Taking food on ferry from Porstmouth to Bilbao

[Tinpan24]

Hi, we are going on the ferry soon which will be 2 nights on the way out, 1 night on the way home.

I had thought that we would take some packed lunches / dinners with us to save paying what I imagine will be pretty expensive ferry restaurant prices. However, I have just been googling and it seems that as we are no longer EU, we can't take meat, dairy (milk, butter or cheese), fruit or vegetables. So my packed lunch list to cover several family meals now consists of.... bread.

Not being able to have the most obvious things of ham sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, porridge pots with milk, cereal boxes with milk, and some apples has somehow totally thrown me. I know I am being silly though.

If you have done a journey to France / Spain since leaving the EU with packed lunches, what did you take? I need some ideas please.

And if you have been on the ferry, food ideas plus any other advice (as it is all new to me) would be very welcome :)

You can take what you like with you- in theory, it just can't enter Spain outside of your body. So fill up on the ham, cheese etc. We have been to Europe twice since the regulations came in and they haven't checked our vehicle for those banned foods, so there's every chance it won't matter anyway.

Are you taking a coolbox to the cabin with you? Does your cabin have a kettle or fridge?

We have only gone to France or the Netherlands, but often taken our own cabin picnic. I prefer it as the food we take is a little simpler, perhaps better for a possibly rocky journey.

I also recommend a sharp knife, some cutlery, kitchen towel (could use as plates), tumblers, a large bottle of water or two, mini squirty- squash, wine, beer etc.

It was years ago, but the restaurant on board the boat is really good. I don't remember it being that expensive, remember the alcohol is duty free so cheap.

We did this trip a few years ago, and food isn't expensive on the ferry. There's one pricey restaurant plus a couple of good value options.

The ferry food is ok and not over priced.

You can take food onboard, you just need to eat it before disembarking

Food was excellent & included? We've been on the one to Santander from Portsmouth a couple of times over the last few years. We did take sandwiches for lunch the first day. The checks in Spain were a pretty straight forward look at the passport

This is great - thank you so much!

We are in a basic cabin so will take our coolbox on with us, along with a travel kettle potentially. Thank you for the helpful list @lidolemon

I hadn't even thought about cheap alcohol - excellent! And very reassuring to hear that the food on the ferry is not too expensive. Thanks everyone.

We don't have any meals included unfortunately. I think if we had booked earlier, we would have had an evening meal included (but the general offer of dinner and breakfast is no longer a thing I don't think). But it doesn't matter because I can go back to my plan of standard basic cheese and ham sandwiches after all!