Day Trip To Glasgow £12 Shopping, Museums & More With Stena Line- We Give It a Whirl!

Yesterday we took a Glasgow day trip on the Stena Line ferry from the Belfast port to Cairnryan. It’s a service that runs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for £12 per person, or Saturday for £15 per person. 

It includes travel by ferry across to Scotland and return travel by coach from the port to Glasgow, with aprox. four and a bit hours to spend in the city shopping, visiting museums, or doing whatever you want to do with your time.

There is a hop on hop off Glasgow city bus tour you can take similar to London, or our own here in Belfast if you want a tour of the city’s which takes just under an hour and a half.

Here are some details of the Day Trip and our day yesterday if you want to know more about the offer for families who might be thinking about going over the spring or summer ahead. 

Your online details are here. 

You leave on the regular Stena Line Superfast sailing from the Belfast Port, with latest check in at 7am. You can park you car easily in their large car park right outside the terminal. Check in is very easy. You won’t need your passport or anything, but it will be handy for adults to have some form of photo ID with them I expect, although we weren’t asked for anything, just our booking reference. 

When you board the ship has many lounges and you can find somewhere where you family is comfortable to sit during the sailing, which is around two hours fifteen minutes. You can move around between lounges as much as you want during the sailing.  

There are different styles of lounges and bars, with two decks, seven and eight, where you can relax. 

The pod lounge is great for kids and teenagers to hang out and play. There’s also a small cinema with a film showing during the sailing. 

The Taste restaurant is serving breakfast during the Scotland bound sailing, and an evening meal on the sailing back. They also have free refills of coffee and tea for hot drinks purchased. There are family meal deals offered.

The Guest Services Desk had this very handy map I picked up that we ended up using the whole trip to find our way around the city. I would highly recommend getting your hands on it if you pass by the desk.

The crossing was very relaxing. Don’t forget there are also spa treatments available on the top deck, ask at guest services about manicure and pedicure services! Also more about the brand new Hygge Lounge at the end of this post. 

We arrived at the Scottish port shortly after 10am, and our coach was waiting outside the terminal. It was drizzly, but the drive down the coast was still quite beautiful, it’s a lot like our north coast for the first twenty miles or so before you head in-land.

We arrived into Glasgow city centre at 12.15pm and the rain had stopped. The coach drops you at Buchanan Bus Station which is at one end of the shopping mile, so you can just head in one direction to get to everything so it’s very handy.

We were very hungry, so we headed to find some food first, and lucky came across a Yo Sushi straight away, so were very happy. 

Glasgow is a lot like Belfast in that everyone is very happy to help you with directions. We must have asked people directions at least six times, and everyone helped us!  

After we ate we argued over what to do. I wanted to do the bus tour, but Smix didn’t want to. We agreed on the Museum of Modern Art, then shopping. I was heartbroken that the Duke of Wellington was sans cone! Even the merchandise inside the museum had the cone on his head!

For families The Riverside Museum, a fascinating collection of trams, locomotives, cars and bikes with hands on interactive fun. And it’s free to visit. You can also climb aboard the The Tall Ship Glenlee berthed alongside, while across on the other side of the River, sits the titanium clad futuristic structure that is the Glasgow Science Centre – a must visit family attraction with 3 floors of interactive hands-on fun.

The St Enoch Centre is a great place to head with the Disney Store and Hamleys or head to Buchanan Galleries for Scotland’s only Lego Store and The Entertainer toy shop.

The Style Mile has a lot of luxury shopping, it reminded me of Dublin’s Grafton Street. Fashionistas will not be disappointed.  

I was so excited to find Krispy Kreme. I bought a box of three to bring home. When we got back on the coach half the coach had dozen boxes! When will they just open stores here?

We ended our shopping marathon at Buchanan Galleries which has a huge John Lewis, and it’s right beside the bus station so we knew we would make it back to the coach for the 4.20pm curfew. It’s a perfect amount of time to have a spin around a new city and have some fun. We had a lovely afternoon. 

