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Calais to Dover by ferry

  • 28 April 2024
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Hello,

I am finding the P&O website impossible to use. I want to cross the Channel on May 21. Directferries gives the time of the only departures available as 06:40 and 8:20, but my date and any other date I enter is labelled Sold out! This is clearly impossible, and so I am willing to arrive to Calais as early as I can by train from Lille, hoping to get a bus there from Calais Ville to the ferry port, or if necessary a taxi.

Are there any later ferries? That would help.

Is this doable? Thank you for your help,

Brian.

 

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Best answer by Hektor 28 April 2024, 18:13

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PS to my message above.  Are there any later ferries? That would help.

I just added these words above but can find no way to delete this one!

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It’s shown as fully booked but I’m pretty sure it’s wrong. My guess is rather that P&O quietly stopped selling foot passenger tickets. In the last few months it was only a single departure per day while there are dozens of boats full of cars.

Since Dunkerque is also unavailable to foot passengers you’ll probably have to leave from Dieppe... :(

Let me find something.

There is a midday departure from Dieppe for 39€ (DFDS). You could spend the night before in Rouen for example.

Hektor
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Hello,

I am finding the P&O website impossible to use. I want to cross the Channel on May 21. Directferries gives the time of the only departures available as 06:40 and 8:20, but my date and any other date I enter is labelled Sold out! This is clearly impossible, and so I am willing to arrive to Calais as early as I can by train from Lille, hoping to get a bus there from Calais Ville to the ferry port, or if necessary a taxi.

Are there any later ferries? That would help.

Is this doable? Thank you for your help,

Brian.

Foot passengers are only allowed for the 10.05 / 13.45 / 17.25 departures from Dover and 10.35 / 15.50 / 19.00 from Calais. Capacity is limited because passengers are driven by bus to the ship 90 minutes before these departure times in Dover or back when arriving there. If there’s no bus, there’s no availability. For May 21st the 10.30 and 15.50 departures from Calais do have availability. Book here: 

Reserve Maintenant | Calais à Douvres | P&O Ferries (poferries.com)

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Thank you so much for that rapid reply. If Dieppe implies Newhaven, I may prefer taking the Flixbus to London and if possible slip off the bus at Dover, as that is where I want to be.

Also, as I understand from my research, DFDS does not take foot passengers. Could Dieppe be an exception?

Hektor
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Thank you so much for that rapid reply. If Dieppe implies Newhaven, I may prefer taking the Flixbus to London and if possible slip off the bus at Dover, as that is where I want to be.

Also, as I understand from my research, DFDS does not take foot passengers. Could Dieppe be an exception?

See reply above; it’s possible to go by ferry from Calais to Dover as a foot passenger.

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Thanks @Hektor. I’m pretty sure it didn’t work an hour ago (weird!).

@BrianL Here’s a little guide: https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/london-to-paris-by-ferry.htm#London_to_Paris_via_Dover-Calais

(Indeed DFDS accepts foot passengers from Dieppe, might be useful for next time.)

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Thanks very much both thibcabe and Hektor for all that useful info.

I still find the P&O a real pain to use, including via Hektor’s link Reserve Maintenant… and have provisionally booked a 15:50 departure with Direct Ferries. If I learn how to overcome the difficulty of using P&O’s site I can avoid the booking fee. Is it too much to ask for help on that here? 😗 (I will not be using my Interrail Pass on that day.)

Hektor
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Of course you may ask further questions. But for me it does work very well from that point linked above.Unfortunately it’s not possible to provide a working link in english; it always does go back to Dover to Calais.

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Here is a very important piece of information from calais-dover.com:

Calais-Dover by bike is possible!

The various shipping companies see a bicycle as a means of transport and you can therefore simply board it.

I am sadly too old to cycle across the channel. I wish I had known this twenty years ago.

I have given up on booking direct with P&O.  In 40 years of computer experience, I have never found a site so impossible to use as theirs. I ended up paying a booking fee at Directferry.

 

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