Anyone used LD Lines Poole to Santander (1 Viewer)

[gradyp]

Hi all ,, booked with LD Lines Poole to Santander for July.

First we booked with Brittany ferry's one way for £650 and the aim was to slowly drive up through France over 2 weeks , but then noticed LD Lines and managed to get a return for the same price of £650 so now we can explore northern Spain / southern France.

To get it to this price I imagine there are a number of price savings e.g. less staff , less facilities , basic cabins , etc. Has anyone used the service , how basic is the service , what facilities are on board , what are the cabins like.

No matter how it is the price wins hands down leaving us with more to spend on the "holiday" part

Cheers Paul

 

[Chris]

I think you sleep in hammocks.

Well, unless it's your turn to row

I am sure it's fine. if you find out the name of the ship you can probably find photos of the facilities.

 

[redchad]

Originally we used the Pride of Bilbao from Portsmouth to travel down but since LD Lines appeared weve used it twice now, last time in February returning to Poole. First it was £150 cheaper than Brittany Ferries, the boat is not as big and loads and unloads from the rear so when loading some reversing is required. In my experience it does take a long time to load, probably because of the reversing. The cabins are fine as good as P&O, there is only 1 restaurant and only 1 bar, but the bar does bar snacks. the foods good with a good variety, plenty of TV,s in the lounge area showing English, Spanish & Portuguese programmes. There is a small cinema showing different films every 3 hours (free) you wont bother with the little shop as its very expensive. same problem with the bar its not cheap. A lot of truckers use this service in particular Portuguese but there not a problem. Overall it does what it says on the tin its only 26 hours comfy enough and i will be back on it late April

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[g8ysn]

no go

booked ld pool gijon cancelled had to go portsmouth le-halve,ok if they dont cancell i suppose:thumb:

 

[moonman]

we recently booked a return with BF on their Pont Aven boat but couldn't get a doggy friendly cabin, however they did offer me one on the new low cost service they've started up. During discussion it turns out the new low cost service uses smaller boats with good but basic amenities. As I know the bay of Biscay can be quite rough we decided to stay with the bigger Pont Aven.
I think the new low cost service uses LD ships

 

[2657]

BF Economie Etretat(ex Norman Voyager);-

ute Portsmouth - Le Havre
IMO 9420423
Building year 2008
Building yard C.N. "Visentini" di Visentini Francesco & C, Italy (#220)
Owner Watling Street Ltd.
Operator DFDS Seaways
Length 186,0 m
Breadth 25,6 m
Draft 6,85 m
GT 26.904
Machinery 2 * MAN 9L48/60B
Speed 24 kn.
Number of passengers 800
Number of beds ?
Number of cars 200
Lanemetres 2.250
Port of registry Le Havre
Flag France
Former names Norman Voyager (2011-2013) - LD Lines
Norman Voyager (2009-2011) - Celtic Link Ferries
Norman Voyager (2008-2009) - LD Lines
Former owners -
Sister ships Norman Atlantic, Scottish Viking, Stena Flavia,

Norman Asturias LD lines Poole- Gijon)

oute Poole - Gijon
Poole - Santander
St Nazaire - Gijon
IMO 9349760
Building year 2007
Building yard Visentini Trasporti, Italy (#216)
Owner Visemar Trasporti srl.
Operator LD Lines
Length 186,46 m
Breadth 25,6 m
Draft 6,6 m
GT 26.500
Machinery MAN
Speed 24 kn.
Number of passengers 800
Number of beds 480
Number of cars 196
Lanemetres 2.255
Port of registry Bari
Flag Italy
Former names Norman Asturias (2011)
Norman Asturias (2011) - LD Lines
Baltic Amber (2011) - LD Lines
Baltic Amber (2010-2011) - DFDS Seaways
Baltic Amber (2010) - AVE Line
Borja (2007-2010) - Balearia



BF Pont Aven

Cork - Roscoff
Plymouth - Roscoff
Plymouth - Santander
Portsmouth - Santander
IMO 9268708
Building year 2004
Building yard Meyer Werft, Papenburg, Germany (#650)
Owner Somabret la Copropriete du Navire Pont Aven
Operator Brittany Ferries
Length 184,6 m
Breadth 30,9 m
Draft 6,8 m
GT 41.748
Machinery 4 * MaK 12VM43
Speed 27 kn.
Number of passengers 2.200
Number of beds 2.012
Number of cars 650
Lanemetres ?
Port of registry Morlaix
Flag France

BF Cap Finistere

ute Portsmouth - Bilbao
Portsmouth - Santander
IMO 9198927
Building year 2000
Building yard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Weft AG, Kiel, Germany (#355)
Owner Bretagne Angletere Irlande S.A
Operator Brittany Ferries
Length 203,9 m
Breadth 25,0 m
Draft 6,8 m
GT 32.728
Machinery 4 * Wärtsilä NSD 16 ZAV 40S
Speed 27,6 kn.
Number of passengers 1.595
Number of beds 842
Number of cars 1.000
Lanemetres 1.908
Port of registry Morlaix
Flag France
Former names Superfast V (2000-2010) - Superfast Ferries
Former owners Attica Enterprises SA (2000-2010)
Sister ships Bimini SuperFast,


Stats courtesy of http://www.ferry-site.dk/index.php?lang=en

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[bobandjanie]

They will not take pets on that crossing, so no good for us, but yes a good price.

 

[sadlonelygit]

They will not take pets on that crossing, so no good for us, but yes a good price.

ditto, except didn't notice until AFTER i'd boked the non refundable tickets.
hound gets a fortnight in clink now!oh:

 

[gradyp]

Originally we used the Pride of Bilbao from Portsmouth to travel down but since LD Lines appeared weve used it twice now, last time in February returning to Poole. First it was £150 cheaper than Brittany Ferries, the boat is not as big and loads and unloads from the rear so when loading some reversing is required. In my experience it does take a long time to load, probably because of the reversing. The cabins are fine as good as P&O, there is only 1 restaurant and only 1 bar, but the bar does bar snacks. the foods good with a good variety, plenty of TV,s in the lounge area showing English, Spanish & Portuguese programmes. There is a small cinema showing different films every 3 hours (free) you wont bother with the little shop as its very expensive. same problem with the bar its not cheap. A lot of truckers use this service in particular Portuguese but there not a problem. Overall it does what it says on the tin its only 26 hours comfy enough and i will be back on it late April

Thanks for that reply ,, wife feels a little more confident knowing she doesn't need to share a hammock with a hairy #### sailor

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[simsy56]

We have just returned from Santander to Poole, no probs, cabins are fine and comfy, less amenities than BF, and, there is NO DUTY FREE SHOP on board!
We saved almost £300 compared to BF.

Craig