Brittania Suites - B1 or B5?

[BarneyCat]

We’re looking to book a cruise on Brittania and have the choice of B1 or B5 class suites. We aren’t usually fussed about positioning on the ship - so being mid ship hold no special value for us. The extra cabin space in B5 makes it appealing. Are we missing anything, or is the B1 just more expensive because it’s in a (widely considered) better position?

 

thanks for any advice/thoughts. 

[BarneyCat]

We’ve gone for the B5. Videos of them on YouTube look amazing. 

[Selbourne]

The B5 suites at the very front of Britannia re often overlooked and, in our opinion, are the best ones on the ship.

 

We wouldn't go midships on a family ship as passing noise (esp kids running along corridors) can be extremely irritating.

 

We had an aft suite on Britannia and wouldn't repeat it. The balconies are vast, but blighted with soot, vibration and noise from the Live Lounge (even on F deck).

 

By contrast, we have had two cruises in B5 forward suites and much preferred them. Rubbish balconies (but we don't sunbathe) but the bedrooms are more than twice the size of the midships and aft suites (as they have sloping ceilings, P&O doesn't include the whole area in the stated square footage) plus you have a fantastic forward facing panoramic window (In addition to the side balcony doors) that gives you a superb sail in to port from your bed! There is also plenty of room to put two chairs in front of the window to provide a private Crows Nest - ideal when the ship is busy. Being at the end of the corridors there is no passing noise.

[BarneyCat]

Thank you! That’s exactly the kind of reassurance we were hoping for! We’ve got C102 and a google search bought up a couple of great videos on you tube. I’m really excited now. We’ve been all over ships - and it really doesn’t matter to us. We like aft for quietness and the views (lst cruise we had the penthouse on Ventura right at the back) but fwd looks amazing too and like you we don’t sunbathe on a balcony. 

 

Something to look forward to! Hooray!

[Selbourne]

Excellent choice. If we go back on Britannia we would book a B5 forward suite in a heartbeat, but never an aft one. Once bitten...

Anyway, now we've got you sorted, we need to delete this thread to keep it our secret!

Britannia is a lovely ship and is unwisely overlooked by many P&O regulars.

The Epicurean on Britannia is our favourite restaurant at sea. As suite passengers you can use it for breakfast, which is a very civilised start to the day. The Beach House, Sindhu and Limelight Club are also very good on Britannia. The Glasshouse on Britannia is our least favourite in the fleet, but no ship is perfect.

As a suite passenger, you will also board no later than 12.30pm on your first day, which is very handy. 

Have a great cruise.

 

Edit - Just noticed that you had a Penthouse on Ventura. We have had one of those also and loved it (none of the issues that we had with an aft suite on Britannia) but, balconies aside, the suites on Britannia are much nicer. The bathrooms are two classes up from the other ships and the huge interactive & on-demand TV's are brilliant.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Selbourne

[netchells]

We had a corner aft on G deck Britannia and it was fabulous. No noise from the Live Lounge and the odd speck of soot. Would definitely book it again 🙂

[sweep2907]

Have booked F730 for Transatlantic next year so be interesting to see how it shapes up to the many reviews. 

[Gymbod]

12 hours ago, sweep2907 said:

Have booked F730 for Transatlantic next year so be interesting to see how it shapes up to the many reviews. 

Please let us know as we've booked this for Xmas 2020 and worried now about noise from Live lounge and smoking drifting from the smoking area below. 

We've had starboard last time D & E deck and they were fabulous, F730 was the only aft available and bookings only just opened 😲

[Selbourne]

9 hours ago, Gymbod said:

Please let us know as we've booked this for Xmas 2020 and worried now about noise from Live lounge and smoking drifting from the smoking area below. 

We've had starboard last time D & E deck and they were fabulous, F730 was the only aft available and bookings only just opened 😲

 

F730 was the aft suite that we had. Like you it was the only one left and we were very concerned about the smoking area below (we absolutely detest the smell and I can smell it from a considerable distance). I can reassure you that it was never a problem.

