DFDS Seaways

P&O Ferries – Our Review

Day Returns : From £29
Each Way Fare : From £37
Passengers : Up to 9
UK Port : Dover
Destinations : Calais, France
2 for 1 minicruises :
Portsmouth - Bilbao - from £64 for 2 people
Hull-Amsterdam, Bruges or Rotterdam from £64 for 2 people
Early Booking Offers :
Dover - Calais from £37 each way
Hull - Rotterdam or Zeebrugge from £99 each way (car + 2)
Portsmouth - Bilbao from £199 each way
See France Rating :

The name P&O is synonymous with Ferries and this is testament to their position as the UK’s largest Ferry operator in terms of the both the size of their fleet and the number of daily crossings they offer.

Current ferry offers include :

Make a car booking on the P&O Dover to Calais route and receive a FREE ticket for Disneyland® Resort Paris
Visit France in style with Dover - Calais tickets from just £37 any duration each way.
2 for 1 offer when travelling to Amsterdam, Bruges, Rotterdam or Bilbao. Prices are from £68 for 2 for travel on the Hull routes.

P&O also have pretty comprehensive coverage offering ferry crossings to France, Spain, Holland and Belgium as well as mini-cruises and a separate company providing ferries across the Irish sea.

Although their prices to Calais are slightly more expensive than SeaFrance they include up to nine passengers whereas Seafrance only offer five. Therefore if you have a large group or a big family you may get a better deal with P&O on the Dover to Calais crossing.

P&O are currently the only ferry operator servicing Bilbao in Spain which is a big plus in their favour. Generally speaking we’d like to see more operators opening up routes to Spain as currently the options are P&O to Bilbao or Brittany Ferries crossing to Santander.

P&O Ferries User Review

Author's product rating :
Customer Service on Board : Great
Activities on Board : Loads to do – including free stuff like wildlife spotting
Value for Money : Excellent
Advantages : An adventure in itself with a reputable company
Disadvantages : Its over too quickly
Recommend to potential buyers : Yes

When you think of ferry crossings you immediately think of P&O. We have travelled with P&O on their Dover to Calais ferry crossing four times now as my husband is a property developer and we go to Calais to stock up on cheap materials.

Although it’s a pretty fast crossing we always enjoy it as there are loads of things to do on board. There are a few restaurants, a snack / bar type diner and plenty of bars to down a couple of Kronenberg and help get in to the French spirit!

We’ve also used the Eurotunnel train crossing a few times but it’s not the same kind of atmosphere you get with P&O where the crossing itself is part of the holiday and each time is a different mini adventure. For example, the last time we went we saw a pod of dolphins which was a real bonus. My husband Mike was on the top deck, which gives a great view as you’re about 100 feet up and he shouted down to us that he’d seen a dorsal fin and joked that it was jaws! We ran up to the deck and soon there were about thirty dolphins all swimming along the side of the ferry. So if you’re looking for a good way to see dolphins on the cheap and not have to pay through the nose for special tours, this is as great way of seeing them.

What I didn’t realise but have since found out is that P&O often have their own wildlife officer on board who shouts out on the tannoy if whales or dolphins are spotted surfacing. Even people who have no interest in wildlife would suddenly find themselves racing to the side of the boat to get a look. Another bonus of sailing with P&O – we’d highly recommend them.

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