Swedish ferry company Stena Line which operates its largest ferries on the North Sea, the Stena Britannica and Stena Hollandica have completed a €1m refit to provide brand new onboard facilities.

The Super Ferries each with a capacity for 1,200 passengers, 300 trucks and 230 cars, sail twice daily between Harwich, in the U.K, and Hoek van Holland, The Netherlands, were in dry-dock at the EDR Shipyard in the historic Port of Antwerp in neighbouring Belgium. This is where each of the 63,600 gross tonnage vessels, underwent regular annual maintenance to keep up to the company’s high standards. While there they also received some exciting new additions to the onboard services on offer for passengers.

Duty Free sales on routes to the U.K. have been booming since Brexit, with onboard spend per passengers increasing by an enormous 118% in 2021. To cater for this huge demand Stena Line has added a new additional Duty Free shop to each vessel, extending the retail floorspace on both ships by a whopping 40%. Allowing the company to greatly increase not only the capacity of goods on sale, but also extend the range of products on sale by almost a third. Meaning more Duty Free bargains on sale for its North Sea customers, who can save up to 50% off UK high street prices.

Dog ownership has also been booming during the Pandemic and with more people than ever travelling with fury friends, pet lovers will be pleased to hear about a brand new option. For the first time ever on the North Sea, Stena Line are offering dog-friendly cabins. 15 of the vessel’s 500 cabins have been converted to allow passengers to travel together with their happy dogs. Dog-friendly cabins are suggestions that passengers have been requesting via the company’s satisfaction surveys, so they are pleased to be able to respond to their customers’ requests.

Meanwhile, for those passengers that enjoy the wide selection of onboard facilities, the vessels two popular Barista Bars have received a new stylish Scandinavian look and feel. Allowing customers to enjoy their journeys eating, drinking, and relaxing in luxury and comfort.

Each of the vessels top of the range Captain’s Suites have also been refurbished to maintain the high standards that Stena Line’s premium customers demand and expect.

Erik Thulin, Trade Director for the North Sea said: “Our annual dry-docking programme is key to keeping our vessels ship-shape and continue looking so good. It also allows us to be flexible in responding to our customers’ demand, so we’ve taken the opportunity to extend our onboard Duty Free offer, to provide for more products and more bargains for our customers. We are also pleased to offer our first ever dog-friendly cabins. We listened to our many customers who have requested this option and they can now have up to 3 dogs with them in each of our 15 dog-friendly cabins. We looking to forward to welcoming all our customers, including out four-legged friends back on newly refurbished vessels on the North Sea.”