FIP & Interrail on Harwich - Hoek van Holland Ferry

[SeanG]

Firstly, I am not sure whether this should be in the Fares section or the International section so happy for the thread to be moved if required.

Myself and my friend are wishing to travel as foot passengers overnight on the ferry. I will hold an interrail pass (which I believe gets a 30% discount) whilst my friend will be using his FIP boxes (I believe that this means that he just pays port taxes).

I called Stena and the person on the other end of the phone admitted that she didn't know about either of these discounts and the fare that was quoted was far cheaper than it should be (but if she was willing to sell me that then fair enough).

However, she claimed that it would need to be two separate bookings and that we couldn't share a cabin and would need to book two cabins as we were using two seperate types of discounted tickets (she implied that the same would be for if one person was using a Rail& Sail and another a standard booking, for instance).

I'm not sure if this is actually the case, does anyone have any experience of a booking like this on Stena?

 

[Mike395]

What's your full journey to get to the port on the UK side - will you be travelling by rail, and if so is it exclusively/mostly on GA? If so, you may well find Stena's fixed Rail and Sail fares cheaper (and save an Interrail day in the process if you were planning to use it to get to Harwich!) even taking into account the discounts: https://booking.stenaline.co.uk/ferry-to-holland/rail-and-sail

 

[SeanG]

What's your full journey to get to the port on the UK side - will you be travelling by rail, and if so is it exclusively/mostly on GA? If so, you may well find Stena's fixed Rail and Sail fares cheaper (and save an Interrail day in the process if you were planning to use it to get to Harwich!) even taking into account the discounts: https://booking.stenaline.co.uk/ferry-to-holland/rail-and-sail

I'll be coming from the north east and will be getting a 5 day interrail, which is only £25 more than the 4 day one in the current sale. I only need a 4 day ticket after the ferry, to get to Berlin and then back (we'll be flying home from an airport tbc), so the extra day is a worthwhile purchase in this case.

 

[Mike395]

I'll be coming from the north east and will be getting a 5 day interrail, which is only £25 more than the 4 day one in the current sale. I only need a 4 day ticket after the ticket, so the extra day is a worthwhile purchase.

Ah! In which case yes - use of a day is definitely the way to go. FIP is the blocker here really as it has to be booked over the phone (and thus I'm surprised the person you spoke to wasn't aware); the Interrail discount is just a promo code you can use online anyway.

I'd just call again and mention FIP first, then say about adding an additional passenger but you've got a promotional code to use, rather than bringing Interrail into the equation there.

 

[SeanG]

That's a good idea, I will try that. Thank you

 

[SeanG]

I just wanted to provide an update on this.
I called back a few days later and asked to book a crossing using a FIP box, and then one with an interrail discount and to share a cabin. The lady on the phone was very helpful, and understood that it was a somewhat complicated booking. She explained that technically for the booking system to work we should have two separate cabins but reckoned there was a way that we could just share. After putting me on hold for a minute or two whilst she consulted a colleague, it was explained that the workaround was to have two separate bookings and to put the cabin on the FIP booking, and then to book my interrail discounted ticket with no cabin. Now, given a cabin is mandatory on the overnight ferry she explained that we would need to check in together and put a note on my booking to link it to the FIP booking. Very pragmatic service.
I also got two emails about 5 minutes later with payment links (one for each booking) that I could pay online so that I did not have to pay the telephone booking surcharge - she said that it wasn't really fair to pay the telephone booking fee given you can only book FIP on the phone.

 

[MrJeeves]

Sounds like a fabulous service from Stena (at least on the second go!).

 

[scragend]

What's your full journey to get to the port on the UK side - will you be travelling by rail, and if so is it exclusively/mostly on GA? If so, you may well find Stena's fixed Rail and Sail fares cheaper (and save an Interrail day in the process if you were planning to use it to get to Harwich!) even taking into account the discounts: https://booking.stenaline.co.uk/ferry-to-holland/rail-and-sail

That page always makes me smile - they've used a photo of Liverpool Lime Street to illustrate "Depart from any Greater Anglia station".

I e-mailed Stena (several years ago now) to point it out and ask whether they had intended to use a photo of London Liverpool Street. They didn't reply and they've never changed it!

 

[trebor79]

Sounds like a fabulous service from Stena (at least on the second go!).

They are very good and the ferry is a great way to travel. I use the rail and sail on a semi-regular basis for work as it's far preferable to flying for a day trip to the Rotterdam office.