ferry to Harwich
 

We are planning to travel from Amsterdam to Harwich, England by train and overnight ferry. The ferry offers a breakfast option, but it arrives in Harwich at 6 AM. Would breakfast be before that (horrors!) or is there time to eat after arrival? The reservation form may say, but I thought I'd try to find out before getting into the middle of all that. Thanks.

I wouldn't bother with breakfast on the boat. You have to be off the boat at 6.30. Grab a cup of coffee if you must, but wait on breakfast until you are somewhere more pleasant, and can take your time over it.
You could always buy some krentenbollen (currant buns) and sliced cheese in Amsterdam before you leave and make your own breakfast!

They wake you up at 5:30 with very loud announcements and if you are quick getting ready you should have no problem. If you preorder breakfast you should be fine.

Yes, it's definitely a rude awakening at 5.30am.

I've done the trip and did not bother with breakfast until I got to London.

Thinking back , I don't recall seeing where you could buy anything off the ferry. You are shepherded from ferry to immigration to train (which was waiting for us) and then you're off to London.

There is no where at the ferry terminal to buy food...you would need to buy it before you get on the trains to meet the ferry. I would wait till I get to London.

Depending on your tastes, there is no need to buy a full breakfast at their rates. They also open the coffee bar for a simple coffee and croissant, and a small range of related snacks.

Once you're off the boat, you're just on ordinary commuter trains into London, with no prospect of food until you get there (unless you want to see if there's a buffet open at Manningtree, Colchester or Chelmsford, but then you'd have to wait for the next train to London, and increasing numbers of commuters).

You could buy snacks to take away from the coffee bar, or from the cafeteris the night before.

Thanks all for your help everybody. Jamikins, it was the account of your crossing that made us aware of this option. We're not going to London, but staying in Harwich one night and then starting a transatlantic cruise the day after. I think we'll take the advice to have something light to get us started and then get a proper breakfast in Harwich later.

Do any of you know the best way to get to central Harwich? Our hotel is on the waterfront. There is a train, but it appears to go only part way. I presume we should be able to get a taxi. Or walk from where the train stops. Don't know if either taxis or trains would be running so early.

Thanks again.

If you haven't gone yet, I have a cunning plan whenever I use the night boat from Hoek to Harwich - which is quite often, as my in-laws live in the Netherlands and my wife and I live in the UK.

I DON'T put my watch back an hour!

So my watch and me remain on Dutch time, my body clock remains on Dutch time, the alarm call is then NOT at 05:30 UK time but 06:30 Dutch/body clock time, lovely breakfast buffet (bacon frenzy!) at 07:00 Dutch time, ferry disembarks at 07:30 Dutch time.

Only THEN do I put my watch back an hour onto UK time and think, "Great, I've just gained an hour!"

So cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel, eh?

61, that is brilliant!

Going to Harwich: take a taxi. Usually there are taxis when the ferry arrives. Is there a way you could arrange to have breakfast at the hotel you're checking into? That way you could arrive -by taxi - and be at a nice breakfast tabel immediately.

Having breakfast at the hotel seemed a good idea, but I found that neither its restaurant nor any place close opens earlier than 10 am. Too late for me. The ship breakfast looks better and better, especially after the bacon frenzy comment. Yum. And the clock idea is brilliant. Thanks everyone. We'll leave our clocks on Dutch time, get the buffet and take a taxi.

I just got directions from Stena (or rather a link from Stena to Google maps) from our hotel in Amsterdam to Hoek of Holland. I thought from what I've read that we would go to Centraal Station and get a train ticket to Rotterdam and then get a sprinter train. Stena's directions (or Goggles') are to take a bus to the airport and get a train to Rotterdam from there. Any suggestions as to which would be better? We will be in the Hotel Aalders near Vondelpark.

Easiest to go to Amsterdam CS to take a train to Rotterdam (Any train really, but Fyra gets you there quickest, if you pay a supplement) Change at Rotterdam CS to a Sprinter to Hoek van Holland. If you take a train that stops at Schiedam/Rotterdam West you can change to a Hoek van Holland bound sprinter. That might save you 10 minutes off your travel time.