Just back from our Britannia Cruise. Some thoughts...

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I know what I like about P&O and I know what I don’t like. I appreciate that some of the things that I don’t like may be common amongst other cruise lines, but I’m not sure that by experiencing them elsewhere as well I would suddenly develop a liking for them!

No, but it would enable you to put these negative features into some sort of context with cruising in general, and might result in a more understanding attitude.

[_Biscotti_]

New to this forum, but have just come back from the same cruise on Britannia and wanted to give my review. Hopefully it's helpful for future Britannia cruisers 🙂

This was my 4th cruise with P&O and sadly, Britannia was my least favourite ship (with Aurora being my favourite). 

Some things I didn't like about the ship itself:

• The lack of promenade deck that you can walk around - I don't think the walking track on deck 18 really counts as a proper promenade. 
• The atrium and the open plan layout of it. Whilst I love the big ceiling decoration that hangs, I miss the grand staircase and do prefer the Glass House/Java area to be a bit more separated.
• One pool too few - I'm not sure if this is down to the fact there's about 3.5k guests or that the no reserving sunbeds with towels rule isn't really enforced, but it could take some time to find an available sun lounger on the sea days.

Things I did like:

• The seating areas are modern and plentiful. Whilst the furniture on the balconies look a bit tired and the tables on the aft starboard side of deck 16 need a good clean/replacing. The rest of the furniture and décor was quite attractive.

 

Service

We found the service to be very good and all the staff were friendly. I only encountered one seemingly miserable waiter at the Lido bar, but maybe he had just had a bad day. The number of very happy and friendly staff far outnumbered this guy. It is clear the staff are more stretched than they used to be. Our cabin steward was brilliant, but had 21 cabins to do every day! The waiters also seemed to have a bigger workload than usual and the lack of a wine waiter was probably the most noticeable difference about the pace of service.

 

Food

The food was enjoyable. Would have liked some more variety in the buffet, but the food that was there was nice, I particularly like the salads in those little blue bowls. The meals in the main dining room were also good, with my two favourite mains being Mozzarella & Tomato Gnocchi and Beef Wellington.

The small plates in the Glass House are actually quite big. I got 3 for £6.95, but really one or two would have been enough for lunch.

Sindhu was the most amazing meal I had - I had the Tandoori Ratan to start and the Sindhu Signature Plate as the main. I cannot recommend these enough.

The Beach House was nice, but nothing special. The portions are huge, which given the £7.50 cover charge is brilliant, but I would probably skip this restaurant next time.

 

Room service had mixed reviews amongst our group. My Grandma really enjoyed the wrap she got, but my boyfriend ordered the 'Double Decker Burger' and the meat was really cheap quality. Room service is inexpensive, but the free burgers from the grill were much better, and I got peanuts instead of giant corn on my Tex Mex Combo - still not sure why. They also charged the room service to my boyfriend's card, despite the fact that I ordered it and I am the lead guest on the cabin. I think this is because I get 5% discount, but he doesn't as they also charged Sindhu to my sister's boyfriends card (where she gets discount and he doesn't) despite her being the one that booked, so just keep an eye on that!

 

Drinks

The mocktails are very good, as are the cocktails - my favourite of these being Raspberry Crème Brulee (imagine a slightly alcoholic Raspberry Ripple ice cream flavour). The bars offer the same small selection of cocktails, which were good, but I would have liked there to be some unique ones for each bar to make the menu and each venue more interesting.

 

I don't drink coffee but my parents tried everywhere for coffee and their favourites were Java, Rivera Bar and the Crows Nest. They said the Glass House coffee wasn't as good and they had to wait a while because they only have one coffee machine, so they recommend you buy a coffee from Java and walk over to the Glass House if you want to sit there.

 

Other Pros:

• The Headliners circus show is brilliant.
• Itinerary was great - the only port I didn't enjoy was Toulon.

 

Other Cons:

• No evening turn down - I personally don't mind this, although I did miss the little chocolate 😋
• They don't sing Happy Birthday to you with the music anymore - they said this stopped because some guests didn't like it, but I really enjoyed when they did this little touch, it just made the Birthday's more special and memorable.
• No photographers - would be nice to have these on the formal nights at least.

 

Overall, our entire group enjoyed the cruise (there were 7 of us ranging from 26-80 in age), there were a few small cut backs that on their own aren't so bad, but added together make a noticeable difference. I imagine these are across all P&O ships though. So I would say that overall it wasn't bad, but wasn't too special either - 3.5/5

 

Next time, I would try a ship with a few more activities and a bigger variety of restaurants and bars (I'm 29 and found myself wanting more variety). Perhaps Royal Caribbean or Arvia will be better for me.

