Nice video mark. I’m an Isle of Wight ferry captain now but used to go to Dublin with cruise ships in my previous job. You’re right was a bit close at the end, they’re using a lot of power, judging by the wash, so probably a bit closer than intended but cleared ok in the end. These things happen though, I’ve had my fair share of near misses and you live and learn. Dublin is a very tight port at the best of times and is quite tricky if it’s a windy day and there are other ships berthed.
As a ferry captain yourself, I value your knowledge on this and thanks for sharing. Didn’t realise Dublin was such a tight port and I bet most passengers don’t appreciate the skill involved either - especially in windy conditions. Only one question I’ve got: can I come and have a go on your ferry? 😂😊
Had a great trip up to Douglas from Liverpool on a fun little rugby tour the other day. The club we played said that as the RFU had pulled funding to help with travel, they struggled for games now. So if there are any rugby teams looking for a tour, think of the Isle of Man.
2 other reasons why ships won’t be using the old dock at Holyhead, a part from the building of the 2 bridges. The first is the salient up in the inner harbour, making it too sallow for ships at low tide. The second is that ships are too big in length to fit in the old dock. Also, the increase in traffic using the ferries would be too much to enter the port through the old entrance for the old dock. You pass it on your way to terminals 2, 3, 4 & 5, at the end of the road running along the side of the port, on the town side of the port. Also, Irish Ferries have the same employment contracts as P&O have now, Irish ferries brought the change in employment contacts back in the Winter of 2005/2006. I remember hearing about how they got raided of their staff, as part of the change. Which is why I do not use Irish ferries anymore, I changed changed over to using Stena Line now a days. Stena Line is the main ferry company, that still employs workers from Ireland and the UK.
Fair play to you that you don't patronize Irish Ferries anymore. Judging by the video there's nothing at all wrong with the Cypriot crew, but sacking your long~standing, locally recruited workforce so you can bring in a new badly paid staff on tenuous contracts is just a really greasy move. To add insult to injury, it doesn't look like they have passed any of the savings on to the passengers... what a surprise!
@@tdr2512 Fair enough. Tbh, I'm not in a position to say, not having been on the Oscar Wilde. I was just going on what Mark (content creator) said in the video.
Yes you are right about the old Ferry Terminal. Back in the 70's and 80's you could get a train from Euston that had literally hundreds of passengers on it all going to Holyhead for the Sealink ferry. One train would leave around 8am for the 3pm sailing, and one around 8pm for 3am sailing. Those two sailings back then would be absolutely packed, especially in the Summer months. The ferries now are of course much bigger and need to be accommodated, but it was great to able to board the ship at Holyhead only a few metres from the train, and when you got over to Dun Laoghaire ( now sadly gone as a passenger terminal also ) you could disembark the ship walk up Marine Road and be in a pub in a couple of minutes. The bars used to be heaving on those ferries back then, and the craic on them was brilliant. The Fishguard- Rosslare route also used to be packed back this with a 3pm and 3am sailing also. The train for that service used to depart Paddington Station. I can remember the names of the ships, St Columba, Princess Maude, Hibernia, Hengist all those were on the Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire route, and on theFishguard-Rosslare route you had Caledonian Princess, and The Avalon. Great vid look forward to more.
I the summer they frequently had to run a relief train to the morning departure from Euston. I lived in Colwyn Bay backing on yo the North Wales Mainline and used to see them go through. At night there was also a departure from Manchester Victoria which connected to the night crossing to Ireland ( Sealink used to go to Dun Laihogaire, B and I line to Dublin ( I only ever went over on B&I once and that was in 1977, at that time it left from Liverpool) Didn’t B&I line change its name to Irish Ferries? Sealink used to run 2 class boats.1 st and Second class
Good old days! That area is now home to psycho seagulls! Not a nice advert for Holyhead, which has gone downhill. Even though we had millions of EU funding ( Remember them)! God knows where it all went!
Not so much a land bridge to the EU anymore since Brexit. The majority of freight now goes direct to Europe from the Rosslare Euro port. Holyhead does not look good, shuttered businessess
England and Wales are not the connection Ireland has to continental Europe.There are also connections from Ireland Roscoff,Cherbourg,Dunkirk,Le Harve in France 🇫🇷 and from Ireland to Santander and Bilbao in Spain 🇪🇸.
Irish ferries changed to a Cypriot flag and basically, got rid of most Irish staff, replacing them with East European workers. That was about 15/20 years ago..
The Cyprus registry is for tax purposes. A flag of convenience to be prescise. No Cyprus nationals are working onboard. They are mostly Eastern Europeans. Stena still employ Local and Irish people on, not as favourable conditions when i worked on the Sealink ships. You couldnt work in those days if you weren't in a Union. Things are different these days.
Fantastic video this. Really enjoyed it. Felt very nostalgic as this is a trip I made many a time back in the day aboard B&I Line's MV Leinster, and later aboard SeaLink's high speed service. How things have changed! Thanks for sharing, please keep up the great work!
I used to travel Sealink as a child on the St Columba. The Ulysses is amazing, always paid for club class, different class. It’s also a larger ship than Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats is the largest but Oscar is about 5 kts faster than both. Have had tugs supporting at Holyhead before, took an extra 30 mins to dock on Ulysses one time, it was howling at 60+ mph. Great vid.
Cheers Darren, yes I took my facts from the Irish Ferries ‘official’ sip info leaflet where they go on about it being the largest passenger ferry but I think they must mean passenger capacity by that as WB Yeats and Ulysses are clearly bigger. Bit confusing really but overall, yep, a decent ship. Must try the other two now 👍
the leinster and the connacht..remember them well in the 80s..used to get on for nothing all the time..just put on a white shirt and a black tie..go to the crew part of terminal but before passengers got on and then hide in the toilets and change clothes ..till the passengers got on..if night time crossing we would have the big long leather seats in the cafeteria to sleep on..and because it was at the centre of the ship less rocking in bad weather..if we were coming back thru Liverpool we would just get a taxi straight on to the boat..we knew people who worked on the boat so knew what the setup was for the crew..remember one time drinking all the way from liverpool to dublin coming into chrismas eve morning with some of the crew in 1983..the women were some drinkers..good times
Yes I did the Swansea - Cork ferry myself once - really enjoyed it. I don’t remember travelling on B&I but I must’ve done it at some point, I’ve got some playing cards at home!
I was very nearly born on one of the Inisfallens (I believe B+I ran at least 3 ships under that moniker over the years). My mother always said it was a real 'cattle boat', and apparently cars had to be hoisted on board, so it was probably the first one. 1969, anyway. Back then the ship used to dock right up in Cork city centre. The city quays are almost entirely disused by commercial shipping nowadays, even as they're renaming the area 'The (bleeurgh!) Sextant Quarter' - a worldwide trend, unfortunately. Later on the Inisfallen would operate out of the Tivoli container terminal, a mile or two downstream. As a young adult, I would sail to Swansea with Swansea~Cork (Cork~Swansea?) Ferries a few times out of the new port facilities in Ringaskiddy, in the harbour, after B+I had abandoned the route. I remember one time going up to London for a week, then came back to Swansea to get the ferry to Cork having spent out the last of my British money. Arrived at the ferry terminal in the pi55ing rain to find it all locked up! I'd gotten there on the wrong day! Luckily someone in the harbour master's office found a docker able to help me out by pointing me in the direction of an old shed where I could shelter and sleep the night, unbeknowst(ish!) to the guy from the Harbour Master's office. Very kind people, the Welsh! It would never happen nowadays, of course, post 9~11 and all that, and the Cork docks at that time were a bit too dodgy to take those kinds of chances! On another trip to Swansea I was put up for the night, and even taken for a meal with my girlfriend, by a mum in the Swansea neighbourhood of Parc~ yr~Hwyll (spelling?!) The place very much reminded me of Cork, with all the hills. That weekend it rained incessantly as well. I felt right at home! On that occasion, returning to Cork, I was hit with the DT's for the first and only time in my life as the bus pulled out of Ringaskiddy (to the immense embarrassment of my girlfriend) having gone to Swansea as part of an Ir£5 return foot~passenger deal, with the express intention of making a drinking weekend out of it - apart from the Duty Free, you could buy vile but extremely potent lagers in Wales like Special Brew and Kestrel Super, at a time when nothing comparable was available in Ireland. No bad thing, perhaps! As it happened, a few days later I bought a card to send to the Welsh lady to express my gratitude for her generosity, having kept her address. Unfortunately I would very quickly find myself back in the UK with just what I had in my pockets, on account of having upset some of the local Cork 'tough guys'. (Yeah - again, drink; and youthful foolishness!) I never did get to thank my Welsh benefactor. Even today, 30~odd years later, I still feel kinda bad about that... One last recollection, Swansea~Cork ferries would run a number of different ferries seasonally on that route, (one always got the feeling the company was just barely struggling along, passengers generally preferring to travel to Rosslare and make the much shorter crossing from there to Pembroke Dock, or Fishguard. I even remember on a few occasions some of the more menial staff, on derisory wages, I should think, seemed to be in the habit of 'pinching' some of the booze that passengers had bought from the duty~free and bust into before conking out! I remember one of the things that went a long way towards putting the tin hat on things for the carrier was when two unfortunate travellers were poisoned to death by the ships septic tank out~gassing into their cabin by way of the toilet... Anyway thanks for relating your memories and prompting my own reminiscences. Not that you were looking for an autobiography, mind you 🙄😔. I'm sure you've got libraries where you're currently living, lol!
