Smurfie's Return to Cruising

Reports about cruises on Britannia
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towny44
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#126

Post by towny44 »

David just had an e-mail from P&O saying our Marseilles port has been replaced by Toulon, which is surprising as there are only 3 ships in port that day, less than were planned for your visit, so the shortage of tour coaches should not really be a problem for our planned stop, which make me suspect that is not and probably was not the real reason.
Anyway can you confirm if the ship berths alongside or do you have to tender ashore?
John

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#127

Post by david63 »

towny44 wrote: 10 Jun 2022, 23:16
Anyway can you confirm if the ship berths alongside or do you have to tender ashore?
The ship berths alongside but you have to take a water shuttle (not the ship's lifeboats) to Toulon. The water shuttles are wheelchair friendly as is Toulon - mostly flat but a bit uneven.

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towny44
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#128

Post by towny44 »

david63 wrote: 11 Jun 2022, 06:40
towny44 wrote: 10 Jun 2022, 23:16
Anyway can you confirm if the ship berths alongside or do you have to tender ashore?
The ship berths alongside but you have to take a water shuttle (not the ship's lifeboats) to Toulon. The water shuttles are wheelchair friendly as is Toulon - mostly flat but a bit uneven.
Thankyou. :thumbup:
John

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Benrb7
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#129

Post by Benrb7 »

Thanks for keeping us posted David for your time in the Britannia.

We are getting on when you are getting off. In Southampton hotel ready for embarkation tomorrow!

Hope you had a wonderful time, ATB.

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oldbluefox
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#130

Post by oldbluefox »

I've enjoyed reading David's reviews of his cruises. Thank you for sharing them.

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#131

Post by Stephen »

Welcome to the forum Benrb7 :wave:

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#132

Post by david63 »

Saturday 11th June – Sea day
The sea had become a lot calmer overnight and it was even warm enough to sit out on the balcony in the sun – although there was still a strong breeze.

Today, being the last day necessitated the inevitable packing, which surprisingly did not take too long to do – must have got the hang of it by now - packing cubes, shoe bags and as much on hangers as possible!

Not sure if I have mentioned this but since Cadiz we have had MPW on board and one of the things that he does is a “hosted dinner” where he cooks for us (at a price of course), so we have booked that for tonight.

So we went to the MPW dinner and one thing I can safely say is that that guy knows how to cook – the fillet steak has to have been amongst the best that I have ever had. MPW is a very entertaining guy but whilst it was an experience it is probably, no definitely, not something that I would do again.

I have to say that the baggage removal from outside cabins is the best I have ever known – don’t know if this is the norm for Britannia or if it is something new as a result of Covid – whatever the reason it could do with being introduced throughout the fleet. I put some cases out and they were literally removed before I had got the door closed – just have to hope that I can find them in the baggage hall tomorrow.

Sunday 12th June – Disembarkation
We were given an 08:00 disembarkation time meeting in the Glass House so we arrived at around 07:45 to find that our group had already been allowed to disembark – so off we go straight away. I had forgotten how far you have to walk to get off at Ocean Terminal! Anyway, once in the baggage hall I managed to find all our cases in about five minutes – although trying to find a porter to help proved more difficult. We had pre-arranged for the Baggage Handling Company to bring most of our baggage back so next task was to find them – no problem they were just outside the door and our luggage will be delivered tomorrow evening – thought that was a pretty good service.

Next off to pick the car up with P4C – again no problem and we were on the road just before 08:30 and had a straightforward drive home – getting in the house around 13:00.

Conclusions
Is the cruising experience back to pre-Covid times? No – but it is getting there. The noticeable differences are with all the crew wearing face masks, although I believe this may be ending soon. The main issues affecting passengers are with the reduced items available on the MDR menus and the reduced wine/bar lists. On the plus side there are no photographers annoying you all the time.

Is cruising restricted due to Covid protocols? No – but it is some time now since cruising restarted and the P&O Covid protocols have been relaxed as have those of the countries that we have visited.

It was interesting to see how different towns within the same country had differing Covid protocols. Although P&O were advocating that wherever we went masks should be worn they weren’t. Virtually none of the locals wore masks anywhere so neither did the passengers. The only exceptions were in La Coruna and Cadiz where we all had to wear masks when on a coach and in enclosed spaces – but nowhere else that we visited in Spain was this a requirement.

Britannia as a ship – without doubt Britannia is probably the best ship that we have sailed on and would now be our first ship of choice, if the itinerary was right – although I am not sure that I would want to be onboard at the height of the school holidays. Before joining the ship, we thought that it may, due to her size be a ship that took a lot of getting used to and finding our way around, but in many ways she is a very easy ship to get around as everything is basically on four decks (5, 6, 7 & 16). Also because of her size we thought that getting from one venue to another would take time but in reality she did not seem that much bigger that Azura/Ventura – all of which is down to an excellent design, and yes there are always small things that with hindsight could have been better.

The ”My Holiday” app – This I found easy to use and pretty good. The best bits of were the ability to constantly check your onboard account and on the rare occasion that there was an error then you could get it sorted out straight away. The diary was also good at keeping you up to date on what, and when, you had something booked. The other main feature was the ability to join a queue for Freedom Dining rather than get a pager (although these are still available) and those who used it said it worked well. The only real issue with parts of it was when the itinerary changed it tended to confuse it somewhat.

There are, however, some features missing – such as a list of the day’s activities as in the Horizon and the port guides that you used to get in the cabin.

The actual cruise – even though we had itinerary changes both before and during the two cruises the overall itinerary was fine – some ports that we had not visited before and some that we were happy to go back to. The weather was a bit mixed being somewhat better on the first half that we had expected but not as good, at times, as we had hoped for on the second half although it did improve towards the end.

