Britannia Cruise Summary

[Ardennais]

Just a short summary of our Britannia cruise.

 

Very relaxing ports of call, all repeats for us (Vigo, Lisbon, Cartagena, Gibraltar, Malaga and Cadiz), and fantastic weather. We only did one excursion from Vigo to Santiago de Compostela - I’ve wanted to go there for ages and we enjoyed that. 

Lovely clean ship but it struck us how dark it was, compared to Iona a few months ago. We do miss a proper promenade deck. Cabin layout much better than Iona and roomier too. Also had a shaver socket in the bathroom and drawers! 
 

Good staffing levels, so much easier to get a coffee and a drink. Ok, not school holidays and very few children, but that’s the sort of service which should be the norm. 
 

Entertainment - excellent. We had 4 Headliner shows. Gareth Oliver is always good and we particularly enjoyed Duo Escencias - a professional Flamenco dancer and a violinist. Limelight Club - Joel Harper Jones was a delight. Plenty of films in the Studio - I’ve listed them on another thread. We decided to change our 10.30 bookings for 8.30 but the theatre was quite full by about 8.15 and they were checking at the door nearly every time, 

Food - quite poor in our opinion. Often cold and tasteless.  Limited choices in the Horizon. 3 themed buffets - British, Indian and Asian. We were spoiled on Iona I suppose! My cousin was boarding Britannia as we were leaving - their first cruise. It will be interesting to hear what he and his family have to say next week! The best meal was room service - pie, chips and peas. This was tasty and piping hot so they can do it! 

I’m in two minds about a cruise we have booked on Arcadia later in the year. They’re all repeat ports so we might sacrifice the lowish deposit and book a self-catering holiday in Scotland! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Britboys]

It's the food that is one of the main issues stopping me booking for 2025. I enjoyed my Aurora cruise overall last Summer but wasn't remotely impressed by the food in the mdr - especially the menu choices. It will be interesting to see how I get on this Summer...

[jeanlyon]

Yes me too.  This sounds awful.  I was rather glad to see themed nights are back in the buffet?  I thought I read they didn't do them any more.

[Ardennais]

Didn’t someone mention not long ago that the buffet on Arvia and Iona are supposed to be better than the older ships? Iona was definitely better and the Quays served tasty food which we really missed on Britannia! I understand that there might be less choice on the older ships, but what was available wasn’t much to write home about unfortunately, 

[kruzseeka]

19 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Didn’t someone mention not long ago that the buffet on Arvia and Iona are supposed to be better than the older ships? Iona was definitely better and the Quays served tasty food which we really missed on Britannia! I understand that there might be less choice on the older ships, but what was available wasn’t much to write home about unfortunately, 

Sorry to hear that the food isn't as good as you would have hoped for or expected. We've decided to book (first time on anything bigger than Aurora or Arcadia) hoping to enjoy more options for food but if the basic standard isn't great that's disappointing. Do your comments refer to MDR and buffet and did you try any of the speciality restaurants?  We've got quite a bit of obc so could be using room service quite a lot! 😁

[Ardennais]

7 minutes ago, kruzseeka said:

Sorry to hear that the food isn't as good as you would have hoped for or expected. We've decided to book (first time on anything bigger than Aurora or Arcadia) hoping to enjoy more options for food but if the basic standard isn't great that's disappointing. Do your comments refer to MDR and buffet and did you try any of the speciality restaurants?  We've got quite a bit of obc so could be using room service quite a lot! 😁

Limelight was the only speciality restaurant we used and the meal was better than the MDR. This is what we had - my husband’s chicken was very plain and the dessert was rather bland. We definitely had a better meal in the Limelight on Iona. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fionboard]

51 minutes ago, Britboys said:

It's the food that is one of the main issues stopping me booking for 2025. I enjoyed my Aurora cruise overall last Summer but wasn't remotely impressed by the food in the mdr - especially the menu choices. It will be interesting to see how I get on this Summer...

Can honestly say food and service on Aurora was the best I have experienced post  pandemic (and have done 12 cruises since resumption). Only ate in MDR so cannot speak for the buffet though. 