The Cairnryan to Belfast sailing left the port at 7.30pm and we were booked into the brand new Hygge Lounge, which opened this week. It’s £5 per person and offers reclined luxury seating in a private lounge. Hygge (pronounced hoo-gah) is a Scandinavian concept which conveys a therapeutic sense of cosiness, comfort and well-being.

The Lounge is super comfy, quiet, and very luxurious. I would definitely pay the extra £10 per crossing for Smix and myself for the lounge for a number of reasons. There was a little bit of sway on the return journey, and I get travel sickness very easily, but being able to lie back made it go away instantly. ​

You get a lovely cosy blanket, and Smix had fallen asleep on the early morning journey out, so that would have been perfect if we had have been in there on the way out.​

I would say it probably best that it’s not for younger children however. Smix is now ten and I told him he had to be quiet, and he wasn’t allowed to go in and out of the door of the lounge often. It is a place for people to rest and for some people to nap on the crossing, so if you do have kids who are little, it probably isn’t the best place to book. There are private cabins on the top deck you can book for £35 per crossing that might work out better for you with a bed then you get a whole room to yourself.

The Hygge also has a charging station for your gadgets, and a reading light, plus big TVs (which are on silent with subtitles) showing 24 hour news. After a long day it really was like a little lounge like heaven. 

We arrived back in Belfast at 9.45pm

Both of us had a great time. I would recommend the Glasgow Day Trip to any family, couple, shopping buddies, adventurer alike! 

Concerned About The Prospect of Sea Sickness On a Stena Line £12 Kids' Day Cruise? This Will Put Your Mind At Ease.

Last weekend Smix & I had a full scale adventure at sea, taking a Stena Line Day Cruise, which I reviewed in full for you. You spend six hours plus on board, so that may be daunting to anyone who experiences travel sickness easily.

I get very sick, almost instantly on any size of bus, so I can't partake in travel tours that use them for a leg of the journey. Planes I'm usually okay, trains are touch and go- I have to be facing forward on the journey. So I wasn't too sure about how the large ferry experience would go. I have been fine any other time I've been on the Stena Super Fast, but I've been sick on competitor's boats in years gone by.

So if you are concerned like me, you'll be pleased to hear this ship, and this crossing journey specifically seems grand.

There is one section of the journey just for about twenty minutes when you just pull out of Belfast Lough, and again right that spot on the return, where it gets a little choppy. So if you experience that on your trip, don't panic, it doesn't last long, it passes. Try to be near a window or outside for that part. Do not hide up in the toilets. I found the lack of sight line to outside to match the bobbing about made me queasy.

So here's a sped up, snippet jigsawed journey so you can see just how flat the waters were. This was February and a day where it was grey and drizzling on land in Belfast.

Lastly-  read all about the day cruises here. I reviewed the entire trip and gave you pointers to be prepared for your trip.

A Day Out With a Difference, and Only £12 Each! Stena Line's Day Cruises Are Back- Here's Everything You Need to Know To Have The Best Day at Sea!

Stena Line's Kids' Day Cruises from Belfast are back! Priced at just £12 per person, or £44 for a family, you can take them somewhere a little more exotic than the play park next weekend. They'll have quite a cool story to tell come Monday morning when the teachers asked what everyone got up to this weekend!

So what do you need to know before you set sail, to get the most out of your day? 

This year the day cruises are themed either 'Pirates & Princesses' or 'Superheroes', you can check for the theme of your choice  when you book online. There is a full afternoon filled with craic to be had for free onboard, plus added extras you can pay to add on, for a more luxurious trip, for instance a quick trip to the spa for a manicure for Mum. I'll tell you about those as we go, but let's start with your booking and arrival.

You book your tickets online, where you can also get the Sat Nav postcode or coordinates to get you to the port Stena sail from. Finding it is really easy without maps though- you travel on the motorway out of Belfast toward the North/Carrick and you'll see huge signs for the port and Stena Line to follow right to the parking and terminal at the docks. 