@@richiehoyt8487 You have some interesting memories. We were making a Christmas Eve(1973) trip from Cork to Swansea... only thing was, the Innisfallen wasn't in yet.. It came in at 12 noon, turned round in 15 minutes,loaded a few cars, 2dozen foot passengers..We arrived in Swansea at a low tide at around 10pm!!The company had experienced a heart attack passenger situation a couple of days earlier... had diverted to Pembroke to get the passenger to hospital...The the company forewent fright traffic in an effort to get back on schedule!! memorable...
8:59 Most of the crew on Irish Ferries ships appear to be from Eastern Europe including Poland and they sleep in staff cabins on board the ships - in the Club Class Lounge, the crew are Russians - in all cases, they are very friendly and very nice - a few years ago on the Ulysses Reception, there was this very handsome young blond guy and all the girls (and the gay guys) fancied him, myself included ❤❤❤❤
07.06.2024 Irish Ferries announced that it will change the ship's name to m/s James Joyce. The m/s Oscar Wilde name will be given to the m/s Spirit of Britain ship, whose charter was announced by the company in May.
I have used Stena Line out of Dublin when the Roslaire Fishguard was Cancelled due to weather. This time leaving Dublin port the Stena Line ferry had 2 tugs to get out of the port. But then it has to be very windy to cancel the ferries on the Dublin Holyhead route.
Thank you Mark for an extremely interesting video. Regrettably this is yet another video which shows that foot passengers on Irish Sea and Cross-channel ferries are now regarded as a nuisance. I was appalled at the long trek between the town (and station) of Holyhead and the actual point of embarkation. Once upon a time the vast majority of passengers on Holyhead to Ireland ferries would have been foot passengers who (like you) arrived in Holyhead by train.
Cheers, tbh I think that’s still the case with many foot passengers arriving by train. I don’t think Holyhead town itself is really integrated into the train/ferry terminal and there probably aren’t many people as mad as me staying overnight!! I still think that old terminal would’ve been great for the boat trains but times change I guess and ships get bigger.
When there's high winds, vessels do usually have tug assistance to make the turn into that basin (Berths 50/51/51a). I've been on the Stena Adventurer when it's needed assistance a few times.
If you thought the food on the ferry was expensive - wait until you get to Dublin !! Originally this ship was on the Pembroke Dock to Rosslare route. The ship that normally does the Holyhead/Dublin route is the the Ulysses, which is one of the best ships I’ve sailed on. The ship with the straight bow when docking at Dublin is the Newest ship the W.B. Yates and this sails mainly between France and Dublin.
Dubliner, As a young man i used to get the ferry to Holyhead, Then train to Manchester to watch United (Old Trafford), Remember one trip boarding the ferry in Holyhead to come home, The ferry was (the MV Leinster i will never forget that ship) going up & down in the harbour, When we put out to sea all hell broke loose, all one heard was Bottles in duty free smashing chairs being thrown around & the overpowering stink of vomit all over the ship & people panicking, I vomited until i passed out. Woke up to a friend helping me off the ship in Dublin port, Nightmare...
Regarding the flags/crew/staff situation - I had a moral dilemma when I booked a cruise around the Canaries a few years ago; I did a bit of research prior to travelling and, essentially, the grey area of operating at sea is that local employment regulations don't apply to a large extent so I was worried that I'd be waited upon by people scraping by being paid a few Euros an hour...now I'm not sure what they were being paid, but as a solo traveller I spent a lot of time chatting to them both on and off duty and they all seemed extremely content with their lives on the ship - mostly Vietnamese and Thai, fantastic people. Further to the port entry and potential collision - there's often a 'pilot' that boards the ship to navigate the port because they are more familiar with the intricacies, traffic and nuances a vessel within the confines...I'm not an expert but the pilot may have boarded via the tug, or the tug may have been doing the maneuvering.
At those prices I think I would have paid for the lounge and also a cabin even though it was a short crossing. Another inspiring and entertaining video thank you.
I always took the fast ferry to Ireland and back but last year there wasn't a fast ferry at the time I wanted so I took this one. Can honestly say its a better experience on the slow ferries compared to the fast one. A bigger ship, more places to eat, bigger shops and if the weather is okay, a walk along the outside deck. I don't think I'll ever use the fast ferry again.
Luxury... I remember travelling from the north wall to Liverpool in the 60s and looking down on cattle to be unloaded at holyhead..3rd class ticket.. thanks for the video, it brought back memories..
That day is long gone. Today, it is chemicals, software computer chips and such like. Ireland is the 8th largest exporter of Pharmaceuticals in the world. Not bad for a country of just 5 million souls.
Those cabins become very attractive during a gale force crossing when it's so bad that the ship can't use the stabilisers. A 3.15 hour crossing turns into a 5.0+ hour crossing and having somewhere to escape the overwhelming stink of vomit is worth every Euro. It's happened to me twice in 30 years of using that crossing on a semi-regular basis. I'm in agreement with those of you that have moved away from Irish Ferries to Stenaline because of the way IF treated their Irish crews. Additionally, the IF ships are starting to look very tired and the facilities on Stenaline are far better. Whereas for me Irish Ferries used to be the most attractive because they sailed and arrived almost an hour earlier than Stenaline on both crossings, that is no longer the case. Stenaline have narrowed the gap to fifteen minutes by virtue of having newer, faster ships despite still leaving 25-35 minutes after Irish Ferries. Cost-wise, there's nothing in it.
That certainly looked like a near miss, the fact that the Tasman felt it necessary to blow her whistle would appear to back that up, would be interesting to know if the Master of the Tasman reported the incident to the harbour authority.
Yes I did wonder whether there was any way of finding that out? I thought I may be over exaggerating tbh and I wish I’d have caught the first bit on camera but there must’ve been some concern. Great skill to get to the berth though - vey impressive!
"I can't tell you how I got access to the Club Lounge..." Ooooh er Mark - didn't involve the lady who offered to 'warm your croissant' did it????? 🤣🤣 £36, for the duration, is about the same per hour as foot passengers Dover to Calais (last time we paid £18 each for the 90 min crossing). Personally, the optic of having so few passengers on board a ship of that size would be a little disconcerting tbh. Would make me ask what's wrong with it/what does everyone else (who's chosen to fly) know that I don't? BTW... it's not necessarily the wind speed that's the indicator of a potentially rough crossing. Although the BBC weather app doesn't use it (to the best of my knowledge) the term 'squalls' or, worse, 'heavy squalls' in the shipping forecast is the one to be a tad wary of.....
Cheers Shane. I’m not that keen on the BBC Weather app really, it just seems one of the most common and easy to read. A shipping forecast app would be good actually if such a thing exists. Most people seemed to be holed up in the club lounge tbh (I wonder if they all paid or not lol!). Definitely the place to be but bog standard, basic foo5 passenger crossing - Stena are cheaper. Thinking about the Birkenhead - Belfast route actually, that would be good 👍
You can see the resemblance with the Viking XPRS since they were built around the same time and both being modified versions of DFDS ship Cote D Opale. :)
Back in March, 2017 I took the roundtrip Dublin-Holyhead. i went over on the Ulysees, nd came back on the Jonathan Swift, Ir was a really nice day to go over and visit Wales.
a lot truck drivers go through rosslare europort to go spain and france and do not go through the uk since brexit the ferry is registered in greece same now with P&o
I’m a boatman in the uk and I’ve moored the Tasman up a few times and I’ve also done that journey as a truck driver in my younger days! That was a very close call when swinging a large ship around, I’m not surprised the crew of both vessels were getting concerned especially with the wind conditions! Wouldn’t surprise me if a report hasn’t gone into the havenmaster.
Hi, cheers for your input here - most valued. Tbh, I thought maybe I was overreacting with this (it’s easy to go down the clickbait route!) so I appreciate an experts comments. Not sure if such reports are publicly available but it would be good to read if it was.
Hi, great video as usual and congrats on the 25k ! I have two questions : What is that pier on your channel banner because it reminds me of one but I can't remember the name When will you do more Brittany Ferries reviews, Mont St Michel, Pont Aven and Barfleur would be nice to see
I used Stena for my crossing which was ok, was amazed to see an ex-Wilts & Dorset bus being used for the transfer - the give away was the seat covering, I reckon I must have travelled on it as I lived in Poole 1991-2018. Looking forward to the rest of the trip!
I've sailed many times from Holyhead, even back in the Sealink days, living back in the Northeast I use Cairn Ryan, I prefer Stena over P&O or Irish Ferries.
I used the Stena service Belfast - Cairnryan and thought it was a very good ship. It was the sail rail vid I did a few months ago and you can find on the channel 👍
I did that journey on a rugby tour back in 1995. I still have my tour jacket. We spent all of our time, all 5 rugby teams, in the bar but we used the old pier.
