I have travelled quite a few times between the UK and the Continent, taking the ferry, but that was before I took the Civitavecchia – Barcelona Ferry and it was somewhat brutal so I thought perhaps I should warn you about it, in order for you to know what to expect!
When you come into the harbour do not expect a clear sign for your ferry, drive slowly near every opening in order to recognize your route, because it might well be written on a small board, easily missed!
If you do miss it, find another opening where you will probably find a guy sitting in a small office, repeat your route and throw your arms open wide, in order to show that you have not got the faintest idea where to go….
It works quite good, they think you are an idiot and they show you an interior road to get back to the car waiting area for your ferry….
Do not, I repeat NOT behave male like, by not asking the way, you will regret it intensely because to get back from the outside might well made you lose this particular ferry.
Incidently no face loss here, because quite a few lorries came almost too late roaring through the inside road.
While you are waiting, get your real tickets which was in my case about a 100 meter walk into the Grimaldi office, take your car-/dogs- and your own identity papers/passports, though you can leave the dogs in the car, every adult needs to show their face in order to get their ticket…..
You will get one card for the car, one for each passenger and one for the pets and last but not least each passenger gets a keycard for the cabin! Prepare your bagpack filled with all necesarry stuff that will make your stay in your cabin so much more pleasant! I used a shoppingtrolley which worked out great.
I presume you booked a cabin? Because you would be a fool not to, the alternative being surrounded by loads of teenagers, screaming mams, drunk drivers etc for just under 20 hours which will make that it almost an endless journey against a cost of under 100 euros
I presume that you have your own food with you, it will be a wise choice because the stuff on board is expensive and certainly not up to Italian or Spanish food standards, so do yourself a favour….
If travelling with dog(s)
they give you a dog kit, which exist of a bag of (superior) dog food, unfortunately it is only one bag medium size, a nice snack, nothing more, so you will still need to fill up with you own dog food.
A napkin of sorts on which it is presumably suppose to pee???
And a roll of poobags, so you can tidy your own dog poo up.
Do not forget the bowls, because they need to drink!
I put safety harnesses on mine: Caucasian Alsation and a Sharpei, because that way I could also guide them up on the open stairs leading from the garage to the cabin deck!
That way I had a bit more control over them..
Do realise that while exiting the ferrydeck, you need to walk past big lorries which can be quite scary and there are no signs to tell you where to go, so move out of your Camper quickly and follow the others, in most cases it will be all right!
Make a photo on which deck you are parked! It will save you going to the wrong one!
But hey, while you are still waiting in line outside on the parking place, take your dogs and your plastc bags and hope they will pee and poo thus that they will hardly need to come outside on the boat! It will be at least 18-20 hours, so WALK THEM DOGS!
Keep your ferry cartickets near the window such that they can see it, I had tucked them safely away, really not clever!
You get a sticker under your windscreenwipers, DO NOT LEAVE IT THERE, IT WILL FALL OFF OR BLOW AWAY!
Take it inside your camper thus that they can see it quite clearly! You might want to stick it on your camper later and you will be thankful for my advice!
Have a look if you see some other “landsmen” who might have done this before and ask them for info. It makes them feel important/intelligent and might answer some questions I did not adress!
Do not get upset if there seem to be an endless amount of lorries going into the Ferry, think positive, because there are these huge amounts, is also the reason that this route operates daily… I guessed and counted far more than 70 of these massive things, so be patient, because you will get on, though you will be last!
Finally camper number one starts to drive on, god knows why, because nobody of the crew came near it, as far as I could notice, it was probably he got fed up 10 minutes before departure time and we were very much forgotten!
Being Dutch I pushed the guy in front of me forward, because I was not prepared to be last!
Yep, no manners whatsoever, more like I made Italian drving manners my own !! 😉
Be prepared to go up a steep hill within the Ferry, so hang back a bit, put it in first gear and make a run for it! It will be over in less than two minutes and than you only have to turn your camper around in order to face forward the descent when arriving on the other side!
Do not think that you can now rest on your laurels for getting your beloved camper up and beautifully parked, you do not have the time! Grab your stuff, your dogs and follow the crowds towards the stairs. There is no space for faintheartedness, not liking open stairs is no option, walk them dogs up holding them like a suitcase in their harness. You have to be bossy but calm, like this is a normal something, you can burst out in tears or whatever in your cabin, but not yet!
Find your cabin, it is somewhat of a nightmare but think of the fact that once inside it, you can fall apart, NOT NOW!
If you cabin keycard does not work, yep it sometimes does not, go to Reception and deal with it, do realise you are not the only one but make them realise that you have two dogs and are at your wits end.
In my case I was travelling with a companion and another lady with two dogs of which one was handicapped by age and having only three legs, hang on to us.
Of course both our cabins would not open and I speak Italian, so I went upstairs, I must be honest, I quickly got some plastic cards instead, walked downstairs and hey presto: absolutely nothing…….
So I went back upstairs and broke off a blossoming charming moment between some teenager girls and the purser and told him I was standing in the corridor with four dogs near one another and he better arrange this now!
The guy took one look at me, I smiled my vicious smile he took his tablet and followed me down. It took a while to get everything working again, but we all had one working card…..some plastic, some paper.
I took my dogs through the door and closed it, thankfully! Sit down, get your breath, give them water and a (small) snack and show them your appreciation while giving them attention. They gave their all to you!
You can walk your dogs on the backdeck and use your poobags, carefull because the wind is quite scary eventhough there are big windows all around, so you can not reallly fall off!
Enjoy your cabin, your shower, your sleep etc,
Almost before you expect it, you are called up to go to the upperdeck station in order to empty your cabin and wait there. I was on deck five and for some reason there is no lift going there, so you have to walk the stairs once more. Also because of some lady singing off tune in the lounge which was heard all over the decks, I missed the signal going down.
I did go down to deck 5 but not before I told that singer/lady to turn the bloody volume down to all the speakers except perhaps her lounge because it was upsetting dogs and kids alike!
She told me I could be less agressive and more charming which I ended by saying that looking at her I would say she was experienced enough to know which knob to turn and which not and she better turn it down because otherwise I would gladly give her a hand!
I was told off by the barman, but when I turned towards him, he very cleverly stepped back. The recognise The Force, I will give them that.
So we went down to the fifth by elevator and then had to cross all kinds of decks to get to the 7th, my companion got almost killed by a lorry while trying to get the Camper unlocked, thank God for the Deckhand who saw & stopped it. We waited for the lorry to go by, unlocked it, dived in and started the motor, he saw and got us towards the ramp quickly, I took a deep breath, waited for all the lorry/campers to clear the corridor downwards and took a deep breath. No problem, my camper went nicely, brakes newly installed worked perfect and we drove out of the Ferry!
Will I do it again? Yes probably, although it might take me the same or even lots less hours driving the same distance going through, Italy, France and bypass Costa Brava.
I very much dislike driving in Italy in my big camper, so yes I might but only with a calm mate, or I might show my daughter in Law how gorgeous the Costa Brava and the French Riviera can be look like even in early spring.
Have a great day! 