Ginb56

A lovely review, thank you! We were on the same cruise and overall throughly enjoyed ourselves and like Britannia - we did the Baltic on her in 2017. Super itinerary and ports of call. Headliners acts were generally excellent . Cabin was ok though could have done with a hoover more often during two weeks away. The app was rubbish and the My Bookings section didn’t show all of what we’d pre-booked or it missed off new bookings, so you couldn’t then amend anything without a trip to reception. The My Diary section was always up to date but of course you can’t amend things from it - crazy system. I’m a vegetarian and agree about the poor food offer for veggies - even more so if you’re a vegan. P&O also need to realise that meat or fish eaters will sometimes choose a vegetarian option if it’s more interesting for a change. The MDR menu was good and had three veggie choices usually and I’d find something to enjoy - but agree that there was very little protein included in any dishes. Take heed please P&O! The speciality dining venues really need to take feedback on board and offer more diet options. A cheese soufflé in Epicurian was the only veggie main on offer, and was rather unexciting. Sindhu veggie option was something like a mushroom biryani served in a pot with a pastry top. It was weirdly far too hot in temperature to eat for ages and was quite dry - I left most of it in the end and just had a few of the sides of vegetables, dahl and naan. The manager kindly didn’t charge us when he realised the problem. Beach House ditto, unless you like halloumi, forget it. The buffet had no veggie breakfast cooked ‘meat’ items - I just had beans, a tomato and hash brown mostly (not an egg fan). Very little choice of cooked veggie options at other meals (always a runny lentil curry though 😩) and not much sign of protein again - salad bar was my fallback. Limelight Club menu was always good though with one of the two courses being veggie and substantial. Food apart, it was good to see the staff were plentiful and friendly - we were on Iona post covid and it was grossly understaffed and some venues closed, so it was super to be back to ‘normal’. I’m sure Britannia will be going in for a refit next year so the tired carpets and general wear and tear in places can be fixed. As the flagship of P&O, she deserves some TLC…

We’re on Britannia at the moment and can reassure you that, from our experience, all the things you miss or fear long gone, are very much alive and kicking 😊. Good level of staffing, chatty steward who introduced himself on first day, table drinks service, cocktails still shaken, main dining room staff who still ‘give you the works’ from arriving to leaving, officers often seen walking around and so on. We hope you feel reassured - enjoy your cruise…!

Another thing we miss from nightly turndown is the little card reminding you to change your clock that night. Wish they’d maybe leave it in the morning for the coming night… Currently there’s the clocks instruction line at the bottom of Horizon front page which is easily missed - I’ve had several elderly people ask me what the real time is as they didn’t realise our zone had changed the night before and no tannoy message noticed either, by me or them. Why the Horizon designer doesn’t now do it as a bold flash across the front corner of the relevant day news sheet, I don’t know…

We’re thoroughly enjoying this Scandinavian cruise on Britannia too. Very lucky with the weather - haven’t needed brollies or raincoats yet! Coming back with a suntan from the Baltic… Visby is just beautiful and lovely to walk round at your leisure, so many charming eateries and shops too. Just be warned, it’s quite hilly and cobbled, plus a good mile each way to walk from port. Shuttles were only for passengers registered with mobility issues and going back and forth fairly empty. Overheard a lot of justified grumbles from people who found the walk too long, in addition to all the walking round the old city, and why couldn’t the shuttles have been better used. Graffiti Classics in the theatre last night was absolutely terrific - don’t miss them if on your cruise. A mix of hilarity, terrific classical music but tongue in cheek and super audience participation - a well deserved standing ovation! Also recommend joining the passenger choir on longer cruises, run by the Headliner vocalists - open to anyone, no singing experience needed, practices held on sea days, great fun - we’re doing our performance on the last sea day in the atrium and it’ll sound amazing!

We’ve done Beach House on Britannia this week and have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. Hubby enjoyed his hanging fish kebab and my salmon was delicious - just a shame that the potato salad was the same as on the buffet, ditto the carrot/pea/green bean veg served. Just find the accompaniments unexciting as you’d expect something different. Also if a veggie, the choice is very limited for starters and mains…

On Britannia at the mo and going to see Andy Abraham in Limelight tomorrow night. La Voix was amazing last week! When we’d done Limelight in the past, tables were allocated according to when you booked, so early online bookers got the better tables. Now it’s first come first served, so queues build up well before 7pm to try and get the better view. Also we noticed tables at La Voix were now on the dance floor area too, so a much smaller area left for any dancing but closer view for some to the stage I guess. Not sure if that’s the norm now to fit in as many people as possible or just for the most popular artistes. We always enjoy Limelight anyway 😀.

