“You used to be able to get a bed onboard for about £40 for two,” said my taxi driver as we weaved through the streets of Hull. Approaching P&O Ferries’ Pride of Rotterdam, I wondered how this would compare with the ship’s latest addition.
I would be among the first passengers to try one of the 36 reclining seats in the ferry’s sleep lounge, which opened on 13 July for the 12-hour crossing to Rotterdam (the ship stops at Europoort, around 30 minutes’ drive from the city). The room was previously the ship’s second cinema, but now that more passengers watch TV or films on their phones or tablets, P&O Ferries decided it could be put to better use.
The solution was a passcode-secured sleeping area that’s an affordable option for solo travellers. With foot-passenger tickets for a lounge seat starting from £49 each way, it’s less than half the price of staying in a cabin alone (from £118 each way for a single traveller, only around £20 less than if you were travelling in a pair). It’s the first time in 15 years that P&O Ferries has offered a sleep lounge on this route.
On the Hull–Rotterdam route, around a quarter of bookings are for one person. A mix of single travellers and couples have booked the sleep lounge so far, according to P&O Ferries. Only a limited number of sleep-lounge seats were released for booking on the first journey.