Its a pay to park car park (more on that later) and it has tonnes of room, so there's no panic trying to find a space if you are running late. Speaking of which, the boat leaves the dock at 1130am, with last check-in being 1045am. You board shortly after 11am, but we sat for a while and had coffee in the terminal, so if you are early there's somewhere to be fed and watered. 

There will be passengers who are driving on and who will actually only be on the trip to get to Scotland, but you'll strictly be a foot passenger and no-one is allow to disembark in Cairnryan if you are travelling on the day trip cruise. 

The disco and entertainment area

So, once on board your child will get a coloured wristband. This is simply because one of the activities is a disco, which would be chaos in the small allocated space if every child wanted to dance at once, so that part of the fun is done in sessions by wristband colour. 

The specific day cruise entertainment all takes place in the main bar and lounge, just one of the places you have access to during the cruise. I would refer to this lounge as having a bit of a Butlins feel. There's face painting, games, balloon modelling etc. so most of the families with young kids set up camp here. There are staff on hand to entertain the little ones, including a puppet show and a magician. All the themed fun goes on here. There's even karaoke and a best dressed costume competition. 

Face painting

Mister Giggles gets the party started

There is plenty of seating, and this is definitely the hub for kids and families. However, as you can imagine with all that fun comes a lot of excited noise! Six hours at sea in a children's disco might sound daunting, but there is a whole ship to explore and much more to do, even for the kids too. 

Beside that entertainment lounge is a gaming section with arcade games.

There is a cool little shop akin to a Duty Free, with equally tempting bargains. They've all the top perfumes with good price deals, make-up including a snazzy Benefit counter, plus toys, sweets and souvenirs.  

It's worth noting with the day trip ticket you will receive two vouchers, both for £5 when you spend £25- so if you've your eye on a particular perfume or aftershave, you could come away with a cracking deal on top of the already lower prices.

 You can even check out the deals here online before you sail.

The Pod Lounge is a quieter space which suits older children and teens better. It houses the onboard cinema, PlayStation 4 terminals you can use for free, plus internet access. 

The internet terminals however aren't that great. They are frustratingly slow, so it's handier just to bring your own laptop or tablet. 

The cinema

Another word on the internet at sea, which is cleverly called- 'Internet@sea'. It's free wifi, but in the old tradition of all free wifi, it's a bit slow.

So if you plan to watch Netflix or stream the BBC IPlayer onboard while your kids are having fun- you'll be stuck. I would recommend downloading a movie or to episodes to your device. 

There is a lot of exploring to do however, so you probably won't even need to use it apart from to share photos of the day as it's happening- which it works fine for. 

There are lots of places to eat onboard, including the first entertainment lounge. The Taste restaurant has a selection of great freshly made food, and many offers to chose from, including family deals. You can check the deals out and even pre-purchase before you sail. Because of the size of the ship, you won't have to wait for very long to order when you want to eat, so it's hassle free.

Theres also a separate coffee lounge with sandwiches and pastries as a lighter bite. There are also bars onboard with wines, beers and spirits. Sporting fans can watch Sky Sports in the Pod Lounge too, so you won't miss an important match. 

With any luck you'll have a nice, clear, dry day like we did, so you can get out on the outside decks. There is access on floor seven and floor ten. It can be a little windy, but exhilarating. Smix loved that part as he's really into boats and planes, so he could nosy close up at the lifeboats. 

About 2pm you'll arrive in Scotland. As this is a regular ferry trip for many onboard, there will be a departure of many families at this point. It's a good time to relocate to a better seat if you want a window view for the journey home. 

I recommend trying the Living Room Lounge, it's nice and quiet and there are huge windows to enjoy the scenery of Scotland as you depart again.

The Living Room has a coffee bar, big TVs showing news, and a selection of free magazines to borrow to read. 

The ship also has vending machines for snacks, and for the iPad obsessed like us, plenty of charging sockets! 

You'll be on board from 11am until 530pm, so that's plenty of time if you want to slip away to deck ten, where the Pure Nordic Spa is located. Treatments begin at £10 and include manicures, massages, pedicures, gel nails etc. Or you can pay £10 to get access to the jacuzzi and sauna. If you travel as a family maybe one parent could visit the spa on the Scotland bound journey, and the other on the return.