Thanks for another very interesting and informative video Mark, quiet crossing right enough. I was in Holyhead last week and took the tour from just outside the train station to South Stack Lighthouse, absolutely beautiful place, really enjoyed that, but Holyhead itself, I wouldn't rush back to visit, cheers bud 👍
Unlike the Welsh in general, the few times I've been through Holyhead, I didn't find the locals to be especially warm. I guess, to be fair, you really need to spend a decent period of time in a place before making that kind of assessment. However, I've heard quite a few other people say the same sort of thing, about the townsfolk putting down the Irish, and so on. Perhaps it's understandable with all the Irish drunks traipsing through, day in, day out. There again, Dubliners might make similar observations regarding the British stag (and worse, _hen!_ ) parties 'larging it' around the city's entertainment districts; or the new~age travellers that used to relocate to the Irish countryside! I'm not trying to cause dissent, _at all!_ It's actually very gratifying that the British and the Irish mostly get along so well, especially in view of our difficult history with each other. It just happens to be a fact of life that we don't always look our best, either of us, when we have our hair down!
I lived for 3 years in Colwyn Bay, Llandudno. We always said that after there town wise there was nothing interesting till you got to Dublin.Bangor is no great shakes either.
Irish Ferries do seem to have the best ships on that route but it seems expensive to take a car across so the foot passenger price looks great value in comparison. It certainly handled the choppy seas and prices looked good for what was on offer.
It handled the sea no problem- I’m sure you get a lot worse than this too. I’ll probably try the Stena crossing next for comparison. Better foot passenger prices potentially but are they better ships? 🤔
Hi mark great video as always, some info about the ship for you as my girlfriend dad works in the Cyprus port of Limassol where MV Oscar Wilde has been registered since 2023 . She was first name Star after she was built in 2007 by her owner Tallink ( built in Helsinki shipyard) . And she would go on to travel to Tallinn of Estonia from Helsinki. Then in 2023 Irish ferries became the operator of the boat and somewhere a long the way the name was changed to Oscar Wilde from the star . Irish ferries use the boat on the Holyhead to Dublin route and Cherbourg. From my understanding, they have chosen the Limassol Port to have the boat registered there because it’s cheaper to have it there rather than Dublin and plus for any ex pats who live in Limassol and have Cypriot passports/ residency and who work for the company, it saves them paying tax and England wages for staff and can adapt a similar way of operation like P&O
Hi Jack, cheers for the info mate. Yep, it all boils down to money doesn’t it. But the question I suppose (a bit like P&O) if they didn’t do it this way, would they still be operating? And if not, Stena would have a monopoly on this route and prices would increase. Then again, Stena don’t do things like this…..
@@LetsMakeaTrip everything comes down to money, when the boat was being changed to the port of Limassol , they even argued over a price difference in registration there - I can’t remember the full price difference but it turned it was 2 euros they were arguing over. I only know as my partners father works as one of the paper sorting people there
Hi there, great video, price wise -both irish ferries and stena have sail rail tickets (about €50). Great value as this gets you pretty much anywhere in uk on a very flexible ticket.
As far as I am aware of, it’s not abnormal to have assistance from a tug when entering a port for such a large ferry. Especially if there is some wind.
MS Oscar Wilde is a river cruiser operating in Belgium/Netherlands. The previous MV Oscar Wilde is now named GNV Allegra, and operates out of Genova, Italy. *The current MV Oscar Wilde was originally ordered by Tallink Group, Tallinn, Estonia in 2005, keel laid down in 2006 and was built by 2007, and christened STAR, to operate ferry services for the Tallink Shuttle until April 2023. By May 5th 2023, she was reflagged, and renamed MV Oscar Wilde* (as you know,) She was sent to Harland and Wolff (Belfast) on May 17th 2023, via Perth for berthing trials, after leaving Estonia. MV Oscar Wilde was repainted in dry dock, before being sent to the repair dock on May 27th 2023. Then, on May 28/29th 2023 she underwent more berthing trials (Holyhead/Dublin) and following those trials she started on the service between Rosslare and Pembroke Docks, until February 1st 2024, when she was sent to Larne for a refit. On February 10th 2024, MV Oscar Wilde took up full-time service between Dublin - Holyhead/Cherbourg, although she did serve another 3 weeks as temporary cover on the Rosslare route for the P&O vessel MV Norbay. (Feb 26th - Mar 24th) MV Oscar Wilde has only operated unbroken service between Dublin and Holyhead since March 24th 2024. Although she is officially leased, Irish Ferries have a buy clause written into the lease.
Cheers Steven. I didn’t know about the buy clause in the contract. I was wondering whether they would keep hold of the ship past the 20 months initial lease. Interesting Irish Ferries refer to the ship as the ‘largest passenger ferry’ in their official leaflets but Ulysses and WB Yeats are bigger. They may mean largest passenger capacity but it seems a bit misleading to me.
@@LetsMakeaTrip I think the way you seem unfazed by a choppy crossing, I think they should keep hold. I must say I love the wide range of travel you take. One of the horrible parts of going anywhere for the 'first' time, is the unknown pitfalls. One look through one of your videos takes the edge right off. Brilliant 👍🏻
Nice vlog - ive been on the crossing from Rosslare on that ship and we got the premium seats as i knew from travelling with Stena that you'd get 'free' stuff! The trick is to bring an empty bag in with you... 😉
Hi, great video as always. I have a trip coming up dublin-holyhead return which, after travelling with Stena recently, will be my last. The service and On board crew with Irish Ferries is not a patch on Stena. Anyway, I digress, I was just wondering what type of food is served in club, if you noticed. As far as I can tell it is just snacks, pastries, muffins etc...all off the cards for a pre-diabetic, I don't want to pay the extra if I can't eat anything but the fruit 😅 also, I always travel on the overnight crossing so they may have even less on offer. Unfortunately, their website doesn't offer much info on club as far as I can see. Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated 😊 thank you
Hi mate, yes I think it's just snacks, pastries and some fruit unfortunately. If I was in there, I'd get my money's worth eating as much of that stuff as I could and taking some with me for later (plus wine and coffee of course). Unfortunately, I think you're going to struggle to get value here. Spend the money you save on over-priced food and I wish you safe travels.
Travelled on this ferry from Pembroke Dock to Rosslare where it ran when it first joined Irish Ferries. The ferry that replaced it is referred to as an 'Economy Ferry' is basically a freight ferry and rather cramped and basic with open walkways between the car deck and the passenge lounge. Breakfast was €20 with free tea and coffee for all passenges. People with mobility problems should not travel on this ferry. Apparently it is soon to be replaced with a more suitable vessel.
I did make a very early video on the Pembroke - Rosslare crossing. Can’t remember the name of the ship now but it seemed ok at the time. A very stormy night iirc but great fun!
For info, the "Oscar Wilde" you travelled on was the second to have that name but that was only for a year before being renamed as the James Joyce. by early 2024 Irish Ferries had aquired the P&O ferry Spirit of Britain which was named "Oscar Wilde"
Great ferry, enjoyed my crossing during Storm Ciaran last October on it! It handles rough seas very well! Tugs are very common for ports like this, not sure about how common a toot from another ship when you get that close is mind, looked close and in that weather the windage alone from the sheer size of the superstructure could push the ferry like a sail making berthing difficult.
What a world we live in. 21st Century. The new age of Enlightenment. A top deck of a ship closed off from travellers who just love to get as high as they can to see as much as they can. Behave! Don't Go There! Do Not Enter! Beware! Entry Barred! Stay Away! No Access! What a nice mood this new century has. Enlightenment.
Would be interested to hear about your experience of disembarking and getting into Dublin as a foot passenger. (I've not done the Holyhead route as a foot passenger for 25+ years and that was via Dun Laoghaire with Stena.)
Nice video! Do you happen to know if it is common to park your car for a couple of nights in Holyhead while visiting Dublin? Googled a long term parking, but it looked very small on google maps..
Was on the Oscar Wild on many trips from Rosslare to Cherbourg and always loved it. Recently went again to Cherbourg on a different ship but was not as nice as the Oscar Wild
All of these ships have bow and stern thrusters but a lockout is sometimes better than a camera, as you said, they are paying the staff with international levels, about half of uk rates, Brittany ferries pay french rates, negotiated, with french unions, pay up or the country shuts down,
Ahhh international waters paying in the individual employees' national pay rates. This is exactly the same trick cruise ships use to pay such minimal wages.
In terms of the near miss it was close but no foul, possibly the tug captain misjudged the wind and she is a big old lump, under normal conditions they can use bow and stern thrusters to turn
7:09 On ALL Irish Ferries crossings, I ALWAYS pay the bit extra for the Club Class Lounge, so I highly recommend doing so - I’ve tried the Stena Plus Lounge on the Stena Adventurer in the past and in comparison to Irish Ferries, the experience on Stena has been under-whelming - one ALWAYS receives the standards of service that one expects in the Club Class Lounge on all Irish Ferries ships, including the Isle of Inishmore and even on the Dublin Swift fast ferry
Great info, thanks Michael. I think Stena were after £30 for their lounge when I looked and you didn’t get alcohol it’s that either. I will have to try it out of course for comparison purposes! 😊
@@LetsMakeaTrip most people in the Stena lounge get it for free as part of an annual £1,000, €1,250 annual spend on tickets through the Stena line extra loyalty scheme. I am confident that that’s why the Stena lounges are not as good 😊
The Stena Plus lounge on the Stena Estrid was excellent when we used it last year. It was like a cruise ship, plenty of food and drinks freely available.