[kruzseeka]

14 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Limelight was the only speciality restaurant we used and the meal was better than the MDR. This is what we had - my husband’s chicken was very plain and the dessert was rather bland. We definitely had a better meal in the Limelight on Iona. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicely presented but bland isn't what you'd hope for.  Just hoping feedback may bring about  improvements before we go. 😏

[Angel57]

10 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Can honestly say food and service on Aurora was the best I have experienced post  pandemic (and have done 12 cruises since resumption). Only ate in MDR so cannot speak for the buffet though. 

All sounds good for my forthcoming cruise on Aurora!

[Astrajet]

1 hour ago, Angel57 said:

All sounds good for my forthcoming cruise on Aurora!

Likewise 🙂!

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, kruzseeka said:

Nicely presented but bland isn't what you'd hope for.  Just hoping feedback may bring about  improvements before we go. 😏

Depends whether or not you get a questionnaire! We’ll see. If we do, I will state exactly as above. Good entertainment, good service, good staff, poor food, 

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, Fionboard said:

Can honestly say food and service on Aurora was the best I have experienced post  pandemic (and have done 12 cruises since resumption). Only ate in MDR so cannot speak for the buffet though. 

That's good to hear. Last summer, the service was great but I was totally underwhelmed with the food in the mdr. Whilst the quality was generally okay (but not great), the menu left a lot to be desired for my taste in food. I'm not sure it has changed much but I will keep my fingers crossed.

[daiB]

4 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Can honestly say food and service on Aurora was the best I have experienced post  pandemic (and have done 12 cruises since resumption). Only ate in MDR so cannot speak for the buffet though. 

I was impressed by Aurora at Christmas as well. Christmas dinner was excellent.

However after being on Iona we were blown away by what the food was like on her. It certainly matched Aurora for quality and was way ahead for variety. The range of eating possibilities is excellent.

[showingdiva]

 

What is this starter?   No matter how much I expand the photo, aside from the breadsticks, neither ramekin is obvious

 

[Ardennais]

2 hours ago, showingdiva said:

 

What is this starter?   No matter how much I expand the photo, aside from the breadsticks, neither ramekin is obvious

 

This was the amuse-bouche to share. Breadsticks, salted peanuts and some sort of pesto mix. 

[terrierjohn]

8 hours ago, Ardennais said:

Didn’t someone mention not long ago that the buffet on Arvia and Iona are supposed to be better than the older ships? Iona was definitely better and the Quays served tasty food which we really missed on Britannia! I understand that there might be less choice on the older ships, but what was available wasn’t much to write home about unfortunately, 

I think the better probably referred to the layout, Azura and Ventura must have the wort buffet design of any cruise ship, Britannia and the 2 new Excel ships have are much better designed.

[Ardennais]

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I think the better probably referred to the layout, Azura and Ventura must have the wort buffet design of any cruise ship, Britannia and the 2 new Excel ships have are much better designed.

I think it was also mentioned that there is a wider selection in order to entice passengers from the MDR. 

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

I think it was also mentioned that there is a wider selection in order to entice passengers from the MDR. 

Dont know about evening meals, we have never used the buffet on Iona for dinner,, but breakfast was identical to the older ships.

Edited April 30, 2023 by terrierjohn

[daiB]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

Dont know about evening meals, we have never used the buffet on Iona for dinner,, but breakfast was identical to the older ships.

Correct

[CarlaMarie]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:03 PM, Ardennais said:

Just a short summary of our Britannia cruise.

 

Very relaxing ports of call, all repeats for us (Vigo, Lisbon, Cartagena, Gibraltar, Malaga and Cadiz), and fantastic weather. We only did one excursion from Vigo to Santiago de Compostela - I’ve wanted to go there for ages and we enjoyed that. 

Lovely clean ship but it struck us how dark it was, compared to Iona a few months ago. We do miss a proper promenade deck. Cabin layout much better than Iona and roomier too. Also had a shaver socket in the bathroom and drawers! 
 

Good staffing levels, so much easier to get a coffee and a drink. Ok, not school holidays and very few children, but that’s the sort of service which should be the norm. 
 

