A Gdansk-Newcastle ferry would do me and the dog very nicely indeed.
There's a weekly Gdansk-Immingham sailing. Basically a cargo ship with some cabins. A very nice way to travel with meals in the officers mess and bar etc, though not that cheap and I'm not sure about pets.
I think routes are being scaled back not increased.
At the moment Wizzair are expanding "organically" (according to their stock-exchange filing) - this means that they are opening up new routes around Europe but are constrained by how fast they can buy more planes - that may be the reason for stopping the Katowice-John Lennon route. But yes, a nuisance. They've increased the WAW-LPL and WAW-MAN routes though - and they aren't especially cheap anymore so demand must be huge.