[loveheart]

Biscotti , did you think 4 formal nights were a couple too many especially with no photographers around. By the 4th one I really wasn't that bothered to get dressed up again.

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

No, but it would enable you to put these negative features into some sort of context with cruising in general, and might result in a more understanding attitude.

Nonsense! I like Heinz Tomato Ketchup and I would be asking questions if the recipe was changed and not for the better. Same with the facial cleanser I have used for nearly twenty years. I’m a loyal customer and would be concerned if the formulation was substantially changed. I wouldn’t feel the need to purchase every tomato ketchup or cleanser on the market to develop a ‘more understanding attitude’! 

[_Biscotti_]

8 minutes ago, loveheart said:

Biscotti , did you think 4 formal nights were a couple too many especially with no photographers around. By the 4th one I really wasn't that bothered to get dressed up again.

I personally didn't mind the amount of formal nights, but would have been happy with 3 too. For me, doing hair & makeup every day always gets a bit tiresome towards the end of a two week cruise whether it's a formal night or not. I think everyone would welcome a pyjama themed evening in the second week 😄

[Fionboard]

1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

Nonsense! I like Heinz Tomato Ketchup and I would be asking questions if the recipe was changed and not for the better. Same with the facial cleanser I have used for nearly twenty years. I’m a loyal customer and would be concerned if the formulation was substantially changed. I wouldn’t feel the need to purchase every tomato ketchup or cleanser on the market to develop a ‘more understanding attitude’! 

?????????!!!!

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Ardennais said:

Nonsense! I like Heinz Tomato Ketchup and I would be asking questions if the recipe was changed and not for the better. Same with the facial cleanser I have used for nearly twenty years. I’m a loyal customer and would be concerned if the formulation was substantially changed. I wouldn’t feel the need to purchase every tomato ketchup or cleanser on the market to develop a ‘more understanding attitude’! 

We ran out of Heinz and were having a BBQ. Morrisons too ran out of Heinz, so I bought their own brand, after all it was only the neighbours coming round. It was very good, so we only buy that now. I tried their own brand soup. Tastes just the same as Heinz. I wonder if Morrisons will do cruises?.🤔

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, Fionboard said:

?????????!!!!

Simples. It’s ok to question a familiar product if you feel or fear that the product is changing (like Selbourne), without being told that you should try a rival product just to be more understanding! Most companies want to keep their customers and good businesses want to know how they can do that. P&O? I’m not too sure! 

[Ardennais]

29 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We ran out of Heinz and were having a BBQ. Morrisons too ran out of Heinz, so I bought their own brand, after all it was only the neighbours coming round. It was very good, so we only buy that now. I tried their own brand soup. Tastes just the same as Heinz. I wonder if Morrisons will do cruises?.🤔

Don’t you like your neighbours then?!! Seriously though, it shows how easily people can change their loyalty so businesses need to reassure their customers, not alienate them. 

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, _Biscotti_ said:

New to this forum, but have just come back from the same cruise on Britannia and wanted to give my review. Hopefully it's helpful for future Britannia cruisers 🙂

This was my 4th cruise with P&O and sadly, Britannia was my least favourite ship (with Aurora being my favourite). 

Some things I didn't like about the ship itself:

• The lack of promenade deck that you can walk around - I don't think the walking track on deck 18 really counts as a proper promenade. 
• The atrium and the open plan layout of it. Whilst I love the big ceiling decoration that hangs, I miss the grand staircase and do prefer the Glass House/Java area to be a bit more separated.
• One pool too few - I'm not sure if this is down to the fact there's about 3.5k guests or that the no reserving sunbeds with towels rule isn't really enforced, but it could take some time to find an available sun lounger on the sea days.

Things I did like:

• The seating areas are modern and plentiful. Whilst the furniture on the balconies look a bit tired and the tables on the aft starboard side of deck 16 need a good clean/replacing. The rest of the furniture and décor was quite attractive.

 

Service

We found the service to be very good and all the staff were friendly. I only encountered one seemingly miserable waiter at the Lido bar, but maybe he had just had a bad day. The number of very happy and friendly staff far outnumbered this guy. It is clear the staff are more stretched than they used to be. Our cabin steward was brilliant, but had 21 cabins to do every day! The waiters also seemed to have a bigger workload than usual and the lack of a wine waiter was probably the most noticeable difference about the pace of service.

