Having just returned today from a very pleasurable break away courtesy of P & ONorth Sea Ferries, I felt that I would like to share my experiences with you all so that you can judge for yourselves whether or not a minicruise is for you.
To set the scene, I had booked myself and my fiancee onto the Hull to Rotterdam Return Motorist MiniCruise sailing at 21:00, driving my little Citroen Saxo over to Europe. I had also booked cabin accommodation, with a Standard 2-Berth Bed Outside Cabin on the outward journey, and a Standard 2-Berth Bunk Inside Cabin on the return. This choice of accommodation was slightly against us due to large volumes of passengers on the return journey, but due to the fact that I was only booking a week before sailing, I was chuffed to get on at all!
We had seen an offer in the Sun newspaper, where we had to collect two tokens and attach them to a voucher. This managed to get me the entire minicruise, with the
car and cabins for the bargain price of £92 (regular price £120) for both me and my fiancee. To good to miss!
My fiancee has not had a good experience of sailing previously, so she was a little bit apprehensive of the trip! I'm pleased to say that the trip has gone a long way to making a frequent sailor of her!
We left the Midlands in good time to make the journey up to Hull. I had done my homework in advance with regards to the car. Check your insurance covers you for European driving; if it doesn't, contact your insurer as soon as possible before the trip to ask for a Green Card. You also need to possess a GB sticker (unless you have a GB plated number plate), hazard warning triangle and deflectors for your headlamps. A kit is available from Halfords priced £25.00, which includes all of the above list and also a First Aid Kit.
I had realised in advance that we would be travelling on either the P& O ship, the Pride of Hull or its sister, the Pride of Rotterdam. Both of these are the largest CruiseFerries in the world and the sheer size of the Pride of Rotterdam upon our arrival in Hull was breathtaking in the least.
Try to arrive in Hull for around 16:30 if you are a car passenger. The terminal was very quiet (but it was Wednesday after all!) but it was no bother driving in to the car terminal at that time. Our passports were checked and our boarding cards and cabin key cards were issued. We were then asked to wait at the top of the terminal in rows, and at 17:00, the ferry began boarding.
The cars enter the ship via a ramp into the side of the boat, onto Deck 7 (of 12). The cars loop round the inside of the car deck and park up in rows near to the exit/entry door. We were fortunate to be first boarded each time and were therefore able to exit the ship rapidly at either end of the voyage.
After leaving the car parked, and emptying it of our stuff (they don't allow passenger access down to the card deck during the crossing) we went to find our cabin. The outbound cabin was much the better of the two, with a window and single low level beds, one of which converted into a sofa. The bathroom was small but perfectly formed, containing a shower, sink and toilet.
The return cabin was slightly more cramped, comprising 2 bunk beds and bathroom, but it did the job for which it was provided.
The facilities on board were second to none. First port of call was to eat. The option exists to pre-pay for meals when booking your cruise but I recommend the option which we took, which was to buy meal tickets from reception for the meals which we wanted. For example, on the two crossings we made on our cruise, we bought vouchers for the Four Seasons Buffet Restaurant and had an evening meal on the first night and breakfast on the second morning. We were able to eat additionally in the Continental Cafe when we didnt want huge meals and we found this ideal for our purposes. Evening Meal tickets cost around £15 per person and breakfast costs around £9 per person.
We then had stacks of time to explore before some serious drinking, and found that there was a 2 screen cinema showing quite recent films (e.g. June 1st, cinema showing Hitch, Hitchikers Guide), 3 bar areas including the piano Sky Lounge on Deck 12, the video arcade, the expensive arcade (!), casino (do your homework before handing over your cash!), all 3 on board shops (with good bargains on booze, cigs and perfume/aftershave) - the choices of things to do were endless. Pints of beer from the bar cost £2.50 (Stella/XXXX).
The evening entertainment was also good fun, the shows put on by the P& O Players was good quality fun for all ages and was appreciated by all who watched. We especially enjoyed the music quiz on the return journey, as we managed to win ourselves another minicruise to Bruges! (I will write an update after we have been!)
The nights sleep was alright. If you are a sound sleeper you will probably be able to overlook the swaying of the ship. It can be a pain trying to sleep if you are quite a light sleeper so you may need to take some assistance if you rely on a nights sleep!
The ship usually docks at 8:00am local time, in either Hull or Rotterdam, and breakfast is served from 6:00am onwards. You are woken by a very amusing harp tune playing a lullaby, before being informed that the restaurant is open.
Disembarkation begins around 7:30 (ish) and you are called to your vehicle by way of an announcement. Due to the fact that we had to change cabin for the return voyage, we could not leave our luggage in our room. The CruiseFerry stays in port all day until you reboard it again that evening. We drove off and spent a cracking day in Rotterdam City, before driving back to Europoort to do the voyage all over again.
All in all, we really enjoyed our break away with P & O North Sea Ferries. The crew on board were great, very friendly and efficient, the facilities were fantastic (like a hotel on water) and the whole experience was exciting from start to finish. The only disadvantage was that it had to end! We are now looking forward to our trip to Bruges in the near future...updates to this review will be added after we return!
Thanks for reading...if there is anything else you would like to see added to this review, please leave comments as appropriate. Cheers!
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I've done that route and Zeebrugge one so many times since I was born, I've gotten so sick of that damn harp tune for the announcements. I think it gets very boring after the 5th time of going and I'd say I've been about 50 times in my life. I'll be travelling again on the Pride of Brugge or Pride of York to see my dad in Belgium in the last week of June so I guess I'll have to put up with that harp tune :( Great review BTW Nicky
thespurs 04.06.2005 00:20
Nice review. P & O are generally very good in my experience and they are great to travel with
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Advantages: Relaxing travel, good price, If you want a cruising taster a good option Disadvantages: Expensive onboard food, innacurate cabin, transfer bus confusion.
likka75 22.08.2008 (22.08.2008)
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Jun 3rd, 2005
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