NORFOLKLINE – THE RULERS OF DOVER


Dover-Dunkerque, Maersk Dunkerque, 8.00am Departure

After an early start from Hythe, we arrived in Dover in good time for the crossing. We checked in – noticing that Norfolkline now use the two far right check in booths that used to be used by Speedferries, (they’ve now moved to the Western docks, that Hoverspeed used to use) and drove through to the lanes. (Yup, ‘lanes’ doesn’t sound that exciting, but what else could you call them!) and waited. There was no Norfolkline ship in, and I didn’t know which of the trio we’d be travelling on – as I previously found out, there’s no way of knowing as it changes.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but these are the ships which I remember were berthed:
P&O:
Pride of Calais
European Seaway

Seafrance:
Rodin

Dover seemed very quiet at this time.
After about half an hour of waiting – avoiding WHSmiths in the terminal, of which the queue stretched right out of the shop, round towards the travel exchange (there was only one checkout open…) a beautiful blue ship ‘rolled’/’sailed’/floated’walked’ (whichever you like to use!) into the harbour, and settled onto the berth. The usual happened – cars drove off. Then we drove on! The car decks are huge – you don’t need to pay extra when you bring a roof box on your car – I guess this is why, also – I guess anything seems huge after travelling on nothing but Speed One for 2 years! We got out of the car, and went onto the ship through Red door or green door or some random colour like that. First impressions of the ship - really nice. From the moment you walk through the forgettably coloured door, everything is really tasteful and modern. (Forgive me if it gets a bit patchy for this crossing – after all it was about 3 weeks ago) For this crossing we decided to sit in the first chairs we could see (which had nobody sitting in them :P ) which happened to be by the bar – one of them!

Everyone else in my family sat down – but I couldn’t bear the thought if sitting down, when we were driving down to the Lot after this crossing – we had plenty of time to be sitting down then! I had a look in the shop – which seemed to be placed exactly in the centre of the ship – it sold nothing particularly special – the usual things which you’d expect to find on a ferry shop – Booze,tobelerones, and overpriced digital cameras. However I did buy a Norfolkline pen!

After this I decided to try and find the outside deck, which Norfolkline boast so much about because it has so much space – I later found out they have good reason to boast about it. On any other ship, this would be easy, you just walk out a door and you’re there. However – I could see no doors. I wandered around for about 20 minutes looking. My mum told me to ask at the information desk, but this would be admitting defeat. I wouldn’t be beaten by the Koreans. I walked around the ‘higher’ deck, which had the lorry drivers lounge on – no sign of the outside deck here. I went downstairs, and decided to fill out one of the Norfolkline passenger feedback forms. Right by the box which these were in, there was a sign ‘Outside deck -à’ - now they tell me! Really this was the first time I had ever not been able to find something on a ferry. To get there you walk through a tiny corridor, and you get to a door. Open the door – not the toilet door (unless you’re looking for toilets, which I wasn’t) and you’re in a big, bleak area which is the smoking area. I walked through the cloud, and got to the other end of the big, bleak area. True – this bit was big, but it seemed a bit pointless if you don’t smoke. However, there’s some slippy stairs, which I had to resist the temptation to laugh as a small child slipped over on them (Yes, I am cruel), and waited for him to be scooped up. Then when you reach the top of the stairs – you’re on a relatively nice area. It’s just behind the funnel, where there’s a couple of picnic areas, and this seems to be the more popular area in the ship.

I stood there for most of the crossing, until hunger awakened me. I went down to find everybody else eating. The self service cafeteria was a no-go area, as the queue for this stretched right around the side of the ship – the captain said this was due to ‘exceptionally’ heavy loads on the ship. I went to the Deli, which sells muffins and pastries at breakfast times, and pasta etc at lunch times ( I didn’t travel with Norfolkline in the evening). I had a blueberry muffin, which was good.

It’s when you pass Calais that you realise how far Dunkerque is from there – when all the Seafrance and P&O ships disappear into the Calais port, we continue cruising, staying quite close to land, until you reach Dunkerque. This takes about 30-40 minutes of the crossing – understandable, as P&O take 1hr15mins, and Norfolkline take 1hr45mins. We got to Dunkerque ontime, and drove off.

The worst thing about crossing with Norfolkline is Dunkerque. When you leave the port, there’s a long, single lane road, which everybody has to use to get to and from the port. This takes about 45 minutes, but would be much faster if it wasn’t full of stupid white boxes (caravans)


Dunkerque-Dover, Maersk Dover, 14.00pm Departure
19th August 07

After an easy drive up from Paris, we arrived at the Dunkerque ferry port around 13.00. There was a long queue for check in, but it moved relatively quickly. Dunkerque ferry port reminds me a lot of the ferry port in Boulogne that Speedferries use – it seems very run down and in need of some money spent on it. Norfolkline are beginning to do this, as they introduced a double decker link span for the arrival of the new Maersk trio – I didn’t go in the terminal, but it did look rather rundown – there was a restaurant, maybe a small shop, and toilets. We drove straight through to the boarding queue. This area really needs resurfacing – the surface is bumpy, and there are potholes in places. We eventually started to board in the crazy way that the Norfolkline marshals do – instead of boarding one lane at a time, which is what most companies do, they board all the lanes at the same time! I found this completely crazy.

