To ask of you're stuck at Dover?

[aholidaynotacarpark]

We're travelling tomorrow morning and I'm dreading it! The reports I'm reading mainly mention problems with coaches and we'll be in a car. It sounds seagull for al the school kids stuck there, I really feel for them.
I need to work out how much food and In car entertainment to pack!

"Does anyone serious think the French would put up with this shit in Calais ? Especially when it's entirely the UKs sovereign decision ?"

The French don't have to. Calais is far bigger. As I understand it there are limited booths available, and no room to expand at Dover to allow more traffic.

I recall last year the queues were blamed on a few French workers not arriving for work. This year's it's more coaches than expected and bad weather.

Some reporters are making it clear this is largely Brexit related exacarbated I suppose by lack of flexibility/ capacity at the port

So why were there also long delays in 2011,2012,2013 and 2014? Blaming Brexit for everything is just ridiculous.

So anyone who voted Brexit you can’t complain about the queues, you’ve caused this! You’ve also caused your kids to not easily move around Europe if they ever want to live there or for people to retire there. My friend voted Brexit and regrets it, I’m sure she’s not the only one.

Again, I don’t use ferries, you don’t have passports stamped exiting through airports. Fuck me I wish I’d never asked now.

If you are travelling to the Schengen zone then you absolutely do get you passport stamped - this is how your length of stay is recorded/monitored.

You travel a lot, but never use ferries and don't seem to be aware that the changes since Brexit apply to air travel as well?

FWIW I am resident in France and have a residency card. I still have a British passport and if I didn't show my residency card at passport control then my passport would be stamped every time we fly back from the UK.

I live in a Remain voting area, as are the two adjoining areas. I think we should join forces and fight for independent status so we can rejoin.

I live in an echo chamber and consequently only know 6 people who voted to leave. Only 1 of them was over 50 at the time. Four of them (inluding the now 84 year old) now regret their vote and feel that they were lied to.

The two that don't regret it have fucked off to live in Australia.

The ferry thing was entirely predictable, checking passports was always going to take a lot longer once we'd left. People organising coach trips need to factor this into their planning imo.

For travellers who don't mind a longer ferry crossing, they don't seem to get these problems at Newhaven, but I don't know if they take coach traffic. I've certainly never seen coaches heading for the ferry terminal, and I go past it fairly regularly.

Yes! I don't have any kids and I'm old - and I live in Kent, but never in a month of Sundays would I have voted Brexit. But a lot of people were clueless and ignorant, and couldn't see beyond their own agendas.

And yet plenty stuck are children (couldn't vote) and many probably voted remain anyway!

Agree, it’s not fair.
You obviously didn’t know that the French customs bit is done in Dover not Calais and why should you.
No need for the pile on

She knew you get stamped when entering a country but was confused by people getting a stamp in Dover.
No need to be a Dick to her

Sorry @Labtastic misread it - should have quoted the seemingly very bitter @bellac11

@Hoppinggreen

I'm not being a dick.

@Aposterhasnoname claims to be a frequent traveller and is still saying that you don't get your passport stamped when you fly.

you don’t have passports stamped exiting through airports. Fuck me I wish I’d never asked now

You absolutely do (as long as we're talking about the Schengen zone, which we are).

How is that being a dick?

Thank you hoppinggreen.

ok, so I was asking if you get your passport stamped now exiting the uk through an airport. The answer is no. You do get stamped exiting the eu, I know this, and never said any different.

@Coastalvenues I’ve no idea but also one of the many reasons why we no longer live in the UK!

I know so many who voted Brexit and even worse imo (when so many downsides were already becoming obvious) again in 2019 for Boris Johnson to ‘get Brexit done’.

I think rejoining is a long way off, especially now uk has joined the Indo-Pacific trade block which will see the country diverge even further from EU regulations.

UK would be better off acknowledging the Brexit consequences and planning how to staff and manage its borders adequately.

Because she was just expressing surprise at passports being stamped at Dover rather than when entering France Passports are usually stamped on entry to a country not when leaving
Not everyone knows that Calais passport control is in Dover as it’s unusual.
She asked, was answered and then expressed surprise.
No need to be rude to her at all

@Hoppinggreen really? All our family has an EU passport but I have a British one. Can we go through the EU lane together? Last year we separated out!

We're driving to the UK on Wednesday and are using the tunnel. There seem to be no delays on that side for the time being.
Haven't had to get anything stamped so far but DS and I travel on EU passports and DH has a UK one with an EU residency card.
Is it mostly the ferries where there are issues? We usually get bumped to an earlier train whenever we go.

We went to gran caneria last Dec. Didnt have to queue there, just where you normally show your passport on arrival they stamped it at same time. On way out they had sectioned part of departures off and they stamped again, theb waited at your gate. But couldnt go back into main part as your had technicallly left the country. Didnt check through our passports. In turkey there was a small queue but didn't take long to get through.

I know this is how it's always phrased but the use of 'diverge from EU standards' annoys me. What we are doing is reducing standards. We, and the media, should say what 'diverge' really means.

minimooch we always use the tunnel and it’s much slower than it used to be since the Brexit transition period ended but you might be okay because you’ll be going against the main flow.

4 EU passports and one UK passport (moi) in our car.

KenDood I thought it would be obvious diverge was a negative thing. Didn’t mean to annoy.

Not annoyed with you :)
You're just repeating the language that's always used.

Yes Im bitter and angry about it. I had my rights and opportunities taken away from me by morons.

Since we left the EU! If you enter/leave the Schengen area your passport is inspected and stamped.

Also true before we left because we were not in Schengen. They were just more lax about it if they didn’t have capacity. Now they have to check otherwise the EU gets mad as there is no longer freedom of movement.

My family were all stuck in massive queues at Schiphol last year.

Nearly every Dutch person was stuck in massive queues at Schiphol last year because various staff decided to strike or didn’t work overtime. Weirdly, DD and I traveled from Schiphol to Greece in August of year and I’ve never seen Schiphol so quiet. We were sat at the gate for hours and Schiphol is not a place you want to be stuck at for hours. Before anyone asks, I fly using my British passport and only whip out my Dutch residence permit when asked.

If I could have voted remain I would have but I haven’t lived in the UK for over twenty years so I didn’t have the right. However, I think it’s wrong to lay everything at the Brexit door because it’s convenient. Schiphol was a nightmare for many travellers last summer, especially the Dutch for whom the majority weren’t going anywhere near the UK.