I know several posters here regularly travel on this ferry, could you help me with some details please? I'm travelling to Germany for a show in July - 2 people and 5 dogs, we've booked the ferry and the onboard kennels but of course as one of those dogs is my Precious Princess I'm now panicking about the whole thing :-)

What are the kennels like? Are they a bank of cages? Do they rattle? I know you can have access to the kennels all the time, are there any seats in there? Could I sit in there for the crossing? Presumably we take bedding and water dishes etc for the dogs - do you get to board before everyone else or do you have to fight your way through crowds to get to the kennel - 3 of the dogs are pups and may be a bit spooky.

I'm also travelling with a caravan that the dogs are very used to, I'm wondering if my two would be happier in there for the crossing but the downsides (afaik) are that I wouldn't have access to check on them and someone said that there are lots of car alarms going off?

Any help/advice gratefully received :-)

I would honestly leave them in the car or caravan as each time I have seen these so called "kennels" they have consisted of old tatty metal cages like we would use at home (except I would not use such bad ones at home!). Last time there weren't even any big enough for anything other than at most a medium sized dog. They are inside a tiny locked room and you are only allowed to enter if you ask a member of staff to take you in there. There is a window in the door so any passenger walking past will look in and stare at the dogs also. I know other CDers have said they have seen better cages but I think all that shows is that you won't know what you get until you're there (just like the ferries themselves can vary a LOT, some being much older and tattier than others), so personally I'd never take the risk.

Edited to say: as the ferry takes around 8 hours (plus you board no later than 1 ½ hour before) and as you don't save 8 hours on the road, you'd be better off taking the channel tunnel -it won't save you time with the ferry, or money.

I've done Harwich - Hook of Holland before and always left the dogs in the car. They have settled well there, as its a place they know.

Funnily enough just this minute  ha an e-mail from Stena Line introducing their new "super ferries" to Holland and giving me a 20 % discount code. If you've not already booked and will go by ferry, give me a shout if you want the code for the discount.

> Edited to say: as the ferry takes around 8 hours (plus you board no later than 1 ½ hour before) and as you don't save 8 hours on the road, you'd be better off taking the channel tunnel -it won't save you time with the ferry, or money

The crossing is 6 3/4 hours and you board an hour before but the big saving is in miles, which when towing a caravan is substantial. 60 miles on this side if the water and 241km on the other side - taking into account the stress of driving on the 'wrong' side of the road I reckon that saves us about 4.5 hours driving (barring getting lost of course). I have friends that live not far from Hook ferry terminal and are also travelling with a caravan to the show so we will follow them :-)

The kennels have apparently been done up on the 2 ferries they use for this crossing, I'm interested in opinions from anyone that has used them since?

> I've done Harwich - Hook of Holland before and always left the dogs in the car. They have settled well there, as its a place they know.

Thanks, are you allowed to check on them at all?

> Funnily enough just this minute  ha an e-mail from Stena Line introducing their new "super ferries" to Holland and giving me a 20 % discount code. If you've not already booked and will go by ferry, give me a shout if you want the code for the discount.

Too late but thank you :-)

Offically no, no one is allowed on the car deck while the ferry is on the move but unofficially, yes they let us. I suppose it all depends on the mood of the chap you ask lol

Having done the trip to Ireland by ferry and leaving the dogs in the car I will never ever do it again. OH went down (after a battle) to check and he said the fumes and the noise was horrendous. When we go to Holland it is the tunnel or nothing.
Aileen

Travel this route often, the on board kennels are kitted out much like a vet surgery with modern clean secure caging. Sink in room with key code access so you can visit when you like, if you have a cabin you can even view the kennels via CCTV and pop down if you think you need to.

I generally leave the dogs in the car, on day crossing if you ask at info desk someone will escort you down to car deck to check on the dogs as long as seas conditions don't make it too dangerous. You can't however get dogs out.
We usually opt for night crossings and the dogs always settle and sleep ok.

I am sure your dogs will be just fine

It's about time we could travel on deck with dogs, most are very well behaved and a lot less trouble than the screaming vomiting kids  racing around all over the place.... apologies if your children are well behaved, unfortunatly lots are not !
Aileen

Just out of interest klb how big are the kennels as I have Bernese and they would need to be BIG!
Aileen

Some good large cages at floor level and smaller ones above. Would definately book a large floor level cage with your dogs but TBH kennels nearly always empty when we have traveled, think most people leave dogs in cars
K

Last travelled on this route last year on one of the new ferries and as a previous poster said they had one large kennel.  It would definitely fit a Bernese but I am not sure about two, definitely not three.  There is only one kennel of this size and I don't think any of the others would be large enough - the next size is really for labrador kind of size dogs but it might be an idea to ring and ckeck.  I've never been able to book the actual kennel (always booked online, don't know if this option is available over the phone) so you could get there and find a doberman or mastif in there.  If it's occupied but the dog can be moved they will endeavour to move the smaller dog - on one occasion I sailed there was a bulldog in the big kennel and about 20 minutes later there was a tannoy for the owner of the 'little white dog' to come to reception and when I next went back in the bulldog was in a smaller kennel to allow a boxer to have the big one.