You'll arrive back in the Belfast port at 530pm, and you can disembark quite quickly, there's not much having to hang around. 

One last thing I have to mention which I knew about from travelling before, but that many families around me were ticked off about- expect to pay £8.50 for your day's parking. After spending money on food and gifts onboard, it's irritating to have to pay almost the same price as a day trip ticket for your parking, and with being in the harbour area you don't have an alternative option for parking. If I had one suggestion that would make the day perfect, it would be scrapping the parking charge for the day trip customers. Just be prepared and factor in that cost when you are planning your trip.

So the dates are available for the kids cruises up until June- with the different themes available, but all priced £12. 

I definitely recommend it. For £12 each it's a very exciting day for kids. As adults we are more used to travel, but the kids on board were all just so excited to be on a big boat! Add in the included entertainment both ways, and it's something they'll always remember. Michael first went on their day cruises when he was about five or six, and now sailing again aged nine he was actually more excited about the whole prospect this time, despite being a little too old and cool to dress up!  Thanks, Stena Line for the fun day at sea.

Stena Line Day Cruises Are Back! £12 Day Trips Makes For Weekends They'll Never Forget.

When you are a kid travelling is always such an adventure. I remember pleading with my parents to take us to the Belfast City Airport, just to hang around cause I loved the atmosphere so much. 

With kids loving travel in mind, let me tell you about Stena Line's great value day trips. They have been on the go since at least 2013, because then still a family of three we went on their pirate & princess day cruise. Since then Smix has asked to go on the ship often and in 2015 we we're lucky enough to travel over to M&Ds with another Stena Line day trip. However it's the first type of trip we are taking again soon, and I'll feature it all on here.

They are called Kid Day Trips, and involve being at sea from 1130am - 545pm. There's a tonne of things to do on the ship, plus added entertainment especially for the day. 

Prices, considering its for a whole day's fun, is very reasonable. £12 for a ticket, adult or child or baby, and there's a family fare option of £44 for two adults and two children. 

There is a restaurant on board as well as a separate coffee shop and main bar. If it's the same ship as we were on before, then there is also a spa on the top deck with a sauna, jacuzzi, nail bar and masseuse. It was an extra payment of £10 when I was last travelling. 

Clockwise: Soft Play Area - Trendy bar - Cinema - Spa

There is also a small duty free style shop, and with your travel that day you get £5 off a £25 spend. I previously got some Chanel perfume and a frivolous but completely needed giant Care Bear toy. 

Keep an eye out on my Rudedoodle Instagram, and Snapchat (also username rudedoodle) to catch live updates from our day trip in a few weeks time.

Halloween Hijinks on the High Seas- StenaLine Day Cruise 16th October

ALL ABOARD: Little Eva Burnside (4) from Belfast is calling on all budding Jack Sparrows and Princess Elsas to experience an unforgettable day at sea on its Pirates and Princesses Cruise.

On Sunday, October 16, Stena Superfast will be playing host to a day of dressing up and adventure, with a treasure trove of activities on board such as dancing, crafts and karaoke, guaranteed to put a smile on the kids’ faces. Not only does the day promise to be a fun-filled one, but it will also raise funds for Cool FM and Downtown Radio’s Cash for Kids, with all proceeds from ticket sales going towards the charitable appeal.

Tickets are available for just £12, and due to the one-off nature of the event, they are expected to sell out fast.

For more information go to www.stenaline.co.uk/cashforkids

We went on one of the day cruises a few years ago, 2013 and had a lot of fun.

2013

Stena Line- Kids Go Free This Summer #WOKSummer2016

STENA LINE are offering tens of thousands of free child places for travel to Britain by car all summer long on its 4 Irish Sea routes.

Their Kids Go Free offer means that you can travel any day and on any sailing, but you need to book quickly so you don’t miss out – it really is that simple with no catches or conditions.

You can travel any time until December 18.

