Britannia - My thoughts

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Peter D
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Britannia - My thoughts

#1

Post by Peter D »

Just came back off B513 - Around the UK, so food for thought. My views only.

Just love her colour scheme, browns, creams, blues, reds, greens and they blend in to make her interiors very modern.

We did not use, Limelight, Crystal Room, or the top decks (due to weather) so I cannot comment on these. We also did not do quizzes, talks etc so again no comment. I am not going to say anything about the lack of Promenade deck, too much has been said already. Due to our type of cabin I am not going to comment on cabin size or balcony size. That leaves us with......Britannia.

Interior
We think her colouring is very contemporary and modern and suits her style. Her public spaces are large and open but you can still find quiet places to sit and relax. Her corridors and the flow take some getting used to, but once you have master this it is easy to find different areas quickly.

The Atrium must be seen to be appreciated; photos do not do it any justice, its Crystal Chandelier must be seen to take in its majesty. It is open with lots of tables and chairs and with plenty of room to just sit. The surrounding bars, coffee shop and market stall blend in well to this open area.

In the evenings then the Atrium bars are nice places to relax and enjoy your pre dinner drinks and if you look closely enough they have some hidden spaces behind the bar areas and outside space on deck 7.

Her dining areas have been well planned with the Meridian and Peninsular restaurants seeming to have more space, they have been divided up into sections and the tables are well spaced out. For those liking tables for two, lots of these and room in between so you do not feel like you are sitting at a table for eight like Azura or Ventura. The staff here work hard and always have a pleasant way about them. The MDR food was good and most importantly hot. The Horizon Buffett is open, lots of tables and her food area well laid out and easy to access.

The Speciality restaurants of Sindhu and Epicurean are stunning places to dine and they have some nice touches like booths for two so you can have that special intimate meal without feeling watched from other tables. Worth the supplement.

Staying with Sindhu it is in a great location, Deck 7 between mid and aft lifts. As well as the restaurant area it has a nice people watching bar to the front that was well used by everyone, including us.

I thought the Glass house was a little underwhelming and I think that this stems from its location in the Atrium on Deck 7, see niggly bits later. However, the food is still excellent and worth trying, especially the little, or not so little plates.

The other bar areas have great staff who are there for you. Brodies, Crows Nest, Blue Bar are all great areas to sit and have a drink, people watch and just enjoy. We loved the Crows Nest with its forward looking seats. However, they could have made the windows bigger.

The entertainments areas are good. The Theatre is well used and the headliners have upped their game with great shows. But again on some occasions this was only 2/3rds full and on others you just could not find a seat with queues outside. It is also used for some of the speciality acts and for these with only two shows there were major queues.

The Live Lounge is brilliant, with the resident band Pulse here most nights. This area is also used for some speciality acts and sometimes the queues for these acts were from its front doors to the photography area which makes trying to get past to go somewhere a little difficult. On some days when the resident group was on it was less than half full, shame really they are a good group, but I can see this changing when Britannia does the Med or the Caribbean with a younger clientele.

For those that require them then the daily newspapers are placed outside the Blue bar.

Top Decks
On top, well due to the weather this was a very quiet.

I mentioned the Buffet area earlier.

The Sunset Bar to the rear is mainly undercover and spacious and a fantastic place to watch the sailouts. There is also a quiet area with pool to the front of the ship with some nice seating areas.

Towards the front is a quiet area with pool. Nice to place to sit and relax with comfortable seating around the pool area as well as your normal sun beds.

For us the niggly bits, not complaints, just not thought through and they did not spoil the cruise or our enjoyment of the ship.

Going back to the Atrium. Yes a great place to sit and enjoy during ports days or even at night but a sea day and everything changes. It seems everyone want to sit here and enjoy the ambiance. That makes finding a seat and table to enjoy a drink or meal difficult because these are taken by passengers sleeping, reading papers and doing crosswords. So for areas like the Blue Room, Java, Market Garden and for us the Glass House almost unusable.

Staying with the Glass House, not the best place to put it. Just not enough tables and too open to the Atrium, even at night.

Whoever designed the Cinema needs shooting. It is flat and so unless you are 6' 11" or more do not sit at the back because you will not see half of the screen.

What I call the nick nack shop, you know the one that sells everything has been hidden on Deck 5, away from all the other shops and out of sight of the Atrium near to Reception, also hidden away and the Excursion area. Whilst the Future Cruise desk has been given prominence on deck 7. I can understand its location but the problem with this is again passengers sitting outside enjoying the comfortable seats reading papers etc and if you are waiting to see someone, you a) do not know who is also waiting and you stand, sometimes up to 30 mins.

The shops, the upmarket shops, are taking the mickey with their prices. We have seen and Jennifer owns Swarovski and Colgau Jewellery that we have purchased from local Jewellers cheaper. By this I mean even if you take 10% off they are still £50 - £100 more expensive on board. I have a watch purchased in Chester that was £150 cheaper than on board. In my opinion they are taking up good public space.

