Bruges and Brussels by train and ferry to Dover

This issue again cropped up earlier today.

It seems that P and O have reinstated foot pax service on 3 sailings a day only. The port of Calais has now relocated and is now very inconvenient to reach- taxi or a very long walk in dockland. Furthermore it is a 90 minute minimum check in at the port for foot pax. You get driven on and off the car deck in a bus. Then the ferry time. It is an extremely inconvenient way to do it. And a very poor quality experience.
The days of foot passenger shipping on the Eastern Channel are over, which is very sad and it saddens me to discourage you like this.

Also the whole conduct of P and O last year, when they dismissed their staff by Zoom, and hired in new cheaper staff was reprehensible. And very recent videos of their ships shows a dismal travelling experience. The Ryanair of the seas.

Their ships are now run by Indian Crew on very low wage rates, and before service was reinstated after the sackings the ships failed numerous safety inspections.
Many people would not touch the company under any circumstances for their shocking conduct, let alone their service levels- for catering all you will get is machines at the so called cafe on board.

I quote from Man in Seat 61- "On 17 March 2022, Dubai-owned P&O Ferries made all 800 British seafaring staff redundant without warning via a 3-minute Zoom video, and replaced them with cheap agency staff. All sailings were suspended without notice, leaving passengers stranded. See www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60779001. The firm's behaviour has been described as 'appalling' - you may wish to reconsider using P&O Ferries."

Eurostar is 2 hours from Brussels to London St Pancras and 1 1/2 hours back from St Pancras to Dover. The fare is nothing like $420 for two. You can get Eurostar for around £70 to £80 each, and St Pancras to Dover starts at around £10 each- so that is less than £200 all in, plus the local trains to Calais.
Book Eurostar from 'Any Belgian Station' rather than Brussels- it is cheaper than buying Bruges to Brussels, then Eurostar.

Ferry is no cheaper either at 57 Euro Bruges to Calais and then £30 each on the ferry.

I would strongly recommend that you take Eurostar if you want to go by land, or fly. By the time you have gone to and from airports at either end the journey time will be little different to Eurostar, probably cheaper.

Train : Brussels > London St Pancras (just over two hours) https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en

Train : London St Pancras > Dover Priory ( https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ look for Advance tickets) - (just over one hour)

is the easiest and quickest

I would forget the ferry

You should use the South Eastern trains website for times and tickets, as they are the train operator. National Rail will only redirect you there, anyway.

https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/

When channel boats were the normal means of transportation, you could say that "London is close to Bruges, Normandy, and Amsterdam." But those days are past.

I've been to Bruges a few times, but by train from Antwerp. I hope you will consider the idea that maybe your plan is ... (meaning to be dispassionate) functionally obsolete ... . Here is a link about the D-Day Beaches (i.e. not Bruges), which gives some of the specifics about why I made that unintentionally mean-sounding remark. You just got (above) some really good contemporary ferry information - I take it as a valuable warning.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/d-day-normandy-visit-with-13-year-old

Larry, welcome to the forum! I have no information regarding your post but just wanted to invite you to the local CdA/Spokane Rick Steve's meet up group. We generally meet on the 1st Saturday of each month at Woops Bakery in downtown CdA at 10A. We'd love for you and your wife to join us! It's very casual but so nice to connect with others who are traveling to Europe (mostly). Some of us have done Rick's tours, all of us monitor the forum and chip in where we can and some of us have also traveled with other companies.

Jean, who is the organizer, posts a thread the week before each meeting. There are a couple of time each year when we divert from the 1st Sat. if something big is going on in downtown CdA so she puts that in the meet up notice.

Next meeting is April 1 at 10A.

Thanks very much to all of you who replied to my questions! In 1990 I took a train from London and stayed overnight at a B&B in Dover before taking the ferry to Ostend, and then another train on to Amsterdam. I enjoyed my stay in Dover and seeing the coastline from a ferry. My wife wants to see Dover too, so we'll consider all of your helpful advice as we decide what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions on places to stay for an overnight visit to Dover?

Memories there for me, of the old Ostend boats, a great way to the Benelux, long gone and long lamented.

If absolutely determined to take the ferry route then on certain dates Flixbus have an overnight service from Bruges to London Victoria at around midnight , with no other stops in Belgium, taking the DFDS or sometimes Irish Ferries route between Calais and Dover.
Neither of those operators is now open to Foot Pax and are decent companies.
Fares start from £17.99, ferry inclusive (the ferry fare alone is £30, so an amazing bargain).
People who have taken the flixbus ferry route to Paris report even getting a meal voucher for the ferry as well, although that is an unadvertised bonus.
Flixbus only open for bookings 3 months beforehand.
Before people scoff, I am simply presenting the OP with all the options.
The daytime service from Bruges on Flixbus uses the Channel Tunnel Le Shuttle service.