Paul Watkins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 9 Nov 2011
- Posts: 2,226
Will be meeting my counterpart in Calais area, Philippe Blet,tomorrow .
I will inquire about subsidy from Nord/Pas de Calais region to My Ferry amongst other issues that affect both Dover & Calais.
Watty
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
Sometimes there would seem to be less than 50 Freight vehicles on a sailing! are ET paying for spaces that are not used? and if it was a good day would they stop taking bookings if capacity including the 50 for ET was reached. Are Port fees paid for the 50? what a way to run a business!
Audere est facere.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
euro tunnel overspill is the reason those 50 spaces are payed for,its in the same artical that ed mentiond,i read the compleat artical.
Guest 894- Registered: 5 Mar 2013
- Posts: 24
Ed, certainly not a subsidy - much more a form of asset capitalisation as MFL heads towards long term profitability. A subsidy is used to support a long term unsuccessful venture - after only 7 months in the market it would be a little unfair to tar us with that brush!
As Brian highlights, ET use the spots for overspill.
Martin, interesting question regarding capacity - I'll ask the Ops Director tomorrow, I'm keen to find that out for myself.
Paul, hopefully travelling with us! If you're not, drop me a line at
lglover@myferrylink.com and we'd love to show you the service
. I'm sure Philippe will be happy to tell you what SCOP SeaFrance (the workers co-operative's name) is doing for unemployment in the region.
I'd be delighted to organise a meeting at your convenience to discuss what MFL could do to market Dover to our continental users and web traffic.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
We cross regularly and have done for nearly 40 years as we have close family in France. P&O are almost always the best deal for a day trip so we have not used anyone else for at least 15 years, although I always check the competition. When ET had the Points Plus scheme going we used to do our weekly shop in Carrefour at Cite Europe. That was a self-funding exercise, especially when diesel in France was half the UK price. We ate better, too!
I would like to try MFL but I am nervous about reliability (SF used to cancel sailings at the drop of a hat due to industrial action, weather or consolidation of sailings), I always found the onboard service offhand and rude, shore staff were decidedly sniffy about allowing you to take an earlier sailing if you pitched up early and standards of cleanliness were not up to P&O's standards. I'm willing to be convinced but MFLs day trips just don't compete on price.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
totally agree with the second paragraph there, lovely ships let down by mostly surly staff, tables never cleared of detritus and general unreliability.
others on here have had good experiences with "sea chance" so it maybe just me.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
peter,i have heard good reports about mfl,from a very fussy traveler,food was hot,servise with a smile from very helpfull staff.cleanlynes was a premium.sailings on time,and transferd to an earlyer ferry if you arived to early for your sailing.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Are they paying you Brian?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
no peter,just what i've been told by a fussy traverler.and fussy they are to
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
My mind is open. As soon as they can beat p&o on price I shall give them a go.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 894- Registered: 5 Mar 2013
- Posts: 24
Let me know where to send the cash-stuffed envelope Brian!
The service is miles beyond what SeaFrance offered, I know that might sound counter intuitive at first, given that there's a large deal of cross over with staff between SeaFrance and MyFerryLink, but the events of the demise of SeaFrance and the fact that the staff now run their own part of the company and operations has resulted in a fundamental overhaul at the grassroots level.
Peter, leave it with me.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
laurie,
Guest 744- Registered: 20 Mar 2012
- Posts: 412
We used MFL last November. It ran to schedule, the staff were pleasant and it was clean. However, the restaurant was closed and only snack food was available. All ferry companies are a complete rip-off if you want to plan a trip of more than five days. I do not understand this because you are only crossing that expensive piece of water once each way. The best deal is ET frequent traveller but it has its drawbacks. Used Sea France once and the return trip was a nightmare. They held one of their ubiquitous strikes. When they eventually started to board all the French registered cars were allowed on first until the lady in front of us with very young children in her car gave them an ear-bashing in fluent French and we were then allowed to board.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Trying to book a day trip for tomorrow. Leaving around 0800, returning around 1800.
Using any special offers available, prices now are: DFDS £110, MFL £95, P&O £29 with six free bottles of wine. Hmmm, which one shall I pick?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Out of fairness I have checked ET- £60.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Good Morning Laurie.
It's quite refreshing to find someone so open about the ferry company they work for - and presumably in a fairly senior position.
A few years ago I worked with P & O and LD Lines (when they did the Boulogne route) on promoting Dover to the French with a "Discover Dover" full-colour glossy leaflet promoting all the historic sites and attractions in and around Dover, as well as the Hotels, pubs, restaurants, cafes and shops.
It was a very popular leaflet - in fact the VIC said it was the most popular leaflet they had ever had. It was on board their ships and distributed around outlets in Clais and Boulogne.
10,000 in French for P & O and 10,000 in French for LD Lines and 10,000 in English for local distribution.
Sadly, local marketing money was taken away by the hotels and so it became unaffordable. I didn't make any money out of it, it was purely to promote Dover.
Roger
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Coming the other way, p&o seem to be the only one with a special day trip fare of 24€, valid on most sailings.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 894- Registered: 5 Mar 2013
- Posts: 24
Peter, ran the same quote myself - Daytrip leaving tomorrow (4th), closest sailings are 8.30 out, 19.20 back. Cost is £12.50 each way, £25 total. Admittedly no bottles of plonk! If you were to travel with us between a Friday and Monday we're currently offering wine tasting events in La Boutique during crossings on those days. A fine point regarding the French market, we could be more competitive there perhaps.
Roger, drop me a mail to discuss (lglover@myferrylink.com). As a born and bred Dover boy I'm happy to look in to this to see if we could create something similar for placement onboard.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Couldn't find that price on your website Laurie!
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 894- Registered: 5 Mar 2013
- Posts: 24
Hmmm! Conumdrum!
Are you using an offer code of some sorts? I wonder if it's not been correctly linked to Daytrip fares. Going to the homepage,
www.myferrylink.com, and setting both dates in the quote to the 4th April and clicking the red quote button gave me the £25 price.
Tell you what, if you've found a bug, you can have a daytrip on me!