a 24 hour cruise each way. She's still in service:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Moby_Corse
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>> Did the Harwich to Esbjerg crossing a couple of times in the late '80s
It's a great pity, but there are no (non-freight-only) ferries to Scandinavia now. Having used Newcastle-Bergen a few times, and also the Gothenburg crossing, we were reduced to the last option, the above-mentioned Harwich-Esbjerg crossing when we took the motorhome motorcaravan campervan to Finland 4 years ago.
It was the last year that route operated, and if we had been 1 sailing later coming back from Esbjerg, I could have put all of these toilet stories in the shade.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26185904
"Left 'and down a bit......."
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>> It would have been nice if the channel tunnel had been usable for cars to
>> drive through.I think that was one of Maggy Thatchers suggestions which was quickly kicked into
>> touch.
How many times a week do you think the tunnel would be shut because someone had driven into the wall?
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While in France I came across a joute nautique event. A totally bonkers sport of jousting from rowing boats.
The sun was shining and there were plenty of bars, what would you have done?
I've uploaded a short video to youtube. Quality's not good, it's only a small digital camera.
youtu.be/pCcd8GcD0Ho
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We took the caravan over in '87, Poole to Cherbourg for a fortnight in Benodet-sur-Mer. The ship was the old Cornoualles of BF. It was like a ruddy minesweeper in WW2. The bows were in and out of the water and it was rolling side to side like it had a pair ! Apart from my eldest daughter and me, the rest of the fambly were on deck trying to get some fresh air whilst sitting on safely floats next to a vent spewing out foul smells. The chips, whilst greasy, were good, washed down with plastic cups of tea. Funny the others didn't want any.
On the return, we got turned over big time by customs at Poole.......to the extent of me telling them that they'd have to get a magistrate's permission to search my kids ! We had nothing iffy, just the allowance for three of use...the girl was 17.
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>>It would have been nice if the channel tunnel had been usable for cars to
>> drive through
Seriously? Ever driven through a tunnel? That hypnotic feel as you drive into a long black tunnel that is a straight line forever. I wouldn't fancy one that was 25 miles long. Not one bit.
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>> Seriously? Ever driven through a tunnel? That hypnotic feel as you drive into a long
>> black tunnel that is a straight line forever. I wouldn't fancy one that was 25
>> miles long. Not one bit.
Quite right.
I think you would need Zero's new car with all its old persons driving aids like Lane Keeping Assist and Not Driving Into The Car In Front Of You Assist.
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>> >> Seriously? Ever driven through a tunnel? >>
We as a species take things too far, like driverless cars, driving is something to enjoy so the idea of a driverless that I sit in bored witless is abhorrent to me.
Though if I could turn up in Folkestone and switch it into driverless mode, that's applying the technology to my advantage.
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Brittany ferries - rtj70
