Live(ish) from Britannia B404A

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

So, to manage expectations, this will not be anywhere near the quality of the epic that @Selbourneis treating us to nor will there be photos etc. Only getting the Wi-Fi on sea days so other days will depend on my mobile package.  I also hate using the iPad keyboard so apologies for any accidental autocorrections that creep in.

 

Saturday 24th Feb - Gatwick to Barbados

 

On the Tui flight and upgraded to PE as this trip is for Mrs DCHs birthday.  Easy check in, captain came around the cabin for a chat before take off and we pushed back on time.  Captain told us we had an unusual routing today flying over Madeira but we still landed early.  Very happy with the flight experience, comfortable seating, plenty of refreshments, food was okay and we even got the old fashioned cream tea before landing.

 

There was a group of people in our cabin who were a bit loud so I was thankful for my noise cancelling headphones.  A couple of these women kept walking across in front of the people inRow 1 to get to their friends despite being told not to.  I would probably have tripped them up if they had tried that to me but the people in those seats were obviously more tolerant than I would have been.

 

Got off quickly and jumped on something closer to a real coach than the other minibuses that were queuing up. Journey was a bit slow as there seemed to be a major event near the hospital that snarled up the traffic. Once at the port,we were welcomed with a steel trio playing that well known Caribbean song, roll out the barrel!  Very quick registration and onto Britannia, our first time on her.

 

Our cases took a couple of hours to arrive but we got a couple of NoLadas to cool us down and the we went for dinner in the MDR.

 

The lamb kofta surprised me as it had quite a kick - @Selbourne maybe our chef has nicked the spices missing on your ship- the turkey was okay and then we had ‘ hunt the apple’ strussel for desert.  Listened to the DJ playing to not many people on a very subdued Sail Away before retiring to our room.

 

This morning, we are on a sea day but it is very hot so we are being sensible and only spent a short time out on the sunbeds.  Seemed like a serious medical incident on Deck 17 so hope that whoever was affected recover soon.

 

We are waiting for a plumber as we have no cold water to the sink and not much hot although the shower is fine.

 

Neil Lockwood tonight to I will look forward to the ELO stuff while sweating in my dinner suit.

 

 

 

[Selbourne]

Just now, Thedonkeycentrehalf said:

Neil Lockwood tonight to I will look forward to the ELO stuff while sweating in my dinner suit.

Thoroughly enjoyed him earlier on our cruise. 

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Sunday 25th Sea Day / Monday 26th Curacao

 

I’ll start with some updates from the sea day.  We went up to sit around the pool mid afternoon and listened to George the busker.  Loads of people seemed to have given up as it was so hot so plenty of space around the pools and I even ,managed to into the pool with only a handful of others in there.

 

When we got back to the cabin, our sink issue had been fixed so nice and quick.

 

It was Celebration Night - the sooner they make a linen dinner suit the better - and we chose to share a table in the MDR.  We had three other really nice couples on the table so it was a good evening.  The menu was okay although the prime fillet was somewhat small.  I remembered what others said about steaks in the MDR and ordered one ‘doneness’ down from usual and it worked perfectly.

 

We then went through to watch Neil Lockwood and really enjoyed his show before a quick trip to the Crows Nest before bed.

 

We woke up at 7am to find we were already tied up in Curacao with Celebrity Beyond docked in front of us.  We took the room service breakfast as we only wanted something light. We then took a free walking tour around Willemstad which was really good, not too fast and the guide was really engaging.  During the tour, the swing bridge opened to let MSC Explorer into the dock in the middle of the city.

 

At the end of the tour we spent some more time walking around before heading back to the ship as we had run out of energy.

 

I went off to look at the MDR menu for tonight but with the new electronic displays, they don’t seem to update until just before dinner. I managed to get a copy from reception but as there wasn’t anything we fancied we’ll probably pop into the Glass House.

 

Bonaire tomorrow where we will hopefully be trundling around the island on a golf buggy.

