Travelling on ferry with twins

[bellabelly]

Hello all, slightly odd question but can anyone offer some advice.

We have travelled on ferry a couple of times before. It has been easy because we carried the boys in their infant car seats, so easy to get from car deck to main bit of ship, didn't take buggy up with us, just left it in car.

BUT we are travelling on ferry this Friday and have new forward facing car seats and I have just realised that it is going to be trickier. As I recall, cars are all parked close together on car deck so might be tricky getting buggy out of carboot and putting twins in it before going up in the lift (assuming there is a lift and assuming buggy will fit in it).

The DTs are almost a year old now and will be pretty heavy to carry around in our arms for entire journey. We used to have 2 baby bjorn slings but have just given one away on freecylcle cos we hardly ever used them.

Sorry this is a bit long and rambling but I do suddenly feel a bit anxious about it all! Any advice on the logistics?

Do they let you go back down to cardeck to retrieve the buggy after have settled DH and DTs down somewhere?

No, you can't go back down to the cardeck, it's all locked and sealed in case water gets in. How long is the journey in the ferry? I use an ergo carrier, which is really comfortable for hours. You would have to carry the buggy folded until you get to the stairs/lift - you definitely wouldn't have enough room in the cardeck itself.

Thanks vacaloca. That is what I thought. Am wondering if I can manage to carry folded buggy and baby while Dh carries nappy bag and other baby.

It's usually ok getting things out of the boot but not easy to get things out through the doors, ime. It will probably be impossible to push a double buggy between the cars too...

How portable is your buggy? If it's a large one is it possible to buy/borrow an umbrella fold one for the holiday?

If the babies are not moving around too much yet you might be able to do without one altogether - just carry them upstairs and find somewhere to sit down. Take it in turns to go to the loo, get food, etc while one minds the babies.

If they are more mobile you will probably need to carry the babies and buggy to the stairs/lift. Put whatever you need for the journey in backpack so your hands are free. If your buggy is lightweight you can probable manage a baby each, one person takes the buggy, the other the bag.

Am keeping an eye on this thread as I have a five hour ferry journey next week with my 16mo dd. I'm dreading it!

One twin is very mobile (crawling) these days, the other much less so. Think we do need the buggy with us really. It's a maclaren twin techno so yes, umbrella fold. Backpack is a brill idea Grapefruit, hadn't thought of that, much easier than the enormous nappy bag.

I am thinking that if we park next to the lift it will all be pretty simple but if we have to park in the middle of the cardeck it will be a huge pain.

We still have one sling - haven't used it for ages, maybe should use that for the lift / stairs bit.

All suddenly seems very complicated in my head. Thanks for your advice.

Esme, will you have someone with you?

Where are you going on the ferry btw?

If to France I can thoroughly recommend the Tunnel for future journeys - much easier than the ferry if you live in the right part of the UK

We have just taken our 20m dd on the ferry (Brittany Ferries) to France. The Ferry staff were very helpful allowing us out of the car before my husband parked it in its final resting place. THere were plenty of staff about who seemed happy to help with pushchairs etc.

From my experience you may need the following:
toilet roll/kitchen towel
sick bags
lots of baby wipes
several changes of clothes for you and child
plastic bag to put sicked-on clothes in
water
ability to sing nursery rhymes round and round until child finally goes to sleep

As you can guess, our crossing was a bit rough! But we all got through unscathed and had a great holiday!

Someone should forward this thread to the customer service departments of ferry companies.

I wonder if they know that this is even an issue ...?

Hope you have a lovely holiday Bellabelly!

Right, really helpful. Booksgalore, I will keep my fingers crossed that we are organised enough to be head of the queue and do a dash upstairs and sneak back down if necessary. If we can find a ferry rep to help that would be great - was assuming they are all too busy but it's worth asking.

Grapefruit - we did think about the tunnel but forgot to factor in the new carseats = extra hassle issue. With hindsight, the tunnel would have been a much more straightforward option. We are going from Dover to Calais so would have been ideal in fact, although less easy to do feeds and nappy changes I imagine?

Mascarpone, that is a v helpful list!

we never had a problem. I can't quite remember how it worked, I think we jsut rushed like mad getting the buggies, babies and stuff stuff over to the side near the stairs. we've taken ours a few times. there should be a little soft play bit or somthing where you can take them. The hardest bit I remember was actually getting them back in the car, because you don't get back down til they ready to unload and it took us a while to get everything in and people were going round us!

Agree that the chunnel is so much easier.

Countingthegreyhairs, thank you!

Chops, good to know it IS do-able. Feeling calmer now [deep breath] although I'd assumed the getting back in the car would be the easy bit . Worth knowing that it ain't!

Well the tunnel crossing only takes around 30 minutes - and the carriages are very spacious with plenty of room to move around (and toilets). So no problem changing nappies or eating (obviously can't heat anything up though). We just used the toilets and waited till we got to a service station on the other side to get something to eat...

Is it really only 30 mins? Oh we should def do that next time. Have been on tunnel before but years ago, had forgotten how quick it is!

My plan for the ferry is to leave the buggy in the car and strap twinnies into highchairs while we all eat lunch, then take to soft play area for rest of the journey. Think that will be pretty simple really, just felt so panicky yesterday about the logistics of it all. I can't begin to think how i'd cope if we were flying somewhere!

Which ferry company are you travelling with? We get free crossing with P&O so have taken our trio since they were born. If you ring them and explain they can arrange for you to park on the car deck nr the life, also they would arrange a crew member to take the buggy up for you, just ask! Good luck!

that should be lift!