Ferry from Zeebrugge

We had an easy time getting on the ferry from Zeebrugge to Hull. We already had our ticket and just walked on the boat. We had the same boat, Pride of York, but a different cabin on a different deck.

The Red Deck was our new home, but only temporarily. In the cabin we noticed it was quite hot. So we adjusted the ceiling vent, dropped our stuff, and went to wander around for a bit. Coming back after half an hour, it was no cooler, so we decided to see if another cabin was available.

The boat was quite full and the only option was two separate rooms on the Green Deck. Rather than deal with beastly heat, we switched to the more comfortable rooms. They sent someone to check the new rooms and they were unoccupied. Sometimes people make swaps and the system doesn't have a record of it. They wanted to be double sure before changing us. We moved our stuff.

The seas were very bad. We had some comical walking around, swaying back and forth between the hallway walls. We were concerned the children wouldn't sleep well. We asked if extra bed railings were available. The crew provided some. Everyone, parents and children, had rails put on their bunks.

Dinner was nice, the same buffet we had coming over to Zeebrugge. The rough seas made it tricky walking back from the buffet to the table with food. It was more tricky with drinks. With dinner, I had a Bulmers Cider, which is a whopping 568 ml! It took quite a while to drink. It lasted well into dessert.

Bed time was still a little ways off. Jacob and I wandered the decks. Jacob showed me some videos on the casino slot machines that were on board. Luckily no one was around to see me expose my son to gambling. Of course, he knew about it from the previous trip, and I didn't show it to him then, so who could it have been that let him first see?

Jacob enjoyed the fun pyramid treasure hunt video.

Um, so why the fun cartoon on display if you don't want under 18's?

Jacob had no interest in the buttons and I don't think he knew that we could put money in the machine. It was just some entertainment, like the arcade games.

We finally wandered back to the cabins for bed time. With two separate cabins, one parent stayed with one child. I did not get to stay up and hang out at one of the bars like last time. Instead, I lay on the top bunk over Lucy. The sea was still pretty turbulent. That didn't bother Lucy. It seemed to keep me up which meant I listened to a lot of podcasts. In the morning my iPod's battery symbol was in the red. It was a long night. The morning was much better for everyone. But that's a story for the next post.

p.s. My apologies to the three of you who managed to see the Grassington Dickensian Christmas Festival post that was only a hyperlink to the Festival's web page. I am saving up our Christmas activities to have a "Twelve Days of (UK) Christmas" marathon and that was the start of work on one post. I clicked "publish" instead of "close" and didn't realize it till later. You'll have to wait for Christmas to see the full post!