The shop on the Pride of Kent is a paradise for bargain hunters. Duty Free shopping was abolished in 1999 but instead you now have Duty Paid shopping in internal EU trips. This means that while the ferry is in foreign waters, the shop will sell at the significantly cheaper French duty rates rather than UK. In simpler terms, this means cheap fragrances, alcohol, clothes, makeup, confectionary and tobacco. I can now see why people just do a round trip rather than get off the ferry at Calais – to shop!

The point of my trip was to experience being a passenger on a P&O Ferry to Calais and back, so I thought a spot of shopping was definitely covered by this brief. At first I thought that the spirits section would be the first port of call, and while I was incredibly impressed with how cheap it was, the lack of a way of carrying them meant that this wasn’t a good choice. Note to self: next time I’m going to be a foot passenger on P&O, bring a suitable alcohol carrying bag.

I decided to fill my bag up with chocolate and some designer aftershave, which was much cheaper than you’d find here in the UK. I’m not a big shopper myself so I didn’t spend too much time in there but I can imagine that avid shoppers could spend the entire trip there.

After buying my goods it was on the next unexplored section of the ship: the Club Lounge.