Ireland in November - Ferry a no no?
Discussion
We have a family thing to attend in ireland in November and i should have the Golf R by then so would really like to drive over but the OH is having a hissy fit about the 'conditions of the crossing' in November and how 'no one does it because its so bad'
I've tried to explain that if it was that bad, they wouldn't operate during dangerous conditions but apparently i am a complete fool for even suggesting this.
We've driven to ireland before, up to liverpool and across and loved it (got a room on the ferry...) so its not that she doesn't like the drive, its just this mental block about november
Can anyone with any experience/knowledge please help me out.
Thanking you
I've tried to explain that if it was that bad, they wouldn't operate during dangerous conditions but apparently i am a complete fool for even suggesting this.
We've driven to ireland before, up to liverpool and across and loved it (got a room on the ferry...) so its not that she doesn't like the drive, its just this mental block about november
Can anyone with any experience/knowledge please help me out.
Thanking you
Out of a dozen or so crossings I've had one bad one; when the weather was so bad they wouldn't let us dock, so we spent an extra day and a half being tossed and blown (fnar fnar) about a half mile from Warrenpoint. The worst part was that the toilet was backed up to overflowing with vomit, but as soon as you got a whiff you added your bit.
johnny fotze said:
Out of a dozen or so crossings I've had one bad one; when the weather was so bad they wouldn't let us dock, so we spent an extra day and a half being tossed and blown (fnar fnar) about a half mile from Warrenpoint. The worst part was that the toilet was backed up to overflowing with vomit, but as soon as you got a whiff you added your bit.
Don't show her this post Pixel, not good enough odds.speedking31 said:
Ireland or Northern Ireland? Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire crossings are 1/2 to 1/4 the time. Or Stranraer to Dublin, depends how much driving you are prepared to do on this side of the sea?
thats an interesting shout actually - didn't think of that. drive a bit further to make the crossing shorter.Odhran said:
Have done it several times of year in the weather and apart from occasional bad rocking it'll be completely fine. If using the Scotland > Belfast option, I'd opt for the Stenaline boat as it is better stabilised and 100x more comfortable than the P&O bath tub.
Same here (But mainly Irish Ferries, enough to have been on each ship in the fleet anyway), being going back and forth to Ireland since I was a baby on the ferry (I know that makes me sound like a tinker 
, but my parents are Irish, so visiting family and stuff is pretty common, I lived there for 8 years too), it's always been fine. But saying that there has been a few bad winters there. So once you get to Ireland, driving on some of the snow covered / frozen / foggy back roads (i.e typical west coast back roads) can be a bit hairy. I went early one November back in 2005 or 06 (I think) and it was freezing fog pretty much the whole way from Dublin to Donegal.
So don't be too surprised of you end up on roads like this, depending where your going.
Edited by Noesph on Friday 10th October 17:51
Did Dublin to Holyhead one time and it was a little rough on the fast ferry. A big youth carrying three pints of lager across the bar chose to sit down at precisely the wrong moment. The boat rolled, he fell back into his seat, the beer went 6ft in the air and he managed to pull all the bolts holding the seat out of the floor on his way to landing flat on his ar@e.
Had to suppress my laughter for fear of a punch on the nose.
Had to suppress my laughter for fear of a punch on the nose.
andy-integrale said:
Did Dublin to Holyhead one time and it was a little rough on the fast ferry. A big youth carrying three pints of lager across the bar chose to sit down at precisely the wrong moment. The boat rolled, he fell back into his seat, the beer went 6ft in the air and he managed to pull all the bolts holding the seat out of the floor on his way to landing flat on his ar@e.
Had to suppress my laughter for fear of a punch on the nose.
None of this is making Mrs PP feel any betterHad to suppress my laughter for fear of a punch on the nose.
I use to go from Liverpool to Belfast and back numerous times a year. Definitely done it in November and December and never had a bad crossing. A gentle swell at the most.
I've done it in December where I could hardly drive on the roads due to snow storms but the crossing was still normal.
I've done it in December where I could hardly drive on the roads due to snow storms but the crossing was still normal.
I went Holyhead - Dublin in January with a very very nervous OH. It's was stormy and HSS outbound was, errr, interesting. I do Dover-Calais at least monthly and have got good sea-legs, but when the captain advised we grabbed grub before leaving port even I took a sharp intake of breath! In the end it was about 20 mins longer, extremely uncomfortable, we couldn't walk about, but never actually felt unsafe.
We returned by monster-ferry 5 days later. Weather noticeably worse, but upgraded to 'Club' and hardly felt a ripple. This is the way to go I expect?
Good luck mate!
We returned by monster-ferry 5 days later. Weather noticeably worse, but upgraded to 'Club' and hardly felt a ripple. This is the way to go I expect?
Good luck mate!
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