Help with ideas for food - ferry to france

[guildingthelily]

Bonsoir, oh wise people of Mumsnet. I'm travelling to France on the overnight ferry and really don't want to spend a fortune on dinner and drinks on the boat. Like I did last time. I'm travelling with Brittany ferries from Plymouth to Roscoff.

So my question is what can I take for dinner /snacks that isn't sandwiches? Is there a microwave anywhere on the ferry? Maybe I could take pasta? Could we drink our own drinks out on the deck?

It is for me and two kids, aged 12 and 13

Merci 🇫🇷🚢🙏

If you’re going overnight the ferry leaves at either 8pm or 10pm - by the time you’ve got yourself sorted it’ll be too late to want dinner

Eat before you go - take a couple of bags of crisps for emergency snacking - sleep on the ferry and wake up in France with a couple of croissants

Assuming you're going after dinner, I'd take:

• fruit such as satsumas and apples (that don't need the fridge)
• a bag of those brioche finger rolls that my kids adore and/or croissants or Scotch pancakes
• a box of smoothies or similar
• maybe some emergency cereal bars

I'd eat neat the ferry port this end. That's what we normally do when we take the Portsmouth route: eat about 5, then queue to board. I then have a coolbag with me for overnight with - at this point - semi-frozen one pint of milk or UHT milk/teabags (not sure what facilities your cabin will have), plus cereal/cereal bars/fruit for the morning, water, and a bedtime snack. On the Portsmouth ferries, there's a cafe/bar which does cheap massive pizza slices though plus pastries for breakfast, and the self service restaurant isn't always horrendously priced so I imagine you'll have the same options if you check out the ship guide.

No microwave….just take cold snacks
and some breakfast bars or pain au chocolate for the morning…it’s one night and you will sleep for much of it

Not helpful but the ferry food is the best bit of the trip!

If you want hot food, take it in a thermos? That’s what my DC do for packed lunches most days.

My kids will probably be gutted when I pull out home made food 😂 but then they will choose pasta and tomato sauce on the ferry 🤦🏼‍♀️ which costs me a £1 to make at home !

Ah, if you want to please kids but still spend less then do a picnic of treats. We sometimes buy those little pots of picnic things from M&S, or fancier than normal crisps etc - whatever their favourite treats are. Will still be much cheaper than a full meal out.

Good point. I might take some emergency sausage rolls which I can cook from frozen in my beloved air fryer. Then they can choose fancy crisps, chocs and pop from the shop. I'll need to dig out the cool bag, haven't used it once this summer. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Remember you can't take meat or dairy into France so if you take these products either eat them on the ferry or dispose of them before you dock.