Need to reduce my dependence of Le Shuttle

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Dolmen

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I am going through the tunnel in just over a week and whilst checking my passport could see it will be the 8th time in the motorhome in 21 months. It was never a problem until 3 years or so ago when the frequent traveller ticket was available and you could return for around £125. Now it works at almost £400 a trip, so 8 trips at £400 is over £3000. Never seems a problem when booking the individual trips, however, now I look at it cumulatively it seems excessive and I feel I should to reduce my dependence on it and look at ferries. I am aware of the cheapies eg Newhaven, and I have perhaps put too high a value on the convenience and ease of the tunnel. Anyone else moved back to the ferry and do you regret it?
 
We moved from the shuttle to ferry. Smooth crossings each time .half the price .takes some miles off the driving but does take longer with all the waiting etc .
The only pros I can see on the shuttle is a quick transfer on through and off.
But we are not limited to time.
 
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Jimbohorlicks said:
We moved from the shuttle to ferry. Smooth crossings each time .half the price .takes some miles off the driving bit does take longer with all the waiting etc .
The only pros I can see on the shuttle is a quick transfer on through and off.
But we are not limited to time.
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Me too. Newhaven Dieppe last 2 years, did it a few days ago. Comfortable, peaceful crossing, very much cheaper. And I've got 80.or 90 squids worth of Tesco vouchers for the tunnel.
 
We too are moving back to ferry use, having used up the last of our Tesco vouchers on a Tunnel crossing before we lost them.

In shall be doing my absolute utmost though to refrain from using P&O ferries, after the way they treated their UK workforce. :mad:

Cheers,

Jock. :)

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Jimbohorlicks said:
We moved from the shuttle to ferry. Smooth crossings each time .half the price .takes some miles off the driving but does take longer with all the waiting etc .
The only pros I can see on the shuttle is a quick transfer on through and off.
But we are not limited to time.
Click to expand...
Makes sense, unfortunately time is always an issue for me, having said that, I go to Brittany a lot and overnight ferries there are probably as quick as driving
 
JockandRita said:
We too are moving back to ferry use, having used up the last of our Tesco vouchers on a Tunnel crossing before we lost them.

In shall be doing my absolute utmost though to refrain from using P&O ferries, after the way they treated their UK workforce. :mad:

Cheers,

Jock. :)
Click to expand...
We get Tesco vouchers, unfortunately my wife gets the say on where they are used and as I travel solo in the van (use the van for hobbies and interests not holidays) they dont go there :LOL:
 
We use Brittany ferries as we live so close to Poole and Portsmouth but if we had a dog I suppose we might consider the shuttle. Or if we lived over that way of course.

We’ve also done Newhaven to Dieppe but definitely timed our arrival back in Newhaven badly so caught all the terrible traffic going home. Our fault not theirs!

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We've stopped using the tunnel because of the cost. We now use P&O Dover to Calais and buy a season ticket package. Buy three returns in advance at £172 per return for up to a 7 metre motorhome. Pay a supplement for extra length by every 0.1 metre. Works out £50 per metre, so for our 8.1 metre motorhome it's £227 return. Book online and full flexibility to reschedule or cancel and have the trip put back in your wallet.

Works for us and not had any problems yet. Perhaps takes 90 minutes longer than the tunnel each way, but that's only if the tunnel is running smoothly! I've wasted more time than that at the tunnel on a few occasions. The time saving on the tunnel is not worth the extra cost to us.

There's also a pet lounge on P&O if you need it.
 
G7UXG said:
We've stopped using the tunnel because of the cost. We now use P&O Dover to Calais and buy a season ticket package. Buy three returns in advance at £172 per return for up to a 7 metre motorhome. Pay a supplement for extra length by every 0.1 metre. Works out £50 per metre, so for our 8.1 metre motorhome it's £227 return. Book online and full flexibility to reschedule or cancel and have the trip put back in your wallet.

Works for us and not had any problems yet. Perhaps takes 90 minutes longer than the tunnel each way, but that's only if the tunnel is running smoothly! I've wasted more time than that at the tunnel on a few occasions. The time saving on the tunnel is not worth the extra cost to us.

There's also a pet lounge on P&O if you need it.
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Thanks, big difference in cost for 90 minutes, its what got me thinking in the first place. If I only crossed once or twice a year I wouldn't mind, however it is adding up to a lot of money on a frequent basis. Most of my trips would be cheaper fly drive its just I enjoy going away in the van
 
Dolmen said:
I am going through the tunnel in just over a week and whilst checking my passport could see it will be the 8th time in the motorhome in 21 months. It was never a problem until 3 years or so ago when the frequent traveller ticket was available and you could return for around £125. Now it works at almost £400 a trip, so 8 trips at £400 is over £3000. Never seems a problem when booking the individual trips, however, now I look at it cumulatively it seems excessive and I feel I should to reduce my dependence on it and look at ferries. I am aware of the cheapies eg Newhaven, and I have perhaps put too high a value on the convenience and ease of the tunnel. Anyone else moved back to the ferry and do you regret it?
Click to expand...

Happily used dover to calais (Irish ferries) for years now. Average price about £122 each way for a 7.5 metre van and 2 adults.

I did use Newhaven - Dieppe in March as it was cheaper with the 20% discount but looking at booking it in June is is much more expensive (£400ish return)

I've used the tunnel in years gone by but never particularly enjoyed it, Fine if you are in a real rush. It's just a means to an end but as most of my trips now are leisurely an extra hour or so on a ferry, chilling, shopping, looking at the views is much nicer.
 
