guys i'm at holyhead i've just got off the train and i am heading for the ferry it's the stena
new route from holyhead to belfast it's only been running for about a week and it's on one of their
new ships as well the stena estrid so i'm really looking forward to this i haven't been to belfast
for a couple of years now it's the overnight ferry so i'll be there in the morning why don't you come
with me and we'll have a look and see what it's got to offer and i will catch you on the boat
cheers for now
the ferry terminal is connected to the railway station at holyhead
you just get off the train walk to the end of the platform and go through some doors
and you can see here that both stena and irish ferries have a ticket sales office and there's
also one for rail tickets opposite in the day a shop cafe type place is open for refreshments
probably more important for the train than the ferry really at this moment in time
there are however vending machines if you need them
from here you have the check-in desks a departure screen plus toilets and some
seating and it's a short walk after presenting your boarding details to the security area
where everyone's bags are checked it's all very similar to an airport really isn't it
after waiting a while a bus turns up and all foot passengers are called through
some more doors to get on board the bus then negotiates various areas of the port before
eventually arriving at the ferry where it proceeds to drive straight onto the car deck
before i go any further the first thing i should say about the route itself
is that the holyhead to belfast service was a bit of a short-term temporary offering
from stena whilst the republic of ireland was under stricter covid restrictions well it turns
out it was only around for four weekends so i was quite fortunate to be on it at all really
okay now stick with me for this bit my ship tonight would be the chinese-built stena estrid
which had only been in service since the start of 2020.
it's since continued to ply the usual holyhead to dublin route
but its sister ships the stena embla and stena edda now operate the liverpool to belfast route
so for a decent overnight crossing you should go with the latter just bear in mind too that the
liverpool ferry terminal is actually in birkenhead just to complicate things even further of course
well i finally made it to deck 8 where the main bar the sky bar and atrium area was
located amidships and despite being bombarded with the usual pa announcements about covid control
i did find this to be a pleasant modern area with a really open feel to it
it looked quite classy too note the little statues here we'll see a little bit more of this later on
i made my way past happy world which was a kind of kids area towards a quieter lounge where i
suspect some passengers could get some kind of sleep here in the seating area if they needed to
anyway talking about sleep i was really tired at this point and
too tired really to carry out an extensive tour of the ship that could wait until the morning i did
make the time however to have a quick guinness in the bar before heading for my cabin beers for now
my cabin was located at the stern of the ship on deck 8.
guys what a cabin that's all i can say
so let's have a little look around this is the deluxe cabin on the stena estrid
and it's the most expensive cabin on the boat and obviously i'm doing this for you guys so you know
don't worry about it it's my privilege double bed don't get that in many cabins do you these days
let's have a look through here just going to turn the light on and here we have excuse the mess
a quite spacious bathroom actually which is unusual on ferries in a typical
standard inner or outer cabin inside or outside cabin i should say so yeah that that's pretty good
quite nicely decorated as well by the way headboard contains usb
power and conventional uk power sockets and i left my charger on the train
tonight on the way here because i'm so tired and fortunately a fantastic guy called cj
customer services lent me a charger for the night which is brilliant so i can't thank him
enough for that let's have a look at this we've got a coffee maker here and obviously a kettle
some nice cups i might have an espresso in the morning actually thinking about it
and some crisps I'll take those with me biscuits
chocolates alright what have we here we have a little fridge and what's in the fridge
oh some pop and some water brilliant i'm not going to be able to drink all that to be honest
let's see how much i can carry with me tomorrow
a window
oops
there you go i've got a thing with blinds i just can't seem to make them work anyway
you obviously can't see much we are actually at sea
at the moment half an hour into the sailing it left on time so that was fine
excuse the mess some chairs and a table now a tv as well by the way i haven't tried it yet
i just haven't had time a lovely pot plant in the corner don't get that in every cabin do you
the tall mirror deserves a mirror wave and there you go that's for me
and the piece de resistance guys tonight with this cabin is check this out
you have
outside and i'm taking my card just in case i get locked out here
access to the deck now it's advertised as your balcony but it's not really
yeah because it's quite public as you can see nevertheless
it's quite good isn't it and as i said there's not a lot to see tonight
but the ship's by no means full otherwise i would imagine this would be full of cars
and lorries on this deck but there's north wales in the distance we're heading to
belfast i think the eta in the morning is 7.45 i had about two hours sleep last night so
i'm gonna head in get some more sleep see if i can add to that i hope so
yeah catch you in the morning where it will be light and i will report a bit more about
what it's like on deck and the rest of the ship i'll speak to you in the morning
we will be arriving at our destination in 30 minutes
well morning came and it was a bit longer than 30 minutes as it turned out i made myself a quick
cup of tea which thanks to direct access i was able to enjoy outside on deck in a proper cup
and as we sailed down belfast lock there was still plenty to see and i just about had enough time to
explore the outside of the ship and the rest of the interior before it was time to vacate my cabin
okay so i went back inside at deck level 7 where i found the barista coffee lounge
and also the location of the customer service desk just to the left here or should i say
port also on deck seven is the taste restaurant which is the main food outlet on board as i said i
didn't eat on board i was too busy exploring but i thought i'd get some footage of the area anyway
the shop is also on this level but was unfortunately closed at this time
the spaciousness is accentuated when you walk back up to deck 8 because you have this very
smart atrium area which really does let a lot of light into this central area
a couple of areas on deck 8 i didn't cover the night before were the hygge recline lounge where
a door code can be purchased giving you access to more comfortable seating and a tv by the looks of
it there is also the stena plus lounge which is bigger right at the front of the ship and
you get free tea coffee snacks etc and some wine apparently this is an upgrade price of £20
if i wasn't staying in one of the deluxe cabins i may well have tried this lounge out because
if you get free wine you'd easily get your money's worth wouldn't you well i would definitely
now looking back from here the living room lounge as it's called has some
really big windows a nice space to be in on a day crossing i would say
on the starboard side near the truckers lounge is
a small arcade and also some slot machines across the way
and last but by no means least are a couple of free movie lounges
yes you did hear me correctly they are actually free to use
now the seats are angled towards large screens in the centre of the lounge and
now they don't look like a conventional ship cinema in any way at all but i like them
a really nice touch by stena this
i made my way up to deck 9 and from here you can see right down into the atrium area
through this window does anybody know what shape this window is by the way
and finally a further flight of stairs took me up to the sun deck where i was able to exit right
on the top of the ship where this fantastic open area was accessible now in my opinion
too many ferries have too limited deck space with too many areas roped or barriered off to the
public nows is not the case with stena estrid and it's definitely a plus point for
me as i like to explore these ships as much as possible now incidentally the name estrid means
beautiful goddess in the ancient norse language and i must say it really is a beautiful ship
i really enjoyed this ferry and as we came into port
i had one last look around before summing up my thoughts
good morning guys from the top deck of the stena estrid we're just about coming into belfast now
although we don't actually appear to be moving for some reason i'm not quite sure why it's
7.38 in the morning so a reasonable time to arrive not too early which is great the
cabin last night was fantastic you can't beat a double bed especially when you're
tired like i was that was much appreciated i had a quick guinness before i went to bed
again absolutely great the prices are reasonable £5.20 for a pint probably expect that on board
great facilities on board by the way and the whole feeling of the ship in my opinion is spacious
i really like it and there's plenty of deck space as well which is great so anyway once we get into
belfast i'm gonna probably catch a couple of buses to the airport i've got to make my way
over to belfast city airport to catch a flight back at lunchtime so thank you for watching this
i do hope you've enjoyed it i certainly have and until the next time guys cheers for now