DFDS Reviews 

When the ferry becomes part of your working life

Many people think it must be very romantic to travel by ferry between Sweden and Lithuania twice a week. But there are also some disappointing aspects of this routine.

One of them is the experience at reception, where staff sometimes seem to make every effort to put you in a cabin with a complete stranger.

This can occasionally happen when the ferry is fully booked or during the high season. However, with DFDS, it seems to be a deliberate policy, even when there are plenty of empty cabins on board.

On some vessels, at least an effort is made to accommodate passengers of different nationalities separately. On others, even this basic consideration seems to be ignored.

It is deeply disappointing to see a company treating truck drivers as if they were animals rather than paying passengers and guests.

Let me ask you a simple question: would you personally enjoy spending your free time sharing just a few square metres with a complete stranger?

DFDS claims to be one of the best ferry companies, yet apparently finds it difficult to provide its guests with decent accommodation and a reasonable level of privacy.

I sincerely hope that, sooner or later, governments or relevant authorities will address this issue and introduce regulations requiring ferry operators to provide decent accommodation for professional drivers.

Truck drivers are people too. They deserve dignity, privacy and respect.

Thank you.

Dfds cancelled both outwards and return ferry due to operational reasons. I had to shorten my holiday and travel at alternative times. Dfds refused to assist with booking a hotel next to the departure port when I asked this because they rescheduled the time to at night. Service on the boat was ok but was expecting a bit more hospitality. There was barely any instructions, no safety instructions, no information on how to return to the car etc. I was traveling with small kids so I would have appreciated more safety information.

Tried to book as a family of 3 travelling from Newcastle to Holland only 2 find we would need to pay for 2 cabins as 1 family members is a wheelchair user.
DFDS only provide wheelchair accessible cabins for 2 people meaning families have to pay extra.
Thankfully P&O ferries offer accessible cabins that sleep up to 4 so our family of 3 can travel together and for less by travelling via Hull.

Absolutely horrendous customer service. Cancelled our ferry twice and just moved us to another service without asking us. We lost hundreds in unused accommodation, and DFDS didn't even bloody offer a coffee voucher for the inconvenience. I thought airlines were bad, but turns out DFDS customer service is even worse. Never again - avoid avoid avoid!

Oh, and nobody answers the phone, chat or whatsapp either.

The customer service was fully AI and poorly responsive. As a result I ended up with a non refundable trips with extra costs incurred to change the dates. Avoid if possible.

Very trustworthy people working here no pushing sales people great advice they will advise you what’s best for customers not what’s best for dfds it’s definitely not about money it’s about what’s best for customers I will never go anywhere else again they are top class people & do everything they say they are going to do on time & keep me updated on everything 👍 ps unlike some other companies who definitely let us down

Horrible company, horrible customer service, these people ruined my day, use any other ferry service

Had amazing customer service from Deusa today, who untangled my booking like Poirot and got my tickets all sorted. Thank you Deusa, you're amazing!

Booked afternoon ferry for Sunday on Newhaven Dieppe route. Message arrived 1700 Friday. Ferry cancelled. Rebooked on the 0800 ferry instead.

Here’s the problem. Ferries need repairs. Fine. Customers need to be rebooked. Fine. But and it’s a big BUT. You say to contact the call centre if you need to make changes. Except you close the call centre at 1600 and it remains closed all weekend. So people can’t contact the call centre.

Disgusting.

I would just like to thank DFDS for their great organisation of transport boarding and leaving ferries, great food in restaurants and so grateful for meal vouchers. THANK.YOU DFDS

Beware
If you travel with this company they can and do cancel your ferries at short notice (Bad weather?) We had a 5 day holiday booked in jersey thanks to DFDS we only had 48 hours on the island. They cancel the ferry on the Monday due to bad weather and left us stranded in poole for the night. Then they cancelled the ferry back for Friday and Saturday so where informed we had to come back on the Thursday. On checking we found out that Friday ferry actually sailed. I have since have contacted DFDS and stated all of this to them and basically got it's in the terms and conditions so we are left £475 out of pocket thanks to this company.