Where you got on the bus, that is where the worlds largest fast ferry used to sail from, Stena Explorer used to moor into the inner harbour, right next to that weird ship with 4 legs. Sailed on her many times out of Holyhead.
i was on oscar wilde december 27 th 2023 rosslare to pembroke ....ship was full and it was a very rough crossing left late and took 5 hours to cross to pembroke ....i always pay for a cabin its well worth it .(bed private toilet)..there are a lot of areas on this ship closed off / unused ... that were in use when she was named star ....large buffet restaurant and burger king all not used ....irish ferries have the option to buy star after a 2 year charter....there is very little difference in price between irish ferries and stena line as they have a price cartel running between them ....another great upload ....th-cam.com/video/2ixu_C_o6NQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=HOqb7kzhdGGhflSL
Nice one! I’ve done quite a few in the past it just didn’t fit my plans this time around. Normally though, they are great value for money whichever way you do it 👍
@@LetsMakeaTripAlthough the Ulysses is my favourite ship on this route, I do like the Oscar Wilde and the WB Yeates, as the signs in French are helping me to learn French, as French is one of my strongest foreign languages, as I’m trying to learn conversational French and get the pronunciation right
Yes, Irish Ferries are giving out misleading info as they refer to Oscar Wilde as the largest but I reckon hey mean passenger capacity not actual size.👍
Nice video on the continuation. Like I said, I haven't been that way before, but would like to in future, the Sail Rail tickets look excellent value, especially from my area of the country!
Indeed, RailSail tickets (av. with both Irish Ferries and Stena) are almost certainly the most cost-effective way to get to Ireland from most parts of Great Britain. They are so reasonably priced that it's actually cheaper to go on a RailSail to Dublin ticket when travelling at short notice to Chester (or anywhere beyond on the North Wales coastal mainline) from Euston. You heard it here first, folks ... heehee 🤫🤫🤐
Flags of Convenience seems very common amongst ferry operators, the old, not the relaunch and failed again, Swansea - Cork ferries were Greek owned and registered. The crews mostly Greek and Irish. One Greek barman had spent over 20 years on them. The relaunched company only lasted a couple of years as had maintenance, licensing and chartering issues. The Cork deep water ferry port now a container terminal, the services to France and Spain moved to Wexford Europort and Dublin.
I wish that Swansea - Cork route still existed. Only did it once, many years ago walking from Swansea railway station down to the port. Overnight crossing - very useful route. Sad it never came back really.
Have a few drinks 55mph will seem like a breeze …. Cheers mark love ya vids, Tallink on Charter limissol registered and tbh if it was still a Tallink in Scandinavia it would have atmosphere it just looked dead , even the Ulysses has a much better overall atmosphere tbh and mark you obviously sneaked in behind someone else open door to the lounge to get your free biscuits and cheese !!! Go on babby !!!! And just to correct you WB YEATS is the biggest ship in the Irish ferries fleet 51,000 tons ( Oscar Wilde 36,000 tons
Cheers mate. Thought the ship handled it pretty well- I bet it’s seen a lot rougher conditions than this! It was extremely quiet though. On the Irish Ferries official leaflets they go on about it being the ‘largest passenger ferry in the fleet’ which is a bit misleading isn’t it unless they’re talking about passenger ‘capacity’ but there you go. I do want to give Ulysses and WB Yeats a try at some point. They do look impressive 👍
Loved that video Mark, right up my street that. 👍. Can't comment on the 'near miss' I've only ever sailed into Dub once which was in the dark, on Stena but I agree that appeared to be quite congested there, the captain did exceptionally well. The only time I have been with Irish Ferries that was Pembroke/Rosslare, the facilities on that ship who's name escapes me was not as impressive as the Oscar Wilde there but was decently comfortable on what turned out to be a really rough night time crossing (I had booked on Stena but they cancelled their crossing ex Fishguard so I was surprised to be transferred to Irish Ferries and it went!). The most noteworthy thing about Pembroke was finding the damn ship - positively the worst advertised ferry port I've ever known, I almost missed the boat driving around for over an hour going around in circles. Anyway, well done as always with this video - I lapped it all up readily, great stuff. 👌
Cheers Phil. You know what, exactly the same thing happened to me with Stena at Fishguard. Ended up at Pembroke Dock with Irish Ferries. I made a video on it way back when I only had about 50 subs and a mobile phone. Rubbish vid tbh but it’s still on here somewhere!
I wonder if they will ever have the high speed rail tunnel under the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dublin, which will be a really viable alternative to flying and air travel, especially if the Irish government decides to comply with EU Climate Change Directives and bans all shorthaul flights between Ireland and the U.K. post-Brexit and Post-Covid, despite the Common Travel Area
Hi Mark, of course the staff were great, being Cypriot, but then living in Cyprus, I’m somewhat biased😊. Good video again and some very interesting information about the ship. Twenty one euros for the club lounge is excellent value, and as you stated at the end, great manoeuvring skills by the crew when docking, but quite a close call with that cargo ship.
My last visit home to Ireland was in October 2022 and on my return to the U.K. on SailRail, despite my best efforts to avoid it, because of a mix up at Dublin, I ended up being stranded in Holyhead for 2 days because of a train strike, unable to get back to Manchester - and I ended up paying twice the amount that I would have normally paid, being forced to pay for another single ticket from Holyhead to Manchester - never in my 23 years living in Manchester and in using SailRail have I seen it so bad
Worst I had it was many years ago when it was too rough to dock in Holyhead. When we did get in, missed the train which left empty. Had to wait a while for the next one I think it was very early in the morning!
I’ve done it before - loved it but it was a long time before I got into this TH-cam thing. I have got plans to return (two ideas actually) and I promise you it will happen. Probably before the end of the year 😊👍
Alot of freight is going directly to France from Ireland now because of Brexit . there are several ferries operating out of Rosslare harbour directly to mainland Europe
Nice video mark. I’m an Isle of Wight ferry captain now but used to go to Dublin with cruise ships in my previous job. You’re right was a bit close at the end, they’re using a lot of power, judging by the wash, so probably a bit closer than intended but cleared ok in the end. These things happen though, I’ve had my fair share of near misses and you live and learn. Dublin is a very tight port at the best of times and is quite tricky if it’s a windy day and there are other ships berthed.
I am an x Dublin pilot,yes can be a little tight especially with cruse ships and how wind prone they can be.
Good pilots in Dublin though, makes the difference 👍
As a ferry captain yourself, I value your knowledge on this and thanks for sharing. Didn’t realise Dublin was such a tight port and I bet most passengers don’t appreciate the skill involved either - especially in windy conditions. Only one question I’ve got: can I come and have a go on your ferry? 😂😊
Had a great trip up to Douglas from Liverpool on a fun little rugby tour the other day. The club we played said that as the RFU had pulled funding to help with travel, they struggled for games now. So if there are any rugby teams looking for a tour, think of the Isle of Man.
2 other reasons why ships won’t be using the old dock at Holyhead, a part from the building of the 2 bridges. The first is the salient up in the inner harbour, making it too sallow for ships at low tide. The second is that ships are too big in length to fit in the old dock. Also, the increase in traffic using the ferries would be too much to enter the port through the old entrance for the old dock. You pass it on your way to terminals 2, 3, 4 & 5, at the end of the road running along the side of the port, on the town side of the port. Also, Irish Ferries have the same employment contracts as P&O have now, Irish ferries brought the change in employment contacts back in the Winter of 2005/2006. I remember hearing about how they got raided of their staff, as part of the change. Which is why I do not use Irish ferries anymore, I changed changed over to using Stena Line now a days. Stena Line is the main ferry company, that still employs workers from Ireland and the UK.
Fair play to you that you don't patronize Irish Ferries anymore. Judging by the video there's nothing at all wrong with the Cypriot crew, but sacking your long~standing, locally recruited workforce so you can bring in a new badly paid staff on tenuous contracts is just a really greasy move. To add insult to injury, it doesn't look like they have passed any of the savings on to the passengers... what a surprise!
And I think I’ll be using Stena next time, because I think it’s an overall better experience as much as anything else
@@richiehoyt8487 No Cypriot crews . All Eastern Europeans.
@@tdr2512 I think the non technical crew live on board during their roster.
@@tdr2512 Fair enough. Tbh, I'm not in a position to say, not having been on the Oscar Wilde. I was just going on what Mark (content creator) said in the video.
Yes you are right about the old Ferry Terminal. Back in the 70's and 80's you could get a train from Euston that had literally hundreds of passengers on it all going to Holyhead for the Sealink ferry. One train would leave around 8am for the 3pm sailing, and one around 8pm for 3am sailing. Those two sailings back then would be absolutely packed, especially in the Summer months. The ferries now are of course much bigger and need to be accommodated, but it was great to able to board the ship at Holyhead only a few metres from the train, and when you got over to Dun Laoghaire ( now sadly gone as a passenger terminal also ) you could disembark the ship walk up Marine Road and be in a pub in a couple of minutes. The bars used to be heaving on those ferries back then, and the craic on them was brilliant. The Fishguard- Rosslare route also used to be packed back this with a 3pm and 3am sailing also. The train for that service used to depart Paddington Station. I can remember the names of the ships, St Columba, Princess Maude, Hibernia, Hengist all those were on the Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire route, and on theFishguard-Rosslare route you had Caledonian Princess, and The Avalon. Great vid look forward to more.
