Well the F**-k Up Ferry certainly arrived - our Swedish tour is no more!

Yes we had to wave the white flag after DFDS finally conceded Sunday night that there was zero hope of this boat ever leaving for Denmark (it's apparently now bound for a dry dock in Germany I've heard) and in any case part of the quay was also sunk too by all accounts and that wont be a quick fix either (After a dreadful day Saturday when it dawned on us that the ferry had collided with the quay, after much waiting, we'd decamped to the terminal where DFDS drip fed us with bits of info culminating with an offer several hours later to put us up on board Saturday night only to then kick us off the boat Sunday morning to stay wherever we could find a bed for the night with the possibility of a boat sailing maybe Monday night.



Well at St Albans it was all going well and on time


I totally accept accidents happen but it must have been abundantly obvious that with a boat holed below the waterline and a jetty out of service there was zero chance of a boat going out that night or in any hurry yet they still had us gamely lining up when we first arrived then frankly fannied about.

There was no water /tea/coffee being handed out to the queues and a couple of young DFDS employees were fed to the howling mob to explain the comapnies position - not that they knew that much either

What happened to all the staff that should have been sailing that night and why werent they drafted over to help those poor couple of girls and offer help to the passengers - especially the elderly ones and those with young children?

DFDS need to urgently review how they handle these kind of emergencies so that :

a) passengers are not kept waiting when there is patently no chance of a sailing and whilst an alternative crossing may be still possible
b) keep people properly updated with regular bulletins
c) provide asssistance in terms of food and beverages
d) be clear about what the support is and issue realistic timescales

We now have a trip that has been a year in planning completely written off, our Swedish hosts without our much anticipated classic car tour making its very first visit and an enormous waste of money on our part.

I'd like to think that DFDS will handle our claim sympathetically and I can't tel you how gutted we all felt. Its taken me a few day's just to make this post!

June and Daisy "Wave us Off" 

And a final shot



Filling up "before boarding" - If only we knew what was coming!


I guess it will all come out eventually - hopefully it won't be another Costa Concorde with some idiot captain showboating his seamanship and I guess the very gusty weather that day may have been a factor

As I said, accidents do happen and apparently the crew did a great job plugging the leak after the collision but DFDS badly need to up their game on how they handle such emergencies on dry land too so that we passengers are treated better in future.