What to do on long ferry crossing with DS11

[MakeMineALargeOneThanks]

Need ideas for what to do on a 7 hour daytime ferry crossing with DS11.

It's the Harwich to Hook of Holland crossing and as far as I can tell there's not really much on offer apart from a couple of restaurants and possibly a duty free shop.
We will have the usual books, phone/tablet, paper and pens etc but I'm looking for some suggestions on what else to take with us to while away the hours.

Looks like you’ve covered all basis already with your suggestions.

What about also binoculars and an offline map?

Can you squeeze in a couple of hours nap too?

Pack of cards
Pocket Scrabble
Download a movie to watch together? I always do that on flights with my teen ds.
That plus books should be plenty. Maybe a book about where your going for your ds?

We usually go overnight but I always carry a couple of small games on ferries. Card games like Rainbow Pirates or Exploding kittens are always fun and don't take up much room. Travel chess and a magnetic noughts and crosses are handy in rough seas. We also have a small travel set of magna tiles which both my 11 year old and 8 year old enjoy. They like building ships out of them.

In daylight outside time watching the water keeps mine occupied for ages. They've seen all sorts. Their favourites so far have been Aircraft carriers and dolphins repeatedly breaching the water in the ferry's wake.

DS has just learnt how to do sudoku and we got him a Paint by Sticker book for the summer holidays which he enjoys. I’ve taught myself crochet which is great for long journeys. There are plenty of portable mess-free crafts like latch hook, cross stitch, needle felting etc..

Sorry no useful suggestions but some advice - make sure your phones (and tablet if it has a sim card) are set to data roaming OFF while you are over international waters. The charges for this are astronomical, whereas once you're in Holland, most UK mobile providers have some kind of agreement with the European networks so roaming is cheap or covered under your existing plan and you can usually leave roaming on and forget about it.

We used to take a France-UK ferry fairly regularly and would frequently forget to do this because of course if you fly, you can't get a signal from the towers anyway but on water, you do and you will end up with a big bill because smartphones are always sending data in the background and data is usually cheap or included on a plan.

Magnetic/travel games is a good call, I think I have some in a drawer somewhere.
Is it worth taking food with us or should we just rely on what's on offer?

We are actually heading back home (live in Germany, visiting family in UK) but are trying a different route back this time.

Is it worth taking food with us or should we just rely on what's on offer?

I always feel the food is part of the trip and eating in a restaurent breaks up the trip. Presumably you are sailing over lunch time. What would you normally do for lunch?

Most ferries lay on entertainment, cinema or something like that, had a magic show and a rock band on the last 3 hour crossing I took

I’ve done that once and we had a cabin and went overnight.

I take one meal and then buy one on the ferry . Bring Lots of snacks too amd drinks. Get a cabin if you can, cheaper on a day crossing then you can chill and watch tv or even have a shower and it's a change of scene. I love the ferry its calm but slow!

As PP said, watching the water wastes hours.

I saw a brilliant reel (ironically) recently saying the reason kids didn’t need mindfulness 40 years ago is that we were bored. We watched drips chasing each other down the window. We watched the sea on the beach. We watched the sky when outside. There are some things that are ever changing and good for our brains. Water is the best.

An eleven year old doesn't need to have every minute filled with games and activities. Isn't just being on the boat interesting?

A bbc article recently said it's good for children to be bored sometimes.
"Boredom is not a bad thing, we spend so much time trying to fill every minute that we forget boredom is often where creativity begins."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yw6371qygo

Why do you need to find ways to entertain him. Won’t he be buzzing with the ferry and going on holiday. Kids don’t need constant entertaining. It’s travel, not like on a plane he can at least move around.

We will indeed be watching the waves, and having lunch. But over the course of 7 hours I would usually find myself something to do, I don't just sit and be mindful or whatever, and I think it's not unreasonable to ask for ideas for what ds and I might take with us to pass the time. It's nice to ask others for suggestions as sometimes you get ideas that you wouldn't have come up with yourself. It's not to entertain him, it's ideas for both of us. It's a long journey, where we'll only have what we bring with us. As far as I can tell, there is nothing to do on board.
We will be on our way home from our holiday in the UK.

Maybe he might be interested in the multilingual aspects of the trip. The ship will have signs up in at least English and Dutch, possible German and Polish too. If it's quiet in the cafeteria, ask the cashier to teach him (and you) a few words. Dutch is quite fun for kids because some of the words are identical to English while others look like an explosion in a Scrabble factory.

Teach him how to play cribbage. Great game.

We did this trip 2 years ago with 6 and 8 year old. We got a cabin so we could stretch out and watch a film. Kids had some money saved so they both bought Lego in the duty free shop and did that in the cabin. The restaurant kills some time. It wasn't too bad honestly. I would recommend getting a cabin so you have somewhere to retire to that's yours as it is a long crossing.

Charging up and down the stairs and round and round the decks like a demented thing will probably kill a couple of hours, speaking from experience.

Don't rely on WiFi for entertainment- if it's anything like Brittany Ferries the free WiFi hardly works, and the paid for WiFi is extortionate.

At 11 I’d ask him what type of things he’d like to have with him onboard.

We book the commodore cabins for long day crossings from Portsmouth to st Malo (actually the outbound crossings we get are always overnights) but they are lovely for actually being able to lie down, watch telly/films, relax, usually have a door to a balcony. At his age you’re right, you won’t have to be endlessly entertaining him, we just take books, some card games and break up the day going out for food and wandering the ship on the outside decks and having a browse of the shop a few times.
7 hours actually goes quite quickly when you’re breaking it down inbetween meal times.
Not sure if your crossing has the nicer cabins, the indoor 2 berth ones on Brittany ferries are functional for sleep but a bit bleak with no windows and not somewhere I’d be aiming to base my day around, I think it’s only worth doing if you can have a nice one!

We usually do Dover to Calais so very short crossing but in my rucksack we always have some combination of Uno/Dobble/Boggle/Time Lines because they all come in small tins. Then I make sure everyone has a book in their bag. Ever since the year when we sat for 4 hours looking at the white cliffs due to the sea being so rough they were letting one in one out very carefully and I was making up games using the sick bags and the one biro in the bottom of my bag 😂

We’ve done that route. We booked the cinema.

Good idea to have a cabin. There are normally other children on board. Is there a childrens' play area. On some Brittany Ferries they have a dip pool and cinema. Do the ships on your route have anything? At least it's not like sitting in a plane for over 3 hours! I'm sure your DCs will find something to occupy them as well as the games. I wouldn't rely on Wifi on board at all.

Is there a cinema on board? That plus meals will take a fair chunk and then we usually take some board games on holidays so we play those, plus just wandering about the boat, up on deck, they sometimes have entertainment on. Time seems to pass quite quickly!

UNO!