Going to see daughter, S-I-L, and grand children tomorrow. Flying LPL-NOC Ryanair. Return Thursday. Will also sample Liverpool South Parkway Railway station and the new Northern Rail service to there. Will report later.

Good luck!!!

Good luck indeed.

I have flown FR on this route but prefer WW direct from MAN. If your trip report includes pictures try and get a picture of the Virgin Mary shrine on the apron!

Flying FR, Godspeed you brave soul.

OK So first leg my middle daughter gives me and my wife a ride to Preston Railway station.We get a direct Northern Trains (new service) train to Liverpool South Parkway which is a new station thst I had not been to before. From there we took a longer than necessary bus ride to Liverpool John Lennon Airport. After that all was flawless though I was suprised to be asked to take my belt and shoes off for security. I never have to at MAN. They are all much nicer than the TSA though. Once through security, Ryanair check TWICE, the weight and size of the carry-on. One woman was at 13.5 kgs and she asked how much to check the bag - 40 GBP was the reply!!! Wow.Anyway , they were very strict.

After that it was all flawless. We had a row of three seats to ourselves and the wife sat in the window seat 27F so I took a middle seat since no one was in the aisle seat - 27E. Landed 10 minutes early. Sailed through airport. Family there to meet us. Young grand son charged up to me to hug me. Picking up my Hertz car was very easy but they do not have Gold Service in Knock. All in all, a very pleasant but frugal and spartan trip. No complaints from me. As they say "You tend to get what you pay for". RYANAIR is a low cost - low service airline. But they got us there safe and on time.

OK - first the good bit. My Grand Children are beautiful
Now - I still object strongly to the 10 Euro per pax departure tax at NOC airport. I do like the beer in the lounge and at 4.20 Euros per pint not too bad. By God I miss the ATL sky clubs - or all of them really. Flight eventually arrived (virtually zero communication and airport monitors not working) 1 hour late. Boarded - and as you would expect at this time of year very kettle rich.
Actual take off 5.25pm against a 4.00pm advertised. Due to equipment failure on the inbound at LPL.
The wife sits in 2A, I sit in 2B and a kettle sat next to us in 2C asks me how to fasten the seat belt. I show him. I am serious.
Once airborne fastest bumpiest flight ever - trying to make up last time. 35 minutes in the air. The FAs still have time for the pressure sell on scratch cards/food/drink but zero time for duty free. Land at LPL John Lennon with a huge THUD.
On the tarmac, biting cold due to the wind across the Mersey estuary. I will still fly Ryan Air - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

Overall would you recommend Ryanair? I will be flying Ryanair Dublin to Bristol and then Luton to Dublin in March. I am a little stressed about the a4 paper boarding pass requirement as this paper is not available in Canada.

I have no problem with Ryanair. Just try printing out the boarding passes on normal paper. I too printed mine out in the US not the UK and there is no problem. As long as the barcode is clearly visible and the other details, there really is no problem.

A4 paper is available at Grand&Toy. It's not worth it for a boarding pass though. I'd say you'd be fine with an 8.5 x 11. If you're really worried about it, make a photocopy or print from PDF when you're in Europe. A4 is similar in size and viewed individually without comparison I doubt airport staff will even know the difference. Much like North Americans don't even know that there's a different (IMO better) paper sizing system.