Stenaline Ferries -- Traveling with Guinea Pigs

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FunPiggies

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Hi everyone,

I am freaking out a bit and was wondering if anyone has advice on traveling with guinea pigs from the UK to Europe. We are moving to Germany in two weeks and are taking our five guinea pigs with us. We booked a ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland with Stenalines, since they advertise 'pet-friendly cabins'. It was quite expensive but it's really important to us that the pigs don't get too stressed. I send them an email in advance of our travels to find out what the process would look like.

This is what they replied:
"Guinea pigs are not allowed to stay in the pet cabins, these are only for dogs and cats. Guinea pigs have to be handed over at the guest service desk on board and will stay at the guest service office during the crossing."

No where on the website do they say that their pet cabins are only for cats and dogs. They just very generically say 'pets': Can I bring my pet? | FAQs | Stena Line

Their customer service is horrible and it took them more than 10 days to reply to my email. Of course the tickets are non-refundable :(

I don't feel comfortable handing them off to someone for 8+ hours. My guess is that there are other animals at their service desk as well and I don't know how the pigs would react to the noises and smells. Another concern are infectious disease if they bunch all the animals together. Is that unreasonable? Two of our pigs get stressed easily and are sensitive to noise.

We don't have a car otherwise we would go through the Eurotunnel. Eurostar trains don't accept pets. I got a quote from a pet courier and it was GBP700. I am at my wits end.

I don't know what to do about this at all. Maybe can someone can give some advice? Thank you xx
 
Unfortunately you are bound by the rules of the carrier that you booked with.
It is a shame they aren't more accommodating, and it sounds like they haven't given it much thought. I would also be wary of handing them off to stay in an unspecified environment for 8 hours.
During this time will someone be available to check on them and make sure they have water, hay and hydrating veg like cucumber?

Is there any possibility that you could just take the pigs straight to your cabin and by pass the guest service desk altogether?
If the website is ambiguous you could always claim you weren't aware that guinea pigs weren't allowed in the pet cabin and ask them to show you where is says that?

The only other option would be to hire a car and leave them in the vehicle during the crossing.
Would that be possible?
Most of the large rental companies offer 1 way rentals, although you do pay a premium for this service.
 
Hi Swissgreys,

thanks for your kind reply!

Yes, you are exactly right: they make the rules and we just have to see how we can find the best solution for the pigs.

I called their hotline today and got conflicting information. One person said that the pigs can go with us in the pet cabin and the other person said that they can't. It seems that it is their new policy to only allow cats and dogs in the pet cabins so we are preparing for a scenario where they won't be able to be in the cabin with us.

The customer service was able to specify that we can either leave them at the service desk or bring them into the luggage area. Both are publicly accessible so we can go check on them. The luggage area seems to be on the car deck, which I heard is fairly noisy due to all kinds of alarms going off throughout the night.
They apologized but weren't willing to amend our booking, which isn't great because we paid extra for the pet cabin and it might come in handy for someone else who wants to travel with their cat or dog.

What we might do is get a sturdy cage where we can put them in so they don't have to be in their carriers all night. We don't feel comfortable leaving them in a public space where everyone has access to them so my partner and I will take turns camping out with them. At least one person can get some sleep. I hope that this is not too disruptive to the people working the service desk.

Stena Line is advertising heavily that they are pet-friendly. In reality they are a bit intransparent. If we had known about their policy on pets other than cats and dogs we would have gone through the Eurotunnel in a rental car or taxi shuttle.

Re: Rental Car. We did ask about the possibility of leaving them in the car. The Stena Line customer service said that we can do so but won't have access to the car throughout the journey (so for 8+hours). I think it would be too cold for them anyways since they start to shiver as soon as the temperature falls under 18C, little princesses! :) And of course there is the car alarm problem....

I feel really bad taking them on such a long journey but they are all rescues and we promised them that we'd keep them forever. I can also not imagine life without them after so many years of getting to take care of them. We will be in the same neighbourhood as my in-laws and father-in-law is a vet, so at least they'll always have 24/7 veterinary care. I keep telling myself that when the guilty feeling gets too overwhelming.

Maybe they'll be absolutely fine and the only nervous wreck will be me! I sure hope so.
 
Honestly they will be fine, and most probably deal with the whole thing much better than you.
Many years ago when we moved to Switzerland we bought all our animals along - like you they were all rescues, and we were determined to be their forever home.

