Interesting memory there by Ed of the Cote D'Alabatre. True, she was a bit of a disaster but I found her to be a delight to travel on - more like a small cruise ship than a ferry. I was with a couple of friends on her first scheduled crossing to Boulogne in Feb. 2009, as were some other forumites as I recall. Everything was a bit slow because it was also the first scheduled arrival of a mono-hulled ferry at Boulogne in 17 years (if I'm right the last one was the St. Anselm in 1992). Additionally the pilot had to hurtle down from Calais and we were beginning to wonder if he'd turn up! A very good day out with free plonk and nibbles to those in need on the return crossing.
Shortly afterwards I also had the dubious distinction of being one of the very few foot passengers on the CDA. This was because I went to Boulogne on the Norman Arrow which punctured a hull on the return trip, thus briefly taking her out of service. No great problems getting back to Dover except that LD lines had to quickly find a shuttle bus to take us to the terminal building. Find a bus they did, and before any vehicles disembarked it charged up the ramp to collect us - fortunately we were all pretty quick so there was minimal delay.