Irish Ferries Reviews

They don’t reply to complaints. Had a terrible journey that was significantly delayed. Over three hours in the queue at Dover and no welfare assistance, compensation or even an explanation. Avoid. Swim if you need to!

Terrible!!! Frozen fish and chips at £18.00 I asked for child portion of curry and was still charged full price, €86 euro for 4 meals and 5 drinks and none of us could eat our food! €2.50 for a bag of taytos ? Would advise to take a packed lunch with you, Staff loading the cars were ignorant and crammed everyone in like sardines he was roaring at everyone to move up we really struggled to get the baby and kids out of car, on observation so did everyone else eveeyone was giving out, asked if there was an elevator for the buggy he didn't understand me and grunted, facilities were terrible filthy, have being travelling with Irish ferries for years now this was an older boat never again!! Kids loved the cinema but couldn't hear the movie from all the car alarms going off underneath us! Prob from being on top of each other, I will say the staff on board were very nice and polite

Irish Ferries your ship is absolutely filthy. Rosslare to Pembroke and back. The toilets on both trips were an absolute disgrace. The poor staff were run off their feet doing 3 jobs at the one time. Certainly not the staffs fault.

I have only ever travelled over the last 20 years with Irish ferries from Wales to Ireland and I have only good things to say. On this trip my son left his mobile phone on the Ferry from Rosslare and Debbie in the Pembroke office looked after us. On the day before we were due to return my mother was admitted to hospital and Shelley in the Pembroke Office went over and above to sort out a new booking. Best service definitely worth praising.

Rosslare to Pembroke.
Booked last minute as other supplier cancelled. Better travel times. Very pleased & satisfied with all aspect of journey & staff.
Easy loading & disembarking. Plenty of seating. Small but quiet reclining lounge. Nice cinema lounge. Breakfast fine. Had child’s portion €10. Adult €16, not worth it.
Shop could be bigger, tight squeeze. And space outside much smaller than Stena Line so if looking to stretch your legs!

Don't believe the (suspicious) negative reviews. Travelled from Dover to Calais three days ago: one of my best ferry experiences and I've travelled a lot. Ferry in clean and very neat condition. Toilets extremely clean. Boarding and check in fast and efficient. Staff very friendly. Definitely significantly better than everything that cruises on the Mediterranean.

Absolute shambles of a company. Arrived for our 7:50 ferry at 06:30 in the morning only to be told this and the next ferry were cancelled due "an issue getting fuel" and we should have received a text overnight (which we did not receive)

We then had to wait for the 11.05 ferry which at the time of writing (11:40) still hasn't moved.

We traveled down the night before and stayed in a nearby campsite to make sure we were at check-in in plenty of time for a ferry these clowns couldn't even be bothered to put on (I suspect the real reason for cancellations were to make sure the ferry was full to maximise return)

Let's just hope we don't miss check in for our campsite in Luxembourg!

The worst experience ever! I will never book with them ever again!

Arrived at Dover (50 minutes prior to departure) on 1st July to catch the 23:50 to Calais only to be told at check in that the captain had decided to leave early. We were told we could get on the next ferry but that had been cancelled so the next ferry after that was 3 am. Needless to say we had to wait. On our way home on Saturday, 9th July we were text to say that our 17:50 ferry had been delayed but we could get on the ferry at 16:10 however, once boarded this ferry never left until 17:20 and then took forever to berth at Dover. Needless to say our connections were missed again, as they were on the way out. Totally unhappy with the service received from Irish Ferries and will never use them, or recommend them again as they obviously cannot be relied upon to deliver a punctual service. Crew were nice, ferry was nice but service was dreadful!!

Travelled back last night on the 20.30 ferry which was actually the 19.30 ferry delayed, over crowded, fish and chips at £18.00 sorry no chips but a roast potato was the substitute, l walked away in as nothing looked appetising and all overpriced. Would advise to take a sandwich with you. Cheaper than DFDS for crossing fare but you pay extra for food, Staff excellent, facilities not so good and well overpriced.