Now the lifts and what I see as the problem. For public areas you can only walk, use a wheelchair, walking frame etc from Aft to Forward on Deck 7, ie: deck 7 is the only deck with a passage from the aft lifts to the forward lifts. On decks 5 & 6 you cannot access the aft lifts at all from the atrium. However, you can access the forward lifts. This causes problems to those with walking disabilities. Because if they are on deck 5 and want deck 6 or 7 the only way is either the mid-section lifts or the forward section lifts. But, the MDRs of Meridian and Peninsular are mid-section and the Blue bar, Limelight Club and Market Garden are mid-section. So for them they can only be reasonably expected to use the mid-section lifts. To me the big problem is passengers without any difficulties using the mid-section lifts. They need to get real and leave these for the passengers that need them. If they want a lift then can either walk to the forward section or use the stairs to deck 7 and walk to the aft section. Shock and horror I hear you say, walk that distance. Well it is 130 steps, I know I paced it. But, they scream we need stairs. Well I saw able bodied passengers get on lifts and get off at the next floor, I saw passengers in a cabin near to where our cabin was get in a mid-section lift, we walked to the aft section lift and found that they had walked the length of the passageway to their cabin in the aft section of deck 11. Now they could have walked to the aft lifts on deck 7 and used them. We are both in our 60s and use the stairs as much as possible and definitely not use the lift for one floor, up or down. OK, if your cabin is mid-section it is a pain to walk to the aft or forward sections to use lifts and then walk back to the mid-section. But I see this has exercise and with all the good food something that most passengers should do.

Because we had an Aft cabin if required we used these lifts and must say never waited more than a minute for on, mainly empty, seems everyman and his dog wants to use the mid-section ones.

Ok, for you diehards she is not like Canberra or even the the QE2. Saying that I bet cruisers who had been around for a while thought the same about these ships when they were launched. My thoughts is that this is the 21st Century and she is a ship for the 21st Century. That from a 60+ year old.

Overall we really enjoyed Britannia, for us a 9/10. Now, would we go back on her. That would depend. Our favourite ship is Azura and after our cruise it still is. So, that would be our first choice. However, right destination, right cabin, we were spoilt in ours and of course right price yes we would. For us, well guess what, we are back on her next month and now having been on her once really looking forward to all she has to offer.
Regards

Peter

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Romig1
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#2

Post by Romig1 »

Thanks for these thoughts. Very helpful. Good cruise report too.

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#3

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

Thanks Peter, good report and many thoughts similar to our own. We thought the lifts were the only significant fault, mainly with the lack of the stairs option above deck 7 midships, which resulted in more people wanting a lift there than otherwise. Certainly not a show stopper for us though. Like you we have other ships we prefer but would go back on Britannia tomorrow if the date and itinerary was something we fancy.

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oldbluefox
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#4

Post by oldbluefox »

Thanks Peter for a really interesting report. I think the weather makes a big difference on a cruise ship. If it's not so warm outside it does put extra pressure on the inside areas and it becomes a problem finding somewhere to sit. When the weather's better everybody is outside on deck.

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Onelife
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#5

Post by Onelife »

Hi Peter,

l have made my views clear about my dislike of big cruise ships. That being said for anyone going or thinking about booking a cruise on her your unbiased review was excellent.

l have read several cruise reports about Britannia on this and other cruise forums and the underlying feeling l'm getting is that even with its size Britannia is still struggling to accommodate passenger numbers at certain times of the day ...not sure if this is due to bad design, selfish passengers or greedy cruise line putting profit margins before passenger comfort?

Whatever, those reading your report will have a much better understanding of what to expect.

Without doubt the best report l have ever read....but please don't tell the otners l've said that :)

Regards

Keith :wave:

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qbman1
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#6

Post by qbman1 »

Aw, you said you like my last one!

Anyways, I do agree with Peter that a "Round Britain" is a good way to see some parts of your own country that you may not normally visit. I mean, we went to Barrow last year on Adonia !!


Jacknian
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#7

Post by Jacknian »

Thanks Peter for the interesting and informative report. We are on board Britannia on Saturday, so I was particularly interested that you seem to approve of her, with a few niggles - there have been many negative reports, it was nice to read a mostly positive one. How was your boarding experience ? We have had an e mail requesting we arrive at the time on our tickets, are they enforcing this, ? Very difficult to judge when travelling for 3 hours and being aware of possible holdups etc.

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Peter D
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#8

Post by Peter D »

Boarding. We had to vacate our hotel by 11am. however, we checked out at 10:50 and drove directly to Ocean Terminal arriving at 11:15. We were not the first.

Checkin opened at noon and they started boarding.
Regards

Peter

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#9

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

For several cruises we've been told they'll be enforcing check in/boarding times. They never have yet. Unless yours is the first, if you do arrive on time you'll probably be the only ones!