On Britannia at the moment and the onboard My Holiday app that’s not an app is proving so frustrating. We pre-booked quite a few excursions, shows, special dining etc. They all show nicely in the My Diary section, but half aren’t showing in the My Bookings section, which is the only place you can make any amendments to times, re-book or cancel things. So various trips to Reception to get some bookings amended and they can’t get My Bookings to update either - they say it’s ‘just the system’. So am fast losing the will to live with P&Os wondrous IT….

Just to clarify, on Britannia there is the Java coffee lounge for Costa (and no biscotti or little free cakes currently). The Market Cafe has the patisserie paid-for cakes in addition to drinks, or they do a good value package price for drink and cake choice. Still no biscotti with their Costa drinks either sadly…we did enjoy a little dunk! We also miss the little jars of nuts ‘n nibbles they used to give you evenings in the bars with your drinks. Oh the good old days pre covid eh? 🫤

We’re on board Britannia at the moment - it’s 5 years since we were last on her. We’re in a standard balcony cabin on A deck and have no real issues with the decor or general facilities. Our bathroom is fine, clean and everything working. Yes, some areas of carpet around the ship could do with replacing before long but no significant problems. A few atrium chairs have holes starting in the leather but certainly nothing you can’t not live with. Staffing levels seem back to normal and the vast majority are polite and smiling - our cruise on Iona last year with post covid staffing levels was a very different matter. All the speciality restaurants, Glass House etc are open. MDR food quality has been variable - the Gala/Celebration dinner was a disappointment sadly and no little extras like a sorbet appetiser or proper extra courses nowadays - quality was like the MDR basic menu too. But it is what it is, some cost cutting going on and we miss the MDR petits fours with coffee, no croutons or pretty drizzle on a bowl of soup (defo not homemade either). No biscotti now with Costas coffees or a free little cake either. But all in all, we’re happy with the ship - lovely staff, passengers and ports of call. We actually had a proper sail away yesterday from Kiel with the ents team giving it large on deck! Great fun…

So if you’re happy to share a table on freedom dining in MDR, do you still need to use the app that’s not an app to book, or can you just turn up at any time and get a shared table fairly easily?

Hi all. We’re on Britannia soon and would like to book Sindhu or Epicurian for a birthday night, but I’m vegetarian and on the sample select menus, it looks like a token veggie dish is offered and very little choice. If you ask beforehand, is there a separate veggie mini menu to choose from, or do they just offer what’s veggie on the MDR menu that day? The daily MDR veggie choices aren’t bad and I don’t feel I need to ask for the veggie menu to pre-order. Just disappointed with the select venues, including the Beach House - all still meat and seafood focussed…

Same for me - can’t log into My P&O this morning. Just get the under maintenance message…

We were on this same cruise on Iona and quite agree about the lack of communication from the captain - and never saw an officer all week. It was all so anonymous. Gone is the gala evening in the atrium with a glass of bubbly and the captain giving a speech - just done over the tannoy instead and vouchers given to claim your bubbly in any bar. No commentary of the seven sisters falls, or a pod of dolphins alongside us one day. And we really missed the sail aways - even one would have been nice. No sign of the bouncy entertainment team doing their dances and audience participation. We only saw 3 ents team just doing welcome announcements of artistes in venues. Sad too that the Olden sail away by the locals wasn’t mentioned in Horizon or tannoy - if you didn’t know about it or had a port cabin, you’d miss all the fun. It was a terrific sail away that week. There were things we enjoyed about the ship but decided we wouldn’t do the big ships again.

We’re on Iona this weekend and none of the select dining can now be pre-booked due to IT issues, so they say. Luckily we managed to book Limelight before the system bombed you out if you want to book for the first two nights’ artiste. So if like us you have a late boarding time, the early embarks will have had first dibs at booking the select restaurants and Limelight. Just hating all the added stress….

We’ve had the same ongoing problems for G220 booking Epicurean, and Limelight for first two nights. I rang customer services for help and was told both are IT glitches - yet again! - and have been reported. They say to just check daily online. Shame as it just creates added stress when you’re just wanting to have a few things pre-booked, especially being a new ship for us. And we’ve late boarding time so can see the venues we want will already be booked by early embarks using the booking ‘app’. Trying not to let is stress us now with everything else to do with cruise prep, testing etc. What will be, will be!