Yes of course the route won’t suit everybody (for many, going to/from ports further east or west will suit better) - but I do think Newhaven-Dieppe is a bit of an undiscovered gem (okay a slightly grubby gem, but a gem nevertheless).
While I am plugging DFDS (no I am not on commission!) another benefit of the smaller ships and smaller ports is that you usually get on and off the ferry and off on your way pretty quickly.
On my last trip I took the overnight sailing, which arrived at 5am - I was out of Dieppe and on my way by 20 past 5 (admittedly on a motorbike, which they tend to let off first)!
I think that, for my next trip, I may well give it a go. The trend towards much bigger boats and lots of entertainment doesn’t suit me at all. My favourite crossing used to be the small boat (Barfleur) Poole-Cherbourg one - 4 1/2 hours at a civilised time of day with a great restaurant for lunch…
First of all they got rid of the brilliant and always packed restaurant and turned it into a never-used room with games machines. Then they stopped the crossing altogether. Eventually it came back at impossible crossing times… sigh…
Oh well - perhaps the solution for me is not ever to go back to the Uk! (I’m getting close )
I’d add that the DFDS system of loading and securing motorbikes is far superior to the Brittany Ferries ‘here’s a strap and some hooks’ approach…
DFDS offer secure ‘over centre’ cradles that securely locate and lock the bike’s front wheel. Every time I have used them there has been a crew member on hand to ensure that everything is locked in place on embarcation, and safely released when the time comes to leave.
Having been to school just up the road I still shudder at the thought of the 2 or 3 school outings per year for a day trip to dieppe, rain, shine, tornado or monsoon, and the horror ferry crossings Just seeing the word Newhaven makes me remember the dread of going round the one way system and over the swing bridge in the school minibus knowing another 4 hours on the Sealink was imminent
That said the idea of being in my parents house 20 minutes after arriving at Newhaven rather than 2+ hours and enduring the M25 and M23 from Folkestone is making me seriously consider it. I do the tunnel by default for the dog having discounted out of hand the idea of leaving him in the car, but he’s quite chilled so I wonder whether he’d actually be OK sitting in there for 4 hours
Yes absolutely - the DFDS crew are very good and do all the work of strapping your bike down for you - obviously I give it the “once-over” but it’s always been very secure. BTW if there are a lot of bikes you won’t necessarily get a front-wheel cradle; last time my bike was parked with a few others in the middle of the deck but they do strap it down extremely well.
Yes, I was just taking the rare opportunity on here age myself When you’re amongst a group of people who talk like their childhood pet was a diplodocus you have to take every chance to remind that you didn’t come out of the womb last week
But yes, I know the garish yellow of the Transmanche Ferries only too well from hours sitting in queues at the swing bridge staring at it while waiting for what usually turned out to be some fishing boat smaller than a Ford fiesta to cross.
Oh boy do I remember them! Did the crossing to Guernsey on one of those and I still shudder if I think about it! The only one that was worse was the boat to the Scillies and at least that trip was shorter…
My father in law was a class one signalman for British Rail so got all the family over to Guernsey every summer for absolutely nothing on the old ferries they ran. I remember coming over to Bretagne for the first time in 1989 to buy our house and we paid around £60 return with a cabin from Ports/St.Malo. After that all crossings we did mostly from Roscoff which was across the bay from us but never will I do it again after spending 13hrs bobbing about in gale force 9 on Dec 21/22 2015 when the Armorique smashed into the dock at Plymouth it was so rough and I had never had seasickness in nearly 40 years of channel crossings until then.
After being hove to off Land’s End in a force 10 on the little Cherbourg Rosslare ferry in December 1982. They got the truck off with a bulldozer. The film in the little onboard cinema was Jaws
Over the years I’ve used the Chunnel a lot, both to go to the UK and to “land-bridge” across to Ireland. I’ve made innumerable Ireland to Cherbourg and Roscoff trips but it’s really only one a year now when we spend Christmas in Dublin to seem my wife’s mum and family. I find the drive up and down to Cherbourg a pain these days. There’s a nice hotel in the centre of Tours we often stay at and we’ve stayed at innumerable other nice spots over the years but it’s all a bit of a chore now.
I used the BF Bilbao (or Santander) to Portsmouth in 2017 to go to Malvern for a Morgan event and I found them OK. So when they announced a Rosslare to Bilbao route last year I decided to use it in February and drive 900km in better weather than the usual 1200km to get home. It worked out well. We’ll go back that way in December, but probably return through the UK to visit friends.
They are replacing at least one of their Newhaven Dieppe ships this winter albeit with an old Dover Calais ship one of the crew told me on my last crossing.
Also as its a 4 hour crossing a member of the crew will accompany you to your vehicle to check on pets during the crossing.
The night time crossings are often 5 hours. Annoyingly, there is never an on-board announcement to tell you the duration. I always double-check the online timetable to find out if I can look forward to 4 or 5 hours of ‘rest’, as it’s really annoying to wake up ready to disembark and then discover there’s another hour to go
I’ve never had a problem with that, surely you know the schedule before you board, when you book in fact. I have done that crossing many times delivering dogs, always had a cabin to sleep in and someone knocks on the door when it’s time to get up.
News to me then, the precise sailings and arrivals are governed by the tides as I believe the dredging at both ends is minimal, but I have always known when I went to bed what time to get up.
)
Just seeing the word Newhaven makes me remember the dread of going round the one way system and over the swing bridge in the school minibus knowing another 4 hours on the Sealink was imminent 
one way but had to get the boat back, Scillonian 2 I think, pretty basic