 

Mrs DCH is happy as my O2 contract has the travel bundles and I’ve set her up with a link to my phone hotspot so she can keep in touch with the kids back home.  Having said that, she seems to be spending more time just telling them how hot it is here compared to back home so I reckon I might get a message from the kids soon asking me to shut her access off😊

[July morning]

I'm really enjoying all the "livish"  reports lots of people are doing 😁 keep up the good work and enjoy your holiday

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Tuesday 27th Bonaire

 

Last night we had a great meal in The Glass House.  Mrs DCH tried the Jam Shed Shiraz (no idea where that idea came from😊) which she really enjoyed.  The new British Retro desserts have a very nice cherry arctic roll, a nice but nothing special walnut whip and the fantastic wagon wheels.  Highly recommended but you really have to share as they are very rich.

 

The captain announced that we would take a little diversion to kill time on the short hop to Bonaire.  We left at 6pm but I do wonder why P&O don’t just give us more time in port to enjoy the nightlife of places rather than just bob around using fuel etc.  I’m sure the local government would love to have the additional income for the local economy.
 

Woke up this morning to lovely views of the sea.  Our cabin is port side but in Bonaire we have docked the other way around.

 

After another room service breakfast we got off to find our golf cart.  Having signed our life away while also confirming we have health insurance, we were given a quick briefing on how to drive the carts and then we were on our way.

 

Once we were out of the main town, it was quite easy as there is one road that runs around the bottom of the island (we did the south loop).  We made a few stops to take some photos and to have a quick dip in the sea.  
 

There was the amazing sight of having the lovely colours of the see on one side and the strange pink water of the salt marshes on the other.

 

We then made a stop at Lac Bay where we found a lovely beach bar.  It seems like there was something happening with the road as it looked like it had been shut but then reopened. The beach bar team said there was no food as they didn’t think they were going to be able to open.

 

Having enjoyed a drink overlooking the bay, we drove on a short while and found another restaurant with different views across the bay.  It seemed to be full of locals which, as there were no houses anywhere nearby, we took as a good sign.  A lovely lunch was taken, watching pelicans and Flamingoes flying over.

 

We the headed back to drop off the cart before having a wander around the town.

 

I would highly recommended the golf carts as a fun way of seeing the island, much better that being in a little minibus.  I do have a version of the old taxi drivers tan though but instead of one tanned arm I have one slightly sunburned leg.

 

I think it is an Adele tribute in Headliners tonight.  I can’t stand the miserable real singer so I’m hoping to give that a miss unless Mrs DCH really wants to go.

 

Sea day tomorrow before heading to St Lucia.

[Fionboard]

Spent the day at the Spice Club last time. Free entry, great music, food and drinks. A couple of Euros by taxi. Ship's tour there cost £40 and they only stayed for a couple of hours! Might try the buggy next time, sounds good. 

[Eddie99]

Enjoying the read - and trying to imagine the sunshine!

 

Hope St Lucia was a lovely day for you

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Wednesday 28th Feb - Sea day / Thursday 29th Feb - St Lucia

 

After a nice, leisurely sea day breakfast, joined in the Bingo (one number needed, isn’t that always the case) and the went for the port guide which seems to be a South African guy and his wife trying to get you into expensive jewellery shops.  I’m very lucky that Mrs DCH isn’t into her jewellery, unlike a lady we shared a dinner table with who didn’t stop going on about her expensive bling.

 

We somewhat unusually ended up in the MDR for a light lunch which by close of play we were grateful.  After some time on deck playing hunt the sunbed without towels reserving them we settled down for a quiet read and forgot to reapply the sun cream in some places so I looked like a weird red and white tiger whenI got back to the cabin.

 

we had another attempt at getting a nice formal night photo and somehow ended up with a little private studio session. The photographer was getting  little annoyed as we were not taking it seriously while she was setting up her arty shots.

 

Finally made it into the MDR. Service so far has been great but tonight was very slow, they forgot our amuse bouche (it sounded horrible so we weren’t fussed), the dinner wasn’t great and we had some dreadful dining company unlike previous nights.

 

Where the service was so slow, we missed the first run of the second Neil Lockwood show so went to see Tony Maxwell, a comedian described as being like Tim Vine and Lee Mack.  Whoever came up with that has never seen either of those two live as he was nothing like them and was pretty poor, even for a cruise ship comedian.  Even worse, he is one of those who thinks he can sing. It brought back memories of some ropey old holiday camp entertainers from my dim and distant youth.

