After the rather rocky ferry ride we had the other day, it was time earlier on for the return leg. On true form, Bolle repeated her morning poo trick, meaning we had a full diaper when we reached ferry number one on the road from Bergen to Stavanger. And it was my turn this time, hurrah!
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| Strap me down, Scotty! |
The ferries serving the route along E39 between these two towns are pretty much identical.
I was not much looking forward to a repeat of the previous session, with its lovely floor tags and unsafe diaper deck (although the entertainment value of calling a changing table a «deck» on board a ferry almost did something to raise the experience to a higher level. Note «almost»).
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| Omar and an anonymous cleaner has recently visited. Very occasionally. |
But hello! What a difference Omar makes. Although «Omar» appears to very rarely actually visit this changing room, it was in fact much better than the one on its sister ferry. Strap, check. Comfier changing mat on deck, check. No tags on floor.
And, most importantly, a «happy waste only» bin! I love these. They are basically «nappy waste only» bins which are so dirty that the writing on the lid reads «happy bin» instead.
But I do think they get emptied more often than the regular bins, and as a result the changing room is a tad less smelly.
Otherwise, the experience is much the same as the previous ferry one, with its funny chemical toilet smell and rolling movement.
The rolling was even more noticeable today, it was so windy Bolle didn’t want to lie on a bench to stretch her back after driving, which she normally loves.
The automatic rollercoaster effect meant that she found it safer to sit in a lap and play with her first ever potato dumpling lunch (a tradition on these ferries, I’ll have you know, although as we did the first crossing before 0800, we found it timely to wait for the second ferry. A post-shaped ode to this culinary pleasure to follow at an unspecified point in the future).
PS! There are several linguistically interesting things about this ferry ride. Firstly, «Halhjem» is a badly spelt aproximation of the Norwegian words meaning «half a home». Secondly, Sandvikvåg means «sandy bay bay». I.e. both vik and våg mean bay. To a language fetishist such as myself, these are actually interesting points for pondering. Stop looking at me funny.
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| «I am a monster baby and will devour your young and then wipe my face and dispose tidily of the towel in the happy waste bin.» |
VERDICT:
Less choppy than our previous ferry ride. In fact, I would say passable to average.
Changing facilities: They are there, they are safe-ish.
Breast feeding facilities: None, although I was a bit disturbed to overhear that the mother of the 16 day old baby on the next table over actually wanted to attempt it. Standing bf-ing at such an early stage? That would be very brave!
Parent peeing facilities: As before, even if you’re a disabled parent! Though the toilet is really low down, which I can’t help but think might be a bit of a challenge if you are in a wheel chair. If you are very short parent it might be good though.
Best feature: The happy waste only» bin :o) and also the «giant baby disposes of towel»-sign on the diaper deck.
Worst feature: Still no tissue paper.
Would I use again? Yes. Not with joy, but still.
Bolle says: «I still feel a bit seasick.»