Boulogne and LD Lines
- 2 November 2009 11:4732246As you know LD Lines have been supporting Dover for quite some time now, so I'm comfortable with posting the following News-Release from them.
November 2009
LD LINES' WINTER FARES OFFERS FROM £22.50
Ferry operator LD Lines has winter fares offers available from just £22.50 each way from Dover to Boulogne.
The fare applies to a five day return for a car and up to nine passengers and short break fares are also available from £28 return for a car and five passengers. Foot passenger fares start from £18 return.
From 11 November, the conventional ferry Norman Spirit is being introduced to the Dover - Boulogne service, operating four return sailings daily, providing a crossing time of one hour 45 minutes. With capacity for 1850 passengers, 700 cars and 110 freight vehicles, all tourist traffic will also be carried on Norman Spirit including coaches and foot passengers in addition to cars, cars and caravans, motorhomes and motorcycles.
All fares are valid for travel to 3 November 2009 to 25 March 2010 and subject to availability.
For more information and to book : www.ldlines.com or call : 0844 576 8836.
News Release
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER - FOR CROSS CHANNEL CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
Cross channel shopping in the run-up to Christmas will continue to provide visitors from the UK with value-for-money deals on drinks, food products, gifts and other goods and to cater for demand the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer will be providing additional Sunday openings of its town centre shops in December.
Boulogne's town centre provides a unique selection of speciality food and wine shops and many other retail outlets, which will open their doors on Sundays 13th and 20th December. These include :
Philippe Olivier (rue Thiers) - one of France's most famous cheese merchants selling over 350 different cheeses; Charcuterie ED Bourgeois (Grande Rue) - superb range of vegetable, meat and fish dishes; Fred (Place Dalton) - excellent range of home made bread and patisseries; Chocolaterie de Beussent (rue Thiers) - wonderful choice of speciality chocolates for gifts made in its nearby factory; Comtesse du Barry (rue Thiers) - mouth-watering foodie gifts such as jams, chutneys, oils, vinegars, foie gras, many other pates and aperitifs. To stock up on wine visit Le Chais (rue des Deux Ponts -www.lechais.com) - which sells over 50,000 quality bottles of wine in atmospheric cellars - or Tresor de Vin (rue Thiers).
Christmas Markets and special festive events will be taking place throughout the region in Le Touquet, Etaples, Wimereux, Montreuil-sur-Mer and in Boulogne these include :
Fete du Hareng - Herring Festival on the Quai Gambetta, Boulogne-sur-Mer on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November.
St.Nicolas Parade - The arrival and parade of St.Nicolas through Boulogne's town centre, followed by a firework display near the port on Saturday 5th December.
Christmas Market - on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th December in the Old Town - sale of local produce, gifts and crafts. Entertainment and music and illumination of the Belfry, firework display and tasting of traditional Christmas Pudding near to the Cathedral.
In total Boulogne boasts 1,000 shops and craftsmen; 200 restaurants and brasseries, local food produce markets twice weekly on Wednesday and Saturday mornings in the Place Dalton, daily fish market on the Quayside Gambetta, a superb historic town to wander around, a bustling fisherman's port, 1000 hotel rooms to help your make a night or weekend of your visit, and 3,600 car parking spaces - most of them free.
For more information on Boulogne-sur-Mer, shop opening times and locations contact : www.boulogneshopping.com and Office du Tourisme via : www.tourisme-boulognesurmer.com or call : 00 333 21 10 88 10.
How To Get There : LD Lines provide four return sailings daily between Dover (Eastern Docks) and Boulogne. Short break returns start from £28 for a car and five passengers and from £22.50 each way for a five day return for car and up to nine passengers. Foot passenger day returns start from £18. To book : www.ldlines.com or call : 0844 576 8836.
Short Break / overnighters start from £89 per person, based on one night's stay, including channel crossings for a car and passengers . To book contact : Travel Market on 01304 50100 or : www.ferrytravelclub.com
Roger - 2 November 2009 17:2932271Yes some interesting Boulogne based ideas there...just personally would have liked to see the foot passenger fare a tad lower for winter as the price mentioned above (£18) is the same as it was in high summer..as I remember. Would have liked to see more of a bargain on offer on that one. Two or three of you go at that price and it puts a dent in the wallet for just a day trip.
