Driving to Bilbao

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ashtondav
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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby ashtondav » Tue Dec 01, 2020 7:46 pm

Several road blocks on our drive up but they waved Brits through.

Stayed at the Tudanca Spa in Aranda de Duero. Superb view of the vineyard! €117 halfboard for two including that bottle of red and two glasses of blanco. Book direct not through Booking.com bandits. Brittany ferries dismal. So low on staff the queue for breakfast was 30 minutes and dinner not much good either. Oh for the old days on Cap Finistere - or the new days on Galicia!

Funny, i thought i posted all this the other day but it doesn't appear - must have been the all included wine at tudanca

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Enrique
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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby Enrique » Tue Dec 01, 2020 9:12 pm

Hi ashtondav,

What ship did you travel on :?:

We came up end of September on Pont Aven and all was very pleasant no queueing for meals and the staggered down to car decks worked well too.
The only downside was being disembarked at Plymouth not Portsmouth ......... had a feeling they where taking the vessel out of service for the winter .
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peteroldracer
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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby peteroldracer » Tue Dec 01, 2020 9:50 pm

"The only downside was being disembarked at Plymouth not Portsmouth" For most of this year the Pont Aven has been running on 3 engines following an engine room fire. In order to keep to a workable schedule Brittany changed the UK port to Plymouth, a shorter crossing. Maybe they will get a new engine fitted this winter.
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costakid
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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby costakid » Tue Dec 01, 2020 10:11 pm

October 2020 and i was on the Cap Finistere from Bilbao to Portsmouth. Not much open on board but a nice crossing. Breakfast was good but all bars closed.

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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby zanuck » Wed Dec 02, 2020 10:08 am

Brittany ferries dismal. So low on staff the queue for breakfast was 30 minutes and dinner not much good either. Oh for the old days on Cap Finistere - or the new days on Galicia!
We came to Spain in early October on Cap Finistere, and returned on 20 November on the same ship. There were perhaps fewer visible staff on the return trip than the outward one, but then the bar was open in October and closed in November, so fewer staff needed to serve and clear tables.

Breakfast and dinner is being served in the much smaller servery of the Drivers Lounge, hence the queues, but we found adequate staff numbers serving - it's a fairly small area, so getting more bodies behind the counters isn't really feasible. The "Salad Bar" cafe is open on the top deck, but it's rather chillier up there so we prefer to eat downstairs.

I look forward to the full breakfast with BF, just wish they'd bring back the fried eggs - their scrambled ones don't do it for me.

Even though it means queuing, where else is there to go until you disembark in Portsmouth?

We did feel that the 3 or 4 berth cabins that we had on Cap Finistere were smaller than on the now removed Baie de Seine and Cap is looking rather tired with rusty areas of paintwork on the outside, and stained chairs and carpets in the lounges, but, if my memory serves me right, Cap Finistere is being taken out of service in the new year for an annual overhaul, so maybe it will return bright and sparkly.

I've made some of the above points to BF when I completed their "how did we do" survey that always arrives in the inbox a few days after disembarkation.

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costakid
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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby costakid » Wed Dec 02, 2020 10:52 am

Agree with the egg comment. I do not like watery scrambled eggs but overall a descent breakfast.

ashtondav
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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby ashtondav » Wed Dec 02, 2020 1:31 pm

Well my trip back in April is on the cap finistere so hopefully it will be tarted up by then. I prefer the fried eggs but the scrambled were quite good and not watery.

ashtondav
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Re: Driving to Bilbao

Postby ashtondav » Wed Dec 02, 2020 1:34 pm

Enrique wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 9:12 pm Hi ashtondav,

What ship did you travel on :?:

We came up end of September on Pont Aven and all was very pleasant no queueing for meals and the staggered down to car decks worked well too.
The only downside was being disembarked at Plymouth not Portsmouth ......... had a feeling they where taking the vessel out of service for the winter .
Cap Finistere. Oh and we upgraded to a club class cabin. Never again, the only difference was 2 bottles of water, some sweets, a very small tv, and a square window. No difference in size.


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