Why wouldn't you book a seat on a ferry?

[Tiredofthewhirring]

Just back from France, six hour crossing. Many passengers strewn on floor/lobby chairs acrosss the boat rather than paying £5 each for a reserved reclining seat!

Such a tiny sum for greatly increased comfort, given the overall cost of the ferry is hundreds of pounds.

Tell me, why wouldn't you book a seat????

Honestly whole families tucked in corners guarding their seats outside the duty free shop etc.

6 hour crossing to where from France?

Maybe they hadn’t booked the ferry before and had no idea of what they were walking in to.

maybe they assumed there would be spare chairs?

maybe they were all sold out?

I’ve never got on a ferry, I’d have no idea if £5 per person was a good deal or not when potentially there may be chairs for free

Um TY for this thread because I haven't booked the ferry yet for an upcoming trip, but remember browsing the site and thinking 'why would anyone pay extra for a seat? Surely there are seats already!' So will definitely now be adding on!

Book a seat?
Last time we did that length, we booked a cabin!!

Caen to Portsmouth is a 6hr crossing

I didn't know you could book a seat? It wasn't an option on our 6 hour crossing from France. I'm going to book a cabin next time, 6 hours on a ferry is fairly unbearable.

Portsmouth to Caen is certainly that length

possibly didn’t realise how busy or long it was

PS I think I was on your ferry, OP. We sat in the restaurant covered in sick because DS2 got mal-de-mer.

I’d assume there would be plenty of seats.

@FirstTimeHomeowner

So there are seats but there are randomly strewn across the boat in busy areas. And you'd have to guard them the whole time. And be first on the boat to bagsie.

Hence my strong steer just to book a much quieter, reclining seat for a fiver.

There's no large banks of unreserved seating

Why wouldn’t you book a cabin instead?

Your poor things!!! Hope he's feeling better

Considered that but as it's a day crossing we wanted to sit up straight and read etc

We used to do Portsmouth - St Malo regularly and the website always encouraged you to book a seat if not a cabin for the daytime crossing. Cabins were really cheap and meant you could leave all your stuff in there and had a private toilet.

Are the eeclining seats in rows though?

We did a shorter trip and decided to get on and look for seating round a table which we prefered and knew we'd eat too. Got a fab seat and yes at least one of us sat with it at all times.

Rows of seating make me feel trapped id its like an airplane. I didn't go and look to see what the reserved seating was like.

Because we wanted to sit up not lie down

They are much much more roomy than an airplane

Because I need to be outside in the fresh air otherwise I throw up! At best walking about indoors if really bad weather. When we were kids our parents booked a cabin but only 2 of the 6 of us could stay indoors!

On the Irish crossings the paid seats are not really more comfortable than the free ones. And a lot more than £5 each. We either get a cabin or not bother paying, the times I have paid its not really felt worth it.

There is mostly plenty of available seating unless you go on a really full crossing.

Was this yesterday afternoon's crossing?

Ah yes I remember doing overnight on an Irish crossing and a friend I slept on a sofa rather than our allocated seats.. But we were young!

Because I stand an increased chance of not vomiting if I’m on deck. I try not to venture inside.

When we went on a ferry to France, going there was overnight so we obviously got a cabin but coming back was a shorter journey, it might have been six hours or slightly more and we did book seats. However, there was no need really as there were plenty of spare seats available (it was really just in case anyone wanted to go to sleep).

@WatermelonSugarLow no yesterday morning it got a bit rough in the middle