I the summer they frequently had to run a relief train to the morning departure from Euston. I lived in Colwyn Bay backing on yo the North Wales Mainline and used to see them go through. At night there was also a departure from Manchester Victoria which connected to the night crossing to Ireland ( Sealink used to go to Dun Laihogaire, B and I line to Dublin ( I only ever went over on B&I once and that was in 1977, at that time it left from Liverpool) Didn’t B&I line change its name to Irish Ferries? Sealink used to run 2 class boats.1 st and Second class
Princess Maud was infamous! It bobbed like a cork all the way across the Irish sea. 🤣
Good old days! That area is now home to psycho seagulls!
Not a nice advert for Holyhead, which has gone downhill.
Even though we had millions of EU funding ( Remember them)! God knows where it all went!
The evening trains from Euston were the 'Emerald Isle Express' [First & Second Class] and the Irish Mail.
The Irish Mail was the oldest named train in the world.
Not so much a land bridge to the EU anymore since Brexit. The majority of freight now goes direct to Europe from the Rosslare Euro port. Holyhead does not look good, shuttered businessess
Not many irish actually work on irish ferries anymore 😢
I definitely got that impression
England and Wales are not the connection Ireland has to continental Europe.There are also connections from Ireland Roscoff,Cherbourg,Dunkirk,Le Harve in France 🇫🇷
and from Ireland to Santander and Bilbao in Spain 🇪🇸.
Great Video
My first job as an engineer was on B&I
Thanks for the mention
enjoy Dublin regular visitor from 76 until 2007 as my parents lived in Roscrea
It’s nice but expensive these days!
Irish ferries changed to a Cypriot flag and basically, got rid of most Irish staff, replacing them with East European workers. That was about 15/20 years ago..
Cheers Sean, yes that seems to be the general consensus on here. Quite a while before P&O did by the sounds of it.
The Cyprus registry is for tax purposes. A flag of convenience to be prescise. No Cyprus nationals are working onboard. They are mostly Eastern Europeans.
Stena still employ Local and Irish people on, not as favourable conditions when i worked on the Sealink ships.
You couldnt work in those days if you weren't in a Union.
Things are different these days.
Cheers for the info 😊👍
Fantastic video this. Really enjoyed it. Felt very nostalgic as this is a trip I made many a time back in the day aboard B&I Line's MV Leinster, and later aboard SeaLink's high speed service. How things have changed!
Thanks for sharing, please keep up the great work!
I used to travel Sealink as a child on the St Columba. The Ulysses is amazing, always paid for club class, different class. It’s also a larger ship than Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats is the largest but Oscar is about 5 kts faster than both. Have had tugs supporting at Holyhead before, took an extra 30 mins to dock on Ulysses one time, it was howling at 60+ mph. Great vid.
Cheers Darren, yes I took my facts from the Irish Ferries ‘official’ sip info leaflet where they go on about it being the largest passenger ferry but I think they must mean passenger capacity by that as WB Yeats and Ulysses are clearly bigger. Bit confusing really but overall, yep, a decent ship. Must try the other two now 👍
I only went on Columba once. I remember it being brought into service. 2 class ship.
Loving the hair on the bus!!! "Whenever you go across the sea to Ireland, remember go to Ireland with B & I"
I’ve just found myself singing that! Great days!
the leinster and the connacht..remember them well in the 80s..used to get on for nothing all the time..just put on a white shirt and a black tie..go to the crew part of terminal but before passengers got on and then hide in the toilets and change clothes ..till the passengers got on..if night time crossing we would have the big long leather seats in the cafeteria to sleep on..and because it was at the centre of the ship less rocking in bad weather..if we were coming back thru Liverpool we would just get a taxi straight on to the boat..we knew people who worked on the boat so knew what the setup was for the crew..remember one time drinking all the way from liverpool to dublin coming into chrismas eve morning with some of the crew in 1983..the women were some drinkers..good times
06:40 In the Baltic Sea, that restaurant was Burger King, which is why the coloring in the chairs and other parts of the interior is due.
Ah yes I can see that now! Cheers 😊👍
I remember B & I. We lived in Ireland(Co Cork) 1973-80.. and travelled a few times from Swansea to Cork on mv Innisfallen...
Yes I did the Swansea - Cork ferry myself once - really enjoyed it. I don’t remember travelling on B&I but I must’ve done it at some point, I’ve got some playing cards at home!
I was very nearly born on one of the Inisfallens (I believe B+I ran at least 3 ships under that moniker over the years). My mother always said it was a real 'cattle boat', and apparently cars had to be hoisted on board, so it was probably the first one. 1969, anyway. Back then the ship used to dock right up in Cork city centre. The city quays are almost entirely disused by commercial shipping nowadays, even as they're renaming the area 'The (bleeurgh!) Sextant Quarter' - a worldwide trend, unfortunately. Later on the Inisfallen would operate out of the Tivoli container terminal, a mile or two downstream.
As a young adult, I would sail to Swansea with Swansea~Cork (Cork~Swansea?) Ferries a few times out of the new port facilities in Ringaskiddy, in the harbour, after B+I had abandoned the route. I remember one time going up to London for a week, then came back to Swansea to get the ferry to Cork having spent out the last of my British money. Arrived at the ferry terminal in the pi55ing rain to find it all locked up! I'd gotten there on the wrong day! Luckily someone in the harbour master's office found a docker able to help me out by pointing me in the direction of an old shed where I could shelter and sleep the night, unbeknowst(ish!) to the guy from the Harbour Master's office. Very kind people, the Welsh! It would never happen nowadays, of course, post 9~11 and all that, and the Cork docks at that time were a bit too dodgy to take those kinds of chances!
On another trip to Swansea I was put up for the night, and even taken for a meal with my girlfriend, by a mum in the Swansea neighbourhood of Parc~ yr~Hwyll (spelling?!) The place very much reminded me of Cork, with all the hills. That weekend it rained incessantly as well. I felt right at home! On that occasion, returning to Cork, I was hit with the DT's for the first and only time in my life as the bus pulled out of Ringaskiddy (to the immense embarrassment of my girlfriend) having gone to Swansea as part of an Ir£5 return foot~passenger deal, with the express intention of making a drinking weekend out of it - apart from the Duty Free, you could buy vile but extremely potent lagers in Wales like Special Brew and Kestrel Super, at a time when nothing comparable was available in Ireland. No bad thing, perhaps! As it happened, a few days later I bought a card to send to the Welsh lady to express my gratitude for her generosity, having kept her address. Unfortunately I would very quickly find myself back in the UK with just what I had in my pockets, on account of having upset some of the local Cork 'tough guys'. (Yeah - again, drink; and youthful foolishness!) I never did get to thank my Welsh benefactor. Even today, 30~odd years later, I still feel kinda bad about that...
One last recollection, Swansea~Cork ferries would run a number of different ferries seasonally on that route, (one always got the feeling the company was just barely struggling along, passengers generally preferring to travel to Rosslare and make the much shorter crossing from there to Pembroke Dock, or Fishguard. I even remember on a few occasions some of the more menial staff, on derisory wages, I should think, seemed to be in the habit of 'pinching' some of the booze that passengers had bought from the duty~free and bust into before conking out! I remember one of the things that went a long way towards putting the tin hat on things for the carrier was when two unfortunate travellers were poisoned to death by the ships septic tank out~gassing into their cabin by way of the toilet...
Anyway thanks for relating your memories and prompting my own reminiscences. Not that you were looking for an autobiography, mind you 🙄😔. I'm sure you've got libraries where you're currently living, lol!
@@richiehoyt8487 You have some interesting memories. We were making a Christmas Eve(1973) trip from Cork to Swansea... only thing was, the Innisfallen wasn't in yet.. It came in at 12 noon, turned round in 15 minutes,loaded a few cars, 2dozen foot passengers..We arrived in Swansea at a low tide at around 10pm!!The company had experienced a heart attack passenger situation a couple of days earlier... had diverted to Pembroke to get the passenger to hospital...The the company forewent fright traffic in an effort to get back on schedule!! memorable...
Great vid mark. And “walk with me Tim” made a guest appearance…..
He did! I do quite enjoy his stuff although he’s gone upmarket a bit lately. Obviously making too much money on here! 😂
loved the original Oscar Wilde on the Rosslare to Cherbourg route
I never had the pleasure unfortunately
8:59 Most of the crew on Irish Ferries ships appear to be from Eastern Europe including Poland and they sleep in staff cabins on board the ships - in the Club Class Lounge, the crew are Russians - in all cases, they are very friendly and very nice - a few years ago on the Ulysses Reception, there was this very handsome young blond guy and all the girls (and the gay guys) fancied him, myself included ❤❤❤❤
Yes I’m sure you’re right. Couldn’t quite figure out the accents but now you’ve mentioned it the staff in the shop did seem Eastern European 👍
07.06.2024
Irish Ferries announced that it will change the ship's name to m/s James Joyce. The m/s Oscar Wilde name will be given to the m/s Spirit of Britain ship, whose charter was announced by the company in May.
I have used Stena Line out of Dublin when the Roslaire Fishguard was Cancelled due to weather. This time leaving Dublin port the Stena Line ferry had 2 tugs to get out of the port. But then it has to be very windy to cancel the ferries on the Dublin Holyhead route.
Thank you Mark for an extremely interesting video. Regrettably this is yet another video which shows that foot passengers on Irish Sea and Cross-channel ferries are now regarded as a nuisance. I was appalled at the long trek between the town (and station) of Holyhead and the actual point of embarkation. Once upon a time the vast majority of passengers on Holyhead to Ireland ferries would have been foot passengers who (like you) arrived in Holyhead by train.
