Britannia Food

[bee-ess]

We are due to go on Britannia to Caribbean in Feb next year and have heard adverse reviews of the food on recent Britannia cruises from 2 independent acquaintances. We did a trial short cruise on Britannia in May had a good cruise with really good food in our opinion, better than we expected. As we were impressed with other aspects of the ship as well we booked the next cruise whilst on board. Talking to these 2 people has made us question whether to abandon it - we are not due to pay balance until end of this month and have only paid a small deposit.

I would be interested to hear opinions of the food quality (esp.MDR) from anyone who has been on Britannia recently, as I said the food was good in May.

[smj777]

Don't take any notice of what other people say. You've already experienced the food on board and liked it, that is as good a recommendation as you can get.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[majortom10]

We recently returned from Britannia on 21st October and the food in MDR for dinner was as good IMO it has been on P&O for some time and had no complaints whatsoever. The food at lunch in the buffet was very poor in quality and choice so would recommend eating lunch in MDR. Certainly wouldnt cancel my cruise due to other reviews we had excellent meals in Epicurean and Sindhu and a very enjoyable cruise on a lovely shp.

[alanbab]

We were on Britannia last April and the food was excellent. We have taken many cruises with P&O and never experienced poor food. WE loved Britannia despite all the poor reviews. It seems that every cruise that we have taken in recent years has been subject to some poor reviews and I would say do as a previous reply stated "take no notice" - the best opinion in the world is yours. Have a great time!!

[Selbourne]

Seems odd that you would consider cancelling when others are expressing concerns over something that you have experienced yourself and found to be good!

 

We have been on 2 cruises on Britannia with a 3rd booked. Compared to the P&O of old (which was 100% Club or fixed dining, silver service and no select dining restaurants) the main dining rooms are nowhere near as good as they used to be, in our opinion. Pre-plated meals are generally very small portions (which suits most people but is insufficient for me) and although we prefer the flexibility of freedom dining, we find that the service is rushed and impersonal. We liked getting to know our waiters, who used to get to know our likes and dislikes and tailored the dining experience accordingly. We also enjoyed meeting and enjoying the company of a number of different dining guests who added to the experience. However, as P&O has moved more mass market, we found that we were getting dining companions with whom we had little in common and with whom it was frankly difficult to strike up conversations. It made the whole experience a chore rather than a pleasure, hence the move to freedom. I know that sounds terrible, but it's the truth.

 

I would say that 20 years ago P&O main dining rooms were akin to a good 4 star hotel or upper-mid price restaurant. Now I would say that they are more 3 star hotel. Not a bad achievement given the numbers they are serving. On a positive note, I would say that food quality and choice in the MDR's is excellent and we haven't experienced the luke warm food that others have.

 

Where P&O has excelled is in the provision of select dining restaurants, particularly on Britannia. The Epicurean is the best dining experience I have had at sea and better than some Michelin star restaurants I have dined in. Although curry is my favourite food, I am not overly impressed with the food in Sindhu but my wife and adult children love it and, as with all the select dining venues, service is far superior to the MDR's (all the best staff get taken from the MDR's and put in the select dining restaurants). On our last Britannia cruise, we used Select Dining restaurants for every evening meal, using the MDR for lunch.

 

In spite of my criticisms of the MDR experience, the overall food experience is, in my opinion, the best thing about Britannia and if you haven't experienced P&O in better days when it was an altogether more exclusive experience (which I suspect is what your friends are comparing it to) then you will have few complaints. If you find the MDR's a let down, go and enjoy the other options. One of my favourites is the Beach House. Portion sizes aren't an issue there!

[Jennizor]

We returned from a lovely cruise on Britannia on 9 October. We used the MDR for breakfast, lunch and dinner most days. We found the food to be very good with some really excellent meals. The portion sizes were fine, a starter, main course and dessert and I was very full. We have not used the buffet on our recent cruises as I felt it was always a bit stressful so I comment on the food there. We visited Sindhu one evening and it was fabulous, will definitely try it on Azura next May. We also had lunch in the Glasshouse a couple of times. The tapas were great and huge portions. I would go back on Britannia tomorrow if I could. I hope all the positive replies you have had have persuaded you not to cancel. Enjoy.

[Heartlands1]

I was happy with the food on Britannia last November, but have a few comments.

We like a late breakfast and therefore don't want to go to the MDR at lunchtime, but the food in the buffet is so poor. We had difficulty finding traditional salad ingredients, let alone the freshly carved ham and roast beef we were used to on Carnival and Holland America only rather stodgy food unsuitable for a tropical climate. Also after 3 o'clock they go over to afternoon tea, OK for those with a sweet tooth or who like uninspiring sandwiches.

