Ski trip pupils stressful 18-hour wait at Dover
School trip coaches are waiting in queues for hours before being able to board a ferry
- Published
Pupils from Wales headed on Easter trips have endured "manic scenes" at Dover after a critical incident was declared at the port on Saturday.
One group on a ski trip to Austria spent 18-hours waiting to get through border controls.
"We could see five lanes trying to go in one lane for the passport checking," said Gwyn Rosser, a teacher at Ysgol Gwynllyw in Pontypool, Torfaen.
The port apologised for the "prolonged delays".
Traffic was again flowing as normal from 00:30 BST on Monday morning after days of disruption, port authorities said.
But Mr Rosser told BBC Radio Wales his group was "left in limbo" after their coach arrived at Dover at 02:00 on Sunday morning.
They did not get onto the ferry until 20:00.
“It’s been quite a stressful trip,” he said from a services in Frankfurt Germany on Monday morning when the group was meant to be on its first day of skiing.
He said there was little communication during the 18-hour wait and just three border staff.
“It was a manic scene really,” Mr Rosser said, asking why more border staff were not in place for the Easter holidays.
Gwyn Rosser (left) who is a History and Poltics teacher at Ysgol Gymraeg Gwynllyw and is heading to Austria with his pupils through the Port of Dover
“The main concern was the food and water because we were there for such a long time," he said. "We weren’t sure how we were going to feed and supply water to them."
School staff were "sent in to town" from the queue to get pizza for the pupils, but water bottles were not made available by the port until 18:00, he said.
And the queue for the women's toilets was an hour and a half.
"I think the kids to be fair they've been great their spirits have been high although it’s been a bit of a palaver.”
Wrexham PE Teacher Kaeti Breward says her trip to the Alps with more than 40 children from St Joseph's Catholic and Anglican High School was as "total nightmare".
"The traffic to get into the port was awful," said Kaeti Breward a PE teacher travelling to the French Alps with more than 40 pupils from St Joseph's Catholic and Anglican High School in Wrexham.
"It took us two-and-a-half hours to travel only a few miles," she said. "When we got to the port they put us in what they called a 'holding bay', because there were so many people there.
"We were in the holding bay for eight hours," she said, adding the only information they could get about the situation at the port was on social media.
"There were no places to eat... there were hardly any toilets."
The group made it to France in the early hours of Monday morning, but missed their first skiing lessons.
"I felt so bad for the children," Ms Breward said. "It was just a total nightmare."
School trip buses line up, awaiting the go-ahead at Dover
One parent said it was a "horrendous start" to his daughter's first school trip away from home, while a teacher said he was "shell-shocked" by the delays.
Some groups were even forced to spend a night in a hotel due to ferry hold ups affecting their onward journeys on the other side of the Channel.
It meant coach drivers reached their driver limits and some school parties had to await replacement drivers.
Extra ferries were laid on overnight to clear the backlog, but many trips arrived late at their destinations and missed skiing time.
P&O ferries posted estimated wait times to its social media accounts throughout the weekend, while the port advised passengers to check with their ferry operator for updates, allow plenty of time for their journey and "ensure they have some food, drink and entertainment with them".
Toilet facilities for people waiting at Port of Dover