The new ship is coming soon and in fact I will have details of that coming up on the frontpage soon. We are currently experiencing the last few days of the seacat...Norman Arrow. Gulp have just thought...we will have to change our advert.email: dover7@msn.com - 2 November 2009 19:1632280with p & o charging 6 quid for the same(that is without using the special offers usually available, ld seem to be interested only in the car traffic.
they must have done their costings and decided they are not that keen on the foot passenger business. - 3 November 2009 11:4232322Good information there on LD Line's Winter Fares Roger but I too am disappointed with no reduction for foot passengers during the winter months. It was well worth the £18 return on the fast route seacat but surely not on this slower route and in winter time. During high summer we had a few day trips to Calais with Seafrance and that was £6 return, great value for money but as I recall P&O were more expensive then, they must have reduced their prices for winter
- 3 November 2009 13:0832328colette
p and o always seem to have bargain foot passenger fares on offer, i usually pay 1 pd or 2 pds.
just a matter of quoting a reference number.
i will check it out and e mail you on it. - 3 November 2009 13:4432331Once again Boulogne-sur-Mer shows us how to run a town and how to make Christmas special. A class act.
What a shame we can't do things like that over here? There's something rotten in the state of Blighty. - 3 November 2009 14:3132332Usually one or other of :
http://www.poferries.com/thesun
http://www.poferries.com/dailymail
come up with an offerBeen nice knowing you :) - 3 November 2009 15:4832335Good offers. Shame they only go to Calais, though. Can't win 'em all.
- 4 February 2010 19:2139649There are more rumblings of issues with LD lines at the moment and more changes..... From YourDover
Ferry operator LD Lines has dismissed speculation that it is axing its service between Dover and Boulogne.
Maritime union RMT released a statement today (Wed, Feb 3) saying that LD Lines would be closing its Norman Spirit service next month, threatening up to 40 jobs.
Yourdover has also been told that staff on the ship were this morning made redundant.
An LD Lines spokesman would not comment on any job losses, but the company did release the following statement:
"LD Lines can confirm that the company is looking into further fleet redeployment to ensure the right tonnage is operating on all its cross-Channel routes, whilst also ensuring its network expansion.
"The company also confirms that as part of these fleet changes, they may be replacing the Norman Spirit on the Dover-Boulogne service to continue to develop both freight and tourist business on this route long-term.
"Any new developments for the company will be carefully addressed, but particularly in respect of additional manning issues, which will include further crew requirements for the Norman Arrow fast-ferry service due to commence in March on the Portsmouth-Le Havre route, the introduction of the new ship Norman Leader later in 2010 and the possibility of an additional charter ship."Been nice knowing you :) - 4 February 2010 19:3139653that "your dover" does seem to get some scoops.
i only ever see a free sheet now and then, nothing gets delivered here.
always seems to be changes over the last few years on the cross channel routes, hard to keep up, must be unnerving for staff and crew with mortgages and other committments. - 4 February 2010 20:3839659Sounds like a company with no idea of what direction they are going !Been nice knowing you :)
- 4 February 2010 20:5539660Not sure about that, Paul........they're the biggest ferry company in the galaxy, or something like that. I think that what LD Lines do that other operators don't is to give any particular route a finite time space in which to prove it will pay. After that, if the signs are no good, it's Sweeney Todd time.
I accept that I'm an old cynic, but I seem to remember a small operator called P&O Normandy Ferries operating Dover - Boulogne once upon a time, then when they had their foot in the Dover - Calais route, hey presto the Boulogne route shut. Now, with Seafrance teetering on the brink of the abyss, do we think that LD Lines might just be able to fill the gap in the market if the French Government finally pull the plug on Seafrance?True friends stab you in the front. - 4 February 2010 21:1139663I thought Peninsular and Orient was one of the oldest companies around !Been nice knowing you :)
- 4 February 2010 23:4739679LD Lines have just sent me a new Spring offer on fares that I've just sent round to all those on my email address groups. It doesn't sound like a company about to cancel their Dover-Boulogne service.
They are also committed (or have committed) to the Spring edition of the Discover Dover leaflet I'm working on.
There's been rumours for ages about SeaFrance having the plug pulled on them, but they are still going - it must make people nervous about booking tickets with them though.
Roger - 5 February 2010 14:2839696Using Seafrance is always a bit of a lottery Roger, especially when you're using them on a daily basis. You never know when you turn up at the port (Dover or Calais) if they're going to be running. Fortunately I have options to use other services but it creates merry hell on the roads as we're all well aware.Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!! - 5 February 2010 15:3939698LD chop and change endlessly. At first, people gave them the benefit of the doubt and gave them credit for trying new alternatives. Now it is beginning to seem as though they are running around like a headless chicken. Not good for freight operators or tourist traffic as there is no guarantee any service will still be there when booking ahead.
