Calais car ferry signage

[RL17]

After getting held up loads at Caen passports Thursday am and not seeing many cars on road we had P&O back Calais Dover back as all booked and paid for 2020.

Old car check in and passports at Calais no longer used. Took 20 mins to find check in as all 3 lanes signed for lorries as lorries about but no UK cars to follow. Went out of Calais and back on (fences and razor wire everywhere) couldn’t find ticket office, found port office and eventually went in with lorry lanes where there was a 3 or so car check in amongst 17or so lorry lanes.

Check in and passports all mixed. HGV next to us at passports and nearly ended up in lorry lane. Signage to over 1,000 lanes rubbish and we and 4 other cars driving around randomly once saw ferry.

One place signed 200 to 373 right and 300 to 350 left

So fast drive to Calais and 20 arguing with passenger over which way to go

No cooked breakfast P&O but evening meals if going to Classic

[Chrisgr31]

Its not 100% clear but I managed on Sunday evening. You need the coach lane initially which is on the left and does also have a cars sign on it, but its less clear. Then at Check In the cars remain on the left, with the three check ins for each company.

Mind you should one sail with P & O?

[Oldwolf]

After 16 years of using P&O I switched to Chunnel, partly because I disagreed with what they did and partly due to not being able to trust there'd be a ferry.
I missed having a cooked meal on the train but overall it was easier and obviously quicker.

[OvalOwl]

I came back via Calais on DFDS yesterday and as you say the signs weren't particularly clear. I knew it was "All Been Changed" since I was last there. For most of the run in from the autoroute junction I was the only vehicle on the road so there was nobody to follow. I managed to spot the car and bus symbol on the road so got in there OK. Check in was sparsely populated. Checked in and sat there for a minute or two waiting for the red light to go green, which it didn't so decided to just go.

Passport check was a shambles. French a cursory glance, then the UK seemed to be checking everybody in minute detail. Most folk in the queue turned off their engines on more than one occasion. Then I missed the waiting lane as there wasn't a sign on the bridge to say lanes 1100+ are behind this bridge so I ended up under the next bridge at 1200+. Thought about pulling a U-ey and going back wrong way but carried on and found the correct road back to the start.

[surveyor]

I got lost and then accidentally found the ticket office and the entrance.

Still not sure where I got it wrong!

[fatboy18]

Agree, New signage for ferry's at calias is confusing, bottom line is lorrys tend to be on the right of the check in booths, cars and mororcycles to the left. I have been through there twice now in 3 weeks and its pretty much the same positions for P&O.
Note, only reason I am using them is I have outstanding season tickets from 2 yrs ago. Unless P&o sort out the British staff issues they can stuff it once my old tickets are used up.

[RL17]

Yep my ticket rolled over from 2020 and hearing good things from DFDS

[fatboy18]

RL17 said:

Yep my ticket rolled over from 2020 and hearing good things from DFDS

When I got to UK Border control in Calais I was having a chat with the young officer, many of the staff live in Dover and use Eurotunnel to commute back and forth to go to work, he said they know many of the dismissed workers and the problems their families are now going through, also many of the new replacement staff know nothing of the engines quirks on the ships and there have been many safety issues. Even a few weeks ago when we boarded the ferry we ascended the front stairs from the lower deck only to find all the doors locked at the top of the stairs so had to go back to the lower lorry deck and walk to the middle stair case. I'm not blaming the new staff onboard, but its simply lack of training.