We ended up flying with rabbits and guinea pigs (as cabin baggage) and 4 large dogs in the hold - fun times!
One of our dogs was very nervous (he lived in kennels for 9 years, as no one else was prepared to take him on) and obviously you can't really prepare rabbits and guinea pigs for flying!
But we got through it and everyone did really well - even my big old scaredy boy.
And in their new home we were able to offer them the absolute best life possible, and despite the stress (and expense) I was thankful every single day that we did it.
One stressful day is hard, but when it is followed up with an entire lifetime of wonderful care it is absolutely worth it.

From a practical point of view take along some of those mini hand warmers that you 'pop' a metal disk inside to activate, along with some old socks. If they end up somewhere cold then you can easily add these to their cage for them to be able to sleep next to.
Take along a lunchbox with hay and some fresh veg, and a bottle of their usual water plus some large syringes (no needle obviously) for offering it to them.

When i travelled I also printed out some simple information leaflets with a few details about the animals we were travelling with and links to the rescues they came from.
We got a lot of 'why would you bother taking rabbits/guinea pigs with you' questions so it was nice to have a pre-printed piece of paper explaining how long they live and how often they are abandoned.
I also had a photo and short bio about each of our pets which a lot of kids were very interested in - it may not be your thing, but if possible it never hurts to sow the seeds of what responsible pet ownership looks like in the minds the young.
 
FunPiggies said:
Hi everyone,

I am freaking out a bit and was wondering if anyone has advice on traveling with guinea pigs from the UK to Europe. We are moving to Germany in two weeks and are taking our five guinea pigs with us. We booked a ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland with Stenalines, since they advertise 'pet-friendly cabins'. It was quite expensive but it's really important to us that the pigs don't get too stressed. I send them an email in advance of our travels to find out what the process would look like.

This is what they replied:
"Guinea pigs are not allowed to stay in the pet cabins, these are only for dogs and cats. Guinea pigs have to be handed over at the guest service desk on board and will stay at the guest service office during the crossing."

No where on the website do they say that their pet cabins are only for cats and dogs. They just very generically say 'pets': Can I bring my pet? | FAQs | Stena Line

Their customer service is horrible and it took them more than 10 days to reply to my email. Of course the tickets are non-refundable :(

I don't feel comfortable handing them off to someone for 8+ hours. My guess is that there are other animals at their service desk as well and I don't know how the pigs would react to the noises and smells. Another concern are infectious disease if they bunch all the animals together. Is that unreasonable? Two of our pigs get stressed easily and are sensitive to noise.

We don't have a car otherwise we would go through the Eurotunnel. Eurostar trains don't accept pets. I got a quote from a pet courier and it was GBP700. I am at my wits end.

I don't know what to do about this at all. Maybe can someone can give some advice? Thank you xx
Click to expand...
Hey! Did you manage to sort this out, and if so, how? I have just the one pig that I’m trying to bring from the UK to Germany but also face similar roadblocks. We should have teamed up 😅
 
Hi!


I just wanted to give you an update on the guinea pig travels since you've been so kind! Really, I cannot thank you enough for your encouragement and advice :)

Re: preparations.
As per Dutch regulation (this was the port of entry), we needed a travel health certificate from a vet. This can be any vet in the UK that is registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Unfortunately, there was no certificate/form to be found anywhere for pets other than cats/dogs/ferrets to enter the Netherlands from the UK. Therefore, we decided to make our own. It did get the stamp of approval from Dutch customs so perhaps it is worthwhile to share it. Maybe it can be of use for others?

Five days before our departure, we went to the vet where all five guinea pigs were checked for signs of illness. Fortunately, they were all ok! It ended up costing us £153 at our local Vets4Pets to get the certificate for all five.

As per @Swissgreys suggestion, I stocked up on hand warmers to keep the pigs warm on their journey. It was around freezing point, so these were such a good idea. We also stuffed their carriers with lots and lots of hay. One unintended side effect was that we left a trail of hay from England all the way to Germany, no matter how many stray pieced I picked up along the way.... ups!

We also got five carriers for our five guinea pigs. They all get along well in their large enclosure but when they get stressed, they start to squeal and bicker so we thought it would be best to give each one her own space whenever possible. This ended up being a great idea!

