Britannia Now … our personal opinion and observations on board

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I'm suggesting you having to ever head to the theatre well in advance of a show starting to make sure you got a seat is actually a broken system and stress you dont need

 

At some stage each week or day you must decide what show you want to see and what time you want to eat and where etc

 

30 seconds on an app can literally remove 15 mins plus of wasted queuing time and stress

 

I know which I prefer

 

If we all have to endure online check ins for flights and holidays etc with passport details etc then we aren't the dinosaurs you might think we are

 

And the apps are so much easier than you expect once you get used to them 

 

Honestly they are

I would like to pop up to London and go to a show. Perhaps have dinner first, or after. Maybe stay overnight. What!!!. Book in advance !!!. Make my mind up first. It wasn't like that in the old days🤣

 

[zap99]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

As a matter of interest, did anyone check your reservation before going into the theatre ?

They checked ours on their iPad.

[Eglesbrech]

3 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I would like to pop up to London and go to a show. Perhaps have dinner first, or after. Maybe stay overnight. What!!!. Book in advance !!!. Make my mind up first. It wasn't like that in the old days🤣

 

Actually for the scenario you are outlining it was and always has been like that but you already know that. Cruising however was not, nor does it have to be.

 

How is the holiday, I hope your weather, hotel etc is good.

[Interestedcruisefan]

7 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I would like to pop up to London and go to a show. Perhaps have dinner first, or after. Maybe stay overnight. What!!!. Book in advance !!!. Make my mind up first. It wasn't like that in the old days🤣

 

I bet you woukd like to pay cash on the door as well 

 

 

[zap99]

6 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Actually for the scenario you are outlining it was and always has been like that but you already know that. Cruising however was not, nor does it have to be.

 

How is the holiday, I hope your weather, hotel etc is good.

Thanks. Weathers good, food is what you would expect, nothing special ,but adequate. Booked the Italian for this evening on their app. Entertainers are....entertaining, lots of sunbeds, noisy children. Masks being worn indoors. Dammed foreigners everywhere. ...just like a foreign package holiday....heaven after the last 2 years.🤣

 

 

 

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

That is exactly what we do. (Especially the pre-dinner drink part !)

Or  🥃🥃😉

Avril

[zap99]

10 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I bet you woukd like to pay cash on the door as well 

 

 

In the old days it was cash under the counter.🤣

[Eglesbrech]

10 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Thanks. Weathers good, food is what you would expect, nothing special ,but adequate. Booked the Italian for this evening on their app. Entertainers are....entertaining, lots of sunbeds, noisy children. Masks being worn indoors. Dammed foreigners everywhere. ...just like a foreign package holiday....heaven after the last 2 years.🤣

 

 

 

Glad you are having fun.

[wowzz]

24 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Or  🥃🥃😉

Avril

You know me too well!

[Rebjon]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

There are two kinds of people nowadays. Those who are permanantly attached to their phones etc, and can't  possibly get through every single hour of the without it. Then there are those of us who would  rather just live life as it comes.

I run our day to day life via the laptop and phone, banking, shopping, booking holidays, keeping in contact with family and friends 'scripts and doctors  appointments etc and chatting on here😉, but when we're on holiday the laptop  isn't needed and stays at home, the phone is turned off and in the safe, where it stays until the holiday is over.

Avril

I agree, I have used a computer since the late 70s so I am no technophobe but resent being forced to live my life through a smartphone where organizations are increasingly giving you no freedom of choice.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Sorry, i should have added that after putting your phone into airplane mode, you then need to reactivate wifi, to allow you to connect to the ship's wifi.

I tried that and it would not work.

On Britannia we booked every night in Epicurean at the speciality dining desk and all the shows on the app in the cabin.

On Iona we went to the My Holiday desk as soon as we got on Iona at 1.30pm and they booked the first 2 nights in Epicurean for half price so we also booked another 2 nights in Epicurean.

The nice lady put the app short cut widget on my phone which made the app much easier to use on Iona compared to Britannia when I had to keep logging in.

We ate between 6pm and 6.30pm every night so I booked the weeks shows for 8.30pm and Dinner at 6pm and lunch in Coral restaurant every day so everything was sorted.

Graham.

Edited October 9, 2021 by grapau27

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, zap99 said:

I would like to pop up to London and go to a show. Perhaps have dinner first, or after. Maybe stay overnight. What!!!. Book in advance !!!. Make my mind up first. It wasn't like that in the old days🤣

 

But probably not likely to do that 14 nights in a row...🤔😀

[Ardennais]

Don’t think we’ve even turned up more than 15 mins before a show in the theatre and in all our cruises, only show was full - on Britannia, so we went to the later one. Simples.. And even if you decided to turn up 30 minutes beforehand, what’s so stressful about that? 

[wowzz]

32 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

And even if you decided to turn up 30 minutes beforehand, what’s so stressful about that? 

No problem at all, as long as I have a glass of red with me !

[zap99]

14 hours ago, Britboys said:

But probably not likely to do that 14 nights in a row...🤔😀

The point I was trying to make is that folk can't seem to be able to decide what they want to do, a day or two in advance. In the old days..........🤣

[zap99]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

No problem at all, as long as I have a glass of red with me !

