54404BIC
- CHECK YOUR VOUCHER FOR PORT, FERRY COMPANY AND SAILING TIME. Irishferries.com for latest sailing information. If High Speed ferry is cancelled, contact ACIS duty officer for alternatives.
- A lunch stop in Wales. Conwy is suggested. You will require another rest stop en route to the Lakes usually at Charnock Richard services.
- If your hotel is in Keswick, remember to add 40 minutes to your journey.
What follows is information based around ACIS block booking with Irish Ferries, usually on the High Speed ferry departing Dublin City Port. Out of high season you may be booked on the bigger slower ferry. The information on your voucher always takes precedence to the information listed here.
Double Check.
Procedure at Ferry Terminal
Getting to the Port.
Make sure you have the first slot for breakfast booked and you may have to arrange boxed breakfasts or a coffee station with pastries. It might make things easier to bring luggage down before breakfast. Make sure all the luggage is loaded to the coach. Do a passport check. On the way to the Ferry terminal explain the check in procedure and also what happens upon disembarkation in Wales. Tip the Driver. Check the coach before it departs.
Check in procedure.
Try to keep clients to one side of the check in area whilst you go to the check in desk. (Not the Ticket Desk) You can go to the head of the line because at this stage you are only asking for baggage tags. Return to the group and explain how to tag every bag which they wish to have stored away and to retain the tear off receipt.
Get in line with the group. At check in present the member of staff with a booking reference number and a copy of the passenger list. Your will receive boarding cards. You will need to show these on two separate occasions, immediately on passing through to the luggage drop and again on leaving the departure lounge.
Clients then leave tagged bags on carousel, and make their way via escalator to Departure Lounge.
Then wait for the call of the sailing of the vessel. Usually this requires you to board a shuttle bus which will then take you around to where the vessel is moored. If it is the big (slower) ferry you will walk on from the waiting area.
Arrival in Wales.
Listen for the on-board announcements with regard to foot passenger disembarkation. Walk to the shuttle buses. There are usually two, but don’t worry they are all going to the same place – Baggage Reclaim Hall. Once all the bags have been collected you have to go through security where it is usual for passports to be checked. In the 2022 season there were no additional Brexit related checks. There are restrooms in the arrivals hall if anyone should need them, whilst you go and locate the coach, which is to the right as you take the main exit.
If time you could make a photo stop at Llanfair PG (30 minutes away down the A55). Restrooms and shop next to carpark (James Pringle Weavers).
Conwy
Wonderful example of an Edward I Castle and bastide style fortified town. There is plenty to explore and photograph. Incorporating a lunch stop means you could spend 2 hours here.
Easiest way to approach Conwy is to take exit 18 after the Conwy Tunnel from the A55. At the Castle turn left for the coach park. Warn driver of the very narrow archway that the coach has to pass through and also return by. (Some of the new larger coaches e.g. City Circle can no longer fit through arches. Discuss with Driver upon meeting at Holyhead.) Coach Park has restrooms and in summer months a little shop selling ice creams and soft drinks.
Walk group into town via tunnel under the railway line and then through archway in the medieval town walls. Walk up Rose Hill Street, past the Conwy Visitor Centre which is good for Welsh souvenirs, and gather in the little town square at the top of High Street.
Lunchtime suggestions:
There are numerous little cafes and pubs serving lunches to be found on the High Street, directly down from the market square and on Berry Street which intersects with the High Street further down. Good place for Fish and Chips (by the sea).
Banks:
This will be your first opportunity to change money after the boat. ATM’s at a premium. One ATM disguised within a red telephone box in town square, another at Spar in the High Street. On Rose Hill Street is the Post Office for bureau de change.
Restrooms:
Located in the coach park. Not always open. Alternatives to be found within Castle entrance and on the Quay side.
Things to see and do:
Walk on the medieval town walls. Three places to get on them. Continue up Rose Hill Street to the wall itself, or you could take the first left along Upper Gate Street or finally walk along Berry Street and there is a small passage way on your righthand side which will take you up onto them. However you cannot walk all the way to the Castle via the walls, people would have to return and exit via Upper Gate Street turret.
Smallest House in Great Britain. Walk down High Street, across Berry Street and through arch, turn left and walk along waterfront (admissions charge).
Conwy Castle. Some of the best views of the Castle are from the town and the walls. Inside it is a ruin. If people wish to visit they should have time. Entrance fee, they pay.