Cheers, tbh I think that’s still the case with many foot passengers arriving by train. I don’t think Holyhead town itself is really integrated into the train/ferry terminal and there probably aren’t many people as mad as me staying overnight!! I still think that old terminal would’ve been great for the boat trains but times change I guess and ships get bigger.
ive always found the drive through holyhead ferry terminal to the boat already brings you half way to Ireland. its very long
When there's high winds, vessels do usually have tug assistance to make the turn into that basin (Berths 50/51/51a). I've been on the Stena Adventurer when it's needed assistance a few times.
Thanks Sean, appreciate the info 👍
Yes 20 odd year ago you would walk straight out to the train
From a Kiwi point of view, Its bloody ugly, looks like a box !
If you thought the food on the ferry was expensive - wait until you get to Dublin !! Originally this ship was on the Pembroke Dock to Rosslare route. The ship that normally does the Holyhead/Dublin route is the the Ulysses, which is one of the best ships I’ve sailed on. The ship with the straight bow when docking at Dublin is the Newest ship the W.B. Yates and this sails mainly between France and Dublin.
Be Great full you were never on the Hibernia from Holyhead .
Never seen so much Vomit in my life
I have been on the ship it used to do the rosslare to cherberg route until it was replaced by the w b years Dublin to cherberg route
Dubliner, As a young man i used to get the ferry to Holyhead, Then train to Manchester to watch United (Old Trafford), Remember one trip boarding the ferry in Holyhead to come home, The ferry was (the MV Leinster i will never forget that ship) going up & down in the harbour, When we put out to sea all hell broke loose, all one heard was Bottles in duty free smashing chairs being thrown around & the overpowering stink of vomit all over the ship & people panicking, I vomited until i passed out. Woke up to a friend helping me off the ship in Dublin port, Nightmare...
Regarding the flags/crew/staff situation - I had a moral dilemma when I booked a cruise around the Canaries a few years ago; I did a bit of research prior to travelling and, essentially, the grey area of operating at sea is that local employment regulations don't apply to a large extent so I was worried that I'd be waited upon by people scraping by being paid a few Euros an hour...now I'm not sure what they were being paid, but as a solo traveller I spent a lot of time chatting to them both on and off duty and they all seemed extremely content with their lives on the ship - mostly Vietnamese and Thai, fantastic people.
Further to the port entry and potential collision - there's often a 'pilot' that boards the ship to navigate the port because they are more familiar with the intricacies, traffic and nuances a vessel within the confines...I'm not an expert but the pilot may have boarded via the tug, or the tug may have been doing the maneuvering.
At those prices I think I would have paid for the lounge and also a cabin even though it was a short crossing. Another inspiring and entertaining video thank you.
Thanks mate. Yep, I paid >£13 yesterday for a lounge with no free stuff whatsoever. €21 is cheap in comparison 👍
Go on, tell us how you got in the lounge!!!
My suspicion is that he asked if he could pop in for a few minutes only to video, to show what it's like, without eating / drinking anything ;)
Looks empty, are they even making money???
I always took the fast ferry to Ireland and back but last year there wasn't a fast ferry at the time I wanted so I took this one. Can honestly say its a better experience on the slow ferries compared to the fast one. A bigger ship, more places to eat, bigger shops and if the weather is okay, a walk along the outside deck. I don't think I'll ever use the fast ferry again.
I’d like to try the fast ferry but I do normally prefer the conventional ones myself. I guess it all depends on how much of a rush you’re in.
Luxury...
I remember travelling from the north wall to Liverpool in the 60s and looking down on cattle to be unloaded at holyhead..3rd class ticket.. thanks for the video, it brought back memories..
That day is long gone.
Today, it is chemicals, software computer chips and such like.
Ireland is the 8th largest exporter of Pharmaceuticals in the world.
Not bad for a country of just 5 million souls.
Those cabins become very attractive during a gale force crossing when it's so bad that the ship can't use the stabilisers. A 3.15 hour crossing turns into a 5.0+ hour crossing and having somewhere to escape the overwhelming stink of vomit is worth every Euro. It's happened to me twice in 30 years of using that crossing on a semi-regular basis.
I'm in agreement with those of you that have moved away from Irish Ferries to Stenaline because of the way IF treated their Irish crews. Additionally, the IF ships are starting to look very tired and the facilities on Stenaline are far better. Whereas for me Irish Ferries used to be the most attractive because they sailed and arrived almost an hour earlier than Stenaline on both crossings, that is no longer the case. Stenaline have narrowed the gap to fifteen minutes by virtue of having newer, faster ships despite still leaving 25-35 minutes after Irish Ferries. Cost-wise, there's nothing in it.
That certainly looked like a near miss, the fact that the Tasman felt it necessary to blow her whistle would appear to back that up, would be interesting to know if the Master of the Tasman reported the incident to the harbour authority.
Yes I did wonder whether there was any way of finding that out? I thought I may be over exaggerating tbh and I wish I’d have caught the first bit on camera but there must’ve been some concern. Great skill to get to the berth though - vey impressive!
"I can't tell you how I got access to the Club Lounge..." Ooooh er Mark - didn't involve the lady who offered to 'warm your croissant' did it????? 🤣🤣 £36, for the duration, is about the same per hour as foot passengers Dover to Calais (last time we paid £18 each for the 90 min crossing). Personally, the optic of having so few passengers on board a ship of that size would be a little disconcerting tbh. Would make me ask what's wrong with it/what does everyone else (who's chosen to fly) know that I don't? BTW... it's not necessarily the wind speed that's the indicator of a potentially rough crossing. Although the BBC weather app doesn't use it (to the best of my knowledge) the term 'squalls' or, worse, 'heavy squalls' in the shipping forecast is the one to be a tad wary of.....
Cheers Shane. I’m not that keen on the BBC Weather app really, it just seems one of the most common and easy to read. A shipping forecast app would be good actually if such a thing exists. Most people seemed to be holed up in the club lounge tbh (I wonder if they all paid or not lol!). Definitely the place to be but bog standard, basic foo5 passenger crossing - Stena are cheaper. Thinking about the Birkenhead - Belfast route actually, that would be good 👍
You can see the resemblance with the Viking XPRS since they were built around the same time and both being modified versions of DFDS ship Cote D Opale. :)
I really liked the XPRS when I tried it. Excellent facilities too 👍
Back in March, 2017 I took the roundtrip Dublin-Holyhead. i went over on the Ulysees, nd came back on the Jonathan Swift, Ir was a really nice day to go over and visit Wales.
I may try the Swift at some point. The quickest way these days 👍
a lot truck drivers go through rosslare europort to go spain and france and do not go through the uk since brexit the ferry is registered in greece same now with P&o
Yes I believe so.
I’m a boatman in the uk and I’ve moored the Tasman up a few times and I’ve also done that journey as a truck driver in my younger days!
That was a very close call when swinging a large ship around, I’m not surprised the crew of both vessels were getting concerned especially with the wind conditions!
Wouldn’t surprise me if a report hasn’t gone into the havenmaster.
Hi, cheers for your input here - most valued. Tbh, I thought maybe I was overreacting with this (it’s easy to go down the clickbait route!) so I appreciate an experts comments. Not sure if such reports are publicly available but it would be good to read if it was.
Hi, great video as usual and congrats on the 25k ! I have two questions :
What is that pier on your channel banner because it reminds me of one but I can't remember the name
When will you do more Brittany Ferries reviews, Mont St Michel, Pont Aven and Barfleur would be nice to see
Cheers Joshua. The pier is one of the Blackpool ones (can’t remember which now tbh) and yes there will be more BF reviews, probably Pont Aven next 👍
I used Stena for my crossing which was ok, was amazed to see an ex-Wilts & Dorset bus being used for the transfer - the give away was the seat covering, I reckon I must have travelled on it as I lived in Poole 1991-2018. Looking forward to the rest of the trip!
Yea I only noticed the moquette when I was editing the vid. Maybe ex Poole harbour?
@@LetsMakeaTrip Could be, it has most Wilts & Dorset destinations on it.
What’s going on with the hair at 3.14 my man. Last of the Mohicans 😏 Loving these videos though keep up the great content 😊
Haha, yep. Should’ve kept my hat on 😂
I've sailed many times from Holyhead, even back in the Sealink days, living back in the Northeast I use Cairn Ryan, I prefer Stena over P&O or Irish Ferries.
I used the Stena service Belfast - Cairnryan and thought it was a very good ship. It was the sail rail vid I did a few months ago and you can find on the channel 👍
I did that journey on a rugby tour back in 1995. I still have my tour jacket. We spent all of our time, all 5 rugby teams, in the bar but we used the old pier.
I must have used the old terminal myself many years ago but I struggle to remember tbh. Smaller ferries then though I suppose.
@@LetsMakeaTrip alot smaller and slower but the bar was open all the way across the Irish Sea
Thanks for another very interesting and informative video Mark, quiet crossing right enough. I was in Holyhead last week and took the tour from just outside the train station to South Stack Lighthouse, absolutely beautiful place, really enjoyed that, but Holyhead itself, I wouldn't rush back to visit, cheers bud 👍
Ye I’ve heard South Stack is worth a visit. Maybe next time I’m around there. Doubt I’ll stay in Holyhead again unless the Premier Inn is cheap.