 

Thankfully the evening finished with Neil Lockwood and his second show was just as interesting as the first one.

 

St Lucia

 

An early start and we had Jewel of the Seas parked up before us (it has just sailed away as I’m typing).  We booked a private tour with Island Man Taxis and our guid, Ricardo, was waiting at the entrance for us.

 

The spacious air conditioned Toyota was lovely and comfortable. Mrs DCH loves her plants so he stopped in many times on the way to the point out different plants etc on our way to the south of the island, as well as the usual tourist view points.  He also kept the street traders away from us.

 

Having managed to get past the RCL hoarders heading in the same direction, he switched plans and we were able to get into the sulphur baths and back out before they caught up with us.  This switch allowed us to get to the waterfalls ahead of another bunch so we got some lovely pictures.  We chose not to risk the volcano tour as it may have left us a bit tight for time getting back, as it was, the traffic wasn’t too bad but looking out from my balcony, there is a huge queue of traffic trying to get into Castries so it was probably the right call. 

 

Not looked at Horizon to see what is on tonight but we will see some real comedy when we review the photos from last night!
 

Grenada tomorrow and hopefully another live(ish) update to share.

 

Edited February 29 by Thedonkeycentrehalf

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Friday 1st March - Grenada

 

Last night, Mrs DCH said she had arranged for some sunset photos to be taken.  What this turned into was a 75 minute photoshoot across many different locations around the ship.  You’d think we would have learned from the night before but I’m definitely keeping Mrs DCH away from the purple shirted perils for the rest of the cruise.

 

After dinner in the MDR, we decided to give the theatre a go.  The act was Manuel Martinez, a Cuban entertainer.  I’m sure many may have seen him already but I was surprised that he was very entertaining even though he reminded me a bit of The Great Soprendo.

 

We woke up in Grenada and we’re moored next to one of those fancy Ritz Carlton ships.  They look beautiful but probably way out of my price range.

 

Today was another unofficial tour, this time with the great Standley from JNJ Tours.  We got to try some great spices, visited the waterfall and went up to the volcanic lake before we saw some of the monkeys.  They had been hiding but Standley had some fruit and his call managed to attract three of them.  Some P&O official tour people arrived and they were amazed to see our man getting the monkeys to come and take the food from him.

 

We then went up to the fort and then to the run distillery where we tried several quite potent brews.

 

Having got back to the port, we dropped our bags off and had a wander through the town.

 

All very friendly and probably my favourite place so far.

 

Tonight we get to see the results of our photoshoots and tomorrow is St Vincent and for us, a pirates tour.

[BouncingWheel]

Manuel Martinez is even funnier outside the theatre. The amount of passengers that I met that said they chatted with him and found out that he was really from ‘X’  only to find out he told each one a different place! 🤣

[Presto2]

We too found the photographers a bit of a pain. Some lacked a sense of humour and as we had a package that included a photo we tried some formal ones. To say we both looked ridiculous is an understatement and we ended up with a nice natural one by the ship as we got off for an excursion. Had the photo not been part of our package though we wouldn't have bought it as the prices are quite steep!

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Saturday 2nd March -St Vincent

 

Last night we decided to go into the early Headliners show, Gravity - 45 minutes of my life I won’t get back. Very uninspiring and everyone seemed to be singing too high.

 

Went into the MDR and another nice table of guests but poor service. Most of the time it has been excellent but this is the second occasion where they have been very slow, forgotten requests and generally below the normal standards.

 

After that we met our lovely photographer to see her picture.  She had some great composition of the pictures and we found a few we both liked.  However, Mrs DCH had not checked the pricing.  When we were told £300 for five pictures or £100 for one she nearly fell off the sofa.  The photographer was very nice about it all but while you don’t expect it to be cheap, this is ridiculous.  To me it is like restaurant desserts, if they halved the price, people would buy more often and they wouldn’t lose out.

 

Waking up to another glorious morning, this time in St Vincent, we had our now customary light room service breakfast before heading out on another tour. This one was a pirate tour with Quency Lewis and we were met by him, a larger than life character, outside the gate.  The ladies were all given plastic pearl necklaces to wear.

