Naviera Armas, Melilla, Spain

2SueHavenhand 5:00 PM Feb 2, 2018

If travelling with pets - DONT DO IT!
So, there are 2 ferries that sail from Santa Cruz to southern Spain – Armas and Trasmediteranea. Having looked at both we chose the former, because it is a shorter journey of 32 hours. We paid €455 for the ticket which included a cabin, and 50% resident’s discount. I have to say, that if you don’t have dogs with you, it is a lovely ship. Nice bars, restaurants, lounges, even a swimming pool. However, if travelling with pets DO NOT DO IT!!!!! I can’t even start to explain how dire the facilities for dogs are. You basically have two choices – the cages on the car deck or on deck 9. The former would be warmer of course, but access to this deck is strictly limited to 30 minutes every 4 hours or so. We thought if we chose that option we may as well have flown them in the first place. So we went on deck 9 – oh my days!!!!!The cages are cold and the wind blows in fiercely – we clipped towels to the front of the cages to try and keep out the wind but it had little effect. Our big dog Robin wasn’t too bad, but he is a hardy creature who lived in the refuge. The old one Pippin was not too bad although bewildered, but little Dennis was ultra stressed – she actually had a fit on the journey. We got them out of the cages after lunch and sat on the deck with them, and other dog owners. There is absolutely no shelter here from wind, sun, rain, it is dreadful. They expect you to mop up after your dogs – fine, but there are a couple of mops in filthy black water, I think their urine would have been more hygienic. It only got worse as night fell, hardly any lighting and the wind getting stronger and colder. The little dogs were shaking by this time. As soon as we could we smuggled them one by one in a bag to our cabin, they were so grateful they just went to sleep for the night. Poor Robin had to stay on deck. Early next morning we took them back but couldn’t bear to put them back in the cages so we sat with them on deck for 11 hours – it was the longest day ever. NEVER AGAIN ARMAS!!

2Bomberone 5:00 PM Mar 12, 2016

Punishment not nourishment
Unfortunately the hype belies the reality. The staff are mostly fine but the trip is extremely expensive if you have a cabin, around €400 for just over 1 night, which is all you can use it for. The 'restaurant' provides food thats worse than my 1960's school dinner memories & in those days I had detention a lot because I refused to eat the food which was such poor quality. I know not many people come to Spain for the food, rightly so, but this is worse than should be expected. In short, fly - but, if you really must, bring some ready meals/salads (there are some microwaves but they're not very efficient, very Spanish)& sleep in the chairs. My shower curtain was missing & the drain was blocked, air con needed as its the only ventilation & still way too hot even tho the thermostat was turned to only 10c. I was moving a car & it's not an experience I wish to repeat - and I live in the Canaries...