This service operates every night, overnight, between North Shields on the River Tyne to Ijmuiden on the Dutch coast and not only saves a long, tiring, drive but also does away with the need for a couple of nights in a hotel en-route.

We travelled both ways on the MS Queen of Scandinavia, flagship of the DFDS fleet which would put some cruise ships to shame with her gleaming white paintwork. Mind you, her shape is a lot more functional than those ships built for meandering around the Mediterranean or Caribbean - this ship was built to take on the North Sea at any time of the year. Fortunately for us though, the weather could not have been better.

Checking in at the Royal Quays ferry terminal on the north bank of the Tyne was very slick, with no need to leave the car as the DFDS staff were waiting to take our reservation number and issue our boarding cards. The whole process took just a few seconds and did nothing to prepare us for what was to come!

We then queued for about 45 minutes to get through UK Passport control and the security checks and, of course, ours was the car chosen randomly to have the occupants undergo a full body search. Naively, I thought we would then drive straight on to the ship but we queued for another half an hour or so as the lines of waiting cars were carefully directed to their on-board parking places.

We were the very last car to be directed on to the mezzanine car deck, and my 11 year-old daughter watched apprehensively as the ramp we were on was slowly winched up into the horizontal position. This gave us a totally different view of the various freight vehicles that had preceded us - a 39-ton articulated truck looks even bigger when your eye-level is at the same height as the roof!

Our boarding cards, one for each of us plus one for the car, gave us our cabin number and doubled as an electronic key-card for the door lock so we wasted no time in checking out our sleeping quarters for the night. (Just a thought - why does the car need to have a key for the cabin? - it's far too big to get into one of the beds.)

We had chosen to have a Standard Outside Cabin - although all the cabins are mostly the same size and have individually controlled air-conditioning; it's still nice to be able to look out of the window.

The cabins are a fair size bearing in mind the length of the journey and all Standard Cabins have a Shower and WC en-suite. For those passengers wanting to save money there are Economy Cabins available but these don't have their own private bathroom and none of them has a window. Anyone wanting a little more luxury can elect to travel in one of the Commodore or Commodore De-Luxe cabins. These cabins are more spacious and better positioned and even have room service as well as a complimentary breakfast included in the fare.

Once we were settled in, and had had the obligatory argument over who as going to have the top bunk, we went exploring to see what the "Queen" had to offer us to while away the 15 hours or so we would be on board. My initial impression was of how much space there was on board - even with a full complement of passengers in high season there was no feeling of crowding - the public rooms seemed to have seats for everyone, there was ample deck space although there was a lack of outdoor seating, and there was no queuing at any of the various restaurants. There is a good choice of places to eat on board - everything from the Café, for a quick snack, right up to an a la Carte restaurant!

We ate in the Bistro - informal and ideal for a substantial snack. The staff were excellent - attentive and friendly without being familiar - and the food was of a very high standard and not overly expensive. After dinner there was a wide range of evening entertainments: bars, naturally; a disco; two cinemas; a nightclub; even a swimming pool and sauna. Next morning we were up early to take advantage of the Buffet breakfast - a vast buffet of hot and cold foods offering something for everyone and catering for all the various national preferences of the passengers.

Disembarkation was as slow as boarding. We docked spot on time at 10am local time but it took over an hour to get off the ship and through Dutch immigration. This in some way is a problem caused by the UK not being part of the Schengen Agreement, whereby EC nationals have free passage over the various national boundaries within the EC, but it's still frustrating!

This is the first long distance ferry journey that I have made in current generation car ferry. Overall, the whole DFDS experience was excellent and I found myself looking forward to the return journey expectantly.

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