Travelling with Stena Line means that your holiday starts the moment you drive onboard, as the kids have dedicated play areas and even a children’s entertainer on selected school holiday week-ends.  There’s even free Wi-Fi, free movies and great eateries with superb family meal deals, so your holiday spending goes even further.  You also don’t have to worry about baggage restrictions or charges so you can bring all the comforts of home and avoid the airport hassle.

We tend to go on at least one Stena Line jaunt a year, and we are currently planning where we will go with them this summer.  All the photos in this blog post are from our own trips. There's also a snazzy £10 Glasgow day return you should also check out. 

For more information or to book click onwww.stenaline.co.uk/kids, call 08447 70 70 70 or visit your local travel agent.

 *Kids Go Free when travelling by car. Subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply.  See online for further details.

Unpaid blog post, but have travelled with Stena Line on complimentary trips previously. 

We Took The StenaLine Daytrip to M&D's, Scotland's Theme Park.

Yesterday was a busy day! My son and I had an adventure, taking the StenaLine Superfast Ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan, on a daytrip which included entrance and unlimited rides at M&D's, a theme park just outside Glasgow.

We chose to take our car, which costs from £31 for an adult, including M&D's, or you can book a coach tour which starts at £28 per adult. There are benefits to both choices. With the coach you can relax and don't have to worry about directions, driving, or petrol costs. We chose to drive however as you can go at your own pace, stop off at services for snacks, or a quick peek at Ayr on the way past, plus you've your own privacy in your car. I still get car sick on buses, so driving was definitely the best option for us, plus I love driving places I've never been before, it all adds to the adventure! 

http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferries-to-britain/day-trips/belfast-cairnryan-mds-car

 http://www.stenaline.co.uk/ferries-to-britain/day-trips/belfast-cairnryan-mds-coach

So, I'll talk you through our trip, and you can see how it would work for your own trip. 

Check in at the Belfast docks is before 7am, so it's a very early start. You'll need a print out of your booking etc. but we didn't need passports, or any ID, although it recommends you have them with you just in case. You are given a lane to wait in, then you drive into the boat in turn. Once you park up  you can head up into the main part of the boat.

The 730am sailing is understandably quite quiet, but the whole ferry is open for business. There are multiple cafés and lounges, including the Taste restaurant where you can get hot breakfast and unlimited hot drink refills. 

After a quick breakfast, we explored the rest of the boat. There's a cinema, a children's play area and even a spa on the top deck. You can access the jacuzzi and sauna for £10, or book massages or pedicures. 

We settled in the Pod lounge. It's nearest the cinema, has computer access and XBox Kinnect for the kids. The whole boat has free wifi, which actually works! Plus there are charging sockets absolutely everywhere. If you're a frequent traveller you'll know the struggle of finding an ipad or iPhone charging plug at an airport, no such struggle on the Stenaline.

We settled down in the Pod lounge and Michael played Minecraft and popped in and out of the cinema. The Superfast crossing takes slightly over two hours, and by 10am we were off the boat and hitting the road in Scotland. 

The road to M&D's is pretty straightforward. You follow the A77 for about an hour and 45 minutes, so we were able to do the drive easily without a Sat Nav, just with printed directions. The A77 turns into the M77 near Glasgow, then you simply turn off onto the road to the A8 and from there you'll see signs for 'Scotland's Themepark'. I love long distance driving, especially places I haven't been, so I loved the drive. The first half of the drive is rural and absolutely beautiful, but the road is excellent quality, no bumpy gravel tracks! We drove off the boat around 10am and were parking up at M&D's at 12 noon exactly. The carpark is close to the entrance and completely free.

M&D's is like Barry's here in Northern Ireland. It's free to walk into and walk around. You could dander in and get food or play the fete games whenever you like. The rides cost a certain number of points, and locals can buy cards or wrist bands for a certain amount of rides. As part of the StenaLine day trip, whether by car or coach, you get an UNLIMITED ride wristband, so you can ride all the rides for free and as often as you can fit into the four hours or so you have there. Your wristband has a barcode which you simply scan to enter each ride.

