Michael Fox Higgins is worried his family’s plans for a much-anticipated reunion at Christmas may turn out to be a disaster.
He, his wife Claire and their three children were booked on an Irish Ferries sailing from Holyhead on Saturday.
“I was born in Canada but have lots of family in Laois,” he said. His wife’s family are based in Co Kildare.
After a year which involved serious illness Michael and Claire planned to get up at 4am on Saturday and put their children aged seven, five and three into the car “so we could get some distance before they really wake up”.
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Also in the car would be all their bags, including presents for extended family. “We were very much looking forward to a kind of reset at Christmas,” he said.
Having anticipated difficulties since the first announcement of a temporary closure of Holyhead Port following storm damage, Mr Fox Higgins inquired about switching their journey from Holyhead to Pembroke. But “Irish Ferries told me that we would have to pay whatever the difference was, as our booking wasn’t cancelled yet. They said if it was cancelled we could rebook free of charge.”
So when the family got an email from the ferry company on Tuesday saying the port would not reopen on time and their Saturday sailing was cancelled, the family started ringing Irish Ferries to change their booking to Pembroke, but have been unable to get through. “They are not even giving us the option of holding until they answer,” he said.
“I am still kind of in limbo. It is the not knowing that is the most difficult,” Mr Fox Higgins said.
Kim Ward, a paediatric nurse from Co Monaghan, has had to make costly alternative arrangements to travel home with her dog Ziggy.
The 28-year-old, who lives in London, had initially planned to travel by train and ferry from Holyhead to Dublin.
After learning that she could not travel from Liverpool as a foot passenger, Ms Ward and her partner Shannon Foley decided to drive to Liverpool to catch a ferry with Ziggy.
Ms Foley, also a nurse, has borrowed her cousin’s car and will drop them in Dublin before crossing back to Liverpool and driving back to London to work.
Ms Ward added: “I’ve worked so many Christmases so when you actually have the opportunity to have a Christmas off, you don’t know how many years it’s going to come before you have another one off, you have to spend it with your family.
“It’s very costly but it will be worth it.”
Pete Reid (40), a project manager who is also from Co Monaghan, was due to travel home via Holyhead with his wife Emma.
He has been offered an alternative crossing by Irish Ferries from Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, Wales, to Rosslare.
“I had to cancel my hotel in Holyhead and had to rebook a hotel in south Wales to get to the port in Fishguard,” said Mr Reid, who lives in London.
“I’m going to drive down Friday night, sleep overnight in Wales and then cross over the next day. I’ve just been told I will be put on a boat, I don’t know what time or what day. They haven’t told us anything.” – Additional reporting: PA
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