DFDS Reviews 

Would give 0 stars if possible. Useless customer service.

Sailed Dover-Dunkirk. Ferry was clean and easy to navigate around with plenty of seating.
I had a long drive in France and was pleased we set off 5 minutes earlier. However, we docked at 5.20, 20 minutes later meaning the whole crossing took almost 2 1/2 hours! The channel was very calm and Dunkirk was very quiet so can’t understand the delay.
If you’re in a rush, I’d use P&O or Le Shuttle. No explanation or apology.

On time
Well priced
Staff well trained,polite, helpful

Thief's over £200.00 for nothing, full of excuses, will be back to Stenaline

In July we were travelling back from France/Spain in our campervan with our young child (who has asthma) and our dog, right in the middle of the wildfires and 46°C heatwave that hit the south of France. We had to cut our holiday short by 2 weeks and reroute significantly just to avoid smoke inhalation and closed roads — leaving us in real financial difficulty on top of everything else.

We contacted DFDS multiple times, telling them clearly that we feared for our lives. To move onto an earlier sailing, we were charged a further £170 on top of what we'd already paid — which we paid, because we needed to get our family to safety. When we explained again that this was a genuine safety issue, not a convenience change, the best DFDS could offer on top of that was to waive a £10 admin fee.

We then went to the port ourselves to try to get onto an even earlier sailing. There WAS space on board. DFDS charged us again — a further £94 — to use it.

A family telling you they fear for their lives should not be charged, twice, to get to safety. We submitted a formal complaint and are still waiting on a proper response. When I posted about this on DFDS's own Facebook page, they simply deleted the comment rather than addressing it. Profiting from a family in genuine danger, then deleting the evidence instead of responding, isn't good enough.

The ferry crossing from Dover to Calais was disappointing, particularly when it came to the seating area. The chairs were extremely dirty and looked as though they had not been properly cleaned for a long time. The general cleanliness of the seating area was very poor and, frankly, quite disgusting.

There were also very few comfortable seating options for families travelling with children. There were not enough couches or suitable areas to sit, and at times we had no choice but to sit on the floor.

For a company operating a busy international ferry service, I would expect much better standards of cleanliness and passenger comfort. The seating areas should be cleaned properly and maintained to a much higher standard.

DFDS – €900 for an awful experience

My journey with DFDS on 29 July was honestly one of the worst travel experiences I have had.

I paid around €900 for my booking and was travelling with my cat. Two days after booking, DFDS emailed me saying my cat was not allowed to travel, so I cancelled the booking. I then contacted Customer Services, who changed the booking and confirmed that I could travel with my cat and included a cabin.

When I actually boarded the ferry, however, I was put in the lower deck. It was extremely noisy, the toilet did not work properly, and the overall experience was awful.

I immediately complained to staff onboard and was basically told that there was nothing they could do. After paying €900, that response was completely unacceptable.

I subsequently submitted a complaint to DFDS, and they have completely ignored it.

The combination of contradictory information about travelling with my cat, the poor conditions onboard, the lack of functioning facilities, the response from staff and then the failure to properly deal with my complaint has left me extremely disappointed.

€900 is a huge amount of money to pay for this level of service. I expected much better from DFDS and certainly expected my complaint to be taken seriously.

I would strongly recommend that DFDS review how they handle both passengers and complaints, because my experience was simply unacceptable.

I'm sat at the ferry port right now with swollen knee and ankle wanting to get an early ferry as we are booked on a late one I've had to make an appointment at hospital it's that bad but they seem to want to cash in on my pain and charge me £140 I'm very upset that no-one is will to help me so I'm left with know other choice but to email the C.E.O Micheal Hassan

You should not have let later travellers check in 3 hrs early. They cause traffic at border control unnecessarily. Those with earlier ferries miss their ferry. The check-in process is definitely the cause for border control being exhausted.

Otherwise dsds is great. Love it.

Excellent service - we were treated like royalty as we had our disabled daughter with us. Nothing was too much trouble - would highly recommend xx

It was a great trip.

Purchased faulty earphones from their duty free and have spent the last 2 weeks trying to get in touch with someone to sort out a refund. Have chased them about 10 times and they still won't respond. Shocking customer service.

On the way from Poole to Jersey, 5th August we have had a rough sea. Many people were sea sick. Tatiana from Premium Lounge was looking after us, she was so nice, professional and kind. The sickness was horrible but she made it much better. Thank you Tatiana 😘

Went to get food and the food staff’s behaviour was atrocious, having so much attitude and anger while serving, whilst serving other customers with respect and loyalty, made me and my family feel stood out, will not take it again

