What's going on with the prices Dover to Calais , I have just booked Newhaven to Dieppe outbound with a cabin and Rotterdam to Hull return through Caravan Club for early June for £365. The same dates for Dover to Calais were coming out at over £500 . No idea where we are going yet will wait and see
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I would guess it is because they want to encourage freight & discourage caravans which take up space on the truck decks. DFDS are just as dear as are Irish Ferries which have just started a Dover Calais service.
Give it until next year & now the Dover route is back up to 3 operators maybe prices will become more competitive.
Yes it’s the crossing we often use. Only half hr from where we live. It used to be much dearer than Dov/Cal but for the last couple of years the day crossing has been cheaper. We came back on it last Saturday. From where live there is little difference in total road mileage to south west France from our home going from Harwich or from Dover.
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For the last few years I have bought a Eurotunnel frequent traveller but as they have suspended sales of them I looked at P&O before my crossing a month ago. I ended up buying a 3 x return season ticket for £112 each return crossing, plus a £28 supplement for my MH - - £140 each return crossing. Compared to the current one-off returns with both P&O and Eurotunnel that was very cheap. When I looked at individual crossings P&O was twice that price and the tunnel was significantly more.
When I think back to holidays in the mid/late 1970`s, I can remember paying anywhere between £200/£300 return Dover/Calais for a car and 4 people!
We got the 0200hrs sailing on Sunday morning to Calais, it was empty, there were about 5 lorries and 30 cars, we were the only caravan on board, the price was also about £550 for the outbound and return, I get ATOC discount of 25% but it wasn’t available on any of the crossings I looked at.
Very bizarre pricing that looks like it’s putting people off sailing
Quote: Originally posted by Paul and Nikki on 22/9/2021
We got the 0200hrs sailing on Sunday morning to Calais, it was empty, there were about 5 lorries and 30 cars, we were the only caravan on board, the price was also about £550 for the outbound and return, I get ATOC discount of 25% but it wasn’t available on any of the crossings I looked at.
Very bizarre pricing that looks like it’s putting people off sailing
I was just looking at the season ticket prices for car and caravan, and their pricing does seem a bit odd. If you tow a `van between 6 and 8 metres long the price for the car is £56 each way, yet the `van is another £112 each way. Why would towing a caravan treble the cost of the crossing.
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Quote: Originally posted by badger54 on 22/9/2021
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I was just looking at the season ticket prices for car and caravan, and their pricing does seem a bit odd. If you tow a `van between 6 and 8 metres long the price for the car is £56 each way, yet the `van is another £112 each way. Why would towing a caravan treble the cost of the crossing.
Two things come to mind, all others things being equal, a car and decent sized caravan is occupying a similar amount of deck space as nearly 3 cars would, but unlikely to have the same passenger numbers as 3 cars (think on board sales, bar, food, shop etc!), maybe 2 adults plus 2 kids max, as opposed to 6 adults plus 6 kids for 3 cars, not to mention any charge per head for passengers and per vehicle.
There is also the logistics of loading the ship, caravans can't go on the mezzanine deck as solo cars can (if the ship has one! - not been on a Dover crossing with current fleet so not familiar with ships, but other cross channel ferries do!), that means they occupy the limited space on main deck that potentially may be occupied by what I'm sure is a far more lucrative HGV vehicle!
Typically there is a definite cost structure to different vehicle types, high roofed vehicles (vans etc.), vehicles with roof racks/boxes etc. which obviously don't occupy any more deck space than a low roofed version cost more because yet again, they can't go on the mezzanine deck, they have to go on the limited space of main deck. The cost structure is fixed on anticipated vehicle types and optimum use of deck space, if they only had caravans, high topped vehicles and HGVs booked, they'd have an empty mezzanine deck and significantly less ticket revenue for that crossing! It's a commercial enterprise, they've got to operate at a profit and cover costs on a general/averaged load expectation.
At the end of the day, they are selling the crossing on a occupied deck area pro rata rate with expected on board sales per head basis. A caravan is a almost undesirable vehicle, as high deck space occupancy with very low passenger head count!
Often done the western Channel crossings with a high vehicle and trailer and the ticket price is eye watering, but when you break it down to square footage occupied, it's roughly in proportion to a ordinary car cost.
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Topic: P&O Dover
via mobile 19/9/2021 at 2:32pm
