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Original poster

How mad would it be to consider driving from the west of Ireland to manchester with 3 under 5's ON MY OWN?

42 replies

PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 13:51

have been invited to a wedding in june... need to rsvp by may 2nd

would love to go and dp is all for us scraping the money together to do it.

HOWEVER dp is just finshing an IT course and wil be looking for a job next month... if all goes well he will have just started a new job in june and can't feasibly ask for a 4 day weekend within weeks of starting.

so unless he fails to get work which i'm hoping won't happen i'd be on my own.... with a 4 year old, and almost 3 year old and a 4 month old (bf) baby.

it's insane isn't it?

thing is, i have a largish extended family over there and i know they'd do their best to help out so the weekend itself would be doable on my own.... the drive/ferry there and back though.........

OP posts:
suwoo · 07/04/2009 13:53

Don't know about the Irish side but Holyhead to Manchester is only 2 hours or so. The ferry will be fun........

GivePeasAChance · 07/04/2009 13:53

The thought is worse than the doing.

So long as you have screaming space when you get there, you will be totally completely fine

suwoo · 07/04/2009 13:54

But go for it

GivePeasAChance · 07/04/2009 13:54

Get the fast ferry though

sassy · 07/04/2009 13:56

Fly pinktulips, fly...

Seriously, even with taxes etc you could all fly from Cork to Manchester for £150 if you book it now. An hour's flight, get family to meet you t'other end...

Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 13:58

suwoo, that's interesting, i didn't know it was that short a drive.

ok, so 3/4 hours to the ferry on this side.... time to feed the baby and older kids and get everyone refreshed on the ferry (avoiding going above deck under any circumstances for fear of child overboard situation) and then 2 hours to manchester with hopefully at least 2 of them asleep.

it is kinda doable right?

provided my car can take the strain obviously

OP posts:
PortAndLemon · 07/04/2009 13:58

It would be OK.

And there's no particular reason he couldn't ask to take some leave within a few weeks of starting -- it happens all the time (am a manager for an IT company).

Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 14:00

sassy, you see the problem with flying is having to rely on family to ship all 4 of us around over there... the older cousins have loads of kids themselves and everyone will be madly busy with the wedding... i can't help but feel it's bit much to ask for lifts too?

OP posts:
Tortington · 07/04/2009 14:02

hire care once you get there

Tortington · 07/04/2009 14:03

car - not care

Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 14:04

P&L... would it not be greeted with this look.... if he were to be that cheeky? not sure we could afford to lose 2 days pay on top of expenses for the trip so soon after him getting the job anyway... it's my family and tbh he's not the sort who enjoys weddings, especially weddings of people he's never met lol.

think i might say yes and see what happens... is it worse to say yes and cancel than to say maybe when you rsvp?

OP posts:
myredcardigan · 07/04/2009 14:09

2 options if you want to go.

  1. If your DH is offered the job, most companies will honour existing holiday so when he accepts he should just tell them it was pre-booked.

  2. Leave very early in the morning and get an early ferry. They may nap. The last bit from Liverpool to Manchester isn't very far.

good luck!

Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 14:09

custy.... that would cost even more money this is going to be tight as it is (will be ebaying for clothes for us all and hoping to god they subscribe to 'it's the thought that counts' when it comes to the gift because it'll be whatever is cheapest on the list!)

have missed several of the family weddings in recent years which is why i'm going to try and scrape the money together for this one but it'll still be a bit

OP posts:
myredcardigan · 07/04/2009 14:11

Oh I see you're docking holyhead not liverpool. Still not too far!

PortAndLemon · 07/04/2009 14:15

But he'd be entitled to annual leave with the new job, which would be paid (I suppose some places probably restrict you from taking paid leave in the first three months, but we don't and TBH we're pretty darn stingy with any kind of benefits so I'd expect most companies to be like us). If we have a new hire I'd more or less expect them to have prebooked leave coming up, and TBH I'd actually prefer it to be in the first few weeks when they aren't fully up-to-speed and doing on call and so forth.

Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 14:25

P&L, thanks... that's good to know. will tell him that and he can discuss it at interviews. i know in jobs we've both had before there was a 3-6 month restriction on paid leave but they're always been quite low leval, minimum wage jobs so it might be differant in the companies he applies to.

am researching ferry prices now... if the prices are horrific flying may be the better option (although at least in the car they'd sleep part of the way.... 2 hyper kids and a baby in an airport might be 'interesting' )

my mother is going to think i've lost the plot completely if i tell her i'm doing this

OP posts:
Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 14:40

hmm.

there's a 2.15 (as in middle of the night) sailing from dub-holyhead.

i could do that and the kids would sleep for the vast majority of the trip. and tbh, i prefer night driving. that would give me all of friday to settle in and see people and get as much done for the next day as possible (like asking directions to the church, washing children, getting clothes laid out, getting some decent meals in them and having as normal a day as possible to prepare for the chaos of the next day), could then go to bed with the kids to make up the sleep on friday evening.

then on the sunday there's a 21.30 sailing back... again, the kids would sleep most of the way then and i'd have had most of that day with family before having to leave at around 6/7

or am i fooling myself?

OP posts:
Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 14:53

good god.

254 for me and the kids, 296 if dp comes

Ryanair here i come

OP posts:
suwoo · 07/04/2009 15:51

Ryanair are deceptive though once you've added the taxes and all the other gubbins.

What part of Manchester is the wedding? I have done the journey to North Wales from Manchester so many times since I moved up here 10 years ago.

GrapefruitMoon · 07/04/2009 16:01

If we are going the other way (UK to ireland) I find that cheap flights + car hire usually works out cheaper than the ferry if we are only going for a few days. If you do fly your biggest problem might be managing your luggage - when I have flown on my own (admittedly only with two) I have put baby in sling so my hand were for for bags & other kids or else baby (+ your 3 yr old?) in a buggy and taken a backpack... nothing worse than trying to manage a luggage trolley and a buggy at the same time!

Original poster
PinkTulips · 07/04/2009 16:15

well i can't rent a car apparently due to age restrictions (i'm 25) so that's only an option if dp comes. flights aren't much cleaper than ferry and you have to add car rental and car seat hire onto that as well as petrol so works out as pricier tbh. (my car is very light on ptrol so could do the whole trip only having to fill up twice i think and can fill up for 40euros (maybe more after todays budget though)

where is pembroke? irish ferries sail rosslare to pembroke but can't find it on google maps to see how far a drive it is to manchester.

the wedding is in Northwich, Chesire... ? the reception at a place called cranage hall which looks like it's in the middle of the countryside somewhere and would probably be where i stayed... or else the travel lodge that's apparently close at hand they're actually from stockport but being the dumb irish relatives we've always just said manchester

OP posts:
myredcardigan · 07/04/2009 16:47

Oh well that's even closer to the ferry than Manchester. I would either opt to fly of travel at night.

And we're in Wilmslow so even further out than Stockport and family still say we're in Manchester. They're also always stunned to discover out street does not look like the set of Corrie.

PortAndLemon · 07/04/2009 16:47

Pembroke's in South Wales so would add a good bit onto your driving time versus driving from Holyhead -- see here.

PortAndLemon · 07/04/2009 16:50

You ought to be able to hire a car at 25 (although being 24 would give you a problem) -- who have you checked with?

PortAndLemon · 07/04/2009 16:54

Mind you, getting a car big enough to fit 3 DCs in carseats would be pretty expensive. Could you just impose on family / get taxis, if you flew?

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