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I read about this earlier. Apparently one ferry 'broke down' in the dock, and as there is only space for one ferry at a time, the other ferry operating from Plymouth had to be diverted, disrupting passengers travelling on that ferry too.   

I expect a lot of people are quite annoyed, especially if they now have to book a last minute hotel as they have to drive to Spain.

For leigh,

I'm off on my first overseas camp tomorrow, but I am already thinking of next year.  Where did you stay in Northern Spain and did you camp and if you did can you recommend a good site?

Thanks

we have just returned from perros and had to use plymouth to roscoff.  Both journeys were on the pont aven.  It was delayed by an hour or so both times, but the staff were always apologetic and helpful.  We are using again the same port next year aswell.  Hope everything is ok for you. 

Just think of the red wine and sunshine when you do arrive

We were booked on Pont-Aven on 11/08 - arrived from birmingham to be told it was cancelled - re-booked for plymouth - roscoff at 11.00pm spent day in plymouth keeping 3 kids (4,6 &9) occupied - went back to ferryport to be told ferry diverted to poole and sailing at 2.00am - drove 120 miles up to poole,tried to sleep a familly of 5 in a passat estate in pouring rain until we eventually embarked on ferry at 4.00 am - eventualy arrived in roscoff at about 2.00pm and drove 400miles with  trailer tent and 3 very tired children down to Bordeaux stoppd in an excellent motel called "The Quick Palace" (£42.00 for 2 rooms) and then drove down to Labenne Oceane (17K from Biarritz) for 14 excellent days then rang Brittany ferrys on 23/08 & confirmed our sailing from Santander to plymouth was all OK - They then rang back a few hours later to advise the sailing time had been bought forward 3 hours to 11.00am - not wanting to risk any more disasters we decided to pack up a night early and drive to Santander the night before and stay in a hotel - on arrival in Santander the only hotel that could cater for a family of five cost me £170.00 without breakfast!!! we drove down to the port at 10.00am to be told that the ferry would now be sailing at 2.00pm as originally planned!!! (I had left our site a day early and spent £170 for nothing) - never mind I thought, we can relax by thr pool on the ferry before retiring to our cabin. - some bright spark designer had placed the swimming pool (and kid's soft play area) right at the bow of the ferry, there was only a slight swell on the sea but every time bow went over a wave the contents of the pool emptied all over the pool bar and lounger area meaning the pool and adjacent area had to be closed for the entire crossing so went up a deck to the soft play area again right on the bow to find number of very pale toddlers being conforted by their parents whilst vomiting into sick bags.

We have used Brittany Ferries for a number of years but found this years experience nothing more than a fantastic advertisment for Ryanair.

The tag line on Brittany Ferries website is "More Holiday, less Driving" Do you think I should contact advertising standards?

We had booked in january with a total ferry & cabin cost of nearly £1200 as a special treat and to avoid the norm of arriving on site shattered from the drive - next year it's Ryanair, hirecar and mobile home.

Guy.

we also had trouble with our sailings.  we were booked to go out on the 10/8 on the pont aven.  we saw it sail into plymouth late but the fire engines in the port didn't give us too much encouragement!

We were originally told there would be a 3 hour delay but eventually informed that it was cancelled.  When you actually got to speak to a member of staff they were very helpful but the lack of information while waiting in a queue for an hour was bad!  Whilst queueing for the reception desk I telephoned the reservations number and got a booking for the evening sailing from Portsmouth to St Malo.  This was annoying as we only live 10 minutes from the port in Plymouth and we faced a quick drive to Portsmouth to get therein time for the ferry.  It eventually sailed over 2 hours late from Portsmouth

\We missed our first nights camping in France but otherwise continued holiday never thinking that the ferry would not be fixed in time for our return home.  We received a fax the night before we left  19/8 to say that our return ferry was cancelled and then had to contact Brittany ferries again to get another booking.  We decided we would get the next available ferry from Roscoff which was the 23.30 on  Sunday 22/8 . No cabins left only reclining seats. 

At least the weather cheered up for the last couple of days in France so we were able to pack our trailer tent dry.

It hasn't put me off as this doesn't seem to happen that often - hope it will be better next year.

Sue

after reading all this im not going to even bother thinking anymore about using Brittany ferries next year.I shall do same as this year , Cheap Dov- Cal with P & O , no hassles ,then drive down south.

sorted