As I was travelling without young children this time, I decided to pay the extra for First Class. This was initially well worth it: you get priority boarding and free soft drinks and coffee/tea in comfortable seating in a calm atmosphere. At least, it WAS calm.... until some workmen started banging away at the entrance to the First Class area. This got worse at 3pm (halfway through the journey) when they started drilling! Everyone in the First Class lounge was up in arms about this. Having paid extra to sit there, you don't expect to end up on a building site. One guy went to Reception and was told they couldn't do anything about it. He was given a business card with the phone number of the Customer Service department in the UK! By the time he got back, several people (including myself) had asked the workmen to stop, but they said they had been given permission to work from 3pm (actually, they'd started earlier). Nobody blamed the workmen for carrying out their orders, but they should never have been given permission to work while the ship was at sea, full of passengers. We tried calling the Customer Service department but they couldn't do anything. So basically, nobody on board seemed to have the authority to tell the workmen to stop. Fortunately, having been shouted out several times, they downed tools till the boat docked.
On the plus side, the steward in the First Class lounge was absolutely charming and the facilities there were lovely. The rest of the ship is very nice too - far better than the 1970s horror that we travelled on in December when the nicer ship had apparently been swapped for a cheaper one. So DFDS, please keep the quality high and do your repairs while moored!

I have been a regular client on this crossing. This time you substituted the boats, which were not so nice as your regular ones. Also on the return, your boat was 1 hour late without adequate explanations!!

We shop in Boulogne area as often as once a month. Even with a weak pound, the choice and quality of food is so, so superior to anything on sale in the UK. Take chicken - something like 90% of chicken sold in Britain are hybrids - some as young as 30 days. I call these 'Eggs on Legs'. Buy a Poulet Fermier and for the same price or less than a British Free Range Hybrid (56 days max), you take home an 84 day minimum aged pure breed chicken, most now labelled as fed on a non-GMO diet. The flavour and texture difference is outstanding. Potatoes are waxy, salad is toothsome, cheeses are legendary - need I continue? Anyone living within an hour or so of Dover should take their hard earned money across the Channel until the day comes that British retailers step up to your dinner plate and improve. We're in Europe for goodness sakes, live the life of your neighbours. I call this Blue Collar Gastronomy

Only disappointed from delayed arrival to France, but this is most likely unpredictable, is not it?

On the return journey from Dunkirk (6 Feb 12) I just missed the second ferry and I was lumbered with a vast charge, despite the ship being near empty and the next crossing being in the same return-journey price bracket.
I am a fan of the Tunnel shuttle but I had originally booked with DFDS because it was much cheaper. With the vast charge the price became similar to that of the Channel Tunnel shuttle and I regret taking the ferry. (The 2 hours between crossings are obviously a cause of a lot of sitting around, waiting.)
Hence a low value-for-money rating. The rest of it was ok. Cannot comment on food as I did not have any (as I was forced to enter a rating I gave it a minimum). The check-in procedure itself was ok - nothing special these days.