Fortunately, they state that they are definitely committed to Boulogne. The Norman Arrow was a fiasco, a fast ferry which was supposed to be able to carry a bit of freight but it turned out that it took so long to load and discharge that it completely negated the high speed spurt on passage.
The Norman Spirit was taken off the Portsmouth - Le Havre run on which she had proved very popular and put on Dover - Boulogne. She is a full sized ferry and accordingly expensive to operate. Doesn't look like she is carrying enough to justify it. Accordingly they are going to replace her with something cheaper to run. Possibly they are going to charter a freighter such as the ex Dawn Merchant. Or maybe the Cote d'Albatre will come back, although she replaced the Norman Spirit at Portsmouth so they would then need to replace her.
Looks like the Norman Spirit is going to be chartered to TEF to run Ramsgate-Ostend, presumably bareboat as have heard all the crew have received their marching orders (no need for British crew if she is not running to France where the unions will only accept British or French crew). Or LD is going to buy TEF as they have repeatedly said they are interested in running to Ostend. When she previously ran Ramsgate-Ostend as the Prins Filip with the Belgian company RMT, she was a tight fit draft-wise but a lot of dredging has been going on for the windfarm support vessels. LD is currently a small beer neophyte in the ferry world but have the resources of the LD group behind them, a conglomerate which is also one of Frances major deepsea shipowners.
SeaFrance is still in the throes of sizing down. Britanny Ferries are still interested in a buyout if the price is right. LD also offered to buy them but were summarily rejected by the company and the unions.
P&O used to run Dover-Boulogne but ended the service together with Dover-Zeebrugge in order to concentrate all their resources on Dover-Calais to meet the challenge of the Channel Tunnel. They probably regret this now as they are held to ransom every time Calais is closed. They have done a couple of berthing trials with freighters at the new hub port in Boulogne.
Sealink used to run Folkestone-Boulogne but both Sealink and the port of Folkestone were relegated to history after being privatised. - 7 February 2010 15:3739908The LD Lines promotional tour bus is visiting Dover this friday 12th Feb.
http://www.ldlinesbus.com/week2.php
LD and TEF (Trans Europa Ferries) are engaged in talks which may result in a partnership. One conjecture is that the Norman Spirit may run Ramsgate-Ostend as the Ostend Spirit, and the TEF flagship Oleander transfer to Dover-Boulogne. She is the old Pride of Bruges, ex Pride of Free Enterprise (sister of the Herald and Spirit), so this would see her return to Dover.
Here is a photo of the Oleander entering Ostend, which is one of the best photos I have ever seen of a ferry:
http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=119676 - 7 February 2010 16:2439912Sometimes changes simply indicate a response to business or commercial factors. Nowadays in particular businesses have to respond quickly to developments. It isn't always a bad thing.
- 7 February 2010 17:0439913Absolutely but when a constant state of flux causes freight and tourist traffic not to book with them as the service may not exist next week it means no freight and no passengers which is always a bad thing.
They are indeed responding to business or commercial factors but these are of their own making. The newbuilding they obtained for Portsmouth, Norman Voyager, was less than satisfactory and has wound up chartered out to a competitor, Celtic Link, from Rosslare. The new fast ferry they chartered for Dover-Boulogne, Norman Arrow, was similarly a disaster and has been relegated to one round trip a day from Portsmouth in summer only. The TML ships they took over from Newhaven have been reduced to one ship with the other, Cote d'Albatre, swanning around looking for employment. Tried her Dover-Dieppe, nobody interested. Used her Dover-Boulogne, didnt fit in Dover well and apparently wont fit in the berth in the new hub port in Boulogne at all, now running from Portsmouth. Swapped her for the Norman Spirit for Dover-Boulogne, lasted no time at all and now probably destined Ramsgate-Ostend. Looking for something else to replace her. Etc, etc.
As I said above, all credit for trying new things and it is very much a learning curve for them as ferry industry neophytes, but there comes a point when the customers no longer have any confidence and that is not good. Hopefully things will start to settle down now and they will find their feet.
I certainly want to see Dover-Boulogne work as nobody else has as yet shown an interest in the route. With their prospective partnership with TEF Ramsgate-Ostend, there is also an outside chance that TEF might shift from Ramsgate to Dover which would restore Ostend to the destinations served from Dover. Unlikely but possible. There is spare berth capacity in Dover for the earlier generation ferries concerned. - 7 February 2010 19:5139932i hope that is right about the possibility of an ostend link.
great place for a day trip or longer.
i used to use hoverspeed via calais then a reasonably short coach ride.