Dogs on Plymouth/Roscoff ferry.
Has anyone taken a dog on this route? If so, could you share your experience and advice? I believe that the animals have to stay in the vehicle for the whole crossing; was this a problem? Also, are all the vehicles carrying dogs parked up together? If my dog hears another one barking, it will set her off. I just don't want her to be distressed during the crossing
Thanks.
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No experience, but it’s a long crossing 6-8 hours. Brittany Ferries don’t do pet friendly cabins on this route. Others might know of alternatives.
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I don't think anyone can predict where you would be parked on the ferry if your dog is staying in the car or caravan.
As well as that option there are kennels, but only on Pont Aven's Thursday night sailing to Roscoff - but those kennels really would put your dog close to other dogs. On the car deck someone's car alarm often goes off for long periods on the journey, so that might not be suitable either for a nervous dog . So all in all you might perhaps prefer to book a ferry from Portsmouth instead of Plymouth and have a pet friendly cabin to Caen or Le Havre.
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Or use the Tunnel and save the dog the stress of the ferry crossing. What’s a couple of hundred miles when on holiday?🤷🏻♂️
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Is it / isn’t it? We don’t know the starting point or the destination. It’s merely another option to consider.
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We normally have plenty of time but next year we'll be on a tight schedule. The first two weeks of June will be spent in France but we need to be in Cornwall by the 13th, so tunnel out and Roscoff/Plymouth back makes sense - 6 hours, so much less than leaving her overnight, and it will be in a campervan, not a car. I'd also much rather do two to three hundred miles in France than England.
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Our dogs did a six hour ferry crossing, they were ok. They were left in our motorhome. The ferry companies usually give you a dog sticker. But you could always make your own just in case. We made sure the dogs had plenty of air and water and a good walk beforehand.
On another shorter crossing the crew checked the car decks and called dog owners if they spotted any problems. I can't help you with Brittany ferries but the six hour day time sounds a lot better than the eight hour night time one.
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That does make sense, Ron. Presumably your dog is happy to be left in the camper but I’d still be wary if she’s likely to become distressed.
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Please can we keep this discussion on topic and argument free as per the community guidelines. Many thanks.
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We have used this crossing with our dog on the daytime crossing, if you enquire when you board the ferry about taking your dog for a walk on the car deck, they will tell you at what time and were to meet one of the crew and they will escort all the pet owners down to the car decks and remain with all of you until you are all ready to leave your pets again.
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Do some careful research, and take precautions. Brachycephalic breeds (that’s flat muzzled types such as Boxers, Pugs, Pekes, Etc....) and overweight dogs are at a higher risk when travelling, and there have been deaths, even on short ferry trips. Not wishing to alarm you, but merely to inform.
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Poole - Cherbourg is a good crossing, 5 hrs pets to remain in vehicle but BF are very good when it comes to pets, they put a nice big sticker on your vehicle and do check the car deck whilst in transit. Our dog is always asleep when we go to disembark, a good walk before hand is key.
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I would say dog owners need to check the timetable carefully if using the Plymouth / Roscoff route.
Going out from Plymouth most sailings are overnight and typically take nine or ten hours - even twelve hours on a Saturday night. But coming home from Roscoff most sailings are in the daytime and typically take six hours - and only five hours on a Sunday morning.
I think those timings might be relevant for those who plan to leave dogs in their car or caravan on that route.
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I echo every thing that has been said here. We have done most of the ferry crossings with a dog. Always try to do a night crossing mainly cause the dog would be asleep then any way. Did do one crossing where we put her in a kennel once along with all the other dogs, in your cabin you had a link to the cameras in the room, spent most of the night watching her it was quite bizarre. You were given times when you were escorted down to see the dogs. We got quite a few comments when we collected her and took her back to the car deck. They were saying oh your the lady with the dalmatian we were watching her/you on the cameras last night, so even if the dog got distressed there were people with nothing better to do watching the CCTV who could alert the crew if there was any problems.
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The OP was hoping to do the shorter 6 hour day crossing.
We took one look at kennelling on ferries and decided our dogs were more comfortable and less stressed in our van. The dogs could settle down for a sleep in familiar surroundings. Some dogs are ok with kennelling but ours had never stayed in kennels.
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yes a bit of a dilema, if you do the Portsmouth Santander crossing 24 hrs if you do not have dog friendly cabin i.e. Cape Finistere, and they are like gold dust, then you have to put your dog in a kennel. If weather is good you can sit out on deck with your dog for the whole 24 hrs if you wish but if weather is rough then the upper deck is closed and dogs have to go in their kennels which are in quite a dark room, cell like, not the best but ours survived. I have been told that once the Cape F is taken out of service then there will be no dog friendly cabins on any of the BF sailings.
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I had almost despaired of getting answers to the specific questions I had actually asked from people that had actually experienced that particular crossing. Thank you to the two people who gave that information, I am very very grateful and have now booked my crossings
Offering different solutions is fine and can sometimes throw up a viable alternative that hadn't been considered. Unfortunately, some of the replies had little to do with my request for information and resulted in over a third of the posts being Deleted User. I'm assuming that we are all (fairly) mature and experienced caravanners/motorhomers; surely we can exchange information and views without resorting to some of the barbed exchanges that have appeared here.
Thanks to Rowena for stepping in - you beat me to it.
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Ronhub, Basically you were asking us whether your dog would be distressed on the ship or start barking, and hoping one of us could tell you.
Without knowing anything at all about your dog that was always going to be a hard call, but now you are satisfied that all will be well I hope she and you will both have a smooth sailing.
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