Huge queues of holidaymakers are waiting on “extremely busy roads” close to the Port of Dover amid warnings of 90-minute delays.

Cars could be seen snaking from the Kent port to the nearby town after 11am on Good Friday, with lorries thought to be stretching back further.

P&O Ferries and operator DFDS were reporting delays of between 60 and 90 minutes to the port’s entrance while Irish Ferries advised people to allow up to three hours before their travel time.

Drivers have been advised to bring supplies in case they are left waiting for hours, with queues expected to lengthen in the early afternoon.

Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “First of all, the weather’s clear, the ferries are sailing well, and all that sort of stuff, this weekend was always scheduled to be about 30% lighter than last weekend, today being the busier day.

“What we did is we worked with our ferry operators to try and spread the demand across the three days rather than all on this day.

“I know that that’s challenging for the coach industry because they have itineraries that they want to maintain, but they’ve worked with the ferry operators to be able to do that, and that’s been successful.

“We’ve also installed a new facility to expand our processing at the borders for coaches, that’s operational, I just saw one goes through in just shy of 10 minutes.

“It’s going to be a busy day, we’re running probably about an hour to an hour and a half to get through border controls at the moment, and we will peak through probably early afternoon, and then it will start to slow down after that.”

The DFDS ferry arrived in Calais on schedule at 3.35pm after a smooth crossing.

She sailed south to Cap Gris Nes and then east along the shore, remarkably close to the beach and past the town, to the port.

She is docked next to Irish Ferries’ Isle of Inisheer and P&O Ferries Pride of Kent – both of which are flagged to Limassol in Cyprus.

Now to see if I can persuade the driver to let me, with my folding bike, abandon the bus.

After a relatively smooth coach journey from Victoria, Simon Calder has boarded the ship at Dover to Calais.

On board the ship, the passengers – most of whom are, like me, travelling by coach and ferry – are in exuberant mood.

A Rugby squad from Chiswick in west London set off at 8am today on a trip to the Netherlands. Most of them are dressed as characters from Lord of the Rings – including Elrond, Half-elf, Lord of Rivendell.

He is also known as Ben Osgood, and told The Independent: “We are off to Amsterdam for a rugby tour this weekend. It’s been very good. We got jumped on a coach in South West London about eight o’clock this morning and it’s a rugby tour, so we have a lot of fun on that coach. It’s been fantastic.

“We probably waited for maybe half an hour, 45 minutes [at passport control in Dover]. The issues have been resolved, from our point of view. No, no major issues.”

P&O Ferries said their Larne and Cairnryan routes are “sailing on time”.

Easter holidaymakers have been warned of delays of up to 90 minutes at the Port of Dover, while car traffic is expected to double on some major road networks.

After people were left stuck on coaches for up to 18 hours last weekend in chaos at Dover, officials stressed that “extra measures” were in place for Easter, but warned people to bring supplies in case of delays as the holiday rush kicked off with “high volumes of traffic”.

Andy Gregory reports:

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder is making his way to Calais from Dover. Here is his advice for people travelling this Easter weekend:

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder reports live from Kent

In an astonishing display of efficiency, the entire coach of around 50 people passes through French border control in just eight minutes.

The bus stopped outside “The Shed” as the coach hall is informally known, and passengers were invited to proceed through the hard EU border that is squeezed into the Port of Dover.

All three desks are staffed: two for European Union and Swiss passport holders, one for the rest of the world (including the UK).

The EU queue clears quickly: the Police aux Frontieres are legally allowed only conduct a brief verification that the passport is valid and that it belongs to the passenger.

Officers summon British travellers to the fast lane, where they inspect and stamp passports.

Meanwhile the following coach is being corralled so that as soon as the final passenger (which happens to be me) is clear, the next group can step forward.

Remarkably, a line of coaches – including ours – has been given priority and waved through into the Port of Dover, beneath the White Cliffs.

We sped past the long queue of cars and trucks queuing for frontier control and have been asked to prepare to leave the coach to go into the coach hall.

“Everybody step out of the bus,” please. It is 11.54am. I will see how long it takes to clear a coachload of passengers.

At the roundabout outside Dover where Jubilee Way begins its long, sweeping curve down to the ferry port, a police checkpoint is directing Europe-bound coaches away from the main road.

The bus stutters through the town, heading west instead of east towards the town.

I can’t help but wonder where I’m bound. But in the past few minutes DFDS Ferries has tweeted: “DOVER COACHES| DFDS Coaches travelling from Dover must go to Western Docks - Cruise terminal before arriving at Port of Dover”.

That may be the answer.

Progress was sluggish from Victoria Coach Station through south-east London.

The coach paused to pick up passengers at Elephant & Castle – at what was once the start of E5 Trans-European Superhighway to Istanbul but which is now merely the New Kent Road/A2 towards Dover.

Blackheath was looking lovely, and soon the double-deck, acid-green Flixbus was on the M2 to the point in north Kent which is a “TOTSO” – where the driver, Hussein, had to Turn Off To Stay On the main road to Dover.

The mood on board has darkened since crossing the River Medway – which coincided with someone opening an overpoweringly pungent snack, which seems to be infused with weapons-grade garlic.