We decided to start with the biggest, tallest ride, the Ferris wheel. I thought it would be a relaxing, pleasant start to the day. It was terrifying! It's really, very high and my legs went like jelly! It's a great place to start though as you can nosy at the park from above and plan where you'll go next. 

The park at just after noon was fairly quiet. We headed next to the kiddie ride section. There are about ten rides for ages 5-12 which my son just loved. At that time of day we didn't have to queue for more than one turn of the ride, walking straight onto most of them. All rides are measured by height, and some you will have to accompany your child on. Again because rides are unlimited and free, it isn't much of a problem.  

We were fairly hungry after our long drive, so it was time to find some food. The entire M&D's park is compact. It's not like when you visit an American theme park and spend the day trekking about ten miles between spaced our rides. The rides are a short distance apart, and there are food stalls scattered throughout the park. You can get hot dogs, nachos, popcorn and candy floss walking around the park, and there are plenty of picnic tables to sit and enjoy them, or indeed your own picnic.

We hadn't brought food, so we strolled back to the entrance plaza where there was a food hall with plenty of seating. 

Here there was a sit down, proper family restaurant, or quicker, decently priced fast food places for pizza, chicken or Angus beef burgers. We grabbed a popcorn chicken kids meal for under a fiver and shared it and that was plenty! 

There's also a shop called Sweet Explosion, where you can buy tiny chocolates that look like cupcakes, as well as mallow pizzas and traditional sticks of rock as presents and souvenirs, all a reasonable prices. 

Heading back into the park, we ventured to some of the more grown up rides. Michael unfortunately was a tiny bit too short to ride most of them, but if you are taking teenagers there are a good half dozen huge roller coasters and thrill rides to choose from. I was secretly quite glad I only had to go on the children's rides. The chairaplanes were excitement enough for me! They were definitely my son's favourite, we went on them three times. Even as the park because busier from 2pm on, none of the queues were for longer than ten minutes.

There is also a free high diving pirate act show on at various points through the day. Check the times to catch a show, near the chairaplanes. 

There are two long flume type rides, which have these giant walk in dryers to dry yourself off afterwards! 

Weatherwise we got really lucky, it only rained for about two minutes at one point, and the sun came out beautifully about 3pm. If you do get caught in the rain, there are stalls selling ponchos, so you don't really have to stop the fun if the weather doesn't play ball.

Amazonia is a rainforest attraction which costs extra, but we were so busy with the rides included, we didn't have time to visit it. You also get a free game of pirate golf included in your entrance price, and there is indoor bowling too should your day turn out too wet. 

Your homeward bound sailing is at 730pm, which means check in is at latest 7pm. We knew from the earlier journey it took about two hours, so we left M&D's around 430pm so we could stop off at services for food, and have a relaxing return trip. The four and a half hours at the park is plenty. We got to ride everything we wanted to, didn't feel rushed, and were ready to hit the road when time was up.

 Again the journey is pretty straightforward. Get on the M77 which turns into the A77 and stay on it for two hours and you can't go wrong. If you left M&D's about 3pm, you could easily spend an hour in Ayr, or stop off at any of the picturesque villages along the way.

We made Cairnryan in good time, and were tired out on the slightly busier 730pm return sailing. We explored the ship a bit more, taking in the shop. It's a well stocked, airport type shop, with lots of bargains. I bought a very necessary, large Carebear. 

Even with the return ferry being busier, there were still plenty of places to sit and relax, and a lot of choice of food and drink, from whole meals, to cafe snacks, or choices from the bar. 

The StenaLine docked in Belfast at 945pm, and we drove off tired but super happy. Thank you so much Steanline, M&D's and Bronagh for sending us on the fantastic daytrip. If you have any questions about the trip, and taking it yourself this summer, give me a shout on Twitter @rudedoodle. The trip runs daily from 1st July throughout the summer, both coach and car service. It's definitely worth the trip, and it's a bargain price for a family day out. 

Looking forward to our next summer 2015 adventure! This one will be hard to beat!