Deceptive marketing trap for families! Facts & Proof inside.DFDS advertises a "+/- 4 hours flexibility window" for Economy tickets, but it is a complete marketing scam to lure customers [expired_document]. We traveled under booking reference 22916022 on a grueling journey from Barcelona with three young children [expired_document].Here are the undeniable facts that prove their deceptive practices:Our booked crossing from Calais was at 11:50 hrs. The official 4-hour flexibility window was valid until 15:50 hrs [expired_document].We arrived at the Calais port check-in barriers at 14:30 hrs (well within the window) and our payment transaction was processed at 14:48 hrs [expired_document].DFDS Customer Care officially rejected our refund, claiming that the 4-hour window counts from the check-in closing time, which is a direct violation of their own terms [expired_document].They forced a Ukrainian family to pay an extra €56.00 to board the 16:35 ferry [expired_document], completely nullifying the promised flexibility [expired_document].Disgraceful service, completely ruined our trust.
I officially contacted DFDS Customer Care twice regarding this mathematical error (Case handled by Raphaela and Shana). They completely ignored their own written policy and rejected my refund twice with ridiculous excuses, proving that their customer support is as useless as their fake flexibility rules.
We will never use DFDS again.

Cancelled both inbound and outbound ferries due to weather, which is fair enough. However despite trying to reach on the phone, email, whatsapp, Facebook and X, not one reply over the whole w/e.
SHAME ON YOU

Wildfires, 46°C in the van, family trying to get home safely - DFDS's response was to charge us an extra £176.96 to use space that was already on the ship.

Over a month of complaints and a Subject Access Request later: no refund, no escalation, no explanation for deleting my post on their social media. Oh, and my dog's microchip was never actually checked at the border either, despite paperwork saying it needed to be.

Still unresolved. Think twice before booking with DFDS.

I have to share how exceptional I have found DFDS Rosslare to Dunkirk Ferry. I had a problem, mine not DFDS, Marcella at Rosslare was very understanding and put me in touch with Finbarr in DFDS Cork who went above and beyond to fascilitate us. These two people are the exceptional public face of DFDS and I hope they are appreciated for it. How a customer is treated when there is a problem is the measure of a good company and I can say DFDS surpassed all expectations. I have no problem in unreservedly recommending the DFDS Rosslare to Dunkirk Ferry. As a motorhome owner DFDS are now my ferry of choice.

I am extremely disappointed with DFDS.
On 6 September 2026, I spent £160.37 in the onboard Duty Free shop. Because I spent over £150, I was given a leaflet offering a complimentary next day trip. The leaflet clearly instructed me to scan a QR code, enter my booking and receipt details, and receive a voucher by email.
Unfortunately, the QR code simply opens the DFDS Passenger app homepage. There is nowhere in the app to enter the receipt details. I tried adding my booking, but the app only tells me that it is an old trip.
I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to follow DFDS's own instructions, including looking through the app and trying to contact customer service. Instead of being a straightforward reward for spending £160.37 in their shop, this has turned into an incredibly frustrating experience.
If DFDS offers a promotion, the process for claiming it should actually work.
I still have the original receipt and the promotional leaflet as proof. I would simply like DFDS to honour the offer they gave me and provide the complimentary day-trip voucher.
Very disappointing customer service and a very frustrating experience.

I had a booking that I had to cancel due to change of plans. Scott from customer support made it very easy to reschedule my ticket and cancel a mistake I did on the website.
Grateful and thankful of the support, as a note I think the cancellation process can improve as it doesn't mention that you get no refund before clicking cancel.
I give the 5 stars for the support from Scott, NOT for the website, that needs work.

Slower than P&O loading and unloading. The boat had seen better days, with uncomfortable seating and stains everywhere on seating areas. Duty free average compared to to their rivals. For the same price as the ferry next door I will not pick them again.

Avoid if you expect a smooth journey. We had to wait a staggering 120 minutes just to get through border control at Calais. Because of this massive delay, we missed our scheduled ferry. While DFDS did put us on the next available sailing, the entire experience was deeply frustrating. It is ridiculous that law-abiding people with valid passports face this level of friction trying to get to the UK, while illegal crossings seem to face fewer hurdles. Total administrative failure.

Update
The ferry was delayed by 25 minutes, but what made it worse was the complete lack of communication. There was absolutely no explanation given for the delay, no apology from the crew or staff, and not even a gesture of goodwill like a free coffee while we waited. Frustrating and very unprofessional customer service.

I will put my name here so you can verify just how much and how long I have been using dfds,I have been using you for about 10 years dieppe-newhaven - Dieppe but not anymore dfds did well but it was because of being the cheapest but not anymore in the last several months your prices have gone through the roof even when you take the 20 percent discount that always got , I have now moved over to Brittany ferries who has several crossing Portsmouth caen not only is Portsmouth the most convenient port of entry to me the quality of the Brittany vessels is by far superior ..didn't dfds realise that travellers chose dfds because they were cheap but not any more