18
Days till Christmas
Have you ever considered doing your Christmas Shopping on board a ferry? Well, I hadn’t, that was in-till I received an invitation to do just that!
It’s not often you get an invite to come shopping on the P&O ferry is it? So myself and fellow mummy blogging friend ‘Romanianmum’ headed to Dover very early Sunday morning to catch a ferry to Calais.
The morning started off a very eventful one, as I raced to Victoria station to meet Romanianmum and catch the National express coach to Dover. I did make it, but only by the skin of my teeth and was most grateful for the sit down once on board.
After a 2 hour drive up the motorway we arrived in Dover and headed straight for the check in. We arrived rather early and found the service provided by the check-in team to be exceptional! They even offered to put us on the earlier ferry as we had arrived so early. We very politely declined, preferring to catch up over a coffee and a naughty ciggy instead.
When it was time to finally board, being foot-passengers we were taken by shuttle bus to the ferry via the normal passport and secretary procedures. The Ferry was huge and I have to admit to having a few butterflies given I’d never stepped foot on one before.
Once on board I was impressed at the sheer size of the ship, it was massive and could easily carry 1000 men or more. There was a gaming zone, loads of places to eat and drink from restaurants to smaller Costa Coffees. The ship was also really festive and you couldn’t miss there lovely Christmas tree.
I also noted that the ship had its own Bureau de change offering 24/7 foreign exchange onboard, meaning you don’t have to worry about currency exchange prior to boarding.
P&O had so kindly upgraded us to club lounge which I guess made this a whole different travelling experience all together. Impressive really doesn’t seem to do it justice. The lounge is located at the front of the ship on the upper decks and you are surrounded by glass windows giving you a beautiful view out to sea. We were offered a host of treats from Champaign to some beautiful lunch time delights.
We also discovered that we could actually smoke on the upper deck (outside) which will delight all you smokers, I’m sure. However I actually only went for a smoke just twice as I was there for one thing and one thing only TO SHOP!
I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that I was a tad sea sick and sadly so was romanianmum, so I’d strongly recommend if you are the type of person to suffer motion sickness then I’d take something first as to not let it ruin your experience of shopping at sea.
Nonetheless, despite the fact we were a tad green, we had a pretty awesome time, we were child free (always a bonus) and ready for some serious shopping.
The onboard shop was huge and stocked everything from all your finest perfumes to toys for the Children. There was large range of designer handbags and purses, some pretty awesome makeup and lots of lovely chocolate and alcoholic treats to be had. Of course you could also buy cigarette’s at a good reduced price. I loved that the P&O are now stocking products from the high-street chain Accessorize and so did Romanianmum who couldn’t resist the beautiful hat and mittens for her beautiful daughter.
There was up to 30 % of beers, wines and spirits and you could save as much as 40% on UK prices for fragrances, skin-care and cosmetics. The toys were also a bit cheaper than most UK retailers and when we travelled they had an awesome 3 for 2 deal running meaning it was even cheaper. I got some fantastic bargains and spent just £99 0n…
Nerf N-Strike
Cuddly George Pig
MR potato head
2x littlest pet shop Blythe’s
Style me up set
Disney Fairies
SEKONDA Watch
We had decided to do a round trip meaning we would not depart the ship once at Calais which seemed logical considering we were foot passengers. This is the perfect idea for those who just want to come onboard and take advantage of the shopping facilities. P&O currently run some spectacular deals allowing you take this option which are really worth looking into.
We headed back down to the shop during the time the ship was docked at Calais and even-though we had plenty of time to shop while the ship was docked we somehow found ourselves still shopping on the way back to Dover and the shop was noticeably more busy. With this I would highly recommend that those doing such journey shop on the outbound journey as this was far less busy, with smaller queues. (We just couldn’t pull ourselves away from the fabulous club lounge).
We really did have a great child free day aboard the P&O, despite being a little sea sick, the shopping and club lounge really made up for it!
I have to admit that myself and romanianmum were a tad childish… Just check out the images below.
But to hell with it! We were there to enjoy ourselves and that’s exactly what we did.
If you fancy getting some last-minute shopping onboard the P&O then why not check out some of their awesome deals.
Oh… and before I forget P&O are running an almighty Christmas Competition over on their Facebook page, giving you the chance to win loads of awesome prizes. All you have to do is fill a virtual stocking with goodies from their online shop and then one winner will be picked at random to win the lot! Yes, its P&O’s way of wishing you all a very merry Christmas! Just Click HERE to enter
A boy with Asperger's 
Recent Comments