Unlike the Welsh in general, the few times I've been through Holyhead, I didn't find the locals to be especially warm. I guess, to be fair, you really need to spend a decent period of time in a place before making that kind of assessment. However, I've heard quite a few other people say the same sort of thing, about the townsfolk putting down the Irish, and so on. Perhaps it's understandable with all the Irish drunks traipsing through, day in, day out. There again, Dubliners might make similar observations regarding the British stag (and worse, _hen!_ ) parties 'larging it' around the city's entertainment districts; or the new~age travellers that used to relocate to the Irish countryside! I'm not trying to cause dissent, _at all!_ It's actually very gratifying that the British and the Irish mostly get along so well, especially in view of our difficult history with each other. It just happens to be a fact of life that we don't always look our best, either of us, when we have our hair down!
I lived for 3 years in Colwyn Bay, Llandudno. We always said that after there town wise there was nothing interesting till you got to Dublin.Bangor is no great shakes either.
@@chriswade7470 "##♪ 24 hours in Bangor/ and then you walk back to the city... ♪♪#"
Different Bangor, though.
The loading bus was long way from home, Dorset. Looking at the moquette.
Yes I think they’ve come from Poole docks.
Irish Ferries do seem to have the best ships on that route but it seems expensive to take a car across so the foot passenger price looks great value in comparison. It certainly handled the choppy seas and prices looked good for what was on offer.
It handled the sea no problem- I’m sure you get a lot worse than this too. I’ll probably try the Stena crossing next for comparison. Better foot passenger prices potentially but are they better ships? 🤔
Hi mark great video as always, some info about the ship for you as my girlfriend dad works in the Cyprus port of Limassol where MV Oscar Wilde has been registered since 2023 . She was first name Star after she was built in 2007 by her owner Tallink ( built in Helsinki shipyard) . And she would go on to travel to Tallinn of Estonia from Helsinki. Then in 2023 Irish ferries became the operator of the boat and somewhere a long the way the name was changed to Oscar Wilde from the star . Irish ferries use the boat on the Holyhead to Dublin route and Cherbourg. From my understanding, they have chosen the Limassol Port to have the boat registered there because it’s cheaper to have it there rather than Dublin and plus for any ex pats who live in Limassol and have Cypriot passports/ residency and who work for the company, it saves them paying tax and England wages for staff and can adapt a similar way of operation like P&O
Hi Jack, cheers for the info mate. Yep, it all boils down to money doesn’t it. But the question I suppose (a bit like P&O) if they didn’t do it this way, would they still be operating? And if not, Stena would have a monopoly on this route and prices would increase. Then again, Stena don’t do things like this…..
@@LetsMakeaTrip everything comes down to money, when the boat was being changed to the port of Limassol , they even argued over a price difference in registration there - I can’t remember the full price difference but it turned it was 2 euros they were arguing over. I only know as my partners father works as one of the paper sorting people there
Hi there, great video, price wise -both irish ferries and stena have sail rail tickets (about €50). Great value as this gets you pretty much anywhere in uk on a very flexible ticket.
Yes, I took one with Stena back from Belfast (see earlier video). Agree they are great value 👍
As far as I am aware of, it’s not abnormal to have assistance from a tug when entering a port for such a large ferry. Especially if there is some wind.
Yes that seems to be the consensus on here too 😊👍
MS Oscar Wilde is a river cruiser operating in Belgium/Netherlands. The previous MV Oscar Wilde is now named GNV Allegra, and operates out of Genova, Italy.
*The current MV Oscar Wilde was originally ordered by Tallink Group, Tallinn, Estonia in 2005, keel laid down in 2006 and was built by 2007, and christened STAR, to operate ferry services for the Tallink Shuttle until April 2023. By May 5th 2023, she was reflagged, and renamed MV Oscar Wilde* (as you know,)
She was sent to Harland and Wolff (Belfast) on May 17th 2023, via Perth for berthing trials, after leaving Estonia. MV Oscar Wilde was repainted in dry dock, before being sent to the repair dock on May 27th 2023. Then, on May 28/29th 2023 she underwent more berthing trials (Holyhead/Dublin) and following those trials she started on the service between Rosslare and Pembroke Docks, until February 1st 2024, when she was sent to Larne for a refit.
On February 10th 2024, MV Oscar Wilde took up full-time service between Dublin - Holyhead/Cherbourg, although she did serve another 3 weeks as temporary cover on the Rosslare route for the P&O vessel MV Norbay. (Feb 26th - Mar 24th)
MV Oscar Wilde has only operated unbroken service between Dublin and Holyhead since March 24th 2024.
Although she is officially leased, Irish Ferries have a buy clause written into the lease.
Cheers Steven. I didn’t know about the buy clause in the contract. I was wondering whether they would keep hold of the ship past the 20 months initial lease. Interesting Irish Ferries refer to the ship as the ‘largest passenger ferry’ in their official leaflets but Ulysses and WB Yeats are bigger. They may mean largest passenger capacity but it seems a bit misleading to me.
@@LetsMakeaTrip I think the way you seem unfazed by a choppy crossing, I think they should keep hold. I must say I love the wide range of travel you take. One of the horrible parts of going anywhere for the 'first' time, is the unknown pitfalls. One look through one of your videos takes the edge right off. Brilliant 👍🏻
You forgot to mention that that the ship was built in Finland 🇫🇮
Nice vlog - ive been on the crossing from Rosslare on that ship and we got the premium seats as i knew from travelling with Stena that you'd get 'free' stuff! The trick is to bring an empty bag in with you... 😉
Cheers Colin - good tip! 😊👍
Hi, great video as always. I have a trip coming up dublin-holyhead return which, after travelling with Stena recently, will be my last. The service and On board crew with Irish Ferries is not a patch on Stena. Anyway, I digress, I was just wondering what type of food is served in club, if you noticed. As far as I can tell it is just snacks, pastries, muffins etc...all off the cards for a pre-diabetic, I don't want to pay the extra if I can't eat anything but the fruit 😅 also, I always travel on the overnight crossing so they may have even less on offer. Unfortunately, their website doesn't offer much info on club as far as I can see. Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated 😊 thank you
Hi mate, yes I think it's just snacks, pastries and some fruit unfortunately. If I was in there, I'd get my money's worth eating as much of that stuff as I could and taking some with me for later (plus wine and coffee of course). Unfortunately, I think you're going to struggle to get value here. Spend the money you save on over-priced food and I wish you safe travels.
@@LetsMakeaTrip haha...a few months ago I would have been the same. Ok, thanks for your feedback
Travelled on this ferry from Pembroke Dock to Rosslare where it ran when it first joined Irish Ferries. The ferry that replaced it is referred to as an 'Economy Ferry' is basically a freight ferry and rather cramped and basic with open walkways between the car deck and the passenge lounge. Breakfast was €20 with free tea and coffee for all passenges. People with mobility problems should not travel on this ferry. Apparently it is soon to be replaced with a more suitable vessel.
I did make a very early video on the Pembroke - Rosslare crossing. Can’t remember the name of the ship now but it seemed ok at the time. A very stormy night iirc but great fun!
Probably Blur Star 1 or isle of Inishmore @LetsMakeaTrip
For info, the "Oscar Wilde" you travelled on was the second to have that name but that was only for a year before being renamed as the James Joyce. by early 2024 Irish Ferries had aquired the P&O ferry Spirit of Britain which was named "Oscar Wilde"
Big ship with BIG BIG on-board prices. Absolutely SHOCKING⚡ PRICES.⚡⚡
Great video sir nice tour nice to see during day and smoth sunny day its empty I think night crossings are more busy but great video thanks ❤
Cheers mate and thanks for watching 😊👍
Great ferry, enjoyed my crossing during Storm Ciaran last October on it! It handles rough seas very well!
Tugs are very common for ports like this, not sure about how common a toot from another ship when you get that close is mind, looked close and in that weather the windage alone from the sheer size of the superstructure could push the ferry like a sail making berthing difficult.
Yes Bulgarian Lithuania
What a world we live in. 21st Century. The new age of Enlightenment. A top deck of a ship closed off from travellers who just love to get as high as they can to see as much as they can. Behave! Don't Go There! Do Not Enter! Beware! Entry Barred! Stay Away! No Access!
What a nice mood this new century has. Enlightenment.
Would be interested to hear about your experience of disembarking and getting into Dublin as a foot passenger. (I've not done the Holyhead route as a foot passenger for 25+ years and that was via Dun Laoghaire with Stena.)
Nice video! Do you happen to know if it is common to park your car for a couple of nights in Holyhead while visiting Dublin? Googled a long term parking, but it looked very small on google maps..
Very windy conditions are bad news for such a high side vessel.
Was on the Oscar Wild on many trips from Rosslare to Cherbourg and always loved it. Recently went again to Cherbourg on a different ship but was not as nice as the Oscar Wild
the ship also does a return crossing from Dublin to Cherbourg every weekend
Wouldn’t mind trying that route 👍
But if there was 2 of you it would cost 42 euros for the club class lounge, prices start mounting up .
It would. Plus the crossing it’s nearly £60. Got to make the most of it!
Heard same about sailors with contracts on vessels registered in Cyprus. Even on river Danube!
All of these ships have bow and stern thrusters but a lockout is sometimes better than a camera, as you said, they are paying the staff with international levels, about half of uk rates, Brittany ferries pay french rates, negotiated, with french unions, pay up or the country shuts down,
Ahhh international waters paying in the individual employees' national pay rates. This is exactly the same trick cruise ships use to pay such minimal wages.