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qbman1
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#10

Post by qbman1 »

As already mentioned, if you are travelling 2, 3 hours or more, it is virtually impossible to arrive at a set time, given that you need to allow for contingencies. I think the check in times have to be advisory only or we will end up with "Operation Stack" on the M27 !!

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Manoverboard
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#11

Post by Manoverboard »

Thanks for your comprehensive report Peter ... :thumbup:

I have now read a number of reports on Britannia and although niggles regarding lifts do not trouble me at all there does seem to be a common thread regarding queues and crowding in the popular areas which certainly does concern me. I note also that nobody, thus far, has declared that Britannia is their ' latest ' favourite ship, you of course have posted that you prefer Azura.

We sailed on Azura to the Canaries during very inclement weather in 2010 and decided at that time that she was far too crowded for our tastes and totally lacking in public places to sit for a coffee etc ... so with this thought in mind together with your comments I doubt we will book a long cruise on Britannia but perhaps a short one to put a tick in the box, there being no other compulsive reason that I can presently think of.

Glad you both enjoyed the experience though.

:wave:
Keep smiling, it's good for your well being

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emjay45
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#12

Post by emjay45 »

I've enjoyed reading your opinion of this ship. Although it's extremely unlikely we would ever book a cruise on the Britannia.

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Gill W
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#13

Post by Gill W »

I enjoyed reading your thoughts about Britannia, and pretty much agree with all of it.

I didn't really have any problems with the lifts, but I only went in a lift twice. Our cabin was near the front stair case, by using that staircase, we found most areas of the ship to be readily accessible.

I agree about The Glasshouse - after the Azura Glasshouse, the Britannia one is rather a letdown. I think I'd have put it where the Crystal Room is situated.

We were on Britannia in March, and, as it wasn't really sitting out weather, the Atrium was often very busy during the day, making it difficult to find a seat, and if you got a seat, you were lucky to get a waiter to order any drinks.

Yet, in the evening, Java is closed, and the Atrium can be curiously empty and lifeless in the evening at deck 7 level.

I also have to agree about the Future Cruise and Loyalty desk. We needed to see the loyalty club person, and it was impossible to see who was waiting and who was just sitting around.

But I would sail on Britannia again if the price and ports were right
Gill

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Gill W
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

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Post by Gill W »

Onelife wrote:
Without doubt the best report l have ever read....but please don't tell the otners l've said that :)
OI, that's what you said about my report! :lol:
Gill


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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#15

Post by AileenB »

Thanks, Peter! You have saved me lots of time. We were also on this cruise and had intended writing a report. However, yours is excellent and pretty much in line with our experience of Britannia.
The ship is by far the largest we have sailed on. (We normally sail on mid-sized ships) I had reservations about the size prior to the cruise, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The lift situation is problematic but, like Peter, we planned our routes to lifts and often used the stairs as we are still able. The lift situation was often made worse by selfish passengers!
The staff were, as usual, fabulous and we met quite a few "old friends". We don't rule out sailing on her again, but possibly in sunnier climes such as the Caribbean.

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Onelife
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#16

Post by Onelife »

Gill W wrote:
Onelife wrote:
Without doubt the best report l have ever read....but please don't tell the otners l've said that :)
OI, that's what you said about my report! :lol:
'And it was Gill' but time waits for no one..funny thing is I've just bumped into foxy's cruise report so I'll be letting you all know what I think to his report when I get round to reading it that is...rest assured I doubt very much it will be anywhere near as good as yours and Peter's....but please don't tell foxy I've said that :angel:

As you know Gill cruise reports sink or swim by what I write about them, which is why I can honestly say I haven't read a bad one yet..and long may that continue :thumbup:

Regards

Keith aka (Senior critique/officer for the friendly forum)

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David...I'm looking for a promotion up the ranks...Captain sound nice...Yes!?

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Gill W
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#17

Post by Gill W »

Onelife wrote:
funny thing is I've just bumped into foxy's cruise report so I'll be letting you all know what I think to his report when I get round to reading it that is...rest assured I doubt very much it will be anywhere near as good as yours and Peter's....but please don't tell foxy I've said that :angel:
You sound very plausible....it'd work, as long as none of us ever looked round the forum! :lol:

Actually, the only reviews I take notice of are ones on this forum, as they are written by people I 'know'.
Gill

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Onelife
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#18

Post by Onelife »

Hi Gill...l rarely look back as l find it too painful....one day some nice lady will come on here and say they've actually 'recived' a box of keefy's finest chocolates :cry:

:lol:

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Onelife
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#19

Post by Onelife »

Sorry Peter, I've taken your thread off track slightly but then there's nothing like a good bump to get people reading the best review l've ever read :thumbup:

Regards

Keith :wave:

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Maritqos
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Re: Britannia - My thoughts

#20

Post by Maritqos »

Thank You very much Peter for taking the time to post this very detailed and informative report. It has been most helpful.

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