WOW! What a difference 6 weeks makes!

We first used LDLines back in Sat 29 August 2009 & I remember twittering at the time about how poor the service was and that they were obviously looking to be the Ryan Air of the English channel. I also said i’d never travel with them again due to the chaotic nature of the booking in process, loading process and the fact the facilities on the boat just weren’t up to scratch and today i eat a lot of humble pie!

I ended up on LDLines this time not by choice but by what turned out to be my own good fortune. I left it late this time to book a ferry for a quick renovation getaway and by that time the main players were asking around £150 / £180 for crossing, so i reluctantly booked with LDLines for £55 return and just figured i’d sit here with gritted teeth..

On arriving this time booking-in was slick, loading was now organised and not like the wild west park anywhere we’d had previously encountered and the boat left only 10 minutes late and zipped across in the promised hour. Previously it was 50 minutes late leaving and it seemed like we limped across in “normal” ferry time (we’ve left dead on time this return crossing).

The ships facilities were all up to speed, the (very) small duty free shop was open & both front and mid facilities were also open. This is so night and day compared to what we’d experienced before and it didn’t stop there!

On arriving at Boulonge you are no longer in town, at the bottom of a round about going through a check-in desk that was a glorified porta cabin, this is all new. LDLines look like they have taken home in a totally new birth and part of the port thats a fair distance away from the old place. By moving to the new facilities they’ve really staked their intention to provide a new quality of service across the channel and from this experience they are achieving that.

Not everything unfortunately is roses, we spoke to more than a few people who either ran later than usual for the boat or were just plain confused that they’d moved. Everyone agrees that this is a lot easier but the website and tickets MUST be updated to let everyone know of the move. For us when we arrived and unloaded we like a lot of people had no idea where we were and you can forget the SatNav having any idea where this place is. To help you and LDLines i’ll be posting my POI (Point of interest) and the long and latitude that you can pump into your SatNav.

I will be writing to LD to see if they want to comment on this post as i’d really like to understand what they did to turn the whole travel experience around and i’ll also be rubbishing my own Tweet saying i’ll never travel with them again…

LDLines now have a guaranteed repeat customer, lets hope they do frequent traveller or positive blog discounts ;)

Links :
www.LDLines.com
www.LDLines.co.uk