Taking a Ferry is an Option Too 

Not a good one, but an option nonetheless

So far on this little mid-youth crises of mine, I’ve travelled by plane, train, bus, car and, of course, a lot of walking. But I had not covered any distance by boat. 

Imagine my excitement when I found out there was a ferry from Ireland to Spain! I haven’t taken a ferry since the last time I crossed the Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton, a mere 3 hours compared to the impressive 27 hours from Rosslaire, Ireland to Bilbao, Spain. 

It seemed like such a great idea at the time, a (kind of) new experience and I could save on two nights of accommodation.

I booked with Brittany Ferries. Their website does not make this clear, but budget conscious travellers should know you don’t have to book any accommodation on the ferry, you can just sleep on the cushioned benches in the public spaces. 

I didn’t realise this, so I booked what I thought was the cheapest option;  a reclining chair in a lounge. Honestly, the benches would have been more comfortable, but at least the lounge gave me a sort of secure place to store my bag. 

At least I had the foresight to pack my own snacks – I’d been forewarned  that  the food on board was expensive. 

Customer Service Snaffoo

As with flights, during the booking process, Brittany Ferries asks if you need any assistance. I, being the savvy blind adventurer that I am, yes, please. This was a mistake. 

About a month before my sailing (maybe a week after I made the booking), Brittany Ferries got in touch to ask what assistance I may need. 

I told them I was visually impaired and would like assistance getting on the ship and finding my seat, maybe being shown  where the toilets are. 

The came back to me and basically said, “sorry, we can’t help you if you’re travelling alone so you can’t sail”. They did offer to give me a free ticket for a travelling companion as an alternative to cancelling my ticket, but that’s about as useful to a solo traveller as a mug made from chocolate. 

Apparently, they didn’t have the staff to provide assistance. 

So the question becomes, why offer assistance in the booking process if you don’t have the resources to provide any assistance?? 

I was in Wicklow at the time with no cell service, so I had to make special trips into town to make calls. Trips. Plural. Because getting hold of someone who could actually help was a mission all in itself. Which is not to say the people I did speak to weren’t all lovely to deal with, they just didn’t have any decision-making power. 

In the end, I convinced them I would manage (begrudgingly) without assistance and to please not cancel my ticket. I did have to promise I wouldn’t fall overboard and I think I might have signed my first born child over to them? 

It was a week of unnecessary stress, dealing with people with no actual lived experience with my disability and who didn’t trust me to know my own limits. Assistance makes my life easier, but I can do without. 

It was fine once I got the permission to sail, but it left me with a bitter taste. 

All aboard!

Here’s something I didn’t consider when I decided to take the ferry; the target passengers are people travelling with a vehicle. This means the ferry terminal caters to people with vehicles, which is to say us poor foot passengers have a hell of a time getting to the terminal. 

There is a train to Rosslaire with a  stop about a 15 minute walk from the terminal. 15 minutes that is, if you go the right direction. The train conductor told me to turn left at the roundabout. Apparently we don’t have the same understanding of ‘roundabout’ or ‘left’ because when I tried to follow his instructions I nearly got squished by trucks. Google maps was no help at all. Luckily, there was a very worried, dog-walking stranger who pointed me in the right direction and I did eventually get to the terminal. 

There’s nothing at the terminal. Because, again, people are mostly chilling in their cars.

 It’s worse than even the smallest airports I’ve been to. I had a few boring hours to kill before a shuttle bus took me to the ship. Little did I know it was a mere taste of the boredom to come. 

Here’s the thing, I’ve obviously had long travel days before; flying form New Zealand to…anywhere is no joke. But there. Is. Nothing. To. Do. On a ferry. 

There’s no internet because you’re in the middle of the ocean and there’s no in seat entertainment. There is a bar but you have to sell a kidney to afford a pint. There a few restaurants but the food is also ridiculously expensive and bad. 

The only advantage of a ferry over a flight is that there’s more room to stretch your legs. And there’s nothing to do but stretch your legs. 

I knew there would be no internet, I downloaded stuff to watch, read and listen to. And still, I was so bored! 

Nothing went wrong once I was on the ferry and even getting off went more smoothly than expected because the shuttle bus took me and the other two foot passengers all the way into the centre of Bilbao. It was just boring! 

It takes something like three hours to fly from Ireland to Spain. Even with airport time, that would’ve been eight hours of my life at the most. 

There are better options 

Like flying. Or swimming. You might get cold trying to swim but you wont be bored!

I don’t regret taking the ferry, it was a new experience and now I know not to do that again. Ever.

Also, now you can learn from my mind-numbing experience! Unless you’re taking a car, don’t bother. Also, don’t let them know if you’ve got a disability, they won’t help and may tell you that you can’t sail. 

There’s really not a lot to say about the ferry. So boring!