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Great to hear that HSS Stena Explorer will be staying on the Irish Sea for at least another year. When the new Stena Superfast arrives in Holyhead sometime next year? Will she have the same fittings etc as the Superfast's on the North Channel?

Hi,
Just one more question before I sail tomorrow evening. Are the shops and restaurants open throughout the sailing or are they open at various times throughout the sailing to Belfast?

Thank you everyone for all your help and information. I'm really looking forward to travelling on the Liverpool - Belfast route and, Stena Mersey for the first time on Wednesday evening!

Hi everyone,

I will be travelling on Stena Mersey for the first time next Wednesday evening from Liverpool to Belfast and, I was wondering what is the ship like? Does anybody have any images? I've seen images from the Stena Line website, but i'd like to know if anybody has the same opinion? Also are there sockets in the cabins to charge phones laptop etc?

Any information or images you have would be helpful!

Thank you! :)

Does anybody have pictures of the Stena Horizon with her new livery yet?

Does anybody have pictures of the Stena Horizon with her new livery yet?

As today is the date that the HSS Stena Explorer returns to service, i've just been checking the sailing updates on the Stena website and it is showing 'No sailings' for today. The date shown is 9th April. Could we read anything into this?

It would be great to see P&O allow foot passengers on their services.

Unfortunately, the days of fast ferries operating the Liverpool to Dublin service is over. In 2005 when Irish Sea Express ended, I wrote them a letter telling them how much I loved travelling with them and how I wished the service would continue, they sent me a lovely letter with a photo of Sea Express 1 leaving Liverpool on her evening sailing to Dublin, such a brilliant photograph!

Since 2005 and the end of ISE, I believe another company should have came in and began operating the service because, it was and is missed and since the closure of the DFDS passenger service to Dublin, the route is crying out to be reinstated.

P&O run a suitable route for freight but not passengers and this really does need to change. European Endeavour is a suitable and her sailing times from Liverpool at 3am with a 11am arrival in Dublin is ideal for passengers who want to arrive in Ireland before the lunchtime rush of traffic. P&O seriously need to look into allowing foot passengers on their Liverpool-Dublin services.

With regards to my previous post about IF not allowing foot-passengers on Epsilon, I contacted IF and this is the response they gave me:

''The Mv Epsilon is the newest cruise ferry addition to our fleet. The design of this ship is very different from all of our other vessels. The passenger areas on the Mv Epsilon (restaurants & accommodation) are situated on upper decks 5 & 6 which are at the forward of the ship. The ship was not designed to carry foot-passengers as there is no foot-passenger gangway from the shore side to the passenger areas.

The ship is stern loading and foot-passengers (if allowed) would have to load with the cars and walk along the car decks (a very long walk). As some of the car decks are exposed to the elements it is deemed unsafe under health and safety concerns. For this reason our reservations booking system has been set up to only accept motorist bookings on the MV Epsilon. There are no plans to change this.

I trust this explanation will give you some insight into the reasons why we do not accept foot-passenger bookings on the Mv Epsilon.

Yours sincerely,
Sheila Gleeson
Customer Support Manager''

Some great pictures of European Endeavour from Scott Mackey. With EE, i'm surprised P&O haven't allowed foot passengers to use their Liverpool - Dublin service. EE is ideal for carrying foot passengers and I think many 'footies' who travel from Liverpool to Holyhead to travel to Dublin would use the service if P&O allowed them. I understand that the company/Peel Ports would have to invest in some port facilities, but it would be worth it. Does anybody else have any thoughts?

Does anybody believe that P&O will begin to allow foot passengers on their sailings to/from Dublin in the future? When DFDS closed their Birkenhead-Dublin service in 2011, P&O should have capitalized on the closure and allowed all passengers to use their services. Liverpool really is missing a Dublin passenger service, it really does need to return.

?

It's great to see that Irish Ferries is growing year on year.

With regards to Epsilon, why did IF buy such a small vessel? I understand they needed to 'test out' the service and see if any additional freight units would use the service, but now that they know they will in big numbers, isn't it time to get rid of Epsilon and invest in a bigger and more suitable ship, one that could carry freight and passengers?

IF are alienating their foot passenger market by not allowing them to use Epsilon. As a foot passenger who regularly travels to Ireland using IF, the early morning departure times of Epsilon at 01:55 from Dublin and at 8am from Holyhead do better suit me when travelling and I think it's a bit unfair that we cannot choose to sail on her.

Does anybody know why Stena are introducing an earlier departure time from Dublin from March 30th? The Adventurer currently departs at 21:15, but from March 30th she will depart 45 mins earlier at 20:30 and take an extra 15 mins to sail to Holyhead.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the Stena HSS back in service from 9th April, but with all the talk about this being her last year in service? I do believe this is true, judging by the Facebook posts Stena keep posting.

Great thread, great to see so much discussion about possible ferries moving routes in the next 12 months.

It's great to see that Stena are moving the departure of Adventurer to an earlier time (even if it is only 25 minutes earlier than Ulysses). I've always thought the times of the ferries to/from Dublin are to close together. I think it would be better for Adventurer to leave at 2030 and then Ulysses at 2130 or 2200? I think ferry passengers need better sailing times. Also the current 2100ish sailing times are not suitable for a foot passenger who wants to travel overnight. Ulysses and Adventurer currently arrive in Holyhead just after Midnight and then 'footies' have a 5 hour wait until the next train out of the port. (An awful wait). I think the ferry and train companies need to discuss some sort of deal to have one last train leave at 0100 (as they did until 2010).

I also think Stena need to change the 0855 departure of Nordica from Holyhead, to allow foot passengers time to arrive at the port for the early morning sailing. As a foot passenger who uses Sail Rail, the current times don't allow me time to meet the 0855 departure, as the first train to Holyhead only arrives at 08:30 and we have to check-in by 0825 (I've had confirmation of this by Stena themselves). I think they need to move the departure time to 0910, just to allow us that extra time to meet the ferry and check-in.

With regards to the Swift, I would hate to see her move to a seasonal service or even be axed all together. She is a great vessel and I've always loved travelling on her since my first time in 2005, but her poor handling of the sea does go against her. Is there any chance they could 'fix' that problem? (I wouldn't know if they could or not).

Also I believe Irish Ferries should allow foot passengers to use Epsilon. Her current sailing schedule better suits me as a foot passenger. Plus I've always wanted to travel from Ireland to France on the ferry. It would be a hassle travelling from Liverpool to Dublin then onto Rosslare to travel on board Oscar Wilde.

I hope that makes sense to people (it's my first-ever post).

Liam