When you travel with Condor Ferries on their Liberation boat, between Poole and Guernsey or Jersey, you have a choice of three classes; Ocean Traveller, Ocean Plus and Ocean Club.
Which should you choose? Which class offers the best way to spend your hard-earned pounds?
Whichever class you choose, we think that the Condor Ferry is the best way to travel to Guernsey.
Ocean Traveller
Advantages: This is the cheapest class.
It gets you from A to B in the same time period as the other two classes.
You get a seat but may be positioned near the kids area or food area so your seat position may not be ideal.
Paid for hi-speed Wi-Fi available at an extra charge.
Ocean Plus
Advantages: Like the Ocean Club, this lounge can only be accessed by those who have paid to upgrade their class of travel (via a secure key card entry).
This cabin is at the front of the ship, so benefits from the best view on the boat.
There is an exclusive bar serving food and drink at the back of the cabin. This is self-service, so you need to go up and buy your sandwiches. They are not delivered to your table.
This means that this lounge has much more transit traffic, with people going up and down to collect food and drink, and often there are children playing in the aisles, making the atmosphere more interesting but less calm than Ocean Club.
The seats recline and there are table seats available.
There is a power supply at every seat.
Paid for hi-speed Wi-Fi available at an extra charge.
Ocean Club
We have reviewed Condor Ocean Club in detail separately and it is pictured above.
Advantages: An exclusive lounge with extremely comfortable and spacious leather reclining seats arranged in 2-s or 4-s.
Steward service, so you don’t need to get up and queue to get your food. Food is served to your table. Of note: The food is not included in the price, but it is inexpensive. Two wraps and a side of chips will come to around £10 GBP.
Complimentary tea and coffee with one packet of two biscuits.
All seats have tables.
There is a power supply at every seat.
Paid for hi-speed Wi-Fi available at an extra charge.
Should I Upgrade?
If you are on a tight budget, probably not. The basic seats are not luxury but they are fine.
If you have a bit of flexibility in your budget then yes! The Ocean Plus and Ocean Club seats both recline and are definitely preferable to the basic seats. The views and comparative exclusivity also make the upgrade worthwhile.
Should I Upgrade To Ocean Club?
You may prefer the panoramic views in Ocean Plus, but for me, the Club is far superior. I tend to work while travelling so the fact you get a more spacious seat, seat table, a quieter environment and food and drink delivered to the table (which saves queueing up) makes this more sophisticated experience worth the cost of the upgrade.
Whichever class you travel, if you have any love of travel at all, you will love the views when arriving in St Peter Port in Guernsey, the main port in Jersey and views across Poole Harbour. It’s such fun watching the little boats below.
On our most recent trip, a dolphin took great pleasure jumping about in the bow wave of the Condor as it swung into St Peter Port. I have never seen a wild dolphin so close. It glistened as it jumped over the waves. Magic! The dolphin happened to be jumping about just outside the Club Cabin window, made the upgrade even more worthwhile on this particular trip!
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