Ferry cabins are not the most spacious of suites, but Stena Line is shrinking them even further with a new ruse to lure the more cost-conscious punter.
The shipowner has installed Japanese sleeping pods on the 38,000-gt ropaxes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (built 1996) and 43,000-gt Skane (built 1998), operating between Rostock in Germany and Trelleborg in Sweden.
The firm said: “The sleeping pods are a great way for young people, backpackers or campers to travel cheaply and comfortably. Business travellers can fully recover with this modern way of travelling.”
Inspired by Japanese capsule hotel company 2m2space, the compact and bijou boudoirs are for one person only, with very little room to swing a ship’s cat.
However, passengers can still enjoy the comfort of a mattress, bed linen, air conditioning, a phone-charging station and wifi.
Maybe this idea could have saved Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s budget EasyCruise dream.
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A survey on seafarer happiness from The Mission to Seafarers charity made grim reading this week.
Respondents complained of stress, boredom, increasing obesity from lack of exercise, and poor wifi availability.
Female crew also reported incidents of discrimination and sexual embarrassment.
Seafaring as a career is already an increasingly hard sell to young people.
This depressing picture of life onboard vessels is a very poor advert to attract the next generation.
