P&O Ferries EUROPEAN SEAWAY arrived at A&P Falmouth last Wednesday (April 24th) ahead of covering EUROPEAN CAUSEWAY and EUROPEAN HIGHLANDER from the middle of next month. The P&O Ferries online booking engine indicates she will now be in service at Larne from May 16th until June 26th covering first EUROPEAN HIGHLANDER then EUROPEAN CAUSEWAY. This is later than previously advised on NI Ferry Site. It is expected that whilst at the shipyard her homeport will change from Dover to Limmasol in line with the rest of the Dover based P&O fleet. This is the third time the 1991-built vessel has visited a shipyard in the past ten months with a dry dock at Damen Dunkerque at the end of December following an extended drydocking and refit between 20th June and 11th July at Remontowa Gdańsk.
EUROPEAN SEAWAY will carry a slightly different look this year from her previous visit in 2017, with the current P&O Ferries livery applied in full after the vessel was stripped back to bare metal at Remontowa. On her previous visit, ‘Seaway’ carried a mish-mash of different P&O liveries including from her P&O European Ferries days, with signage from the P&O Stena Line brand also still visible onboard. EUROPEAN SEAWAY has also undergone some interior refurbishment and had an additional toilet block added since her last Larne visit, meaning female passengers now have their own dedicated facilities. During the 2017 stint on the Northern Channel, passengers having to use toilet facilities in unoccupied cabins is understood to be one of the main complaints against this vessel which normally only carries freight traffic. Unlike her previous stint on the Larne to Cairnryan route, EUROPEAN SEAWAY will be officially carrying foot passengers on her sailings.
While facilities onboard EUROPEAN SEAWAY are more limited than on the regular vessels on the route EUROPEAN CAUSEWAY and EUROPEAN HIGHLANDER, tea, coffee and soft drinks are available free of charge in the restaurant forward. A passenger lift is also available, as are male, female and disabled toilets and baby changing facilities. All onboard facilities are shared between freight drivers and all other passengers, and passengers are advised to bring something along to entertain younger passengers as there is no children’s play area onboard.
For more information on EUROPEAN SEAWAY visit her dedicated page EUROPEAN SEAWAY
