Britannia Now … our personal opinion and observations on board

[Bazrat]

1 hour ago, LynnForestgate said:

 

I did read somewhere recently, that with both Royal Caribbean and Carnival's newest mega ships, that they can sail with 45% occupancy and still turn a profit.

 

 

But the negativity would not sail on them 🤣

[zap99]

6 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Yes. They shouldn't have such enormeous ships.🤣🤣🤣🤣😉

Avril

Big ships, more space.🤣🤣

[zap99]

19 hours ago, Ardennais said:

Good to remind folks! Mask wearing still required in shops in Wales too.

Just got back from Spain. Masks indoors when moving around. No real issue with that.

[Adawn47]

23 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Big ships, more space.🤣🤣

More space, more people, more crowds, and round we go ad infinitum😉

Avril

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, LynnForestgate said:

 

I did read somewhere recently, that with both Royal Caribbean and Carnival's newest mega ships, that they can sail with 45% occupancy and still turn a profit.

 

 

IIRC that figure merely covers direct overheads.

[Electra 7]

22 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Well thank you Electra, that's very kind, you must have caught me on a good day😉

We only booked it in June this year to replace the continuing cancellations of the last two years. We usually book early as we like a balcony with shower only, but unfortunately the only one we could get was an outside, so we're giving it a try. To be honest though, I'm so ready to cruise again, I'll sleep in a lifeboat. Jeanlyon is also on this cruise, so maybe we can all meet up for a drink together.

Avril

Yeah that would be nice to meet up we have just had all clear from consultant today for hubby so looks like we are going on queen Elizabeth in 4 weeks time we were supposed to be on a British Isle cruise  on the 1st October but could get insurance so we had to change it we are also going on Aurora 1st April booked that the day it came out and it went fully booked within a couple of days!! popular ship 

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

IIRC that figure merely covers direct overheads.

I watched a YouTube interview with the VP  of RCI  and in reply to a question she did say that RCI can run profitably on their big ships with 62% capacity,  and the Oasis class is below 50%. This was clearly stated as profitable, not just covering costs.

[wowzz]

26 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I watched a YouTube interview with the VP  of RCI  and in reply to a question she did say that RCI can run profitably on their big ships with 62% capacity,  and the Oasis class is below 50%. This was clearly stated as profitable, not just covering costs.

Probably not the time and place, but "profitable " can mean whatever an accountant decides.

Yes, at those levels the PBIT is possibly positive, but long term the business is unsustainable. 

[Bazrat]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

Probably not the time and place, but "profitable " can mean whatever an accountant decides.

Yes, at those levels the PBIT is possibly positive, but long term the business is unsustainable. 

Actually in manufacturing no business would survive if they had to run at 100% continuously, anything over 80% to us is a bonus.

[zap99]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

Probably not the time and place, but "profitable " can mean whatever an accountant decides.

Yes, at those levels the PBIT is possibly positive, but long term the business is unsustainable. 

But more sustainable than if the Ebita is negative, or zero.

[wowzz]

10 minutes ago, zap99 said:

But more sustainable than if the Ebita is negative, or zero.

Sustainable for a period, yes, but eventually the business will fail.

[Bazrat]

59 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Sustainable for a period, yes, but eventually the business will fail.

It’s called treading water if the numbers stay the same than they can continue but they could not invest for the future, hence why you get the special offers to increase the numbers 

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 10/6/2021 at 1:28 PM, BestGuessed said:

My husband and I are on day twelve of the first Britannia cruise out of British waters post Covid.  I am posting our observations and opinions about how everything is running on onboard at present, the good and the bad, in the hope that it might be useful to others. 

 

The staff are excellent as always and they have made us very welcome. Sadly, the Club Dining option is not operating (will it ever come back?) so there is no rapport with “your own” waiting staff at meal times.  The dining arrangements are that you have to join a virtual queue via the app or turn up and be given a pager at busy times.  The waiting times are very long at popular times.  See traffic light notification that is part of the daily Horizon newsletter.

 

Tables are selected randomly for you so you rarely get to sit in the same section two days running.    We think this is a shame as the rapport we built up with our waiters was always a big part of our daily dining experience.  From comments made, it seems that the waiting staff don’t like this arrangement either.
Something else that has changed is that you are now asked to choose your dessert when you initially place your order. This isn’t always very satisfactory as it is difficult to gauge how full you will be feeling and which dessert will appeal once you have consumed the first two courses.  However, we found that if we made a request to look at the menu again later, we were able to do so.

 

Whilst on the subject of dining, if you want to book a speciality restaurant or The Limelight Club and the app shows the venue to be full, most definitely go to see the staff in person and most times there are tables available.  They do not book all the tables out via the app and you will more than likely be able to book if you ask in person.

 

Passengers are now permitted to get off the ship and explore independently in the ports.  Temperatures are taken at the point of leaving the ship using a device pointed at your forehead so it is very quick, giving instant results and creates no queues or backlog.

 

We have been told that the ship is sailing at around 75% capacity but most evenings a “House Full” sign is put outside The Live Lounge during the mid evening performance and a queue forms.  The band “Pulse” are excellent and they are very popular. 
Theatre shows and performances in The Live Lounge normally have three showings/sets and the early and late performances are usually the least well attended so we have opted to organise our evenings around this.  There are organised ballroom and sequence dancing sessions in The Crystal Room for an hour most evenings and some afternoon sessions. These are supervised by dance hosts and there are lessons on most sea days.  Masks are not required unless dancing with someone other than your own partner.
 

Our advice is to think ahead and plan what you want to do in advance.  It isn’t what we usually expect to do when we are on holiday but there has been very little spontaneity on this cruise !! 

