Our Isle Of Wight Trip – The Ferry Crossing
Back in April we reviewed a holiday on the Isle of Wight with Red Funnel Ferries. We were sent over to the Isle of Wight on the Red Funnel ferry and had accommodation and three different trips set up for the weekend while we were there.
The whole trip was amazing, everything about the trip was fantastic and as well as all the great things that we had happening we also had the best weather for the weekend. It wasn’t cold, it didn’t rain and we had a full weekend of sun only throughout the whole weekend. It was bliss and we really didn’t expect to have as good a time as we did.
It was Baba’s first trip on a ferry and he was super excited about the whole experience. He constantly was asking “are we there yet?” as we were driving to the ferry.
It was really easy to get to the Southampton ferry port, and the car wasn’t very far from a very fully equipped café, so we were able to get a drink and some magazines for our trip. We weren’t sure how Baba was going to be on the ferry so we had our bags full of things to keep him entertained as we did have an hour’s journey over to East Cowes. But he was so interested in what was happening around him that he wasn’t a problem at all.
The Red Funnel ferry was beautifully clean, and getting onto the ferry with the car was very smooth and easy to do. We have been to the Isle of Wight on other ferries and both of us preferred the process at Red Funnel, it seemed more organised and there seemed to be more people directing us, and the whole process seemed to be quicker and smoother.
We quickly got out of the car and were upstairs with Baba at the window looking at all the cars on the ferry. This he was fascinated with. We had a smooth start to the crossing, and Baba could not stop giggling as he was so excited to be finally moving.
Once he had settled down, we decided to move up to the top of the deck and watch some of the boats going past. This was great excitement for Baba, especially when we saw a forces boat, as Daddy’s friend goes on one of them, according to Baba!
As we were looking at the boats, we suddenly heard my name over the announcer, and were all a bit shocked as to why I was being called. Mr L joked that we were going up to the top to see the captain, and I just gave him a look, so it was a complete surprise when we found a member of staff to be told that this was exactly what we were doing.
This was such a surprise and a lovely treat for all of us. Baba had such fun running around the captain’s room, seeing all the boats, and the tools that the captain uses to make the boat move. We didn’t have a huge chat with the captain as he was being cut up regularly by other boats. But Baba really didn’t care; he sat in the captain’s chair and made himself completely at home just gazing out the window.
We got to stay up the top until we were pulling up at East Cowes and were being called back to our cars. Baba got a large hand and a badge to say that he had seen a captain, and he loved his hand showing it off all the way back to the car.
Once we were back in the car, getting off the ferry was just as smooth as getting on. We did have a little queue due to us all getting off in single file, but it really didn’t make a difference and driving off, to complete and utter sunshine was just bliss.
We all felt fine on the crossing and we were concerned, as Mr L really does get travel sick and it was Baba’s first time on a boat. But luckily it was a smooth and enjoyable crossing were we got to meet the captain and Baba learnt more about ferries than we ever thought.
Our experience coming home from the Isle of Wight was exactly the same, everything was smoothly run. The ferry was clean and tidy and the stuff were just as helpful as on the ferry going out. Red Funnel have convinced us to use this ferry crossing from now on as it was much nicer than any other crossing over to the Isle of Wight.
*Thanks to Kerry and her family for reviewing the trip for us.
