That'll be nice, if they let cyclists on the
Salamanca. As green travellers we would naturally prefer to burn clean-ish LPG than smelly old oil. But it doesn't look likely they will.
Why's that? What difference can a few cyclists make? Our bikes fit into un-used corners of the vehicle decks and we are just as likely to buy food and drink on board - aren't we? Or are we perceived as what the travel trade impolitely calls 'rucsack tourists': cheapskates who bring their own beer & sandwhiches and sleep on the seats?
Whatever: the key factor is the shape of the ship, specifically the balance of provision between vehicles and passengers. A passenger ship is licensed and insured to carry no more than a certain number of passengers. And a roll-on, roll-off ferry only has so much vehicle deck space. The ferry operator ideally wants to fill both, but first and foremost he wants to fill the vehicle decks. That's because when they are full the ship can still take any further foot passengers who turn up - or cyclists, because their bikes fill the odd-shaped corners where motor vehicles will not go. If, on the other hand, the ship is full for passengers first, any remaining vehicle space becomes unsaleable, because every car or truck comes with at least one driver. The cost of lost sales in turning away vehicles the ship might easily have carried, simply cannot be allowed to happen!
So that is why some ferries will not accept bookings from cyclists - or foot passengers. Or not accept them until a few weeks or days before the ship sails, when the operator can be certain that their presence on board will not prevent the sale of any vehicle space that may remain unsold.
It is interesting to compare the relative passenger and vehicle capacities of ships operated by Brittany Ferries between UK and Spain. Vehicle deck capacity is given either in area (sqm) or lane metres, or number of cars and/or lorries. To convert from one to the other it can be assumed that the vehicle lanes average 2m wide and that a car takes up 6m, a lorry 18m. So lane.m = area÷2 and cars = lane.m÷6. I've calculated how many people you would need in each car to fill the passenger capacity of each ship (without any cyclists), assuming the ship is full of cars.
Ship name -| People | Lane.m | Cars | People per Car
Pont Aven --|-- 2415 -|- 3500 --|- 600 | 4
Etretat ------|---- 375 -|- 1200 --|- 200 | 2
Galicia ------|-- 1680 -|-----------|- 550 | 3
Salamanca |-- 1015 -|- 2705 --|- 450 | 2
It is easy to see why Brittany Ferries are happy to take bookings from cyclists (and coachloads of foot passengers) on their
Pont Aven 'cruise ferry'. It's possible but extremely improbable that every car will contain 4 people! And that's only if they're all cars. Every campervan, car with trailer, white van or lorry, reduces the number of passengers per sqm of vehicle deck. Only if they also get a few coachloads, motor and pedal cyclists, will they also fill the passenger decks, or perish the thought: lifeboats!
Contrast the
Etretat: that until 2021 provided an 'economy' route to Spain. This needs only 2 people per car to fill with passengers - a very achievable average. No wonder they didn't want cyclists booking on that one, except perhaps sometimes, at the last minute, on less popular dates, or after a lot of trucks had booked.
I haven't heard how easy it will be for cyclists to book ahead on the
Galicia's routes. At 3 people per car it's halfway between the previous two extremes, so maybe. The
Salamanca however, looks like nothing other than a much bigger version of the Etretat, same measly 2 per car. We needn't expect any favours.