Brittany Ferries New Ship Galicia - My Opinion - Review

hymermick said:
We travelled from Spain on board the Galacia on the 27th November this year. We had an outside cabin on deck 9 and did not have any smell of diesel. I found this ferry very boring with no entertainment at all for the whole crossing. The duty free shop must be the smallest on a ferry and it only sold French wine which I found surprising as it travels from England to Spain. The 4 berth outside cabin we had was on the small side but clean and tidy. The food was only ok and not a patch to what we used to get on the old Pride of Bilbao[P&O]. I found the staff very friendly and helpful. This was a rough crossing. I found this ship was second rate compared to the Pride of Bilbao which had various types of entertainment throughout the crossing. It also had a large duty free shop, hairdressers, amusement arcade and far superior restaurants. Come back P &O.
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I find the contrast between P&O's POB and BF interesting.

Irish Ferries sold the P&O used ship a decade ago as P&O cancelled the charter due to loosing so much money on the route.

Brittany Ferries have never done entertainment in the same way P&O did on the Olympic Class ferry and the 2 Peter Pans - which were also sold to SNAV as again the business model lost far too much money.

None of us will experience the E- flexer in fully operational mode until the Covid restrictions are lifted, until then the service will be limited.

Do we want sustainable ferries serving Spain and France or do we want bling?

Pont Aven is a poorly designed hull form, she hogs and sags causing issues with her clam shells and vibrating prop shafts and has never run a full speed as she's too wide. She's a bag of spanners and doesn't have long left in the fleet. Cap Finistere is up for sale as she's a gas guzzler.

The future is about RoPax due to the freight requirement, there's no market for cruise ferries on the channel or the Bay anymore whether they're purpose built like Bretagne and the Pont or bought in like VDL. Even DFDS want to replace their 2 sisters at Newcastle as they're too pax heavy.
 
Has anyone travelled on the Galicia with dogs? Brittany Ferries site says they have small kennels 39cm x 14cm however having been on this ferry twice with our two cocker spaniels we have not seen any small kennels in fact all are large. This is great because we can put both dogs in one kennel but my concern is when you try to book kennels they keep saying there are no kennels left, however we’ve travelled twice and there have been lots of empty kennels on both sailings. I’ve tried to explain this to a booking person but they are adamant that there are small kennels, has anyone seen such small kennels on this ferry?
 
You must remember that shops on ferries, whatever they are called, fulfil the same function as shops at filling stations, ie to boost profits. TT/P&O were one of my clients, and occasionally I used to take a passing interest in the items suppliers offered for sale. You would be surprised at the sort of mediocre products that once branded became best sellers with unbelievable profit margins. I can’t remember the details but back in the day there was a ferry service between Scandinavia and Germany that relied on butter sales for its profits. Stena Line started it’s growth with internal Scandinavian cruises to some nondescript port, relying on on-board spend for its profits.
 
emjaiuk said:
You must remember that shops on ferries, whatever they are called, fulfil the same function as shops at filling stations, ie to boost profits. TT/P&O were one of my clients, and occasionally I used to take a passing interest in the items suppliers offered for sale. You would be surprised at the sort of mediocre products that once branded became best sellers with unbelievable profit margins. I can’t remember the details but back in the day there was a ferry service between Scandinavia and Germany that relied on butter sales for its profits. Stena Line started it’s growth with internal Scandinavian cruises to some nondescript port, relying on on-board spend for its profits.
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Yes but that's the same on any high street. You're paying for the brand name on the box. Shoppers are weird, try selling say Jo Malone products more inline with their cost and no one would buy them. It's cheap crap but it's the exclusive branding which fills shopping bags at around 1000% profit. Molton Brown is another, the cheapest, nastiest base products sold at exclusive prices. In many cases the packaging costs more than the product.

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Jonno1103 said:
I find the contrast between P&O's POB and BF interesting.

Irish Ferries sold the P&O used ship a decade ago as P&O cancelled the charter due to loosing so much money on the route.

