Ferry to Ireland

[TotesGodsWill]

I usually go to Ireland a couple of times a year to visit family, using Flybe. No other airline currently flies the route I need, so considering the options. I’ve always avoided the ferry as I get seasick, but my only ferry experience was a school trip to France I’ve never got the ferry to Ireland.

Just wondering for anyone’s experiences? Especially those with seasick tendencies?

Sick as a dog every time.

There really needs to be a help group for those who had to do the Fishguard/Pembroke - Rosslare route as children. and our poor parents.

Who remembers the smell of vomit in the toilets? The pullman seats that were at 90 degrees, the deck where you could be blown overboard.

Traumatised.

I get the ferry from Rosslare to Fishguard and back and am usually violently sick all the time it’s a rough crossing. Kwells or similar anti nausea tablets and sitting out on deck in the fresh air are the only things that help

Get the ferry and feel smug about being less destructive to the environment.

I get seasick but often get the ferry to Ireland. It's actually ok. The first 20-30 mins i hate but then I'm fine. They have sky and all sorts on ferries now and reclining chairs so get yourself a good book to get lost in and you'll forget your even on a ferry

I meant Holyhead to Dublin Port above. Did Fishguard/ Dun Laoghaire a lot as a child too. Agree that maybe a lot of my current reluctance is due to bad crossings as a child! The smell of engine oil (or whatever it is) with sea air as you go onto the car deck in itself makes me feel sick. Also memories of grizzly sausages .

@Asimovsfutureishere2020

You should’ve been on the Liverpool - Dun Laoghaire Route , I think it was 10/11 hours long

I remember the Pullman didn’t you have to pay £10 for the privilege? I hated them as a kid and would be off talking to the nuns and different people. A couple of times in the later years we got cabins with the really tight sheets and a b&i blanket, I remember going over with my dad and we got given a cabin for 4 and he was told that we might have to share if anyone else wanted a bed

I used to love seeing the duty free as a child, they must have lost a fortune in bad weather

@Evilspiritgin

I may have done that in the days when they cancelled one ferry and would send you all across wales to catch the other one.

Obviously wiped it from my mind.

Take tablets and always get a cabin then you have your own bathroom and bed to hide away if you feel awful

Holyhead / Dublin or Pembroke / Rosslare
only a couple of hours

Get the ferry and feel smug about being less destructive to the environment

Have you seen the brown haze they chuck out? Very polluting at ground level.

However, I think they've had to use a cleaner fuel since January 2020.

It's fine but if you suffer seasickness make sure you get the slow ferry. I know it's great to get there faster but you feel it much more on the fast ferry. The slow ferry you barely know you're moving

We did the belfast to liverpool ferry in feb and I felt so ill. I find a cabin best so I can take sea sickness tablets and sleep as much as possible. My kids don't normally struggle but two of them were sick on the journey home.

But when we were about to get off we asked one of the staff members if she is used to it now and she said it was actually quite a mild journey so I wouldn't want to experience a bad one!

Ferry is fine. Holyhead - Dublin.
I used to feel sick on buses until I used sea bands. Totally sorted it for me. Only thing they didn't stop was pregnancy nausea. Otherwise- awesome.

Summer, yes. Winter, definitely not.

I've only done it in winter.
I must have been lucky.

Fishguard Rosslare overnight in the big boat (catamarans are worse for seasickness) get a cabin take tablets. Guessing your headed far west. It's funny timing for driving off. We got to Rosslare late and camped right there then off after breakfast and in Cork city for lunch.

Im glad it’s bringing back so many happy memories for everyone, we were always so sick except my mum who swore we would never do it again and every year we would pile into the car and drive to Wales.

The first time we flew was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me.

This was the 90’s, have since been on the ferry and it’s so different. Sit in the middle or if you can get a cabin. Get some sickness bands, they really helped me.

Also flat 7Up cures all. Good Luck x

@HulaHoop2012

'Also flat 7Up cures all.'

You must have an Irish Nana.

Agree with advice to get a cabin and take travel sickness tablets then try to sleep through it.

Not sure which boat other people are catching but the Ulysses does Holyhead to Dublin in less than four hours
www.irishferries.com/uk-en/routes-and-times/dublin-holyhead/

Why on earth would you bother with cabins and all that ?

Own toilet to vomit in? (Or just to hug expectantly). Own room to lie down in, and to contain your dc from wondering for? No other families to listen to? More comfy overall. I've very rarely had a cabin but it is luxury when I do.

I got the ferry about 15 years ago and it was lovely, so much better than I remembered from my childhood, I'm pushing 50 so I have awful memories of that ferry as a child. Pools of vomit everywhere!

Cabin - because I feel much less seasick when I can lie down and travel sickness tablets make me sleepy.

Yes, it has improved a lot!