Isle of Wight ferry

[TickVG]

Travelling on my own with kids on late May bank holiday weekend (the Saturday) and considering doing the Southampton-cowes crossing. Anyone know how stressful it is (not a confident driver) and would I be best off getting a really early crossing or leaving it until mid-morning

you will be fine, i have been doing it for summer holidays for a long time. the staff will direct you in, and i imagine it is not going to be full at that time of the year. i would think mid morning would be a good time as it will be less busy in Cowes then. we prefer that crossing as it gives the children time to get out, have a drink and snack. If you do get there to early, there is a good play park just inside the entrance of the car park on the right. otherwise, there is a cafe and toilets at the carpark.

Thanks v much for the reply @pappajonessecretchild ! Do they pack you in quite tight on the ferry? I'm worried about messing up the parking and bumping someone/embarrassing myself that's great if mid morning is a good time, I'm going to plan for that

No you won't bump another car, you get directed very precisely so as long as you remember where your brakes are you'll be fine!

IoW ferry is as low stress as they come
You'll either get Jim O'Reilly (Red Funnels dancing man) sending you on
or the wonderful Carlos
they are both utter sweeties
and the boat is slow
to take you back to the 70's at the other end

It’s fine! There is one lot of manoeuvring if you’re very, very unlucky, and the boat is full but even that is just a case of reversing back into a bay. But that might be 5 cars on the most packed ship, and it’s just reversing. It’s not like a cross channel ferry (Brittany ferries I’m looking at you) where getting a child out of the back seat is nigh on impossible.

What is stressful is the price. Considering you could swim it it is extortionate!

You'll be fine my parents live on the IOW so I do the journey many times a year on my own with the children. They will guide you into a space and give you plenty of space to get in and out of the car. The new ferries are really nice and you can have a relaxing coffee for 40 mins and enjoy the scenery!

My children always get bored so might be an idea to take colouring etc and snacks as the food on board is quite expensive and not very varied. The ferries are priced according to when you travel so if you can take an earlier or later boat it may not be as crowded and probably cheaper. If you are travelling from a distance to the ferry give yourself plenty of times getting into Southampton can be busy and ideally you are supposed dot to be there 30 mins before. All in all though as far as travel goes pretty stress free.

It's easy. Make sure you book in advance as is cheaper than turning up. If you run lat don't worry, call if you can and they'll get you on the next one.

Wightlink routes are quicker, depending of course on where you are coming from on mainland but red funnel tends to be cheaper, has better offers etc.

And it is nothing like the 70ies on t'other side. 😂😉

Ah great thanks for all the replies - I feel v reassured. I think it maybe was the price that made me think it would be more like a brittany ferries type affair! And good tips on the snacks & activities. Hope we get the dancing man to entertain us!

Southampton to Cowes is around an hour journey
There is food and drinks in board that you can buy and we just tend to get a drink as the crossing doesn’t take long and there are usually queues
Loading and unloading is easy and takes no time at all
It’s nice to sit near the front too and you can see any cruise liners in the docks
It’s a very slow and sedate ride and you hardly feel that you’re moving

Take the kids up on deck if the weather is ok. There's WiFi too, so if needs be there's that.

Tick
Dancing Man is so famous he has a pub named after him across the road (I love that pub)

I often get offers through, will see if I have any for near that time period.

If you are booking accmmodation over there, see if you can get the hotel/landlord/campsite to book your ferry for you, they get better prices than you can.

It's fine. I was afraid I'd get seasick as I get travel sick in the car but actually the trip wasn't quite exciting enough for me (and it was pretty wild weather!). I know your concern was more the driving on thing but just in case you were worried about sickness too I thought I'd reassure you there!

You do need to get out and leave the car, so make sure you have a backpack with all the crap parents need basic essentials that you can just grab and take without a palava.

Thanks! Campsite have said they have a 15% discount for red funnel so we will probably go with them as we won't be in a rush or anything. Still totally mad prices though!

Which campsite are you going to?

Dead easy. We do it many times a year although for Easter we've just booked Wightlink for the first time ever. I love the IoW...

Jim won last year

he lost several stone when he took up dancing the cars onto the boats

@Barrenfieldoffucks it's Compton farm

Lovely, we've stayed there before :-)