Update - I emailed Aferry as requested by Irish Ferries and got a reply within minutes from a very helpful person. She was going to email Irish Ferries .... and .... 2 weeks later.... has not had a reply.

My next stop will be ABTA about Irish Ferries. I'm going to do what I can as IF are so clearly in breach of their own terms and conditions.




I wrote to Irish Ferries to complain about a very late crossing and asked for the maximum compensation. No reply so I emailed again several times.

2 months (!) later I had a very apologetic reply from Irish Ferries telling me I had to complain to the Aferry.com website who I originally booked through, (but not everyone does). So I’ve emailed Aferry.com and will keep going till I get the compensation that is in Irish Ferries terms and conditions.

Just arrived in France today from our ferry (W.B Yeats). Family of 5. Got to our campsite on time. 4 hours from Cherbourg. Car was safely teleported hundreds of miles across the ocean. My family was safe. The staff are friendly. Cabins are grand, new, clean. We got two as family of 5 we used to keep to a single cabin but now the older ones need more space.

As I said the staff are mostly really helpful and talkative if you want, Apart from that one or two who think they own the ship. Just gotta read it. This morning at breakfast I attempted to test the level of customer services by saying good morning before saying my order, the lady didn’t say good morning back and was only interested in processing the queue. That’s fine I don’t care. Just a reflection of what life at sea can be like for staff who sail daily back and forward to France every day. Gotta read the room.

So…. What do you get with review websites like this for big companies. Mostly negative reviews. Not I. Very few people take the time to post positive reviews. But by god they will post negative reviews.

Think about it. They are transporting your vehicle and your family hundreds of miles across the Irish Sea and the English Channel.

Of course there are hiccups. But from my experience (if you read my review from July 2021) - when things go really bad the team at Irish ferries and especially the team at the dock in Dublin - Stewart and Eddie go above and beyond the call of duty to solve any problems and get you on board. These guys really need a mention here. (Do the head office actually read these reviews or ever respond to them?)

If your complaining about the price of food and yea I paid €5 for cornflakes and milk this morning. That’s life today in 2022. If you don’t want this bring your own food and drink.

Anyway this year was brilliant, got to watch the hurling semi final in the bar. Chilled out with my family and woke up safely in Cherbourg - got off the boat in a professional manner and continued on our journey.

I just don’t understand what sort of service all these negative review people are expecting.

Big love to ❤️ Stewart and Eddie from the on boarding team in Dublin . These guys dilute all the negative stuff.

Gave 2 stars for departing and arriving on time. Travelled to France on the Innisfree as an alternative to P&O having sailed P&O for over 20yrs. Have to say it was so basic. Ship seemed tired, jaded and in need of a good clean, it felt more like a seagoing transport cafe.
Cooked breakfast was cold, barely edible and extortionately priced. What cost 16 quid a head on this boat would still have been poor in a transport cafe if it was only a fiver.
I booked the club lounge in advance but it was shut. The regular lounge really was like a truck stop. Couldn’t wait to get off before we’d set sail. The first French motorway service station I stopped at was a significant improvement. Never again!

Don’t understand what everybody is complaining about great service great price.

Worst crossing ever. Compared to DFDS and P&O the Irish Ferries is the worst alternative to travel the Channel. Their ferries are way smaller and there is nothing to do other than sit in the overcrowded restaurant or lobby or shop in the small duty free shop. Outside areas also small compared to the other ferries available at the Channel. Worst of all: their check in procedure takes ages. While DFDS and P&O had hardly no queues Irish Ferries did as it takes them ages to finish one car, very frustrating to witness them working that slow while stuck feeling the time pressure, we even missed our crossing and had to wait another 2 hours for their next ferry. Irish Ferries was the cheapest alternative but we had to pay extra by losing time. Never again for us. I’m sure they will not be able to establish as a channel crossing alternative.