 

They took a couple of minibuses of us out together with a support vehicle.  First stop was in a fishing village where we had photos, were given bananas and pirate hats to wear.  Then onto the Pirates of the Caribbean bay where we stopped for photos, rum punch and some dancing - much to the bemusement of those on the official P&O tour who left before us.

 

Next was an hour at a secured beach down a very rough track but absolutely beautiful and the sea was lovely and warm.  Leaving there, we stopped for a couple of quick photo stops and thought we were heading back to the port.  They explained that usually the tour finished up at the Fort but this had been closed as they are doing some repair works.

 

The next part was both bizarre and brilliant.  They drove us to the posh part of town and to where the now closed old airport was.  This is being transformed so the old terminal now has shops and a bar in the old ATC tower.  Their is a road crossing the old runway but either side the runway is still there.  We saw someone learning to drive and also some animals - I feel Goats On A Runway will be the least successful film in that well known franchise.

 

We parked up on the runway where we were given more drinks, some snacks, baked savouries and pastries.  Quency then gathered us around as someone had put on Facebook that they were celebrating their birthday. He unveiled a lovely cake so we sang happy birthday to the embarrassed chap before tucking into a very nice cake.  Another cake was then brought out as a thank you to some people who were on the tour for the fourth time as a thank you.

 

After 5 fun hours, we we dropped back to the ship.  This tour was 35USD each, ridiculously good value and worth every cent.

 

Half way through and a sea day tomorrow which means a lie in, a proper breakfast and then playing hunt the sunbed as we have seen people out there reserving them at 7am when we have popped up to grab an early cuppa from the buffet, despite all the signs saying not to reserve beds.  Maybe I should go out there and steal their towel clips, if nothing else, reselling them on eBay might help pay off some of the bills!

[P&O SUE]

I’m a bit late to this thread, but I’m enjoying it, thanks.

 

Looking forward to the next instalment.

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Sunday 3rd March- Sea day / Monday 4th St Kitts

 

On the Saturday night we had a nice dinner and the went to see the Vinylettes in Headliners who were pretty good.

 

A fairly quiet sea day, lie in, MDR breakfast (thanks to whoever mentioned asking for hot thick toast, a revelation when compared to the usual cold crackers) a sit in the sun before I went to Manuel Martinez’s Magic Workshop. It was late starting as the Diamond peddlers were doing their bit, tempting people into the shops in St Kitts with promises of free ear rings.

 

The workshop was like a mini show, quite entertaining albeit a way for Senor Martinez to sell some tricks at the end of the session.

 

Finally finished my first book of the cruise while sat on the balcony during a pleasant afternoon.  Our third celebration night was spent in the MDR and the food was good as was the company.  One advantage of celebration night is that you get proper butter pats rather than the usual cubes. I’m sure there is a Caribbean butter shortage as the cubes get smaller each day and we get one tiny cube each to butter a roll.
 

@Selbourne has talked about the green bean surplus on Aurora, we seem to have bullet peas and carrot chunks with every meal. The only time we’ve seen green beans is if anyone orders the standard sirloin steak.

 

I got talking to one couple on the table and we had a shared interest in heavy rock music.  Once the others had left, the guy shared some photos he had taken as a photographer at Live Aid which were very impressive. He said his only disappointment was he managed to get a picture of Paul and Linda McCartney backstage but in his excitement at meeting the great man, he didn’t set his camera properly and it came out all blurry.
 

Headliners tonight was given a miss as they were doing show tunes tonight and the little we heard on our way to dinner sounded pretty ropey so we headed to the Limelight Club to watch Exxile and our favourite stand up dancing drummer who is captivating to watch.

 

St Kitts

 

Our now standard room service breakfast before another tour, this time with Thenford Grey tours. Thenford is an old local who started giving tours as a sideline before doing it full time with his daughter and nephew.  We visited Romney Manor with it’s beautiful gardens and Batik making before heading up to the fort with amazing views.

 

We then came back across the island to see Frigate Bay before heading down to South Friars beach where we spent 90 Minutes enjoying the sea and a nice lunch at the shipwreck bar before coming back into port.  A six and a half hour tour for only 65USD which included the entrance fees to the gardens and the fort. 
 

