38 Hours at sea (Polferries)

Member Name: kingseany

Product:	Polferries
Date:	19/03/04 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value

Disadvantages: Not huge range of activities

An account of a few days spent aboard a Polferries ship, between Sweden and Poland in 2003.

The Polferries ship, M/S Scandinavia departs from Nynäshamn ferry terminal (Sweden), at 17.30 on 26th September 2003, and it's just 10km from us, so it's a nice easy first leg of the trip. The route is operated 3 times a week. This ferry was built in 1980 in Sweden and is capable of carrying up to 1888 people, and over 500 cars. The ship is 146metres long and has 11 floors which include a 200 seat cinema, children's play area, and the usual cafe, bars and restauarant facilities. Although built in 1980, it's first voyage under the Polferries name was in August 2003, it was purchased from another ferry operator, who run services to the island of Gotland. We wait around at the terminal for quite a while as there is a mass of people in front of us. Tickets in our pockets, we head through passport control and onto the ship without too much trouble. Our cabin is on deck 7, of the ship, with 4 beds, a bathroom and a window to look out of - it's quite basic. Before we get to the cabin though we need our keys, and spend time searching for the right reception.

Once inside we think about how we'll spend the next 19 hours before the ship reaches it's destination in Gdansk, Poland. A knock on the cabin door, and it's a maid with more towels for us, she puts them on the top bunks, and says something in Polish to us. We wonder for a while whether this means we are expecting guests to our cabin, but luckily no-one arrives. We have a look round the duty free, one shop for cosmetics and perfumes, another for drinks, smoking materials and confectionary. They are quite small, by usual Duty Free shop standards, and all the prices are in Swedish Krona (SEK) only. The alchohol seems to have
some really good bargains, for instance 1litre of Kamen Vodka (UK made) for 35SEK (£2.30). There are around 20 other Vodka's to choose from, including Polish and Swedish brands. We decide that Poland will be even cheaper, so only buy one bottle here, just enough for the trip. Other bargains were Naploleon Brandy for less than £2 a litre bottle, Gin (60%) for £4 a litre, White rum just £3 a litre. So some bargains to be had, and unusually the cashier didn't require the tickets to be stamped to say what we'd bought, so in fact we could have bought a lot more than the 1litre each of spirits, and quite easily got away with it. As well as spirits, there was a reasonable selection of wines from around the world (none Polish thank god), with prices from 16SEK (just over £1 a bottle), and famous name beers also at good prices. Cigarettes and Tobacco were very cheap by UK, and even Swedish standards, with prices as low as 8SEK a packet, yes that's just over 50pence for 20! Quite stormy out on the sea, the ships rocks and sways a little. Karolina suffers a sickness feeling and spends some time in bed. Sean explores the bar, and the gaming machines. Karolina later joins, but we soon both head back to the cabin to conserve energy for the next day.

Saturday
Breakfast at 8 ish. We mistakingly head into the cafe rather than restaurant, and collect our breakfast, where at the cashier deck we are told that our tickets are invalid here. Our breakfast is taken away, except for drinks which we pay for. Not too upset, as we realise we aren't the only ones making the same mistake, we drink up and find the real restaurant. A bit more stylish, with waiters and waitresses running about and the tables nicely laid out. No one approaches us so we sit down by the window, and after a few min
utes a waiter arrives. In a mixture of pigeon english and sign language we manage to order eggs and bacon, along with more tea and coffee. This arrives shortly along with a plate of cheese, cold meats and salad, orange squash. The bacon and eggs are served on toast, with the bacon hidden underneath and green things sprinkled over the eggs. It's nicely done, and it's soon all gone. We manage to get an extra two cups of tea before we leave the restaurant. We decide to change a small amount of money to Polish Zl before leaving the ship, although the rate isn't that great.

At around 12.30, we arrive in Poland. The 3 language announcements say it's first the trucks that are allowed off, then people. We make our way down to one of the the car decks, avoiding any queues. Not sure if we can leave by this exit, we ask the guard who says, "Yes, but go quick". We waste no time, and don't get killed by any trucks on the way out. Off we go into Gdansk, after our passports are stamped. Studying, (a quick glance actually) the map earlier, we mistakingly believe that we are very near to the centre of the town. This is our first mistake, as as we set off on foot. As this is all about Polferries, I'll cut out the day in Gdansk, this will be a seperate account.

So after the days sightseeing, we arrive back at the ship, and are able to walk straight back on without any requirements for tickets, passport or boarding card, which we thought a bit worrying.