I use a mix of ferry and train depending on where I am going and or where I am coming from… Tunnel does it for me but no point driving 100 miles more up to Calais when I’m nearer to Dieppe.

If doing the Dover Calais crossing, I’ve not used the ferry since the Tunnel opened, irrespective of cost! 🤪
 
we use a mixture, tunnel if we have Tesco vouchers, Newhaven to Dieppe if were going that way through or back from France or Harwich to Hook of Holland if going through Germany etc ...

15edward

you should tell the dog to mind its own business and unless it starts paying or sharing the driving, its YOU who will decide which way youre going to go ....
 
Dolmen said:
I am going through the tunnel in just over a week and whilst checking my passport could see it will be the 8th time in the motorhome in 21 months. It was never a problem until 3 years or so ago when the frequent traveller ticket was available and you could return for around £125. Now it works at almost £400 a trip, so 8 trips at £400 is over £3000. Never seems a problem when booking the individual trips, however, now I look at it cumulatively it seems excessive and I feel I should to reduce my dependence on it and look at ferries. I am aware of the cheapies eg Newhaven, and I have perhaps put too high a value on the convenience and ease of the tunnel. Anyone else moved back to the ferry and do you regret it?
Click to expand...
Funnily enough yes, this year I just couldn't justify the cost, being about £190 compared to £118 P&O.

Added to that, Tesco vouchers are now only worth 2x instead of 3x. Maybe we'll have enough voucher discount to use the tunnel next year 🙄
 
Dolmen said:
I am going through the tunnel in just over a week and whilst checking my passport could see it will be the 8th time in the motorhome in 21 months. It was never a problem until 3 years or so ago when the frequent traveller ticket was available and you could return for around £125. Now it works at almost £400 a trip, so 8 trips at £400 is over £3000. Never seems a problem when booking the individual trips, however, now I look at it cumulatively it seems excessive and I feel I should to reduce my dependence on it and look at ferries. I am aware of the cheapies eg Newhaven, and I have perhaps put too high a value on the convenience and ease of the tunnel.
Click to expand...
 
We’ve only used the tunnel once and that was in a car. We are crossing with P&O next week at 9.45am in a 7m motorhome. Booked through the Caravan club with a few quid discount it is £105 one way.

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carolyn said:
We’ve also done Newhaven to Dieppe but definitely timed our arrival back in Newhaven badly so caught all the terrible traffic going home. Our fault not theirs!
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We stayed overnight in the Terminal Car Park Carolyn, then shot off in the morning when the roads were quiet. ;)
Our friend heading back to Swansea did the same.

Cheers,

Jock. :)
 
VXman said:
Happily used dover to calais (Irish ferries) for years now.
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Same here.

I used the tunnel once when it was first opened - just to try it.

I've used it a couple of times for work when the company was paying (cheaper than paying my wages for the extra time the ferry takes) and I used it again a couple of years ago when doing an impromptu trip over Christmas. We turned up at Dover only to find that it was shut (I didn't know they did that...) so the tunnel was the only option. Got the ferry back though.

Dover is a couple of hours drive for me and I like to get an early ferry to give me a decent day's driving when we arrive. This means that by the time we're on the ferry I'm ready for a break, some food and to stretch my legs a bit. It works well for me and I really can't see any reason to pay the extra for the tunnel.

It does make sense for work and if you have dogs but I've never been able to justify the extra cost for holidays personally. I just plan the ferry in as a rest stop in the journey and it suits me just fine.
 
JockandRita said:
We stayed overnight in the Terminal Car Park Carolyn, then shot off in the morning when the roads were quiet. ;)
Our friend heading back to Swansea did the same.

Cheers,

Jock. :)
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We would definitely do that another time , thanks for the tip Jock. With hindsight I think it was holiday season so had the coastal traffic and then the dreaded A303.
 
Yes....used to use tunnel 5 times a year, now use Irish Ferries, way cheaper and the slower pace seems to suit us in the moho...seldom in a rush to get anywhere where an extra hour will make a difference. A bit more planning involved as feries aren't every 15 or 20 minutes but not an issue. (May now look at P and O as was unaware of the 'frequent traveller' thing G7UXG mentions.....)

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dazandandrea said:
We love the ferry. All part of the journey. Chill out on board , have a meal and a drink. Just a nice wayme0m to start a trip.
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To me ferries are a bore. Having had numerous bad trips on the long ones, including arriving with the van looking like an ice cube. They didn't offer to clean it, I had to throw a bucket of water over the wind screen to drive!! Or having a cabin next to a squeeky door near the bar which squeaked all night. No, it's an agony for me. The only good time I do remember was a REALLY choppy crossing where I had to hold on to the cot sides. I thought I'd never sleep or even survive and woke up to a beautiful perfectly calm day in the totally calm Bay of Biscay!! Just get it over with. I could stand the short crossing to Dieppe!
 
We have always used the ferries. (now, Brittany Ferries).

What is this tunnel thing, I keep hearing about?
 
The queues at the Chunnel have largely gone now. Was over last month and drove straight on both times with only a few vehicles in front of us. Had my usual snooze for half an hour but found the shoogling was far worse than before. Shame they did away with the multi ticket option. Prices horrendous. Far easier for dog.

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