Smurfie's Return to Cruising

Reports about cruises on Britannia

MaureenB
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#76

Post by MaureenB »

That's a shame about Skagen David. I really enjoyed it there, especially around the old part and harbour area. A very buzzy place.

It was good to read your comments re Sindhu as we have booked to go there.
Is it Captain Paul Brown who is coming on at Helsinki?
Just 4 more sleeps for me till I'm on board.

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Maureen

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#77

Post by david63 »

MaureenB wrote: 25 May 2022, 11:27
Is it Captain Paul Brown who is coming on at Helsinki?
No it is some foreign sounding guy - I think he may have been on already as he has done a couple of annoucments in a morning

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#78

Post by Stephen »

david63 wrote: 25 May 2022, 11:30
MaureenB wrote: 25 May 2022, 11:27
Is it Captain Paul Brown who is coming on at Helsinki?
No it is some foreign sounding guy - I think he may have been on already as he has done a couple of annoucments in a morning

I heard it was Francesco Schettino :shock:

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#79

Post by david63 »

Wednesday 25th May – Sea day
A pretty dull day today – literally. Woke up to find that it was quite foggy outside, as well as being cold. The weather improved later in the day with some sun breaking through.

Tonight was another formal, sorry Celebration, night and the MDR menu must have been the worst gala menu that I have seen.

Note for Ken – there is a lot of new Doug Hyde merchandise onboard!!

Thursday 26th May – Sea day
Another day starting out with poor weather but the highlight today was at 10:00 when we (just about) went under the Great Belt Bridge (I know it is sad when that is the highlight of the day!) It was quite windy up on deck whilst going under the bridge.

Another highlight today was receiving an email from P&O telling what to look forward to on the next cruise for the Jubilee celebrations – in typical P&O style it is totally underwhelming, especially compared to what Princess have announced. Not sure why P&O have to be so late in announcing these things when the cruise departs in three days time.

Friday 27th May – Sea day
Today we should have in Skagen but alas we are not – we are out at sea on a wet and windy day.

Interesting fact of the day – Harding Brothers are running the shops on Britannia, don’t know if this fleet wide or not and that the American outfit have been sacked due, possibly to Covid. It makes little difference because they do not have much and what they do have is silly money. Whilst on the subject of shops the traditional “Paddy’s Market” has gone but on Britannia there is a small version of it in the walkway between the atrium and the lifts on deck 6 – does not seem to be selling very much, in fact none of the shops appear to be selling very much on this cruise.

Received our “transit” instructions for Sunday and we have to have a free Covid test tomorrow evening (keeping fingers and everything else crossed!)

Last formal night tonight.

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Ray B
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#80

Post by Ray B »

We had noticed that Harding Brothers were back on board Azura, did not mention that as we thought they must have started at the resumption of cruising. Had not seen anyone else reporting this.
Looks like they may be across the fleet? anyone on board other ships that have noticed.
Don't worry, be happy

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#81

Post by david63 »

Saturday 28th May – Zeebrugge
Today was our unplanned stop at Zeebrugge instead of Skagen yesterday. Fortunately the weather had calmed down overnight and it was in fact quite warm when in the sun but there was a cool breeze.

Not really having had time to consider any of the excursions that had been put together at quick notice we decided to take the free shuttle to Blankenburg which was about 20 minutes away – well never having been to Blankenburg before I can safely say that I will not be going again. To say that it resembled Blackpool on a Bank Holiday Monday could be classed as an understatement! Having walked up and down the main street and climbed the steps to look at the beach we then took the shuttle back to the ship – wrong – the shuttle only takes us to the terminal building where we all have to get off, walk through the terminal building to get on the port shuttle to take us to the ship and all this time we are being followed by the original shuttle bos.

Once back we were able to sit out in the sun on our balcony before going for a Covid test to see if we can actually sray on Britannia for the next cruise. I am adopting the policy of “no news is good news” in regard to the Covid test results and so some six hours later and not having heard anythind we are assuming that all is OK.

There are a few minor indications that some parts of the Covid protocols are starting to be relaxed.

It is a strange experience not having to pack like everyone else – but one that is easy to get used to.

Out next highlight is getting our new cruise cards tomorrow, sometime after 10:00.

Just had the Horizon for tomorrow and Paul Brown is joining Britannia as Captain

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#82

Post by Stephen »

I expect It’ll feel like a ghost ship for a few hours tomorrow David.

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#83

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

We really enjoyed having the ship to ourselves the one time we did a back to back. Sadistic pleasure watching everyone else disembark! Paul Brown was Captain when we did the Britannia Maiden. Very caring and professional when a swell developed making tendering back from Monte Carlo difficult and hazardous.

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Manoverboard
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#84

Post by Manoverboard »

We walked round the shops during our b-2-b time in S'pton :twisted:
Keep smiling, it's good for your well being

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#85

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

It's all rock and roll for you isn't it?

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#86

Post by david63 »

Sunday 29th May – Southampton (turnaround day)
An interesting day. It started with the usual chaotic movement of passengers all trying to get breakfast as quickly as possible so that they could get off as soon as possible, but we just casually wandered around. Once all passengers were off then there were shades of Marie Celeste. Having now got our new cruise cards we are officially on the next cruise. We asked about going ashore but as we are in Ocean Terminal and we would have to make our own way into town (no crew shuttle bus) we decided to stay onboard. There are about 20 passengers staying onboard doing a back-to-back.