Brittany Ferries have never done entertainment in the same way P&O did on the Olympic Class ferry and the 2 Peter Pans - which were also sold to SNAV as again the business model lost far too much money.

None of us will experience the E- flexer in fully operational mode until the Covid restrictions are lifted, until then the service will be limited.

Do we want sustainable ferries serving Spain and France or do we want bling?

Pont Aven is a poorly designed hull form, she hogs and sags causing issues with her clam shells and vibrating prop shafts and has never run a full speed as she's too wide. She's a bag of spanners and doesn't have long left in the fleet. Cap Finistere is up for sale as she's a gas guzzler.

The future is about RoPax due to the freight requirement, there's no market for cruise ferries on the channel or the Bay anymore whether they're purpose built like Bretagne and the Pont or bought in like VDL. Even DFDS want to replace their 2 sisters at Newcastle as they're too pax heavy.
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Brilliant Informed Post, I couldn't agree more.

You seem to know your Ferries!
 
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Jonno1103 said:
Yes but that's the same on any high street. You're paying for the brand name on the box. Shoppers are weird, try selling say Jo Malone products more inline with their cost and no one would buy them. It's cheap crap but it's the exclusive branding which fills shopping bags at around 1000% profit. Molton Brown is another, the cheapest, nastiest base products sold at exclusive prices. In many cases the packaging costs more than the product.
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I had a big retail store years back. A customer came in wanting a "SMEG" Retro fridge for his and his wife's new apartment in Manchester.

I told him I could order the "SMEG" £999 or he could have this almost identical model, made in the same Eastern European Factory branded "Gorenje". Saves £400 and its in-stock for immediate delivery.

Customer paid for appliance and we delivered it.

A week later, He came back into the store and asked if we would take the "Gorenje" back and order the "SMEG" offering to pay the £400 extra, plus a re-stocking charge of 30% so we could sell the returned unit at a discounted price.

He told me his wife was furious as she would be embarrassed if her friends came over and saw she had bought a "Knock off version of SMEG".

Off topic but.....

True Story.

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Anyone remember when Top Gear featured one of the first Skodas to be available after VW bought them? They covered up or removed all identifying marks and invited people to give their opinion, which was generally very high, until it's identity was revealed.
 
Jonno1103 said:
Yes but that's the same on any high street. You're paying for the brand name on the box. Shoppers are weird, try selling say Jo Malone products more inline with their cost and no one would buy them. It's cheap crap but it's the exclusive branding which fills shopping bags at around 1000% profit. Molton Brown is another, the cheapest, nastiest base products sold at exclusive prices. In many cases the packaging costs more than the product.
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Bit like Pandora,,what a con..BUSBY.
 
EuroTrotters said:
I was chatting with the cellar man on Pont Aven the other day. He said there is No plan yet to sell Pont Aven. But as Many will know, Bretagne and Normandy will be replaced by two more Chinese vessels.

His Colleagues also disliked Galicia and Its sister
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I like the Pont Aven. Especially the commodore cabins.
 
Chris said:
Have a nice trip. I only like the posh cabins because I am a smoker.

Oh and they have a beer fridge:giggle:
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Our neighbours complained about us chatting on our balcony cabin. Wish I’d have had a Cuban to hand .

I think they were the ones sporting the matching “ Thames yachting club” scarves in the restaurant.

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For those who enjoy the Pont, get it while you can. She'll probably replace Bretagne to St Malo when the new E-Flexer arrives next year and then SABEMEN will move her on when Bretagne II arrives in 2025. Pont Aven has been a pain in the bum since Meyer handed her over, awful ship, probably the worst sea keeper in the fleet and would roll on wet grass not to mention the other ongoing issues.

Galicia is relocating to Rosslare full time in November.
 
I like the Pont Aven especially if we manage to get a Commodore cabin on the way out. It always feels like the start of a lovely adventure. The breakfast buffet is really good as well. So is dinner, in fact it’s all good really, I will miss it when it goes.
 
Not one for moaning. But we have been on the Galicia twice. We said years ago we would never go on the euro tunnel. We'll we are now waiting for euro tunnel to release there December tickets.
I know it can't happen but bring back Cape Finisterre.