We’ve been lucky that all of our unofficial tours have been great and this was no exception, gently paced and you felt you were talking with an old friend and not a tour guide.

 

We were thankful to @Selbourne for the warning about this place actually wanting to see the photo ID.  I always carry my driving licence but Mrs DCH didn’t bring hers so we while we usually take a photo of her passport with us, this time we took the actual document.  Not sure what they would do if you didn’t have the photo ID but I would bet a few got caught out today.

 

 I think we will hit the Glass House again tonight before going to see Manuel Martinez’s second show of the cruise.

 

Tomorrow is Antigua and our first official P&O tour so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Tuesday 5th March - Antigua 

 

Another nice meal in The Glass House last night but they seem to be slowing down tables so it took a while to get seated which meant we had to go to the late performance of Manuel Martinez which was again very enjoyable.

 

We had an afternoon tour booked in Antigua so had a leisurely breakfast in the MDR and then went for a walk into St John’s but it is the prettiest of places. 
 

Our first official excursion but we were pleased to see a couple in the queue who we have seen many times during our cruise and who we have had a laugh with.

 

The tour guide was very lively and entertaining during the drive to Shirley Heights and then Nelson’s Dockyard.  The dockyard was nice but nothing special so the 45 minutes there was enough unless you wanted to have a meal.  Probably our least favourite of all the places we have visited.

 

Busy day in port with four other ships docked, a Marella one, a Viking one, the huge NCL Viva and a nice Aida ship next to us. We were late back from our excursion and Viva was first to leave as we got on board.

 

We got back to the cabin and Mrs DCH popped up to lido deck to grab a couple of teas.  She came back and told me to go out onto the balcony.  There was a sing off taking place between Britannia and the Aida ship sail away parties with each taking turns to sing a song to the other.  It seemed like half the balconies on our side of the ship had people hanging over joining in and waving flags and the Aida was the same.  It was great to watch and listen to and the port staff seemed quite bemused. As we were next to leave there was a huge cheer and round of applause for us from the German ship as we pulled away.

 

Dinner in the MDR was good (more carrots but still no green beans!) and a nice bunch of people.  We then went to watch Astonishing which was okay but again, the Headliners cast made it hard as they are not great singers, especially the male members.  One of the female singers is like a ventriloquist dummy as she never seems to move her mouth.

 

Tomorrow is St Maarten (well, today but we’re about to sail so the mobile signal will go shortly so will do the next instalment when I get internet for our sea day tomorrow)

 

[Eddie99]

It’s all sounding pretty damn good!  Who wouldn’t enjoy a fortnight in the Caribbean just now?

Hope St Marteen is good for you too.  Stay away from those jewellery shops 🙂. Expensive hobby!

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

7 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

It’s all sounding pretty damn good!  Who wouldn’t enjoy a fortnight in the Caribbean just now?

Hope St Marteen is good for you too.  Stay away from those jewellery shops 🙂. Expensive hobby!

Thankfully Mrs DCH is not into jewellery so I am lucky in that respect.

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Wednesday 6th - St Maarten

 

Today was an Island Adventure tour with Bernard’s Tours. Having eventually found the meeting point, we met our driver and guide for the day who went by the name of “Sexy” - obviously a modest chap.

 

The tour did a loop of the island so we started off by heading over the border into the French part of the island. We stopped frequently for photo stops around the island but our first scheduled stop was to see the iguanas which sit around the side of the road / waterfront.

 

From there, we headed to Grand Anse beach where we had 90 minutes to relax.  There was a guy with those motorised surf boards which was fun to watch.  When he wasn’t teaching people to use the he was showing off his skills in riding this contraption.  I took a video and was please to manage to catch one of his pupils taking a spectacular fall☺️

 

Back on the bus we the went into Marigot for a short look around and some lovely french pastries before crossing back into the Dutch side and Maho Beach.  I was looking forward to this and wasn’t disappointed as a few large aircraft landed straight over our heads onto the runway behind.

 

Another enjoyable private tour and plenty of refreshments provided on the way round.