And mainly Cypriot crew, cheaper labour. Yep, makes sense but they don’t seem to have had such bad press as P&O. Maybe it’s the way they did it?
In terms of the near miss it was close but no foul, possibly the tug captain misjudged the wind and she is a big old lump, under normal conditions they can use bow and stern thrusters to turn
Been watching for a while now really enjoy your videos especially the ferry ones. Be telling my friends to have a look as well.
Cheers John, much appreciated mate 😊
7:09 On ALL Irish Ferries crossings, I ALWAYS pay the bit extra for the Club Class Lounge, so I highly recommend doing so - I’ve tried the Stena Plus Lounge on the Stena Adventurer in the past and in comparison to Irish Ferries, the experience on Stena has been under-whelming - one ALWAYS receives the standards of service that one expects in the Club Class Lounge on all Irish Ferries ships, including the Isle of Inishmore and even on the Dublin Swift fast ferry
Yes and it’s remarkable that Stena Plus is a lot more expensive too 🤪
Great info, thanks Michael. I think Stena were after £30 for their lounge when I looked and you didn’t get alcohol it’s that either. I will have to try it out of course for comparison purposes! 😊
@@LetsMakeaTrip most people in the Stena lounge get it for free as part of an annual £1,000, €1,250 annual spend on tickets through the Stena line extra loyalty scheme. I am confident that that’s why the Stena lounges are not as good 😊
The Stena Plus lounge on the Stena Estrid was excellent when we used it last year. It was like a cruise ship, plenty of food and drinks freely available.
Always found the Stena Plus Lounge Excellent, A bonus is the Stena Staff who are Fantastic.
Where you got on the bus, that is where the worlds largest fast ferry used to sail from, Stena Explorer used to moor into the inner harbour, right next to that weird ship with 4 legs. Sailed on her many times out of Holyhead.
Bit of a shame that’s all gone now imho
Will only sail with Stena on the Dublin or Belfast crossing these days, Never had anything other than excellent service 👍
They nearly always use the two tug boats to nudge the Irish ferries ship into port as I think it’s a very tight turn for such a big ship.
i was on oscar wilde december 27 th 2023 rosslare to pembroke ....ship was full and it was a very rough crossing left late and took 5 hours to cross to pembroke ....i always pay for a cabin its well worth it .(bed private toilet)..there are a lot of areas on this ship closed off / unused ... that were in use when she was named star ....large buffet restaurant and burger king all not used ....irish ferries have the option to buy star after a 2 year charter....there is very little difference in price between irish ferries and stena line as they have a price cartel running between them ....another great upload ....th-cam.com/video/2ixu_C_o6NQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=HOqb7kzhdGGhflSL
I subscribed - love it :)
Thanks for your support 😊
I think this ship also serves the Dublin to Cherbourg route aswell
Good video. I had done a SailRail crossing overnight two days before this was filmed
Nice one! I’ve done quite a few in the past it just didn’t fit my plans this time around. Normally though, they are great value for money whichever way you do it 👍
@@LetsMakeaTripAlthough the Ulysses is my favourite ship on this route, I do like the Oscar Wilde and the WB Yeates, as the signs in French are helping me to learn French, as French is one of my strongest foreign languages, as I’m trying to learn conversational French and get the pronunciation right
I am going to Dublin in July by a ferry
Enjoy Nathan, whichever way you get there! 😊👍
Excellent Video thank You ☘️👍
their Ulysses is 209 metres long a lot bigger it is huge.
Yes, Irish Ferries are giving out misleading info as they refer to Oscar Wilde as the largest but I reckon hey mean passenger capacity not actual size.👍
good day, you need to have a status or something enabled to show on the control or there is a control
Decent down to earth trip reports…enjoy watching these videos, thanks Mark 👍
Cheers Gary and thanks for leaving a comment mate. Appreciated 😊👍
Nice video on the continuation. Like I said, I haven't been that way before, but would like to in future, the Sail Rail tickets look excellent value, especially from my area of the country!
Indeed, RailSail tickets (av. with both Irish Ferries and Stena) are almost certainly the most cost-effective way to get to Ireland from most parts of Great Britain.
They are so reasonably priced that it's actually cheaper to go on a RailSail to Dublin ticket when travelling at short notice to Chester (or anywhere beyond on the North Wales coastal mainline) from Euston. You heard it here first, folks ... heehee 🤫🤫🤐
Flags of Convenience seems very common amongst ferry operators, the old, not the relaunch and failed again, Swansea - Cork ferries were Greek owned and registered. The crews mostly Greek and Irish. One Greek barman had spent over 20 years on them. The relaunched company only lasted a couple of years as had maintenance, licensing and chartering issues. The Cork deep water ferry port now a container terminal, the services to France and Spain moved to Wexford Europort and Dublin.
I wish that Swansea - Cork route still existed. Only did it once, many years ago walking from Swansea railway station down to the port. Overnight crossing - very useful route. Sad it never came back really.
Have a few drinks 55mph will seem like a breeze …. Cheers mark love ya vids, Tallink on Charter limissol registered and tbh if it was still a Tallink in Scandinavia it would have atmosphere it just looked dead , even the Ulysses has a much better overall atmosphere tbh and mark you obviously sneaked in behind someone else open door to the lounge to get your free biscuits and cheese !!! Go on babby !!!! And just to correct you WB YEATS is the biggest ship in the Irish ferries fleet 51,000 tons ( Oscar Wilde 36,000 tons
Cheers mate. Thought the ship handled it pretty well- I bet it’s seen a lot rougher conditions than this! It was extremely quiet though. On the Irish Ferries official leaflets they go on about it being the ‘largest passenger ferry in the fleet’ which is a bit misleading isn’t it unless they’re talking about passenger ‘capacity’ but there you go. I do want to give Ulysses and WB Yeats a try at some point. They do look impressive 👍
Loved that video Mark, right up my street that. 👍. Can't comment on the 'near miss' I've only ever sailed into Dub once which was in the dark, on Stena but I agree that appeared to be quite congested there, the captain did exceptionally well. The only time I have been with Irish Ferries that was Pembroke/Rosslare, the facilities on that ship who's name escapes me was not as impressive as the Oscar Wilde there but was decently comfortable on what turned out to be a really rough night time crossing (I had booked on Stena but they cancelled their crossing ex Fishguard so I was surprised to be transferred to Irish Ferries and it went!). The most noteworthy thing about Pembroke was finding the damn ship - positively the worst advertised ferry port I've ever known, I almost missed the boat driving around for over an hour going around in circles. Anyway, well done as always with this video - I lapped it all up readily, great stuff. 👌
Cheers Phil. You know what, exactly the same thing happened to me with Stena at Fishguard. Ended up at Pembroke Dock with Irish Ferries. I made a video on it way back when I only had about 50 subs and a mobile phone. Rubbish vid tbh but it’s still on here somewhere!
Finnish 🇫🇮 shipbuilding 🎉
I wonder if they will ever have the high speed rail tunnel under the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dublin, which will be a really viable alternative to flying and air travel, especially if the Irish government decides to comply with EU Climate Change Directives and bans all shorthaul flights between Ireland and the U.K. post-Brexit and Post-Covid, despite the Common Travel Area
Well personally, I hope not. Just because ferries, for me, are more exciting and part of the adventure! Doubt it’ll happen in my lifetime anyway.
Hi Mark, of course the staff were great, being Cypriot, but then living in Cyprus, I’m somewhat biased😊. Good video again and some very interesting information about the ship. Twenty one euros for the club lounge is excellent value, and as you stated at the end, great manoeuvring skills by the crew when docking, but quite a close call with that cargo ship.
Thanks Diana! Fun fact for you, I’ve never been to Cyprus. I think I need to make the trip now 😊👍
Did you need A Passport or will my driver´s license BE enough
Photo ID should be ok but please check with them just in case.
My last visit home to Ireland was in October 2022 and on my return to the U.K. on SailRail, despite my best efforts to avoid it, because of a mix up at Dublin, I ended up being stranded in Holyhead for 2 days because of a train strike, unable to get back to Manchester - and I ended up paying twice the amount that I would have normally paid, being forced to pay for another single ticket from Holyhead to Manchester - never in my 23 years living in Manchester and in using SailRail have I seen it so bad
Worst I had it was many years ago when it was too rough to dock in Holyhead. When we did get in, missed the train which left empty. Had to wait a while for the next one I think it was very early in the morning!
I don't recall any snide remarks about the Cypriot flag when you were on Stena Line.
Thanks Mark very enjoyable video 👍
Cheers James, thanks for watching 😊👍
please come on northlink ferries
I've seen some great videos on that service
I’ve done it before - loved it but it was a long time before I got into this TH-cam thing. I have got plans to return (two ideas actually) and I promise you it will happen. Probably before the end of the year 😊👍
Alot of freight is going directly to France from Ireland now because of Brexit . there are several ferries operating out of Rosslare harbour directly to mainland Europe
Yes, Cherbourg was one I looked at thoug it’s quite expensive for foot passengers but I guess that’s because of the freight prioritisation.
Your thumbnail is of the WB Yeats 🤔
Correct, we passed it on the way into Dublin.
A ghost ship until you got into the Club Class Lounge. A top review as always mate.
Cheers mate, glad you enjoyed it 😊👍