​

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carolyn said:
I like the Pont Aven especially if we manage to get a Commodore cabin on the way out. It always feels like the start of a lovely adventure. The breakfast buffet is really good as well. So is dinner, in fact it’s all good really, I will miss it when it goes.
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Salamanca & Santona are different but they're modern rather than last century... yes I know PA was in service in 2004 but just like MSM (2002) & Armorique (2009), designed in the late '90's. The two LNG E-Flexers have comfier, larger beds and more cabin facilities and are far more stable.

The lifeblood of modern ferries is freight which unfortunately means the days of the so called cruise ferry sailing from the U.K. are over. Even PA's original 2014 designed replacement - PEGASIS which was due in service in 2017 was to have been a twin loading RoPax.

As passengers we tend to focus solely on the onboard customer offer and the bling rather than the industry and what it needs in order to provide a sustainable service.

France & Spain aren't the Baltic where the ship is the destination, floating duty free outlets heavily exploited due to the high cost of living in Scandinavia... the western channel links are a means to an end... an extension of the EU road freight links from as far south as Africa.

Portugal will be next during this decade, it's just a question of when.
 
Jonno1103 said:
Salamanca & Santona are different but they're modern rather than last century... yes I know PA was in service in 2004 but just like MSM (2002) & Armorique (2009), designed in the late '90's. The two LNG E-Flexers have comfier, larger beds and more cabin facilities and are far more stable.

The lifeblood of modern ferries is freight which unfortunately means the days of the so called cruise ferry sailing from the U.K. are over. Even PA's original 2014 designed replacement - PEGASIS which was due in service in 2017 was to have been a twin loading RoPax.

As passengers we tend to focus solely on the onboard customer offer and the bling rather than the industry and what it needs in order to provide a sustainable service.

France & Spain aren't the Baltic where the ship is the destination, floating duty free outlets heavily exploited due to the high cost of living in Scandinavia... the western channel links are a means to an end... an extension of the EU road freight links from as far south as Africa.

Portugal will be next during this decade, it's just a question of when.
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Shame

www.ship-technology.com

PEGASIS (Brittany Ferries' Power Efficient GAS Innovative Ship)

Brittany Ferries placed an order for a new cruise-ferry named PEGASIS (Power Efficient GAS Innovative Ship) in January 2014. The…
www.ship-technology.com www.ship-technology.com
 
EuroTrotters said:
Broken Link Removed
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Interesting how the Stena ships are similar to PEGASIS isn't it? That's a long story.
I took these a month ago, day before her maiden voyage. You can see the LNG stack ahead of the MGO/scrubber/DPF stack.
1650839704276.jpeg

1650839737197.jpeg

1650839772570.jpeg
 
Abacist said:
I have to say that I love the ease and simplicity of the tunnel. I just wish it wasn't in the far east of the country!
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Absolutely, for me no matter how many times l use it l cannot fail to be impressed by the whole infrastructure of the road system on the French side.
 
I paid £840 for a one way ticket Bilbao - Portsmouth , l boarded with a relatively clean MH but was placed only just inside on the right of the above image,needless to say the Sea played it’s part in landing with a filthy MH. Not good.

2D0C4436-570C-4E2A-9E77-E1EE69187AFD.jpeg
 
Jonno1103 said:
Yes but that's the same on any high street. You're paying for the brand name on the box. Shoppers are weird, try selling say Jo Malone products more inline with their cost and no one would buy them. It's cheap crap but it's the exclusive branding which fills shopping bags at around 1000% profit. Molton Brown is another, the cheapest, nastiest base products sold at exclusive prices. In many cases the packaging costs more than the product.
Click to expand...
Packaging sells a product , look at Pandora , mediocre jewellery in a Beverly Hills shop
 
Took the Galicia on the 25th of Jan - Check in very good, cabin good, evening meal excellent did not mind me bringing my own wine, at the other end we were off the boat and on the motorway in 20 mins

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