Experiencing P&O Ferries://

During the first few days of analysing the brief given by P&O through YCN, our team found that the target audience and the reason for the problems mentioned in the brief were quite vague. Because of this, we found it difficult to come up with an informed concept that would tackle the brief. As we were all quite conceptual and rounded designers with the motive to come up with a informed solution to the brief, we decided to tackle it by first getting an idea of the client (P&O) by researching into them, which would hopefully identify the actual problems that would determine our concept.

We planned to focus the first week on generating as much research and understanding of the P&O first before establishing the concept or any ideas. Aswell as all the secondary research, we felt that we needed to gain first hand experience of what P&O ferries has to offer. From researching online about P&O, we found that the prices were quite competitive if not more expensive in comparison to other ferries and budget airlines flying to the same destinations, straight away we've discovered that the pricing wouldn't be something that we could put emphasis on towards our concept. We've established from the brief that not enough new customers were using P&O ferries to travel to Europe. Eventhough the brief suggests that people who had not tried using the ferries had an outdated perception of them as being a problem, we do not really know this. We needed to really pin point the main reasons why people are not trying out Ferries in general, many questions were raised in regards to the brief and identifying the problems://

- Are people put off by the prices?
- Is it because of the lack of destinations available?
- Do people have outdated perceptions?
- Are P&O not targeting their audience effectively?
- Do people even know about P&O?
- Why should people use ferries anyway?
- Who are their major target audience and who are they trying to attract more of?
- What are the benefits of traveling by ferry?

As a team we came to a conclusion that a first hand experience would be highly beneficial towards resolving the majority of these questions as we would be able to generate a non biased idea of the facilities and experience of the trip. We would also be able to interview both passengers and crew regarding their experience and reasons for choosing to travel by ferry as opposed to budget airlines that would be much quicker for instance.

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A visual documentary of our experience of P&O, showing our journey from Leeds > Selby > Hull > Rotterdam



Timeline of events://


4.15PM- Managed to get on bus which was already filled, therefore we left 5 mins early. Estimated time of 55 mins in getting to Selby.
5.20PM- Arrived at Selby Train Station. Departed at 5.24PM towards Hull Station
6.00PM- Arrives at Hull Train Station. Waited 10 mins for a taxi.
10 mins taxi ride to the port.
5 Minuet check in, got to the cabin at 6.15PM.
6.50PM- Explore the deck
8.09PM-At Bar. overveiw of the action plan and survey technique.
8.56-Leave the Port. 5 mins early
11.30- go to bed after 15 surveys completed.
6.00- Wake up
7.00-Arrival
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Review of 1st hand experience with P&O Ferries://

One of the main reasons for this trip on P&O ferries was to gather first hand experience of the ferry itself and to gather primary research, opinions and views from both the crew and passengers on the way to Rotterdam. However, things like transport to the ferry port, extra costs for food on the way and overall experience during the trip etc should also be considered as this would be things that people would think about when they decide on the mode of transport.

The main emphasis of the trip was to experience P&O ferries for ourselves, after looking at the potential destinations we could use to gain first hand experience,  After spending several hours looking at prices for ferries and options available for getting to the ferry port, we decided on traveling from Hull to Rotterdam. The price for this journey turned out to be the cheapest for people traveling from Leeds. Eventhough the ferry itself would be cheaper traveling from Dover to Calais, we also had consider the expense of getting to Dover in the first place.

The website of P&O was well designed, it was easy to navigate around, booking information and route details were all easy to find. Booking the ferry itself however wasn't exactly straight forwards, especially if you wanted to get the best deals. From adjusting the settings on the website etc, we've discovered that the prices of 1 foot passenger was the only £13 cheaper than if you were to travel with 4 people. 3 foot passengers was also the same price as 4 foot passengers. The prices in general varied quite a bit, which was made it quite confusing when booking.

On the day of the trip itself, we left Leeds at 16:15; four minutes earlier than planned due to the coach filling up so there was no reason for it to stick around. We arrived at Selby train station just under an hour later, 5 minutes late but mainly due to unforeseen road blocks caused by a road accident. The train at Selby departed on time and we traveled half an our into Hull station. The train journey itself was fine, was fairly packed but enough unreserved seats around. We finally arrived at Hull train station at 18:00, leaving us an hour and a half to get to the ferry port which was only 2 miles away. We took a taxi costing us £7 in total to get the port. On arrival, check in itself was a breeze, there were no queues and the whole experience was very relaxed. We got into our cabin within 20 minutes and were free to explore the decks.

The facilities of the Ferry were as expected from the descriptions on their website, which was good to see, I didn't feel ripped off at all. There were several bars, duty free shops, a small casino, a couple of restaurants, games room and an entertainments area for live acts and bingo aswell as plenty of space to wonder around. The prices of food and drinks were of an average bar price, something that we'd expected really, there was a choice of fine dining available, but was very expensive. There was a cheaper alternative but there wasn't much to choose from. Saying this however, the food available on the ferry was much more acceptable than what you'd get on a plane! The actual atmosphere of the interior was fairly impressive to be honest, half the time I forgot that we were on a Ferry, eventhough it was a 9-10 hour journey, it didn't feel like we were traveling at all.

Cabin wise, the beds were adequate. There was a wake up call at 6:30, the ferry was stationed at 7:00 and we were out by half 7. As a final conclusion to the journey, I would definitely use it again. For the price of £34 return including a coach return from Rotterdam to Amsterdam it was definitely worth the money. Eventhough the journey did take much longer than it would have in comparison to a flight, the ferry ride itself did feel like part of the experience itself anyway rather than just a form of transport. I think from this trip, we've established that the experience itself would be the thing that people pay for and something we could definitely emphasize in our concept. 82% of the people interviewed rated their experience to be good with 34% of that saying that it was excellent, which shows that the service is good and reflects why they're good at maintaining their customers. The question now is, who are the people who are not trying out the Ferries and why are they not using P&O for their holidays?