Travel Weekly Blog

I was up at London Cruise Terminal in Tilbury, Essex today to visit Transocean ship Marco Polo, and ended up interested in a site whose first impressions are a little underwhelming.

• It dates back to 1930, when PM Ramsay MacDonald opened a landing stage at Tilbury Docks (archive footage)
  
• Empire Windrush docked here in 1948, bringing West Indian immigrants to the UK
• It is in the frame for redevelopment funding as the 2012 Olympics approaches

It's also convenient for Transocean's passengers, who are generally a sedate, 55-60 and above crowd. They can do without negotiating big, busy terminals with piles of luggage (and if you're not an initiate, note that negligible restrictions mean cruisers tend to pack more than air travellers).

UK cruises

It was also interesting to hear that one of Marco Polo's most popular itineraries is a Tilbury-Tilbury round UK cruise - passengers for which come almost exclusively from the terminal's south-and-east catchment area.

Jane Archer, who writes our Cruise Lines blog and accompanied me around Marco Polo (watch her video review on Travel Weekly) pointed me to a cruisecritic.com article that suggests Transocean rivals Fred Olsen and Voyages of Discovery are seeing a similar demand for UK cruising.

What do we make of it? A growing desire to see more of the UK? Disinclination to go abroad becuase of the weak pound and iffy economic lookout? Or just an appealing price point?