A bit of an update – there were at least two passengers being disembarked, after all other passengers, who were Covid positive, or one positive and the other a close contact. One of the crew was telling us that they are about to start using lighter face masks and that crew face masks will be being stopped next month when the nightly turndown service will be resumed.

We decided to bypass the Peninsular lunch and go to the Glass House – somewhat of a mistake as the service was slower than slow! There appears to be very few masks being worn by the latest intake of passengers – having said that we have gone for two weeks without wearing a mask whilst both on and off the ship and out tests yesterday would indicate that we do not have Covid, so perhaps there are signs that things may starting to return to some semblance of normality.

On this half of the cruise we decided way back that we would heave a table for two in the MDR unlike the first half where we had a table of eight so that we could choose where to eat. With that in mind we had our evening meal in Sindhu, and it was by far the best meal that we have had on the ship so far.

The ship is certainly more full than last week and has a totally different feel about it – will have to see how things progress as the week continues.

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screwy
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#87

Post by screwy »

Is the Buffet back to being a bun fight or is it waiter service.?
Mel

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#88

Post by david63 »

screwy wrote: 30 May 2022, 09:53
Is the Buffet back to being a bun fight or is it waiter service.?
Walked through the buffet this morning at around 09:30 and there was not a seat to be had and was full of folk walking eound with trays - so back to situation normal "Smash and Grab"

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#89

Post by Stephen »

How’s the bar stock situation David. Improved or still short and waiters having to nip from bar to bar for drinks.

I thought it was quite amazing that only a few passengers out of the whole ship were disembarked because of Covid. We’re they disembarked part way through the cruise or back at Southampton after everyone else had got off?

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#90

Post by david63 »

Stephen wrote: 30 May 2022, 10:33
How’s the bar stock situation David. Improved or still short and waiters having to nip from bar to bar for drinks.
Bar stocks seem fine - for the limited items that they currently have.
Stephen wrote: 30 May 2022, 10:33
We’re they disembarked part way through the cruise or back at Southampton after everyone else had got off?
Southampton after everybody else

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#91

Post by Stephen »

david63 wrote: 30 May 2022, 10:39
Stephen wrote: 30 May 2022, 10:33
How’s the bar stock situation David. Improved or still short and waiters having to nip from bar to bar for drinks.
Bar stocks seem fine - for the limited items that they currently have.

So just the John Smiths and House Red and White then :)
Stephen wrote: 30 May 2022, 10:33
We’re they disembarked part way through the cruise or back at Southampton after everyone else had got off?
Southampton after everybody else
Good to know they're not off loading part way through the cruise, or maybe that is because of the small numbers.

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#92

Post by david63 »

Monday 30th May – sea day
The weather today was somewhat varied in that it was sunny all day but there was yet again a cool breeze across the open decks.

We have a totally different passenger demographic on this cruise compared to the one last week as in the “we are on holiday so we will wear shorts no matter what the temperature is” and “ we are going to sit out on the sunbeds even if we have to wrap ourselves in six towels in order to keep the wind off”. Another noticeable difference is that the lifts are a lot busier and it is a question of how many can we squeeze into one lift – totally irrelevant that they want to go down when the lift is going up! (some things never change).

One surprising thing that is missing so far from this cruise compared to the last one is that there are no port talks which, when combined with the fact that there are no port information leaflets anymore, makes it somewhat difficult finding your way around.

No for the surprise of all surprises – tonight was the first “formal” of this cruise and we were amazed at just how well it was complied with. Anyone who thinks that formal is on the way out needs to think again. Many of the younger passengers were really well turned out and it is nice to see families with small children all dressed up – there is hope yet.

The word on the streets, well corridors actually, is that the number of isolation cabins is set to be reduced in the not too distant future,


Ranchi
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#93

Post by Ranchi »

Just wondering…is the number of isolation cabins related to the length of cruise? We went on a 4 nighter last Nov & felt quite safe as there was only one port (the last full day) so little time for symptoms to develop.

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#94

Post by Stephen »

Everything appears to be heading in the right direction 🤞

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#95

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

Other than the people going up to go down who are clearly going in the wrong direction....

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towny44
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#96

Post by towny44 »

Mervyn and Trish wrote: 31 May 2022, 11:24
Other than the people going up to go down who are clearly going in the wrong direction....
Britannia has far too few lifts, only 14 compared with Iona's 22.
John

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Ranchi
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#97

Post by Ranchi »

Mervyn and Trish wrote: 31 May 2022, 11:24
Other than the people going up to go down who are clearly going in the wrong direction....
I advocate the installation of paternosters to solve the problem 😂 (Great fun & very efficient until H&S got involved.)

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oldbluefox
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#98

Post by oldbluefox »

And the Muppets who press both lift call buttons irrespective of which direction they intend to travel.

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#99

Post by david63 »

Ranchi wrote: 31 May 2022, 08:56
is the number of isolation cabins related to the length of cruise?
I belive that it is a fixed amount for every cruise but I suspect that if infection rates are falling with both crew and passengers then they will not need as many - if any at all,

Crew are now sharing cabins.

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screwy
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#100

Post by screwy »

We’ll they’re not sharing one with me.
Mel

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