VikingVoyager

She'd be a very useful government charter in an emergency (war) situation with those speeds!

The best looking ship in the fleet - some great photos thanks for sharing

Yes, I think it is (the M/F Prinses Beatrix). It looks like the on-board shots are a different ship though.

The only fair comparisons are between ships on the same or rival routes. Age doesn't come into it as far as the paying public are concerned.

1000 passengers a day via Cherbourg is indeed very impressive when you consider the winter numbers. You are right, I don't think we'll agree on the return that BF see on their extra investment but the only way to test it would be for a rival company with duplicate routes to pop up.

Thanks for the info. Some surprising stats there - particularly the Cherbourg vs. Spain statistic - I thought Barfleur only sailed about 12 times a week, how many arrivals are there in Spain? I don't think it changes the point that I was making - BF are still there because of the routes they operate not because they spend a few more pounds on their ship fit out. The choice they offer to convenient destinations is what makes them popular, in my opinion.

Hmmm... not sure that's the 100% the case. I'd say it's much less about their ships and much more because they've stuck it out and continued to offer the routes that people want. Some of those routes must be marginal, especially throughout the year, but their funding structure and "raisin of etcetera" means they are still there when others have fallen away. The pictures you showed were mostly very nice (which vessel?), though as always, bolder designs can date very quickly. However, I'd be more than happy on WB Yeats for an overnight crossing at the start of my holiday. I wouldn't pay a premium for higher fit-out though I would pay for reliability, safety, punctuality and cabin space. I suspect most passengers are even more price driven and have only a casual interest in the ships. They'll be aware if a vessel is old / small / cramped / lacking certain key facilities but beyond that I suspect their interest wains.

She looks pretty smart to me. Modern and understated compared to a lot of other cruise ferries in the region.

A bit off topic - but we always book our caravan crossings with Caravan and Motorhome club. We tend to travel P&O Hull routes and the P&O price comes in at about £800. The CMC is always a little cheaper but if you then book three or four nights sites with them the price comes down by another £100 or so. As we use the sites that we book with them it's an overall saving of about £300

I wish you were right. However, I think that there a number of constituencies where the sitting MP has a fairly slender majority and there's a lot of angry people out there. It's easy to imagine a Conservative or Labour MP in a working class area losing support to UKIP while maybe also losing out to the pro Remain parties. They would only need 5 - 10 MPs to potentially have influence

I'm not so sure. There's a very real chance of UKIP, or the new lot, getting a handful of MPs in any General Election - this could make them key coalition partners and they wouldn't have the same concerns about a border in Ireland as the DUP do, so who knows where that would end up?

I like the Zeebrugge pair a lot and i think they compare very favourably to the ships I've sailed on in the current BF fleet (PA and MSM). We sailed out to Zeebrugge last year and returned via Rotterdam. There are a few more facilities on the larger boats but we preferred the old pair. An 11am meeting in Manchester could be a push though, so I would opt for Rotterdam in this case.

I think I must be a weirdo as I really like how Amorique looks. Nothing wrong with Tor Brittania either though!

I guess it's in the eye of the beholder, she's always looked a little short to me. I was comparing her to the likes of Pride of Bruges / York, the Olau twins and most of the Baltic cruise ferries of that era

Out of interest, why is she so dumpy looking? Was there a limitation on her length?