zuludelta

If there was ever a ferry version of Thomas the Tank Engine, Vinga would definitely be one of the cheekier ferries...

She was quite unique in terms of atmosphere alright. I remember visiting Silverstones at around 10pm one night and had to make a hasty retreat. It was like a crowded working mans club at sea. However, the nice thing about the ship it's choice and size. Going up to the "Posh Bar" - atmosphere totally different. In fact, it was like being on another ship. During the daytime, Silverstones was just like a normal pub albeit some fantastic stern views of Bay of Biscay.

Whatever the PoB lacked in modernity, she certainly made up for in atmosphere. Likewise, with MV Fortuny a very chill atmosphere onboard.

1993 you mean...

Last summer, I stopped at a town in N. Spain called in Jaca, on the foothills of Pyrenees. It was a Thursday night, the town was heaving with tourists who were filling up the cafes, bars, pensions and hotels. A lot of the tourists were English speaking who from earshot we also mentioning words like "boat" "Santander" and "Bilbao". Of course, these were BF customers... I remember thinking to myself, some of these autonomous regions of Northern Spain should be giving Brittany Ferries a subvention for landing all these tourists on their doorstep. It's probably not going to happen. But the ec

I remember Sealink used to promote their "Orient Express" (their ship not the train) cruise in their brochures.

Between double testing protocols and onboard testing, I don't think I've seen another operator apply such stringent COVID-19 prevention measures. Interesting read: https://www.smyrilline.com/customer-service/covid-19-information

That foreboding sky in the first shot if very apt.

Yes, BF seem to have tapped into this "affluent pensioner" market very well. Seeing that they are taking a car / campervan to a foreign land with funny road signs, tt is possible they are already a little more braver in their travel decisions.

There was a travel survey* done recently where car ferries came out on top as one of the most trusted means of public transport. So, there is some hope that those displaced air travelers will start to use continental ferry services like BF. And of course, there has been record sales of camper vans this summer, another glimmer of hope for the sector. *( do not have source as it was mentioned on tail-end of radio show)

Asian-built ships. Things are going full circle then...

Can anyone identify the ship in the 4th photo down which is to the right of Armorique? http://mpineiro.com/gbr/brittany-ferries/they-call-at-santander

That is a bit like BF and Alexis Gourvennec. He was smart enough to cede some power to the Les Anglais in order to let them operate the marketing, customer service side of the business and make some other decisions like onboard entertainment. If this had not been done, maybe the trajectory of BF would have been very different. Its branding might have be something like "Ferries BAI". There might have been no English breakfast served, instead just a lot of croissants and orange juice. The entertainment onboard might have been tribute bands to Johnny Hallyday and Vanesa Paradis or Breto

That sounds pretty draconian, even if it's just their Adriatic ships.

Glad to say it's not BF but a Minoan Lines ship (Crete to Piraeus). Yes, he was sticking a camera in their face, but there was not even a hint of friendliness from any of the crew. Minoan Lines seemed to have got the hardware component right but not the "peopleware..." part.