Back-to-Back Cruising – Overall we enjoyed the b2b cruises especially as they were two totally different itineraries and the way that we had planned the dining arrangements.

The negative points were that we lost a day on changeover day but had the weather been better than we may have ventured into Southampton. The MDR menus were the same for the second two weeks as for the first two weeks – but that did mean that we could decide in advance the nights that we did not want to eat in the MDR. The same was also true of much of the entertainment – it was a repeat of the first two weeks.

Photographs can be found here

The end (because we are now back home)
Last edited by david63 on 12 Jun 2022, 15:28, edited 1 time in total.

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#133

Post by Stephen »

Thanks David.

Now, how long is/was the grass back home?

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Kendhni
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#134

Post by Kendhni »

Thank for all the reports David. Glad to hear you enjoyed the cruise.


Bensham33
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#135

Post by Bensham33 »

Thanks for the log David. I enjoyed reading it.
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CaroleF
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#136

Post by CaroleF »

Really enjoyed it thank you David. Good to read first hand how things are slowly getting back to normal.

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#137

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

Thanks for the report. Gives us some confidence for our return to sea in a couple of months.

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Manoverboard
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#138

Post by Manoverboard »

Thanks for the report(s) David ... b2b is deffo the way to go :wave:
Keep smiling, it's good for your well being

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Onelife
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#139

Post by Onelife »

This is by far the best review I have ever read….P.s when do I get my promotion to Captain? :angel:

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Kendhni
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#140

Post by Kendhni »

Onelife wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 08:33
This is by far the best review I have ever read….P.s when do I get my promotion to Captain? :angel:
Have you sat the exam yet?
David has broken it down into 165 easy to manage 16 hour sessions.


Whynd1
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#141

Post by Whynd1 »

Thank you for your cruise reports David.
Glad you both enjoyed your cruises.

Lindsey

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#142

Post by Stephen »

Onelife wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 08:33
This is by far the best review I have ever read….P.s when do I get my promotion to Captain? :angel:


When you can row around Cape Horn blind folded with a hole in the dingy singing ‘show me the way to go home’ :)
Last edited by Stephen on 14 Jun 2022, 07:11, edited 1 time in total.

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towny44
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#143

Post by towny44 »

Just to add, using the app is easy and no problem with a smart phone, and no cost with airplane mode on. However although we have used it for joining a queue for dinner on the 2 nights so far, I am not convinced its needed as there is no queuing, as yet.
Other than that and and the still missing turn down service, everything seems just about normal, we have not worn a mask as yet and not been asked to and only a few passengers are actually wearing masks on board.
John

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oldbluefox
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#144

Post by oldbluefox »

Wot? No turn down and therefore no chocolate? I'll be needing one of Stephen's compo forms.
Actually turn down was a lovely treat and welcome back to the cabin and part of the cruising experience. It would be sad if it was discontinued altogether.

Hope you have a good cruise towny.
Last edited by oldbluefox on 14 Jun 2022, 11:50, edited 1 time in total.

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Manoverboard
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#145

Post by Manoverboard »

Surely you took a large box of Lindt Chocolate Truffles ... for such emergencies :roll:
Keep smiling, it's good for your well being

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david63
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#146

Post by david63 »

oldbluefox wrote: 14 Jun 2022, 11:49
Wot? No turn down and therefore no chocolate?
I was told last weeks that they expect it to return sometime next month - this is Britannia, no idea about other ships.
towny44 wrote: 14 Jun 2022, 11:44
I am not convinced its needed
Perhaps not for dining but it is great for checking your account. Because I was checking it regularly I spotted a mistake (I have been charged for the wrong wine in the MDR) so I went to reception straight away and the matter was resolved in a couple of hours - far better than waiting until you get a statement and then trying to sort it out.

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Stephen
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#147

Post by Stephen »

oldbluefox wrote: 14 Jun 2022, 11:49
Wot? No turn down and therefore no chocolate? I'll be needing one of Stephen's compo forms.
Actually turn down was a lovely treat and welcome back to the cabin and part of the cruising experience. It would be sad if it was discontinued altogether.

Hope you have a good cruise towny.

It's in the post.

Yes, we liked turn down service.

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Onelife
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#148

Post by Onelife »

Stephen wrote: 14 Jun 2022, 07:10
Onelife wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 08:33
This is by far the best review I have ever read….P.s when do I get my promotion to Captain? :angel:


When you can row around Cape Horn blind folded with a hole in the dingy singing ‘show me the way to go home’ :)
Why is it that I always get that 'sinking feeling' when you post something about me? :o ;)

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towny44
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#149

Post by towny44 »

After 5 days now I can report that apart from the crew still wearing masks, things feel fairly normal. Not really missing the turn down service, and the Baltic andliguroan lunch is back on the menu, but no hosted tables as yet.
John

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towny44
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Re: Smurfie's Return to Cruising

#150

Post by towny44 »

Following the latest ONS stats showing an increase in covid at home, and after a slight up tick in on board cases, we have been asked to wear masks except when eating or drinking, more than 50% seem to be following this advice.
Further comments on speciality dining, we have done both Epicrean and Sindhu and both restaurants were full. Although the food was good I was not overly impressed with the quality, it certainly lacked the special touches that I remember from our Celebrity cruise 5-10 yrs ago. Similarly the service was not exceptional, possibly because of the full house, and our assistant waiter was far more McDonalds than 5 star cuisine.
But those wingers apart things are fairly normal. Britannia is only just over 70% full with 2600 passengers, and with high attendance at all the speciality dining restaurants, it is noticeable that the MDRs are in no way full.
In Barcelona today with overcast skies and rain showers forecast, but I guess the trains here are running.
John

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