We also got small drinking bottles and lots of hydrating vegetables (mainly cucumber and lettuce). We did offer them the drinking bottles but while they were in their carriers, none of them wanted to take a sip. For the journey on the ferry, we took some c&c grids and liners to make a small cage for them to spend the night. We also took additional liners to put in their carriers as well as a change of fleece snuggle bags. They ended up really needing those because they peed through both the carrier liners and their bags in a matter of 3 hours. It would have been cold for them to sit in a damp environment, so I really recommend packing one or multiple spare sets. Also don't forget to bring some sort of plastic bag or wet bag to keep the soiled ones in.

The journey
A friend ended up driving us to Harwich where we boarded the ferry to Holland. The roads were incredibly icy, and the guinea pigs were already not so keen on sitting in their carriers but overall, it was an ok drive.
We were worried that we would not be able to board our prebooked pet cabin with the guinea pigs, since Stenaline informed us after we had booked that travellers may only take cats and dogs into the pet cabins. Fortunately for us, the staff on the ferry was not bothered by their policy and let us go to our pet cabin with the guinea pigs. (However, we were warned to not walk the guinea pigs on the ferry under any circumstances!)
The alternative would have been to leave them in the service area/luggage area -- we had a look at the area, and it would not have been great. The luggage area is a really small nook a foot away from dozens of gambling machines that I assume would make lots of noise if they would be turned on. The luggage area also didn't have a door and is publicly accessible so we would have been left sitting in the awkward nook for a full 8 hours.
It goes without saying that we were really pleased to take our pigs to our cabin, where we set up their 3x2 cc travel cage. By sheer coincidence, the 3x2 ended up fitting perfectly in the space under the mirror/entry way of the cabin. The pigs were very happy to be let out of their carriers. We then slept for a few hours in the cabin and arrived in Hook of Holland in the early morning.
We put fresh liners, fleece bags, hay and warmers into their carriers and packed the travel cage up. Then we left the ferry and went to passport control and customs. Two custom officers had a good 10-minute look at our travel health certificate and then told us thank you and goodbye. That's it! They didn't even look at what was angrily munching away in the five carriers! Fair enough.

The next stretch of the journey involved 10 hours on three different trains and a taxi ride. It also included the guinea pigs' first trip to Burger King, which was the only place at Amsterdam central station that had enough space to accommodate all of our rodents while we waited for our next train. During this stretch of the journey the guinea pigs slept a lot. They only woke up for their various lettuce snack sessions. We also did a quick clean of their carriers once during this final leg of the journey.

Surprisingly, we got asked a couple of times if we do a lot of traveling with the guinea pigs. I found this to be a rather odd question because we were frankly looking a bit stressed lugging around our own suitcase, two backpacks, travel cage, hay and fleece accessories, warmers, vegetables and five carriers! (and boy oh boy were we stressed :)).

Now we have all settled into our new home and although the guinea pigs seemed a bit cross with us for the first few hours, they went back to being their very spunky selves after a day! @Swissgreys is completely right -- with the right preparations, the pigs manage the journey better than the humans.

Sorry for the long post, maybe this account can be helpful to anyone going on a similar journey!
 

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And breathe! It sounds like all your research and prep paid off and, even though you were stressed, it went smoothly. I hope you have all settled in to your new home well
 
What a stressful time you had planning and moving. I hope you are all settled and happy in your new home.
 
Well done everyone and everypig for getting to your new home. It is always helpful knowing how people managed on these long haul journeys 👍 glad you are all settled x
 
Gosh what an adventure for you and your piggies. So glad to hear all your preparation paid off and very useful tips for anyone planning to do the same. Five carriers! I struggle with one 😂. Well done and wishing you and your piggies happiness in your new home 🏡
 
Well done!
Hope you are all settling into your new home. That was some journey, we struggle with our 2 in one carrier and a car mostly full of piggy bits, on holiday with piggies. I am very impressed.
 
Well done for getting everyone safely to their new home. What an adventure!
 
willpig said:
Hey! Did you manage to sort this out, and if so, how? I have just the one pig that I’m trying to bring from the UK to Germany but also face similar roadblocks. We should have teamed up 😅
Click to expand...
Hi,

I wanted to check in and ask if you managed to get your piggies back to the UK from Germany and how you went about it? What documentation you needed etc I’m about to try and do the same.

Thanks,

Heidi
 
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