The kids were so excited when we travelled on Stena Line from Dublin to Wales last week that they turned into screeching monkeys, racing around and climbing everything they came across.
When a boat includes climbable barriers onto open seas and lots of little nooks and crannies they could disappear into, it was a little bit exhausting keeping tabs on three high-energy kids who don’t see danger until they need rescuing.
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| Kids won't stay still! |
If they go in different directions, one is left unmarked. In our case, we still can’t assume that the eldest (who is 5) is the one we can choose not to chase, because he is the biggest dare-devil of them all, often doing daft things that put himself and others at risk. Every time, they run off in three different directions, we must make a split-second decision of who is least in danger and go after the other two.
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So it was a bit of a challenge attempting to travel on a big boat with these children - but I think we met the challenge head-on - and created a memorable, fun experience for our kids.
Our first challenge was that they wanted to climb the outside barriers to look out to sea. One parent had to hold 2 kids back whilst the other held the biggest deathwish kid – until this got too stressful and we relocated inside permanently.
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| They wanted to climb these barriers! |
Crayons and colouring books were pulled out, but soon they were bored. The kids room on the Stena Nordica is small and hot. It contains a TV that shows Curious George cartoons and a few stools and wall puzzles. My kids soon got bored with that too and began to use the stools as playthings, rolling on top of them on their sides, until I dragged them away, because they were bothering the other kids in there.
We found the TV lounge where they were showing the latest Madagascar film, but the volume was so low that even if you sat a metre away from the TV you still couldn’t hear the movie. And it’s no fun not being able to hear a movie.
Luckily, we secured a cabin, where we could contain the little monkeys whilst they could satisfy their need to climb and fling themselves around dangerously. We could finally relax – they couldn’t run away from us here, locked in a cabin.
They loved the cabin – played on the two top bunks for ages, making beds, leaping from one to another, climbing up and down the ladder, playing hide and seek, and looking out of the window at passing boats. Daddy and I got to rest for a short while on the bottom bunks and watch this chaos unfold around us, safe in the knowledge that the only risk was them hurting some part of their bodies rather than being lost on a big boat and a potential child-overboard type situation.
We ate a hearty meal on board: a brilliant deal of 5 meals (2 adults, 3 kids) + 5 any drinks for £25. There was more than enough for everyone and the meals – the standard was typical pub grub, fish and chips, burgers, wraps and pies - got eaten.
Three and a half hours is quite a long time to be out of your comfort zone with over-excited kids, but we found plenty to do onboard and loved our first experience of travelling with kids on Stena Line.
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| Contained at last! |
Coming back, we took the fast ferry to Dun Laoghaire, the Stena Explorer, which at just over two hours was a real pleasure. No time to get bored on this ship. Simply enough time to have something to eat. Wander around to explore, watch a live show in the play area and do a bit of colouring.
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| Play area for kids on Stena Explorer |
The best thing about the Explorer for kids is that there’s not really any outside space. The only open air bit is small and caged in up to about 7 foot, and it’s mainly used by smokers so the kids aren’t really welcome there.
All in all, our first trip on a ferry with kids was a great experience. My eldest son (5 years) was the most thrilled, telling everyone he met afterwards that he went on “the biggest ship in the world – even bigger than the Titanic” and my smallest (just 2 years old) delighted in being able to says two new words “big boat”.
Will we do it again? Definitely, especially on the faster, more contained Explorer. It’s not easy travelling with kids but Stena Line made it as smooth a journey as possible for us. I’m not scared of taking them on holiday and being outnumbered any more.
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| Stena Explorer |
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