Absolutely appalling - travelling from Rosslare to Dunkirk and back.
On both our outward (17.07.26) and inward (31.07.26) journey - staff was rude and impolite (except the young bartender and shop member on our 31.07 return journey).
Food was absolutely abysmal, food services last for 1h30 - We would go down 45 minutes into the 3 meals services as there would be queuing (which is normal) and already no more desert 3 times in a row while there was still 45 minutes of service to go. We were served the same sides 3 meals in a row as well. Every time we would go down all the starters (salads and stuff were almost empty) - cutlery, plates and trays were dirty. My partner who is allergic to pork and gets bad reactions to it asked what the meat was in the soup and the answer from the crew member (male) was to roll his eyes and respond I don’t know - mix, we had the same reaction with the lasagna when we asked if it was beef or a mix of pork and beef, the crew member (female) said I don’t know and when we nicely asked if she could find out, she also rolled her eyes and left pissed off to the kitchen to check which completely cut off our “appetite” and we ended up not having diner at all. Breakfast not even gonna say anything, the hash browns were a joke, there were people in front us in the queue and at some point they changed their mind on the ingredients they wanted for breakfast and the staff said to them so you don’t know what you want do you? Not even butter or orange juice for breakfast and toaster was not working. If your staff cannot be a tiny bit nice and polite and don’t want to be asked questions about food, the least you can do is to put a menu or a description of the dishes in front of each dish being served.
Cabin was filthy (especially the bathroom) with poo marks all over the toilets and hair in the shower and sink. Floor was disgusting and full of dust and hair, we did not even have a clean water bowl for our dog. Lucky we had our own. 1h before docking, there was an announcement that crew members would start collecting linen from cabins but nothing about having to vacate them. When they knocked on our door, the same rude guy from the restaurant came for the bed linen, he rudely said how long before you leave the cabin? We said we did not know we had to leave but we would leave then in a few minutes. Then he proceeded to remove the bed linen and he said how many in the cabin and we said we were only two but we had used the extra blankets and pillow for comfort (24h on the boat is long) and because we were cold and he gave us a very dirty look and rolled his eyes again. There is no tv in the cabin which I think would be a great addition for a 24h crossing. The hangers in our cabin were broken. You should also provide a bathroom mat for the floor of the bathroom and a small hand towel as well as 2 towels is very limited. On the Athena Seaways, the outside dog area is great, on the Victoria seaways, it is non existent and there are no indications of where to go for your dog business. On both journeys, the staff on the car deck to park the cars was also very rude. It was our first time traveling with DFDS and rest assured that never again unless we have no other choice cause at 1700€ you expect a bit better especially with politeness and cleanness. We are usually not fussy travelers but this was by far the worst experience we have ever had.

i had forgot to put a review last year going with them this year and getting ready for it to. Anyway as this was a first time on ferry going from condor to DFDS for first time i was very pleased with it as it felt the same im not really worried about roughness (if it is or not) as its to be expected, plenty of seats to choose wide range of food and a nice viewing area do miss a upstairs viewing area like from condor but could be health and safety not affecting this.

My family and I booked a ferry crossing including our car, from Poole to Jersey. The vessel developed a technical fault part way through our crossing and we had to return to Poole. DFDS were terrible. Nobody was at the port on our return to give us information & no alternative travel arrangements were offered.
They simply buried their head in the sand and pretended nothing had happened.
We then had to arrange return flights and car hire to continue our pre booked holiday and encored the following costs:
Return Flights, 1 weeks car hire, fuel to and from the airport & airport car parking. We also missed out on 1 nights accommodation and a pre booked activity on what should have been our first day.
I contacted DFDS about our losses and their position is that they are not prepared to reimburse a single thing and looking at their terms and conditions, it is written into them that they are probably covered on this aspect and don’t have to pay out if they cancel a service.
This therefore leaves potential passengers very much exposed in the case where DFDS decides to cancel a service and I would urge people to book with caution.
I feel this is very poor and would expect some level of protection if they enter a contract with you to transport your family and car and you pay them in full in advance for this.
Needless to say, I will not be using DFDS’s services again and warn others from my experience of what happens when things go wrong.

Virtual assistant LOOP, that's all the customer service DFDS seem to provide. Tried to amend a crossing a few hours before the sailing time due to unforseen situation. Website says you can amend online 24/7. Yeah...unless your crossing is LOCKED , for whatever reason and without explanation ! DFDS customer service ?! Doria virtual assistant who holds you into a loop chat. Human assistants ? in theory 8.30-17.00, like road workers, however even trying to contact during their opening hours, still get Doria as soon as I access customer service page and that's it. And within the next days I insisted in contacting DFDS . Wasting hours and days via Whatsapp , they're coming with new t&c which of course are nowhere else available within the booking procedure. Overall , THEY ARE RIGHT and CUSTOMER IS WRONG ! bit of a BULLY attitude.

Paid for exec lounge and arrived in the lounge first. When it came to ordering food it had all been taken by other passengers who were served before us, it seems there was no delivery for that sailing. The staff were really lovely, helpful and apologetic, but dfds its not really good enough paying for something and not getting it.

Travelling Calais to Dover, as a coach customer, so no free meal.
Absolutely terrible prices, £14 for an unappetising looking meal that had been under heat lamps for ages.
£2.50 for a bottle of water, £3.25 for a tea( a cup of hot water, a tea bag and a jug of milk on the counter)
Oh and a cheese and bacon croissant that couldn't be heated up because they were for later crossings.
Considering how much these ferries cost, why is the service so very bad?