 

Other notes that might be useful … our cruise is fourteen nights long and there are four formal nights which I believe is the way it used to be.  Some passengers on this cruise were rather surprised as they didn’t expect that there would be so many.

 

I will finish by adding a few of our own personal opinions and things that we have found to be  talking points …

 

On every ship we have been on in the past there have been two live bands on board.  On Britannia there is only one upbeat band who are the fantastic “Pulse,” plus the Britannia orchestra, and these musicians all produce the most phenomenal sounds.  There are couple of other quieter entertainers.
However there is no music filling the atrium and as a result the ship totally lacks any sort of holiday atmosphere.    
Dancing to live music anywhere on the ship is banned.  Disco dancing is allowed to recorded music between live performances in The Live Lounge but this doesn’t have the same feel good factor to it and it must be soul destroying for the musicians to be playing to a dead dance floor. Dancing is not allowed in The Limelight Club either and tables have been placed on the floor to prevent anyone using it.

This could make some sense if other protocols didn’t contradict it.  Guests are allowed to get off and explore ports independently and eat with other unknown people at the same table in groups of up to six.   Everyone mixes and mingles maskless in the bars yet masks are required when walking around the ship. In the past few days a sign appeared in the lifts to say we should refrain from talking which makes no sense as everyone happily chats maskless to one another in the lounges and dining rooms and there is not very much distance between tables.

 

 

So, in our opinion, the protocols seem to be rather pointless.    We were told that during a bingo session you should not call “Bingo” but clap instead !!!!

In the conveniences washbasins are sealed over with film printed DO NOT USE but there are more cubicles in use than washbasins which then causes a queue waiting in a confined area to use the basin.  
 

So, to sum up our findings on this cruise;   We haven’t been able to make sense of the inconsistencies and we have felt very frustrated at times.  
Having said that, we sailed with Celebrity onboard Silhouette for eight nights in July and everything on board apart from mask wearing, was cruising as we had hoped it would be and have previously enjoyed.  Therefore perhaps our expectations of this cruise were overly high as we were hoping for a similar experience.  I think if we had come with less expectation we wouldn’t have been disappointed and I think that might be the key.  

 

So our advice would be to expect many changes and come prepared for the fact that things will be different.  On a very positive note, the glorious sunshine we have had on this cruise has lifted our spirits tremendously and it has been a lovely break.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two things. I so glad they point a temperature "gun" at your head as I was worried they'd stick a thermometer up my backside and secondly you said on a positive note. Anything positive is banned I'm afraid.

 

 

[gandalf1]

If someone is on board now quick question ....The Beachouse is it open in the evenings and if so what is the cover charge and how busy is it??has the menu changed as they use to do the fillet steak on a lava rock etc

[soulstar]

13 hours ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

 

Just wondering if anyone can confirm or deny the info I've read on another site which says there are currently some covid pos. cases on the Britannia. 

[Baggy178]

1 hour ago, soulstar said:

Just wondering if anyone can confirm or deny the info I've read on another site which says there are currently some covid pos. cases on the Britannia. 

 

Which site ?

Evidence ?

[Hi my name is Andy]

Can anyone tell me if there is a games arcade onboard that the kids can access all the time? 

[Bazrat]

4 hours ago, soulstar said:

Just wondering if anyone can confirm or deny the info I've read on another site which says there are currently some covid pos. cases on the Britannia. 

Yes there are and they are being isolated, as everyone is double jabbed no real need to worry 

[Interestedcruisefan]

On 10/7/2021 at 7:20 PM, bee-ess said:

I agree on both counts - they will be showing us 14 days menus next and asking us to prebook all our evening meals. This business of needing a smartphone and pre-booking things is killing it a bit for us.

For as long as I can remember people have had all their meals pre booked at set times in set restaurants for every night of the cruise. Without knowing the menus?

 

Where's the spontaneity with that?

 

Am I wrong?

 

Some people  now choose freedom dining instead

 

But have to be prepared to wait for a table to be available. Using the app actually helps them wait far less. 

 

 

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, Bazrat said:

Yes there are and they are being isolated, as everyone is double jabbed no real need to worry 

So, now we need to wait until Britannia gets to her next port.  Will the people who have Covid be off-loaded there, or will they continue in isolation back to Southampton. Time will tell.

 

As the passengers who are now positive will have been double jabbed, it's a reminder that the vaccine doesn't provide immunity. 

[Bazrat]

12 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

So, now we need to wait until Britannia gets to her next port.  Will the people who have Covid be off-loaded there, or will they continue in isolation back to Southampton. Time will tell.

 

As the passengers who are now positive will have been double jabbed, it's a reminder that the vaccine doesn't provide immunity. 

No immunity but makes you a darn sight safer if you catch it, as far as I know after reading on another site the lady in question is in isolation and the ship is due back in the next couple of days

Edited October 18, 2021 by Bazrat

[Dermotsgirl]

12 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

No immunity but makes you a darn sight safer if you catch it, as far as I know after reading on another site the lady in question is in isolation and the ship is due back in the next couple of days

Britannia was in Cartagena today and is in Gibraltar tomorrow. Due back in Southampton on Friday.

 

We'll have to see what happens .

 

 

[Bazrat]

12 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Britannia was in Cartagena today and is in Gibraltar tomorrow. Due back in Southampton on Friday.

 

We'll have to see what happens .

 

 

Yes we are on her on Friday sorry not us but me and my beloved 

[Cathygh]

7 hours ago, Baggy178 said:

 

Which site ?

Evidence ?

We are not allowed to mention other sites on here, but it is the book of visages.

[Baggy178]

17 hours ago, Bazrat said:

Yes we are on her on Friday sorry not us but me and my beloved 

 

I presume it's an isolated case that hasn't spread - yet -  which is good news.