Wednesday 18th May 2022 – Horsley, England

 

Due to the self-imposed problems of P&O Ferries, we had cancelled our outward journey and used Eurotunnel but we had kept our return booking. P&O have been using Twitter to tell its customers the times of their ferries just a few hours ahead and they still only have one ferry operating on the Calais to Dover route. Much to our surprise, our originally ferry at 12:35 today is shown as running and so we are hoping that we might get back to England at a reasonable time.
It was all going too smoothly! We arrived at the port to be told at check-in that our reservation had been cancelled by the Camping and Caravanning Club. They advised us to phone them and get a new booking reference.  I called the phone number for the European Reservations only to be told by a message that the number was no longer in use and that I should go to the website. Needless to say, the website had no phone number to ring and expected everything to be done by email – totally inappropriate when we needed the problem sorted very quickly. I phoned the main C&CC switchboard number to be given two options on the automated system – Membership or UK bookings, neither of which were appropriate. I selected UK bookings to be told by the machine that I was 14^th in the queue with an expected 15 minute wait. I phoned again and selected the membership option – 4^th in the queue with an expected 5 minute wait. When I got through I explained the issue and was told that they now dealt with the ferry booking in-house and she put me through to Anne-Marie on that team. It took a while but they dealt with the problem well and, after checking, said that they believed that the problem was with P&O as their system had no record of a cancellation of the return trip. Anne-Marie said that they would sort that out with P&O later and “the important thing is to get you on the 12:35 ferry” – well said. We soon had a new booking reference and were in the port, joining a queue at the totally unmanned UK passport control – the French passport control was very efficient.
Once passport control had finally opened, we got through quickly and joined the queue for boarding. The ferry was only just coming in so I had time to use the excellent free port wifi to post the blog up to yesterday.
We drove onto the ferry and found ourselves right at the front of the deck, next to a Ferrari on the starting grid. We were ready for a quick getaway but suspected that the Ferrari would beat us. The new P&O staff were very welcoming and helpful and we settled in the lounge with a great view over the sea to the White Cliffs of Dover as we sailed out of Calais harbour.
So, it is the end of another great sojourn. We have had a fantastic time and enjoyed excellent weather. Here’s to the next one!

Photos: The Ferrari had a head start of a couple of metres on us – I am sure that we would have beaten it if we had been level; Arriving at Dover.