The kennels are new (as is the rest of the ferry) and as previously mentioned now look like kennels from a vets or groomers.  They are stacked and there are about 8 kennels in the room if memory serves.  They have always looked clean and there is a sink in there.  they have never sounded particularly noisy or rattly.  The last time I travelled there were bowls available, nothing that would hold enough for a thirsty Bernese though so definitely worth carrying your own up.  There was also a plastic chair in the room - like the stackable kind you find in church/school halls.  The door is solid (no more window for people to wind the dogs up) and secured by a keypad to which all dog owners are given the code.  The entrance is out of the way so kids shouldn't be able to find it/get to it to bang on the door and torment the dogs.

The dogs are not allowed out for a loo break during the crossing as apart from during boarding / disembarkation they are not allowed in passenger area's.

You board with everyone else but they open boarding quite early so it's normally pretty quiet on all but the busiest crossings (I've often travelled on a half empty ferry even on a Friday night).  Definitely worth getting the lift up from the car deck as it's a long climb up the stairs.  Disembarkation is normally pretty busy.  I often find it best to wait near the kennels in the passenger areas and when they open the car decks then go get the dogs - by the time you come back out everyone else has cleared down to the car decks and you can proceed down without worrying about everyone else around the dogs (my concern is them being stood on but mine are alot smaller than yours!).  You might hold up a few cars behind you getting off the ferry but don't worry about that, they won't get out the port any quicker as the wait at passport control is normally a good 10-20 minutes.

Strictly speaking passengers are not allowed on car decks during sailings for safety reasons but a helpful crew member might take you down if you ask.  Personally I wouldn't expect it but consider it a bonus.  I used to work on the Dover-Calais and so would pass through the car decks regularly.  Car decks can stink of diesel on occasions and they can be very noisy with ventilation fans running - this is required when carrying livestock (including your dogs on the car decks) or refridgerated lorry's if they need to leave the engine running to keep the cargo cold.  Saying that though the fans are very good at getting rid of any diesel fumes.  Modern cars with motion sensing alarms that cannot be turned off unless the car is left unlocked can often have their alarms set off repeatedly by the vibration and movement of the ship - more so in bad weather and rough seas.  Also the vibration is worse on the car decks than the passenger areas - closer to the engines. 

If if a dog is noise sensitive or reactive and likely to bark at sudden noises I would prefer to have them in the kennels for their own comfort but if they prefer their own surroundings and can sleep through world war three then they may well be more comfortable in the caravan.

Sorry Chaumsong, replied to Merlot but answered most of your questions in that one, I skimmed through the thread and didn't realise the questions were posted by two different people.  Must read slower!

Brilliant thanks very much, this is just the sort of info I needed and has helped tremendously :-) Now... if I could pick your collective brains one more time - where is the closest spot on the Dutch side to let the dogs have a pee?

Come out of the ferry port, go over the railway line and at the left hand bend turn right heading towards the town centre and then immediate left on to Nordzee Route.  Park in one of the layby's along this road and cross over to go into the park here;

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=51.979501,4.129246&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47c5ad1c8da052c1:0x8aaf09972e6e976a,%2B51%C2%B0+58%27+44.72%22,+%2B4%C2%B0+7%27+43.60%22&gl=uk&ei=MlHRT83FF8qg-waEqryvBA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ8gEwAA

We travelled from Dublin to Birmingham for Crufts, leaving the dogs in our campervan on deck. It was their first time on a ferry and when we came down they were fast asleep.... the joy of lazy hounds, eh? :)

I, however, was sick as a....dog. LOL

> Come out of the ferry port, go over the railway line and at the left hand bend turn right heading towards the town centre and then immediate left on to Nordzee Route.  Park in one of the layby's along this road and cross over to go into the park here

Luddingtonhall I think I love you :-) Thank you :-)

edited to say had a look at streetview and it looks like it would be easy even for the caravan to park there - brilliant :-)

If you use the kennels I would take some disinfectant spray to clean the ones you are allocated anyway before you put your dogs in there.  The last time I used the H - HofH route a friend on the same sailing had booked kennels and when we got to put her dogs in the place stunk of faeces, in fact the floor area was slimey from washing down the kennels with remnants of excreament still on the floor.  The kennels also were very wet inside.

I have done the route several times, including quite recently but I refuse to let them park my Motorhome next to the big wagons who are plugged into power for the whole sailing in order to keep the refrigerated units running as the air temperature around these gets very hot and humid. 