I can’t really remember where we parked onboard Maersk Dover, but we turned right when we drove on – as opposed to left – which I assume is the same layout, and straight on, which is where lorries go. Walking onto this ship, it was clear, as I had expected, that everything was identical to Maersk Dunkerque. It’s definitely a good thing, as the design and décor is so nice and customer friendly. This crossing was a lot quieter then out outbound crossing – there were no queues anywhere, except in the shop, where the crew thought it would be more efficient to have two people on a checkout – one working the till, and one packing bags, instead of one person on each checkout – this caused the queue to stretch right around the shop…For this crossing, we sat on the chairs in the upstairs café – sorry I’m so vague, but I just can’t remember the names of any thing! Anyway it was the café on the same deck as the VIP lounge and the freight drivers lounge. I bought a hot chocolate from here, which was expensive (£2.10) and not very nice at all – I couldn’t really taste any chocolate in it at all! I stood on the outside deck for most of this crossing – we passed Maersk Dunkerque really closely – I guess there is tight shipping lanes around this part of the channel.

It was during this crossing that I found the ‘Games Portal’ (one thing I remembered the name of!) – it’s basically a room with PS2’s in. However half of them don’t work, and I never really use them any more. This is a really good idea though, for kids who don’t want to use the toddlers play area, and who don’t want to sit reading the independent somewhere. (For anyone who ever travels with Norfolkline, and can’t find newspapers in the shop – this is because they made the weird decision to sell them at the information desk – this is behind/in front of the shop)

For most of this crossing, the captain was clearly trying to overtake Seafrance Cezanne – I thought they should of slowed down for us to pass as we had a bigger,better, and faster ship! But Cezanne had left quite a while before us. I saw Seafrance Nord-Pas-De-Calais in the distance, and noticed it made a large bow wave on occasions – I wonder why this is, as the sea wasn’t particularly rough. I did notice that the Norfolkline ships are very stable – it was quite windy outside, but the ship didn’t move around at all – compared to the Pride of Dover which we passed, and that was moving around quite a bit.

We arrived in gloomy Dover on time, and docked. This was where we overtook Seafrance Cezanne – she arrived in the harbour about 5 minutes before us, but we turned round (there must be a technical term for this!) and docked before she did. We bumped the side of the berth quite hard – I guess the cost of repaint will be taken off the captains salary! And drove off.

There was very intense security in Dover, and took us about 30 minutes to get from the ship to the M20.

Conclusion – Norfolkline are fantastic. The ships are modern, and even though they are completely full – as it was on the outbound crossing, there were still spare seats. This is probably due to the fact that Norfolkline do not take foot passengers or coach parties – this is a wise decision. There are huge windows everywhere – especially in the self service restaurant, which is at the front of the ship – these are the huge windows which you see. The ships are bright, with natural light everywhere, and all the décor is very wavy, compared to P&O ships which just has straight lines. However, my favourite thing about Norfolkline is it isn’t all a branded zone – unlike P&O, which have brands for everything.

Norfolkline are much cheaper then every other Dover operator, and are much better. We paid £72 for a car + roofbox + 5 people. So – if this isn’t a good reason to travel Norfolkline, then what is?

Hey - great voyage report i enjoyed reading it! I'll post a VR later today.

Great VR, another insight into the advantages Norfolkline seem to be having over other Dover operators...

Great report - not keen on Caravans then? :P

Why - I love them! :rolleyes:

Oh - sorry to bring this thread back up, but I just remembered:

When we were crossing from Dover-Dunkerque, my dad and brother had been standing on the outside deck, and they were 100% certain that they had seen one of the old Merchants crossing to Dover.

Could this somehow be possible... or was it just them looking at the Maersk Delft - which is very rusty atm.

Thanks for any help.

Good VR. 'nice' to know that Newhaven isn't the only port with a run down terminal. (That may change - watch this space).

The technical term you were looking for is 'Swung'. When a ship turns around like this, it's called swinging.

Andy

Ah yes, thanks very much for reminding me of that.

We certainly managed it a <b>lot</b> quicker then Cezanne did - she entered the harbour just in front of us, and we 'swung' and berthed before she did - however the captain may of been showing off a little too much for his own good as we bashed the side lightly... Hehe.

What's happening to the Planetarium onboard Cezanne at the moment?