Half an Hour in Santander - Two days on a boozy boat! (Brittany Ferries)

Member Name: lasagne5

Product:	Brittany Ferries
Date:	24/07/03 (664 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Budget or Splash Out!, Great food, Lots to do

Disadvantages: Bad weather means no sun bathing!, No ATMS on board, Long journey - short stay in Spain

Half an Hour in Santander - Two days on a boozy boat!

On a gorgeous morning in June may partner and I boarded the Val de Loire ferry in Plymouth. The ferry is huge and I had no idea how I would cope with regard to sea sickness, boredom, or going hungry. I'd read mixed reports on Dooyoo and ensured I packed rations, Connect 4 and plenty of sea sickness stuff.

Onboard we were greeted by a plush reception and lots of leaflets about locations on the boat, the day's activities and advice for travel. The first thing we wanted to do was offload our bags so it was off to explore the cabin. It was a long way down the stairs. We'd booked a discount trip to santander which involved a two night stay on the boat with 2 hours in Santander, Spain on the second day. We hoped this wouldn't mean a nightmare cabin! The cabin was a 4 berth but we'd paid a supplement to just use it alone. There was about as much space as you'd get in a twin room in a static caravan which is reasonable, but the great thing was a nice 'bathroom' with a toilet, sink and very lovely but powerful shower! In case you'd forgotten there were the usual hotel style soap freebies, towels etc. Also included were the bed linen and a plug socket (for which you could get an adapter in the onboard shops).

We did the right thing in dumping our stuff, grabbing some sun creme and drinks we'd brought with us, then dashing up tot he top deck - this time via the lift which was quick and didn't seem like half the trek that we'd experienced via the stairs! On the top deck were a load of free sunloungers and because we got lucky with the weather - loads of sun. As the boat set off we were welcomed by a frech accented lady over the tannoy and pan piped music - it was quite bizarre! I found that the motion on the boat didn't bother me - this was my first ferry trip and I didn't want to end up being sick the whole time. I sat on my sun lounger and

sunbathed for a few hours - great!

So what about the two days stuck on a boat - apart from sunbathing - what was there to do?

Recommended activities:

Watching the house band in the 'Le Rabelais' bar.
When we were on the boat we were entertained by 'Rain'. They were really good - they did standard favourites to meet the tastes of a mixed age-group and background audience. Everything was played from Shania Twain, beatles, Dire Straits, REM but they refused our requests for the Cheeky Girls. Be sure to try all of the bars and find one that suits your mood!

Playing Bingo and the Quiz in the 'Le Rabelais Bar'. We won our beer money back - a splendid £75!!!

Listening to the pianist in the 'Le Layon' bar whilst sipping southern comfort - very elegant and romantic bar - no riff-raff!!

Eating at the 'Le Temps de Vivre' restaurant - this is fantastic and worth paying extra for! £13.00 a head gets you the Buffet menu. The starter is a plate full of anything you want from an amazing buffet cart of french cuisine. Fresh Fish, vegetables, pates, and olives etc. If this wasn't gorgeous and filling enough you then get a main course of a cordon bleu style dish - I can recommend the beef - and the vegetarian lasagnette. This is followed by the desserts table. By this point I could hardly make it to the puddings - there were deleicate petit fours, massive gateaux, fruit salads and chocolate cakes.

Shopping at the onboard Duty Free - fanastic bargains on booze and perfumes etc.

On a Budget?
On board there are plugs so you could take your own travel kettle and tea bags. There is also a microwave so you could make your own meals with stuff you bring on board. There is a newsagent called la kiosque for buying papers, chocolate bars abd bottles of pop. Free Entertainment is plentiful - especially in Le rabelais bar. Also free are the movies which are pretty r
ecent
and change each day. If you don't fancy fench cuisine, you can buy meals at around £3 from La magdelana self service - you can even just grab a slice of toast at breakfast - have as much or as little as you want.

Other useful information:

It is credit cards or sterling only onboard. Check with your provider if there are likely to be fees for using it onboard a ferry - I certainly had no charges on my Barclaycard. There is no real lower limit to the amounts of each transaction so you don't have to worry about spending £5. i would have liked to have taken more cash with me though.

You can use your mobile phone when nearer to the coasts. As you pass through each country - France and Spain, most mobiles hook up to the local provider and send you useful text messages about how to use your phone abroad.

There is an L.E.D board on deck 7 that shows your progress to Santander as you travel.

Bargain ciggies can be bought from a shop not to far from the port in Santander - just ask the ladies at the check in desk for directions - you won't have a lot of time to look round Santander. I also recommend the Supermarket Jesus just across form the port and down the first side street you see. It has a good stock of groceries and they take credit cards for small amounts.

Don't worry if you aren't very organised - there are plenty of announcements about what is happening on ship - including reminders about getting your reservations in before midday for the evening meals in most of the onboard restaurants.

The staff are all french but speak good English however if you speak too quickly they just don't understand!!

We paid £49 pounds each plus £20 supplement for the room. This was a special discount price that you may be able to negotiate with some travel agents. The standard price for two people can be several hundred pounds. Despite having a sizable discount in a budget room w
e were ver
y satisfied with our stay on the boat and it turned out to be a very romantic holdiay for the two of us. We had lots of fun, got very drunk and thanks to our Bigno winnings we weren't much out of pocket!! I would recommend this was a route to Spain if you really can't stand flying! It is a long trip but if you are prepared to explore the boat you'll find something to entertain you and lots of great food!

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