 

As for the Live Lounge, the main issue was live music. In these instances it was loud enough that you could tell what the song was. We tend to go to bed earlier than many so it was irritating, but if you are late birds then it won’t be. When it’s recorded music (e.g. late night disco) it was O.K. 

 

Soot it is an odd one. Some days there was none. Other days there was a lot. It depends on weather conditions (wind direction and if it’s wet or dry). The cabin stewards hosed down the balcony every time we had it but they cannot shift it all. 

 

Vibration was was an issue. Less the vibration itself but the fact that it caused a lot of rattles and I spent a lot of time tracing them and muffling them. Not a major problem but irritating. 

 

The biggest problem we had with F730 was plumbing noises. Just inside the suite there are two panel doors that access a big plant room with the plumbing for a number of cabins. Every time the people in the suite below flushed their loo (which they did a lot, inc all through the night) we had a loud metallic bang, which made you jump. The maintenance people were in and out of our cabin throughout the cruise trying to fix it. They made it better after many attempts but you could still hear it. 

 

As as a result of all these issues we were compensated heavily, but would have preferred to have had a hassle free cruise. 

 

By way of balance, the balcony is huge and if you can live with the soot is far superior to those of the forward or mid ships suites. 

 

 

[Gymbod]

Hello Selbourne.

Thanks for the detailed info on this suite. We had a D suite 739? and this was a simliar layout to F so regarding the plumbing we heard a suction noise but it wasn't too much of a problem, but it seems you had more of a problem on F, but maybe it was just something loose that needed fixing? 

 

We go to bed around 10 - 11pm so  I'm a bit worried about how long the live music goes on until?

Not too worried about the soot, we know it's there but it doesn't seem to be as bad in the Caribbean for some reason? 

Good news about the smoking though 👍🏼 

I think I'll keep checking to see if anyone cancels in the next 20 months 😁

We had a side suite last year and although there was hardly any vibration the balconies were a huge disappointment and we like to use the balcony a lot especially sea days.

Edited March 30, 2019 by Gymbod
Addition and spelling

[Selbourne]

3 hours ago, Gymbod said:

Hello Selbourne.

Thanks for the detailed info on this suite. We had a D suite 739? and this was a simliar layout to F so regarding the plumbing we heard a suction noise but it wasn't too much of a problem, but it seems you had more of a problem on F, but maybe it was just something loose that needed fixing? 

 

We go to bed around 10 - 11pm so  I'm a bit worried about how long the live music goes on until?

Not too worried about the soot, we know it's there but it doesn't seem to be as bad in the Caribbean for some reason? 

Good news about the smoking though 👍🏼 

I think I'll keep checking to see if anyone cancels in the next 20 months 😁

We had a side suite last year and although there was hardly any vibration the balconies were a huge disappointment and we like to use the balcony a lot especially sea days.

 

If you are used to aft suites then it should be fine. As you say, the soot is a lot less troublesome in hot and dry conditions. The worst we had was after a rainy first night when the balcony got covered in it. 

 

As you know, the loos can ‘bang’ as they shut  off after refilling, and it was this causing it, but this was like someone dropping a metal bin lid on a tiled floor. They changed various pipes and it was a lot better, but having the plumbing room for multiple cabins inside a suite seemed daft to me (explains the different layout on D and F decks). Hopefully we have sorted the worst of it out for you 😉

 

I managed to trace the worst of the rattles caused by the vibration and stop them. One was one of the air con duct covers in the bedroom (which I stopped by pulling it down slightly) and one was the soap dish tray above the bath, which I stopped by rolling up a hand towel and wedging under it! Seems trivial but they were irritating, especially when you have paid thousands for a suite. 

 

The Live Lounge noise didn’t keep us awake. As I say it was only a problem with live music which tended to end around 11 ish. Again, it was another irritant which compounded with the others.  

 

The main Cancer Corner (sorry, smoking area) tended to be immediately outside the door leading out from forward of the Live Lounge, so forward of where we were. People rarely came down as far as under our balcony and, even when they did, we couldn’t smell it. If you cannot move up then I really can reassure you that this won’t trouble you.  

[Gymbod]

Thanks for the reassurance Selbourne, I'm sure we'll enjoy it but will check regularly in case anothe aft becomes available 😎