You will have to drink it before you go in. Can't take a drink into the theatre. Covid don't like drinks in theatres, oh no. We had a drink watching the abba tribute last night. Abba don't mind at all.🍾

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, zap99 said:

You will have to drink it before you go in. Can't take a drink into the theatre. Covid don't like drinks in theatres, oh no. We had a drink watching the abba tribute last night. Abba don't mind at all.🍾

Understood, but I was commenting about waiting for a table in the MDR.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Understood, but I was commenting about waiting for a table in the MDR.

I can't really remember, but I seem to recall turning up at about the time we wanted to dine and the receptionist saying ' did you want a table for 2, or do you want to share ?'. If we were sharing a few minutes wait, if for 2, maybe a pager for perhaps half an hour. Nowadays, no sharing and join the queue on the app. If you don't have a smartphone, go to the desk and they will give you a pager. All a bit different ,but not a deal breaker.

[Guest ccpm]

20 hours ago, grapau27 said:

I tried that and it would not work.

On Britannia we booked every night in Epicurean at the speciality dining desk and all the shows on the app in the cabin.

On Iona we went to the My Holiday desk as soon as we got on Iona at 1.30pm and they booked the first 2 nights in Epicurean for half price so we also booked another 2 nights in Epicurean.

The nice lady put the app short cut widget on my phone which made the app much easier to use on Iona compared to Britannia when I had to keep logging in.

We ate between 6pm and 6.30pm every night so I booked the weeks shows for 8.30pm and Dinner at 6pm and lunch in Coral restaurant every day so everything was sorted.

Graham.

Oh that is good to see. I had expected that by the cruise in December this year P&O may have allowed booking speciality meals on the website again. It is not there yet, if it will be at all, and I was not looking forward to having to try and master the app as soon as I boarded to book Epicurean every night. At least I know I can pop and do it at the desk I presume in the atrium. Phew

[Red Ray]

On 10/7/2021 at 10:23 PM, Britboys said:

That's incredibly unhelpful and will surely lead to people roaming the buffet counters just to see if there's anything they fancy. Sounds like a recipe for chaos...

 

[Red Ray]

The MDR menus for lunch and dinner were displayed on digital screens in the corridors leading to the restaurants.

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, ccpm said:

Oh that is good to see. I had expected that by the cruise in December this year P&O may have allowed booking speciality meals on the website again. It is not there yet, if it will be at all, and I was not looking forward to having to try and master the app as soon as I boarded to book Epicurean every night. At least I know I can pop and do it at the desk I presume in the atrium. Phew

Yes.

It was within 30 metres from getting on the ship.

Graham

[Jennizor]

We have just returned from this Britannia cruise. Overall we enjoyed it, we expected some things to be different and we just accepted that. We were told that the ship was at 50% capacity and it certainly felt it at times. There were always seats to be had inside and out, no wandering around trying to find one. We always go Club Dining so Freedom dining was a new experience for us. The first night we went to the Peninsular restaurant around 7.30 and were given a pager and told it would be about an hour. This suited us as we always go for the second sitting. We went to the Glasshouse for a drink and had just received them when the pager beeped. We got a shared table which we like and had lovely company. We never had to wait any longer than 15 minutes each evening.  The menu was not as varied as previously but we always found something we liked and overall we enjoyed the food. Sindhu was excellent as always.

 

There wasn’t as much entertainment in the Atrium as previously but there was a wonderful pianist that we caught a few times.

 

We were disappointed that we didn’t get to Italy this time, but we got a couple of extra Spanish ports to compensate. 
 

The waiting, dining and cabin staff were all lovely. Some of the reception staff were a different kettle of fish entirely. The big problem was the completion of the PLFs and there were quite long queues at Reception asking for information on this issue. We were told that help would be provided in the Crows Nest and Live Lounge at set times on set days and there would be complementary WiFi. This never materialised until the day before departure. We were fortunate enough to have 4G and with the help of a fellow cruiser we completed we managed to get onto the site. Completing the forms was fine and we did this halfway through the cruise. We spoke to so many people who were stressed by the lack of support from P&O and some were saying they weren’t going to bother with forms!

 

Overall, it was great to be back on a cruise and can’t wait for the 4th of December when we will be back on Britannia again.

[Interestedcruisefan]

The app works exactly the same as using pagers except you can join the queue on your phone for either MDR from anywhere on the ship

 

And you can choose which MDR queue to join as you get to see on the app exactly how many tables are in either queue and estimated wait time for each

 

Unlike on the pager you can also see how many people are ahead of you in the queue at any one time

 

You also get 15 mins on the app to head to the restaurant once you are told your table is ready

 

Hence why I prefer the app to the pagers personally

 

And tbf the pagers themselves were an improvement to remove queues themselves 

[MBP&O2/O]

Well …. I used to work as a navigation officer for P&O but after reading this thread I wouldn’t touch them.😏

We were in Vigo when the ship docked …. I couldn’t believe how many people suddenly left the ship … the line seemed to stretch forever 😁