The ship is quiet, we guess many people are spending the night in the town. The bar area is almost empty, the gambling machines are turned off (due to the ship being docked), and the duty free is closed. Karolina continues to drink Baileys, Sean vodkas and beers. The three piece Polish band starts to play, a mixture of Polish and English songs.
Sean makes a request for a Beatles song, and after some discussion they manage to play Obladioblada, with limited lyrics, but they make a reasobable job of it. We seem to be the only ones clapping (much like our Estonia experience the year before). Sean goes and sits with the band and discusses how good they are, at least one of them can hold a reasonable conversation in English, which is useful. As the bar is so empty, we are invited over by an Argentian called Angel (now living in Sweden), and his newly found friends Eva, who is originally Turkish and John, a Swedish policeman, with a German background - so bit of a mixture of cultures all around one table. The polish barman serves drinks to our table, so we tip him well, and he's really friendly from that moment on, taking our photographs too. We dance a bit and while away the hours with our new found friends. Completely and utterly drunk, we stumble back to the cabin in the early hours.......

Sunday
Now knowing where the real breakfast is served, we head straight there (slightly hung over from last night), and order eggs and bacon again. A pretty similar experience than the morning before, however this time we ask for extra tea, it costs 5zl. We don't try and explain the freebies yesterday, it's cheap enough anyway. We head out for a taxi once more, and spend the rest of the day in Gdansk once more.

.... omits day in Gdansk....

Later, tired of shopping, and aware that the ferry leaves again at 5ish, we stop a taxi in the street, and try and tell him where we want to go. Not sure, we show our ferry tickets, and he seems to understand, and quotes 40zl, which we accept (as it's Sunday). He puts the meter on, and it actually works out at 31zl, so we pay him that, and he's happy. The terminal looks closed, we see people standing around outs
ide, so walk around to where the trucks are going in, and have a word with the guard. He assures us the terminal isn't closed, and we must go in that way, so we walk back round, and of course it's quite open, it just looked closed to us! A few last minute purchases of chocolate and Polish cigarrettes called "Grot", which cost just 3zl for 20, We then stand in another queue, for new boarding cards and of course passports to be checked and stamped once more. Once through this, we drop off all our purchases in the cabin.

The ship pulls off on time, just another 19 hours til we are back home again. Not a lot more that we can do, but dress up and head back to the bar, after another look around the duty free and buying 5 bottles of wine. On entering the bar, we are immediately recognised by the bar staff, and the band, who all say hello to us. I'm guessing we made an impression on the the previous night, as they weren't saying hello to anyone else. The gambling machines are on tonight, so we spend a little time there, not having a huge success though. One guy next to us managed to win 418 Swedish Krona, which required the attendant to pay it out, this seemed to be quite an event. Not content with his winnings, he continued to sit there and put it all back in. Another girl we noticed spent ages looking at her 3 of a kind, before deciding not to hold them at all, we didn't say anything. We sat back in the bar, where we again met Angel, Eva and John, who had also found more friends to join the table. The same band as before played a similar set, including Opus Life is Life, which got most people up to dance, including us. We pretended to boogie, do the twist and whatever else, no one seemed to notice that we couldn't actually dance. Deciding to retire reasonably early tonight, we said our goodbyes and headed off to bed.

>MONDAY
We rise after a smooth nights sailing, with no hint of rough waters. Breakfast at 8.45, we order the same, just because we loved the eggs so much from the previous two days. We've got a few spare Zloty left in our pockets, so to the tax free once more to use them up. As the prices are in SEK, it's difficult to get the exact idea of how much it'll be in Zloty, but somehow we manage to spend 61.04Zl with the 61 we have, the cashier letting us off with the .04 bit (it is less than a penny). Shopping out of the way, we pack up our cases and tidy a little. The cleaning ladies arrive at midday, so we walk up to the top deck to have a look at the view. Nynäshamn is in the distance, and it looks very different from this angle. Looking the other way, islands, but we aren't quite sure which they are, still it's all very beautiful. Slowly we reach the harbour, and after a bit of a delay we are on dry land once more. Back through passport control again, should have been a breeze, but some problem with Sean's passport. Police arrive, 10 minutes is spent waiting around while they decide that it's not actually stolen, nor is he a criminal of any kind...apologies accepted, and we continue home.


So, there's the account, hope you found it slightly entertaining, stay tuned for the account on Gdansk itself...

The cost of the trip was 890kr, which is around £60 for 3 nights in a cabin for 2 people, with 3 breakfasts each included. Taxi fares between the ship and the main centre of Gdansk cost around 20Zl, around £3 for a 20 minute ride, although I'm sure it can be had for less (it's 2Zl per km cheapest rate). A beer (Holsten) in the ship bar is around £1.20, a Baileys about £1.70. All other prices mentioned throughout this account can be worked out at around 6.5Zl
to £1.

You can visit the Polferries website on www.polferries.pl (then click the UK flag). All prices on the site are in Euros. They run a number of offers, including special shopping trips and hotel combinations. As well as the route I have mentioned, they also offer 3 other routes, using the 3 other vessels they have.

That's all folks.

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