A ferry to the isle of white

JohalaReewi

Timing helps with the IOW ferries too. I was booking a break and checked the ferry price (£50). Couldn't book the ferry there and then because the accomodation/dates were not confirmed. A couple of days later when I had the accomodation booking confirmation, I went back to the IOW ferry website to book the ferry ticket and it had gone up by £20.

wary

warehouse wrote: »

If you have Tesco vouchers then you can use these to cross with Wightlink. My parents live over there and we use this method every time we visit.

Otherwise early morning/late evening crossing are much cheaper.

My wife has just checked and it appears that every £1 of Tesco vouchers is worth £3 of the ferry fare. So if you ferry ticket is £90 say, it will only cost you £30 in Tesco vouchers.

A bargain!

[Deleted User]

I dated a guy on the Isle of Wight for a few months. It cost me £16 return to go and see him on the foot-passenger ferry. If I stayed overnight, it was another £10 to park my car at the docks. It was never going to last :rotfl:

wary

victoria61 wrote: »

I dated a guy on the Isle of Wight for a few months. It cost me £16 return to go and see him on the foot-passenger ferry. If I stayed overnight, it was another £10 to park my car at the docks. It was never going to last :rotfl:

Had you used Tesco vouchers each time, it may have lasted ...

vikingaero

The reason is quite simple: each route is a monopoly. On the cross channel routes there are numerous operators.

fluffnutter

vikingaero wrote: »

The reason is quite simple: each route is a monopoly. On the cross channel routes there are numerous operators.

I see your point but I'd argue with 'numerous'. I guess it depends on how flexible you're prepared to be in terms of where you leave from and where you go.

But if you want to travel from, say, Portsmouth to Cherbourg, you're limited to two operators, one of which only has one crossing per week. I agree that you could travel elsewhere but if you live in Portsmouth as I do, you'd be unlikely to choose another port to travel from because of the additional cost of travelling to that port.

Incidentally there is more than one operator on the Smile of Wight's routes - Wightlink leaves from Portsmouth and Redfunnel from Southampton.

bobble_hat

We found this, we were going to have two weeks on the Isle of Wight in our folding camper, with the festival in the middle, but the hike for the return crossing just scuppered our plans. Gutted.

letsbehonest

I see from the sensible (stand up) and the non sensible (sit down) poster of comments that by and large it is expensive vouchers or not. What made this worse was that after booking with RED FUNNEL ferries I found out from the holiday booking website that free ferry is included, Dohhhhhhhh. The cancellation fee from Red Funnel 50% of fare price that's £37.50 greedy sod's, anyway my polite grovelling manner got me an offer of £10 to cancel. This was not even 24 hours after booking, a bit steep all round for a few clicks on their computer.

chocdonuty

It's actually cheaper to order the tickets as if you are travelling from the island and then back to it, rather than a tourist.
You just need to choose the right options on the website(it's kind of like 2 websites in one)
A friend of mine chose 2 different day returns leaving the island in the afternoon, never actually used 2 of the 4 tickets and it was still cheaper, definatly worth playing around on the site that way to get a better deal

fluffnutter

letsbehonest wrote: »

I see from the sensible (stand up) and the non sensible (sit down) poster of comments that by and large it is expensive vouchers or not,what made this worse was that after booking with RED FUNNEL ferries I found out from the holiday booking website that free ferry is included, Dohhhhhhhh. The cancellation fee from Red Funnel 50% of fare price that's £37.50 greedy sod's, anyway my polite grovelling manner got me an offer of £10 to cancel. This was not even 24 hours after booking, a bit steep all round for a few clicks on their computer.

That's really naughty of them to charge so much in terms of a cancellation fee, and possibly contravenes consumer law. If they're able to re-sell your place (which no doubt they are) then they can only charge you demonstrable losses, i.e. what it's actually cost them to, like you say, click their computer a few times. This won't be half the price of the fare.

In your case, you've done the sensible thing and got the fee reduced. Others should take note too; their cancellation fees are not proportionate and could be challenged, probably successfully.

ETA: The above might be bollox. I think I'm talking about deposits, not cancellation fees. Not sure if I'm right in terms of the law. But I'm right in terms of THE PRINCIPLE!