 

The MDR menu is very Asian influenced and the only alternative cuisine in the select dining is also Asian.

 

The waiters had very little knowledge of the food they were serving. One even inferred that I should have known that a hazelnut cake would contain chocolate and when I returned my Beef Carpaccio as it was covered in balsamic vinegar I was asked to choose another starter. We also found this lack of knowledge in the bars, particularly the live lounge.

 

Certainly not enough to make me cancel but I am planning on eating more lunches off the ship or spending extra in the Glass House or Epicure.

[Selbourne]

A number of people have commented on poor food choice in the buffet. We don't use it, but for a different reason - the poor hygiene standards of a number of fellow passengers.

 

Cruise ships are breeding grounds for Norovirus (a most unpleasant sickness and diarrhoea bug) which is spread through poor hygiene. I have lost count of the number of passengers who avoid the hand sanitisation points when entering the buffet and I have also regularly witnessed passsengers getting a bit of sauce or whatever on their fingers whilst serving themselves, licking their fingers to 'clean' them and then continuing to pick up serving spoons or tongs that are used by countless others. Add to this the fact that a significant number of people fail to wash their hands thoroughly after using the toilet (and a large number of men don't wash their hands at all after using the loo - I see other men leaving bathrooms without washing their hands almost every time I use a gents) and you have all the combining factors to make the buffet the biggest risk area for Norovirus.

 

I will only use it for lunch when we board on day 1 as we are usually there waiting when it opens, so everything is 'clean'. This of course is an issue on all cruise ships and is not unique to Britannia.

 

For what it's worth, our 'chart' (best to worst) of dining venues on Britannia is as follows;

 

1) Epicurean

2) Beach House

3) Limelight Club

4) Glass House

5) Sindhu

6) Main Dining Rooms

7) Buffet

[bee-ess]

Thanks all for your encouraging comments. As I said I found the food was OK in May but I wondered if it had deteriorated in the last 6 months. I think we will go ahead with the cruise and we will enjoy it but food is an important part of the cruise and hope it is as good as earlier this year.

[alanbab]

Thanks all for your encouraging comments. As I said I found the food was OK in May but I wondered if it had deteriorated in the last 6 months. I think we will go ahead with the cruise and we will enjoy it but food is an important part of the cruise and hope it is as good as earlier this year.

 

So glad that you are going to go ahead with your cruse. We really like P&O and are looking forward to our first trip on Ventura next year. Now if you are really into food try Oceania cruises we are just back from a wonderful cruise on the Riviera - food fantastic. We will not of course be making any comparisons with Oceania when we are on Ventura. The great thing for us it will be different poor reviews get ignored and I often wonder how much they paid for their cruise and how much on board credit they received etc. Good to get a cheap cruise but the companies are there to make a profit. OH nearly forgot check out some reviews for Oceania Riviera and yes no surprise you will find some bad ones !!!! Have a great cruise.

[Florry]

I suspect the buffet food may be declining across the fleet (following recent experience on Arcadia). The P&O strategy is to keep costs down and the impact of that has to be felt somewhere. We are somewhat disadvantaged having cruised for years and remember how things used to be.

 

 

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[terrierjohn]

We sailed on Britannia in August and had no complaints with the MDR food, we had breakfast in the buffet every day and were also happy with that. However on the one night we dined in the buffet we did think it was not as good as Ventura in January.

[sapphire4]

We have sailed three times in the last two years on the Britannia and we found the food of a very good standard. We ate in the Epicurean for breakfast which was a lovely start to the day as we treated ourselves to a suite on the last visit in September. We had lunch in the buffet as we don't like too much to eat then and the soups were lovely, plenty of salad choices although perhaps not quite the choice of mains that we had experienced on other cruises. The MDF was really good and of a high standard with reasonable portion sizes. I like fish for my mains and the other half likes his steaks and we can honestly say we didn't have one bad meal . In fact we ate every night bar two in the MDR. I would highly recommend Sindhu. The lobster was delicious and there was an offer of 30% off the first evening on-board. Previously we have enjoyed excellent meals in the Epicurean for dinner but we didn't go last time as the menu was still the same. Have a lovely holiday. I'm already looking for next year.

[jeanlyon]

Just returned from Oriana and having commented on the poor food the year before, we found it much improved. The buffet we found very good. Lots of different hot selections and great salads.