Busiest Weekend of the Year!
- 22 August 2012 06:55188080The Bank Holiday weekend is shaping up to be the busiest of the year for P&O Ferries with 200,000 people expected to travel across the company's route network.
Bookings rise over a Bank Holiday anyway but this year the company says it is seeing a unique extra surge due to the Olympics.
"We expected many customers to delay their travel plans so they could enjoy the Games, but the effect was more than we expected," said Simon Johnson, passenger services director of P&O Ferries. "They're now making their trips, giving us an unusual late surge that extends through the end of August and into September.
"The result is we're heading for the busiest August Bank Holiday I can recall, almost a fifth up on last year. We still have capacity available, but some sailings will fill so our advice to customers wishing to travel who have not yet booked is to confirm a reservation in advance of heading to a port. "
P&O Ferries sails to France, Belgium, Holland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. For availability and bookings visit www.POferries.com or call 08716 646464.email: dover7@msn.com - 22 August 2012 06:59188082This is all good news for the local ferry industry and therefore good news for Dover. Great stuff indeed! Good to know we did get some local benefit out of the extended Olympic Games and now Paralympics.
Many of us may well be popping over this weekend.
email: dover7@msn.com - 22 August 2012 07:34188084We will be keeping away from the port then ,but all good news it would be nice if some would stop in Dover for a hour or two. And find out what the real area is like.
- 22 August 2012 14:31188108MyFerryLink has arrived just in time then!!Keeps politics to myself
- 22 August 2012 15:32188111Vic I suspect the hotels here in Dover will be very full from tonight onwards and certainly from experience looking at the Premier Inn, will definitely be full from tomorrow night thursday. Lots of people stay but very few seem to venture any further than the seafront in these cases. Up and away the next morning.
What bits of the town are they missing out on though when you think about it !??
Yes Helen we can guess as per the press release at the top of the page that P&O will be bustling with activity this weekend. They are well known and well established..their market well established etc. How many people outside of Dover or Calais will have heard of MyFerryLink ? not many...they will need to spend bigtime on marketing to catch up. But do they have the required money?
But with a bit of luck some of the overflow will head their way.email: dover7@msn.com - 22 August 2012 16:05188122I think they would have done their home work on that one Paul,lets hope so anyway.I was not talking about the centre of the town,but there is our great Town hall etc.
- 22 August 2012 17:32188128More or less the last holiday weekend for people to get away before the kids go back to school,and always generally a very busy one with the big ships P&O will have i'm sure no problem filling them, although having travelled back from France last weekend on one of the big ships, have to say it was like being herded into a cattle truck, give me one of the smaller ones anytime.
But agree MyFerryLink will hopefully get in there and do some much needed advertising, the down bet coverage they got the other night on the TV report wasn't helpfull in the least.
- 22 August 2012 17:59188139interesting comment there jan about being "herded on" other people have commented about the big 2 being a bit too big.
complaints of excessive queues for facilities like the bars and restaurants and even not enough seats to go round. - 22 August 2012 18:57188147Indeed Howard, they are very Big but purposely so, to fit as many vehicles as they can on board. Occupants of said vehicles come a very poor second.
You have to flee from car, scurry up all the stairwells and run to try and find a seat. You would probably be just as well to stay in your car for the hours crossing, if only it was allowed.
Of course one can always pay for the Club Lounge at £12 per person each way
So I'm very happy to see MYFERRYLINK arrive on the scene giving us an alternative choice - 24 August 2012 09:43188326Here we go...the traffic situation a few moments ago..
The ships will be working at full stretch today and no mistake, the hotels were full and very busy for the past few nights. People do linger in Dover but mostly just long enough to stay overnight.email: dover7@msn.com - 24 August 2012 10:16188331That's quite a traffic build up already, right on cue, just as expected
- 25 August 2012 09:36188422This is now the third thread this Sport England bus has appeared on...it has that magic ingredient I guess.
Another shot of the traffic making its way continental in the unhappy blustery wind and rain conditions of today saturday. In the port they have the traffic passing thru figures for yesterday but unfortunately I cant see them through the rain and poor visibility. Wonder if there is a website that shows them...??
email: dover7@msn.com - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
25 August 2012 09:50188425paulb,good news a fellow country man is working that bus. - 25 August 2012 09:53188426Having just been caught up in the traffic heading towards the docks, its a certainty its going to be a very busy weekend although looking at the weather you will need your sea legs, as i'm sure it will not be a smooth crossing unlike last weekends.
- 25 August 2012 11:04188437After getting through the traffic to Folkestone Fixings I was in, served, loaded and on my way back out and could still see the same vehicles stuck in the traffic!
Is this sort of gridlock good for business in Dover or bad? - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
25 August 2012 11:10188439mike its a bad news one,due to the lack of conmunication between dhb and the police. - 25 August 2012 11:47188444Brian I would like to know where you get your information from as you are completely wrong. Yes, there is quite a bit of traffic build up. No it is nothing to do with lack of communication.Keeps politics to myself
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
25 August 2012 16:53188486helen t,long standing knolege of dhb conmunications between dhb and kent police.inother words they dont talk to each other,and by the i have known this for the last 15 years,and this includes a forum we had. - 25 August 2012 17:37188490is there still a problem where kent police and the harbour board claim the responsibility for traffic management problems lie with the other?
- 25 August 2012 18:26188493The "problem" is the busiest weekend of the year at the busiest Ferry Port in Europe, not lack of communication, all the talking in the world cannot get the Traffic in any quicker. I take it your displeasure Brian is with the Aycliff roundabout? roundabouts are designed to control traffic, if the Aycliff one is not working perhaps the Highways need to redesign it?Audere est facere.
