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Day-1 Spirit of Tasmania, Port Melbourne

Spirit of Tasmania Ferry at Port Melbourne, Victoria Australia

For those who have been following our live stream broadcasting through Periscope on our travel to Tasmania, we greatly appreciate your time and supporting our scopes. Some of you have mentioned if we are currently blogging, yes we do blog when we can, and try to update as soon as we can now. A couple of ferries Spirit of Tasmania I and II were proud to re-launched its new refurbished new look! It would be greedy of me if I would share all in detail photos than you start packing and travel to Tasmania.

WHAT TO EXPECT AS the FIRST TIMER TRAVELLING THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF TASMANIA?

You can either choose day or night trip. This will be our overnight’s journey passing through Bass Strait ocean about 9 to 11 hours duration. As a usual procedure, all vehicles and passengers check-in for safety checks of any dangerous firearms, gas tanks, etc. We are waiting two hours outside the ferry with all the travellers’ vehicles fall in line.

NOTE: Do not worry we are all humans needed to pee, Port Melbourne pier has dunny (toilet) installed in the middle corner where all the cars are falling in line to drive in the Spirit of Tasmania ferry. I needed to mention it because not everyone travelling to Tasmania has motorhomes or caravans with its comfy portable toilet.

From the photo, we are now finally embarking inside the ferry with our car. We are driving right there at the basement ferry’s first deck label, and all the rest of the cars instructed to where they will park for tonight. Those big wheelers are cargo freight off trucks that drive-in first before all the rest of passenger vehicles.

©Fusiontourism.com Spirit of Tasmania ferry

IS IT WORTH BOOKING A ROOM IN THE FERRY?

Yes or No. Our room is on Deck 8. It depends on any individual’s need, convenience and lifestyle. If you are travelling at night, most well book in any room of your choice, needs, or whatever may fit in your travel budget. Why has the room separated single bed for a couple? It is a lot cheaper than getting the queen, but even then, it was booked out during booking. It all depends on everyone’s choice. If you do not need to sleep in the room, then there are designated recliners where you can sit and rest all throughout the trip or nearly anything offered in the ferry to entertain your stay like Cinema, TV sets, reading area, lounge, tourist information area, gaming, etc.

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DO YOU NEED TO BOOK A ROOM WITH WINDOW OR NOT?

Yes or No and like I said, this is all entirely up to you. As a first timer, all I thought a window would be ideal for watching outside Melbourne metro city background. Perfect for photo shooting (sunset or sunrise) and the open ocean at night but as you can see the window looks wet outside, dried water patches and not as clear as crystal (I expected not so). For only this reason, we would rather be relaxing in the room after our great dinner from Deck 7 restaurant.

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DO YOU HAVE PERSONAL PROBLEM WITH MOTION SICKNESS?

We could only share from our experience. We don’t usually get motion sickness from flights except when I had an occurrence of sudden motion sickness due to flight turbulence (worst feeling ever!). We also took our supplement Ginger tablets for motion sickness after our dinner and hoped we’ll be right, mate! As we sailed through the night, I started to become more sensitive passing through the Bass Strait and could not sleep due to motion sickness took effect while awakening about 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM, then only one hour half asleep before we arrived at Devonport Tasmania. I thought I was the only one affected but also my hubby did. We just concluded maybe due to our shift-work mode transition from night shifts; the ferry motion has distorted our sleeping pattern-less. Glad there was not throw-up, but if we did, the toilet or vomiting paper bags are pretty much available in our room.

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WHAT PORT IS THIS?

This photo from Devonport taken at dusk, the same ferry Spirit of Tasmania II we disembarked the next morning. The ship is ready to sail back again to Port Melbourne.

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WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN BOOKING AT THE SPIRIT OF TASMANIA FERRY?

Well, their pricing online can change from time to time, so take advantage while you are online and observe similar experiences you had when you were booking your flights online. The other ADVANTAGE of booking through the ferry instead of flight is you can change your travel dates any time within 24 hours before your “change of date” free without extra cost. You can take your car with you on the ferry and drive around Tasmania. If not, you can rent a car, caravans, motorhomes, campervans in Victoria or in Tasmania, whichever way that suits your choice and convenience sake.

Feel free to share your links of experience on any ferry or cruise to share your tips and tricks.

Fusiontourism Nugget:  When you book online directly on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry website, try to come back later when you got time to play around, and you might get the best deal price with or without bedroom accommodation.

Author/Photography: Jennifer R Baulch @ www.jenniferramirezbaulch.com

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