 

Although it was a port day, last night was the last black tie night of the cruise as some people fly home on Friday.  A nice dinner in the MDR but a bit slow service so we had to change our plans as we missed the first Headliners show.  There was someone doing a George Michael tribute in the Live Lounge, not my thing but Mrs DCH was a fan so we thought we’d head over early.

 

The queue to get in was back past Sindhu as we had to wait for the first performance to finish.  The same happened for the one we got into, they had someone stopping people coming in as it was full.  However, while he was a decent singer, he sounded nothing like George Michael and half way through we decided to leave (and we were not the first).

 

Thankfully the evening was saved by the second performance of the Vinylettes in Headliners who did soul and Motown classics and we enjoyed their show.

 

Today is a sea day so a quiet morning before hoping the internet holds up to enable me to watch Roma v Brighton this afternoon.  The Wi-Fi is not strong up here on Riviera deck so I might sit down in the atrium to get the best signal.  
 

Tonight we are in Limelight to see Tom Lister and tomorrow is the first of two days in Barbados before we fly home so the plan is to give you one more post from here and then a wrap up when I am back in Blighty.

[jaydee6969]

Enjoying your postings, sounds like the same itinerary I would like to do, just need to convince the wife to fly that far!

 

Maho beach would be a must for me, and I am liking your indy tours and keeping the names for reference if I ever get there.

 

 

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Thursday 7th Sea Day / Friday 8th Barbados

 

Apart from the football, a fairly quiet sea day with a nice late afternoon cruise by of St Lucia and the Pitons before seeing Tom Lister in the Limelight.  I’ll have to admit, I hadn’t heard of him before but he shared a very entertaining and self deprecating life history and had a very good voice.  The food and service was also very good so we were pleased with our first visit to the Limelight.

 

Barbados

 

An early arrival into port today.  We had a light MDR breakfast before heading off to join a short Beautiful Barbados shipwreck and turtle snorkel excursion on a glass bottom boat.

 

 It was a last minute booking and something Mrs DCH really wanted to do but as she is not a confident swimmer, she was very nervous.  The guys on the boat were brilliant with her, one of the team stayed with her and another lady to get their confidence up during the initial snorkel before escorting them to the shipwreck where there were loads of different fish as well as the turtles Mrs DCH wanted to see. 
 

After being dropped back to the cruise terminal, a quick change before getting a local shuttle into Bridgetown.  We had a nice wander around and even bought some stuff in the local Woolworths!  
 

A gentle stroll back to the ship interrupted by finding a really nice ice cream parlour in the pretty arts and crafts place on the main road back.  The run and raisin had a real run kick and the coconut and caramel was really creamy.

 

Back on board now and watching the newbies turning up looking all hot and bothered after a long flight.

 

Mrs DCH thinks that I am packing rather than typing this up so I’d better get on with that.

 

Copacabana Beach Club tomorrow before our flight back home tomorrow evening.

[Gettingwarmer]

Thanks for your report. Hope you have a good journey home. 

[Eddie99]

Safe journey

 

I’ve enjoyed your accounts.  Your satisfaction with the local tours you’ve taken is evident.  It seems you’ve experienced more than by going with the P&O tours - and probably paid less, too

 

Thanks again for taking the time out to post.  I hope you got the packing done on time!

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Saturday 8th - Barbados

 

The Friday night on board was fairly quiet as it is the first changeover day.  Lots of very pale people looking lost and lots of very tanned people looking sad as they were due to go home the following day and had to pack.  Not much entertainment around - the busker and a pianist plus a quiz in Brodies - so we had a quiet drink in The Crows Nest before popping into the shop to use up some remaining credit on Toblerones for the kids.

 

Saturday morning started with a last MDR breakfast.  The service was a bit hit and miss again like the previous day - maybe on port days there are fewer staff around.

 

We then joined the Beach Club to Boarding Gate excursion.  We booked this fairly late on as we had credit to use and, having seen the bodies the previous day looking bored and trying to find somewhere to sit on the ship before their transfer home, it seemed like a good choice.

 

After a short coach ride we found ourselves literally next door to the place we did the turtle snorkel the day before.  The beach club provided a secure store for your bags and then we were given towels, a welcome drink and then shown to the sunbeds and umbrella allocated to us.