 

Food

The food was enjoyable. Would have liked some more variety in the buffet, but the food that was there was nice, I particularly like the salads in those little blue bowls. The meals in the main dining room were also good, with my two favourite mains being Mozzarella & Tomato Gnocchi and Beef Wellington.

The small plates in the Glass House are actually quite big. I got 3 for £6.95, but really one or two would have been enough for lunch.

Sindhu was the most amazing meal I had - I had the Tandoori Ratan to start and the Sindhu Signature Plate as the main. I cannot recommend these enough.

The Beach House was nice, but nothing special. The portions are huge, which given the £7.50 cover charge is brilliant, but I would probably skip this restaurant next time.

 

Room service had mixed reviews amongst our group. My Grandma really enjoyed the wrap she got, but my boyfriend ordered the 'Double Decker Burger' and the meat was really cheap quality. Room service is inexpensive, but the free burgers from the grill were much better, and I got peanuts instead of giant corn on my Tex Mex Combo - still not sure why. They also charged the room service to my boyfriend's card, despite the fact that I ordered it and I am the lead guest on the cabin. I think this is because I get 5% discount, but he doesn't as they also charged Sindhu to my sister's boyfriends card (where she gets discount and he doesn't) despite her being the one that booked, so just keep an eye on that!

 

Drinks

The mocktails are very good, as are the cocktails - my favourite of these being Raspberry Crème Brulee (imagine a slightly alcoholic Raspberry Ripple ice cream flavour). The bars offer the same small selection of cocktails, which were good, but I would have liked there to be some unique ones for each bar to make the menu and each venue more interesting.

 

I don't drink coffee but my parents tried everywhere for coffee and their favourites were Java, Rivera Bar and the Crows Nest. They said the Glass House coffee wasn't as good and they had to wait a while because they only have one coffee machine, so they recommend you buy a coffee from Java and walk over to the Glass House if you want to sit there.

 

Other Pros:

• The Headliners circus show is brilliant.
• Itinerary was great - the only port I didn't enjoy was Toulon.

 

Other Cons:

• No evening turn down - I personally don't mind this, although I did miss the little chocolate 😋
• They don't sing Happy Birthday to you with the music anymore - they said this stopped because some guests didn't like it, but I really enjoyed when they did this little touch, it just made the Birthday's more special and memorable.
• No photographers - would be nice to have these on the formal nights at least.

 

Overall, our entire group enjoyed the cruise (there were 7 of us ranging from 26-80 in age), there were a few small cut backs that on their own aren't so bad, but added together make a noticeable difference. I imagine these are across all P&O ships though. So I would say that overall it wasn't bad, but wasn't too special either - 3.5/5

 

Next time, I would try a ship with a few more activities and a bigger variety of restaurants and bars (I'm 29 and found myself wanting more variety). Perhaps Royal Caribbean or Arvia will be better for me.

A good review, we were on the same ship and mine would probably have been different.

Incidentally Ii think those tables on the starboard side of the sunset bar are intended to look distressed. If you examine them carefully the pattern is identical on them all. But I agree it's not a good look.

[Denarius]

12 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

A good review, we were on the same ship and mine would probably have been different.

Incidentally Ii think those tables on the starboard side of the sunset bar are intended to look distressed. If you examine them carefully the pattern is identical on them all. But I agree it's not a good look.

I thought the Sunset Bar to be a wasted opportunity.

This could have been a pleasant place to spend an evening, with subdued lighting and possibly occasional low key live music. Like the equivalent bars on Celebrity ships. Instead, half the bar is colonised by the Beach House and reserved for diners, the other half is a smoking area and covered with a permanent cloud of smoke.

[Son of Anarchy]

2 hours ago, Denarius said:

I thought the Sunset Bar to be a wasted opportunity.

This could have been a pleasant place to spend an evening, with subdued lighting and possibly occasional low key live music. Like the equivalent bars on Celebrity ships. Instead, half the bar is colonised by the Beach House and reserved for diners, the other half is a smoking area and covered with a permanent cloud of smoke.

We had similar thoughts on our one and only Britannia cruise.  We also found that the smoke from the smoking side drifting into the ship.  You even got a lungful of the stuff  popping from the lift into the buffet.

[Fionboard]

Sunset Bar is nicknamed "The Fridge" as it is practically unusable in cold or windy weather! But at least it is a better area than on Royal Princess which was merely a huge open space with fake grass, some sunbeds, tables and chairs for smokers and a chap serving drinks from a trolley!?