The Britannia Maiden Cruise (part 4)

[Gill W]

Port days - Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Civitavecchia

I'm writing this on the middle Saturday of our cruise, on the afternoon of our Civitavecchia call.

We had a pleasant time in Barcelona. We did the Gaudi tour, and visited the Park Guell and the inside of the Sagrada Familia. I like tours from the point of view that you can see quite a lot in a short space of time, but we never seem to stay long enough in the places I'm really interested in (Park Guell) and then it takes ages to actually get inside the main attraction. The guide took ages explaining the outside of the Sagrada Familia, I thought we'd never go in!

That afternoon James Martin was doing a book signing and photo opportunity. But I decided I'd rather attend the Spanish Sailaway, hosted by the King Of the Sailaway, Neil Oliver.

I never actually managed to see James Martin at all. Good thing I'm not really that bothered!

The next day saw our visit to Monte Carlo, and a big test for the crew - Britannia's first tender operation.

It started off just fine. We were doing another tour, so we had to meet in the Meridian. As it was early, we had no delay. Our tour was to St Paul de Vence, a delightful little village - I really enjoyed this.

We got back to the dockside at about 1 pm. A tender was waiting for us, no queues, excellent. It was a bit bumpy on the way back to the ship, and we were held for about 15 minutes while another boat was on the pontoon. Then it was our turn to unload - rather rocky, but ok. We had just got off the tender, and were on the stairs leading up to the security point, when there was a load cracking noise. I turned round and it looked as if one of the mooring ropes on the tender had snapped - the tender was bobbing around violently. Fortunately, no one had been disembarking the tender when this had happened. There were only a few people left on the tender, and it looked as if they were all upright, so luckily no one was hurt, but it could have been a bit nasty.

However, in the afternoon, the wind got up, and tendering passengers back to the ship became rather hazardous. I understand some passengers got very seasick, and getting out of the tender needed a lot of help from the crew. One woman said this was the first time she'd ever been genuinely scared on the tenders - she had to almost bodily heaved out of the tender into the arms of an officer!

Because of all this we didn't leave until about 7.45pm. The captain's PA address apologised for all the discomfort and praised his crew for everything that they did.

We were about an hour late into Civitavecchia this morning. All the Rome trips went, and we'll leave a little later this evening. We just went for a walk in Civitavecchia this morning. We got the shuttle bus to the port gate at about 10 am. All the tours had gone, but this was a peak time for people to leave indepentanly, so there were queues for the buses. It's obvious that, when a lot of people want to do the same thing at the same time, there'll be queues - but it doesn't stop the moaning!

As I've been on the ship for a week now, I can start making some observations about the ship.

I'll start on deck seven, the main passenger deck. I'll start at the front of the ship, with The Headliners Theatre (curiously, we don't have a Headliners Theatre troupe, we have a Britannia Show cast). This theatre can be accessed from decks seven and six. My first thought was, 'this theatre looks a bit small'. However, I understand it has about 950 seats, which is more than Ventura and Azura. These seats have really been squeezed in. The seats are narrow - in fact I think they'd be quite uncomfortable for larger people. Also the seating goes right up to wall with no side aisles, so each aisle can only be accessed from one end. As you can imagine, this is not popular.

If you exit the theatre from Deck 7, you come to The Crystal Room, touted as the ballroom dancing venue. During the day, there are dancing lessons. When this is not happening, it's a quiet daytime place to sit. On port side, there is a sort of passage way, so people leaving the theatre after a show don't troop right over the dance floor. In the evenings there is a dance band at this venue,

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Crystal Room. It's where the Glasshouse should be, and it would have been a fantastic Glasshouse.

Upon leaving the Crystal Room, you come to the top of the Atrirum. I like the Atrium and the Starburst looks impressive. On one side of the Atrium we have the Glasshouse and on the other, Java, the Costa coffee place.

Having the Glasshouse in the Atrium makes it a poor imitation of the Azura Glasshouse, and has been a disappointment for me. It seems like just another bar, and not a place that I'd want to have a meal.

Looking over the rail on to deck 6, you'll find the shops, and I think it's fair to say there is a lot of retail space, and a lot of it is stuff I'd like to buy!

On the lowest level of the Atrium, deck 5, you'll find the Market Cafe, the seating area in the centre of the atrium and the Blue Bar.

As there are so many bars around the Atrium, it makes this area a real focal point for the ship. But, on bad weather days, it is very busy, and can be difficult to find a seat.

I'll stop our tour for now, and will do more on another day!

[Manoverboard]

Ah, itineraries ...

Park Guell is deffo a lovely place to absorb at your own pace, try to return to Barcelona one day and see ' it ' plus other Gaudi highlights in a leisurely manner.

St Paul de Vence is indeed a delightful little place to visit, we did it some years ago as part of a coaching tour.

What was you opinion of Civitavecchia ?

[Gill W]

I thought Civitavecchia was a rather pleasant seaside town, not especially Italian, but great for a stroll, and much less hassle than going to Rome.

I'd definitely like to go back to Park Guell, and spend time in the central square, we only had time to take our photos, and we were off again.