 

There was a bar service and we were given a lunch.  There was a large changing room with lockers, showers and toiletries provided before heading to the airport.

 

That all sounds good but to be honest, the secure store never seemed to be locked, the lunch which we were told included hanger steak had the steak replaced by a lamb stew that was all bone and little meat while we also found that instead of a 2:45pm transfer to the airport it was actually 2pm.  However, it was probably still better than hanging around the ship.

 

When we got to the airport, it was fairly well organised by P&O and then it was time to fly home.

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

Denouement 

 

This was our first fly cruise and first time on Britannia (always Ventura and Azura before) so plenty of new experiences for us.

 

TUI Flights

 

This was our first charter flight since 2003 and we did go Premium Economy.  Both flights arrived early, the seats were very comfortable, the service good and even the food was decent (and I am not a fan of airline food).  We even got the old cream tea on the way out - something not seen on long haul flights for many a year.

 

Britannia

 

Apart from a minor issue with the sink tap which was quickly fixed, we were very happy with the ship.  The cabin was comfortable, the shower was good and we liked the different venues available.  Probably now my favourite ship and it will be interesting to see what the mini-refurb brings.

 

We hardly saw our cabin steward (unusually) and when we did she always seemed miserable - unlike the others on our deck who always gave a friendly greeting.

 

Dining

 

Having seen the reports from @Selbourne we didn't have the green bean overload but instead, we seemed to get bullet peas and carrots with most meals.  Overall, the MDR food was generally good with a couple of exceptions.  The portions aren't huge (no bad thing) and I actually lost just over 1kg while we were away.  We had a couple of meals in the Glass House which is always good and also a very nice meal in the limelight club.

 

We only used the buffet for the occasional light lunch (usually grabbing a couple of rolls and filling with either cold meats or the hot roast meats.  What we had from there was okay but it wasn't somewhere we would use often now.

 

It's a shame that they still insist on using Tetley tea rather than the old PG Tips so, in that very British way, we took our own teabags with us.

 

I don't drink alcohol but the range of soft drinks and mocktails was wide enough to keep me happy.

 

Entertainment

 

You're never going to please everyone but we really enjoyed some acts - Neil Lockwood, Manuel Martinez and The Vinylettes - some were not so good and I found the Headliners cast to be pretty ropey so we ended up avoiding them.

 

One of the house bands - Exxile - were also very good, especially the drummer who was a show on his own with his stand up, dancing drumming style.

 

There was plenty going on around the ship and the entertainment team were all very good, enthusiastic without being over the top.

 

Itinerary

 

We go on cruises to visit lots of places so seeing so many islands in two weeks was great and we really enjoyed everywhere we visited.  No tenders required which is always a good thing.  It's a shame that most of the ports now seem identikit setups (walk past Diamonds International, the Del Sol shop, the place selling bamboo bedding and the Ganzees shops).

 

My only minor frustration is that we always had to be back on board at 5:30pm and sometime we were going so slowly between ports that swimmers would have overtaken us.  I wish we could have some evenings in port rather than have to leave so early.

 

I'd like to thank people in various parts of this board for some of the recommendations about independent excursions - all of which were very good and better value than the P&O excursions.

 

Our Stalkers

 

I mentioned a few times a lovely couple who we met over dinner on the second night and who we kept bumping into either on the ship or in various places around the islands we visited even if we were on different excursions - so much so we joked they were stalking us.  We hoped to catch up with them on their last day but they were dining in The Epicurean and we didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

 

I can't remember their names but if by any chance they are reading this, they will know who they are and I'd like to thank them for making the cruise fun.

 

Goodbye!

 

I never planned to write these reports - especially in such detail - but having enjoyed reading the works of @Selbourne and @TigerB I caught the bug.

 

To be honest, it also really helped remember how much we had crammed into two weeks as towards the end, you start to get confused about where you have been and what you did on which island.

 

I hope that people have found this useful and maybe even an enjoyable read and thanks to all those who have made nice comments or given reactions to the various posts.

 

Not sure if we will cruise next year but if so, I might bore you all again!

 

[Ardennais]

Very enjoyable! Many thanks.