I travel to Germany a lot and find that the Dover - Dunkerque route is far better for the dogs in the long run.  Yes further to drive but it is only a bit over 2 hrs on the ferry, and it evens out rather than the 7 + hours on the Hook of H route (by the time you allow for embarking and disembarkation.  But that is my own personal preference.  For example Hook of H to Hannover 4.4 hours driving, Dunkerque to Hannover 5.75 hours driving so just over an hour more by road, but over 4 hours less on a ferry.

When you arrive at Hoek drive out of ferry terminal and cross the rail track. you will see station parking just over the level crossing  - park there. With the dogs walk out of car park to road, turn right and walk to road junction ahead. Junction is on a corner, walk across to the opposite corner and on cycle track into a small park.

After your walk thre is a nice little coffee shop on the square in town near Lidl

K

Thanks K :-)  I don't think I'll fit in that car park though, I'm towing a caravan and can't reverse it! I'll go for parking on that street LH recommends because (if there's space) I can just pull in over 3 spaces :-)

Thanks for the coffee shop recommendation, will try it out while waiting for my friends :-)

We have taken this route few times.
There are the stacked cages that were not very big(but they were clean and you can go and check on them as often as you wish if I remember right) but next trip there were a massive cage on the car deck. The cage is more like a dog run and would easily fit 4 giant dogs in.
We were allowed to go and check on our dog(who was fast a sleep) and there were no fumes etc... Unfortunately I can not remember the name of the ferry anymore and don't know whether the same ferry had the smaller cages as well but as we were travelling with a Leo were given the big one that stands by itself in the car deck so no other dogs barking etc :)

We have taken this route few times.
There are the stacked cages that were not very big(but they were clean and you can go and check on them as often as you wish if I remember right) but next trip there were a massive cage on the car deck. The cage is more like a dog run and would easily fit 4 giant dogs in.
We were allowed to go and check on our dog(who was fast a sleep) and there were no fumes etc... Unfortunately I can not remember the name of the ferry anymore and don't know whether the same ferry had the smaller cages as well but as we were travelling with a Leo were given the big one that stands by itself in the car deck so no other dogs barking etc :)

I like Dunkirk route with dogs too, as it's less busy than Calais and I don't like travelling in the tunnel, too hot/stuffy for us and dogs.

Reviving this thread because I need more advice, I forgot to ask where you exercise your dogs before the crossing? KLB, Luddington Hall, any advice? Also can you take the dogs out the port after you've parked there. Same problem, trying to find somewhere easy to park the caravan? Thanks muchly :-)

You should be able to park up at the back of the check in lanes with the caravan, or Morrisons is open until 11pm so you could pull up in the car park ( its huge) without problem . You will see Morrison off a roundabout to your right as you approach the portt entrance. There are grass verges along the roads into the town from either location.

Once your through check in you will be directed onto the ship, they seem to load as people arrive so don't plan on being able to get the dogs out again once you have checked in.  Same at both ends so exercise before you go down to check in at Hook on the way home.

In addition to KLB's response the final access  to Morrisson's is a small roundabour of which the first junction just leads to a waste ground (Morrisons is the third exit).  Every time I've been through I have parked up in that little road and exercised/toiletted the dogs on that waste ground.  You won't be able to fit the caravan in that area but it's just a short walk from the Morrisons car park.  I always parked there as the waste ground can be quite dark if your catching the overnight ferry and the headlights really helped so take a powerful torch with you.

Brilliant, thanks both again, you've been fabulous :-)

For anyone else reading this and worrying about the kennels I asked the ferry company to send me photos and sizes of them. They look pretty good :-)

Just an update if anyone is wondering about using this route. The kennels were absolutely superb, really good quality and spotlessly clean. They now have 2 kennel rooms, one for small  dogs and one for the bigger dogs so the room was lovely and quiet. We were able to shut the door and let them out to stretch their legs. My 2 settled straight away and enjoyed the crossing.

They look very happy.  They'll want their own yacht now :)

They are gorgeous, and look very settled! Quite a sizeable crate, too if I am judging their size correctly!

Wow what an improvement!!!

They've improved a lot since I took dogs over to Hook, it's just a shame that they stopped the quick ferry.

We brought our new pup back on Stenaline via this route and were also impressed. Best thing was the CCTV that you could watch from your cabin so you don't have to keep disturbing them to check if they are ok.  We were able to get some sleep knowing that he was OK... Every time I woke up a could see he was asleep too!  It also reassured us that it is likely he would have also coped well during the 8 hour flight he'd just taken!

> it's just a shame that they stopped the quick ferry.

The SeaCat? Shame if so... but it was often cancelled due to rough weather, and the kennels in it weren't nice. (Didn't use them but had a look out of curiosity once).

On one memorable trip to the Hook on the Seacat, I looked out of the window to see a Dutch Airforce plane flying incredibly close alongside us, only a few feet above the waves Could see the pilot, who was waving at all the passengers staring in astonishment.

Good to see they had a pleasant crossing!