Entertainment - excellent. We had 4 Headliner shows. Gareth Oliver is always good and we particularly enjoyed Duo Escencias - a professional Flamenco dancer and a violinist. Limelight Club - Joel Harper Jones was a delight. Plenty of films in the Studio - I’ve listed them on another thread. We decided to change our 10.30 bookings for 8.30 but the theatre was quite full by about 8.15 and they were checking at the door nearly every time, 

Food - quite poor in our opinion. Often cold and tasteless.  Limited choices in the Horizon. 3 themed buffets - British, Indian and Asian. We were spoiled on Iona I suppose! My cousin was boarding Britannia as we were leaving - their first cruise. It will be interesting to hear what he and his family have to say next week! The best meal was room service - pie, chips and peas. This was tasty and piping hot so they can do it! 

I’m in two minds about a cruise we have booked on Arcadia later in the year. They’re all repeat ports so we might sacrifice the lowish deposit and book a self-catering holiday in Scotland! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After talking to my Mum and Dad they gave similar feedback to yours regarding the food plus there were glitches in the app.

 

They joined the virtual queue for the Glass House one evening (as it was always showing as "full") at 19:15 and sat nearby with a drink and made sure to refresh the app page. At 20:45 they still hadn't been called and all of a sudden the app removed them from the queue and the restaurant was now shown as "full" and they were asked to join the queue again. Another couple nearby who had also been waiting were also thrown out of the queue. They went to speak to the restaurant manager and were told that their tables had been ready and as neither had arrived upon being notified the tables were released. The issue is though, neither got a notification that the tables were ready and both couples had been refreshing the app page. The restaurant manager informed them that they know there is a glitch and that they would have to rejoin the queue, which understandably both refused to do. The manager then agreed to come and get them as soon as two tables became free. My parents were finally given a table at 21:15 and their food arrived at 21:45. 

 

This is just one of a couple of issues they had with the app. They enjoyed the cruise and the ports of call, but the food quality and the app issues do let the whole experience down. 

[Ardennais]

5 hours ago, CarlaMarie said:

 

After talking to my Mum and Dad they gave similar feedback to yours regarding the food plus there were glitches in the app.

 

They joined the virtual queue for the Glass House one evening (as it was always showing as "full") at 19:15 and sat nearby with a drink and made sure to refresh the app page. At 20:45 they still hadn't been called and all of a sudden the app removed them from the queue and the restaurant was now shown as "full" and they were asked to join the queue again. Another couple nearby who had also been waiting were also thrown out of the queue. They went to speak to the restaurant manager and were told that their tables had been ready and as neither had arrived upon being notified the tables were released. The issue is though, neither got a notification that the tables were ready and both couples had been refreshing the app page. The restaurant manager informed them that they know there is a glitch and that they would have to rejoin the queue, which understandably both refused to do. The manager then agreed to come and get them as soon as two tables became free. My parents were finally given a table at 21:15 and their food arrived at 21:45. 

 

This is just one of a couple of issues they had with the app. They enjoyed the cruise and the ports of call, but the food quality and the app issues do let the whole experience down. 

The app seems very hit and miss doesn’t it!

 

My cousin was on the cruise after us to the Fjords, but they were in a suite so had breakfast in the Epicurean which was lovely. They weren’t impressed with the buffet and thought that the MDR was very disappointing. So they managed to book the Epicurean for a few dinners too. They enjoyed the overall cruise experience (this was their first cruise) and will go again. 

[smj777]

I don't know why P&O persevere with these dining apps. Everyone seems to have fallen foul of them at one time or another. The old system of turn up, be given a pager if there isn't a table ready was fine. We never had much of a wait and we were never forgotten or ignored as seems to happen now. On our last cruise in October we gave up on the app after we waited an hour and a quarter to be called and sat next to a couple who had just walked up. Thats just what we did afterwards and never had to wait for more than a few minutes to be seated.

[Britboys]

I'm so pleased that I won't have to use the 'app' on Aurora this summer...

[Presto2]

I am really confused. Can I just book a meal at a restaurant a day or so before ? 

I like to be organised and I want to relacx on holiday not worry about if the app is working or not.

[happy v]

2 hours ago, Presto2 said:

I am really confused. Can I just book a meal at a restaurant a day or so before ? 

I like to be organised and I want to relacx on holiday not worry about if the app is working or not.

Yes.