Valentine1925

We sailed on this cruise and were originally given a check in time of 12.30pm but then received an email from P&O asking us to arrive 45 minutes later. We had travelled down from the North and stayed in Southampton the night before. We did as we were asked and arrived at 1.15pm which was a bit of a chew as we had to vacate our hotel by 12noon. It was chaos when we arrived at the terminal - we had to wait 50 minutes just to park our car and then had over an hour to wait in the terminal. We spoke to people on Britannia who had later check in time than us but had not been asked to arrive any later which is why I think the chaos occurred - it was purely a knock on effect. Bad organising by P&O I'm afraid. Disembarking was very swift and well organised. Mind you, we disembarked at 9.45am and there were already people sitting in the departure lounge!!!:eek:

Thanks for the tip Kevin and I will indeed try this. I am under strict instructions from my gin loving friends to try all the gins but I am not allowed to taste any we have already tried. I will take a notebook and make a note of each gin I sample. To date, my favourite gin I have tried is Bootleg 21; a gin distilled in New York. This is going to be a very enjoyable challenge for me!!!

Hi John

Welcome back from your cruise - hope you had a lovely time. You and your wife are very welcome to join us for a drink in the lovely Sunset Bar. I think I will have to try a pink gin in the Crows Nest first.

Aaaahhhh thanks Kevin for posting these fantastic pictures. I have a feeling that there may be more people with drinks in hands when Britannia is sailing in a warmer climate - can't wait!!

Many thanks for the replies. I have a feeling that the Sunset Bar is going to be one of our favourite bars :D:D

Does anyone know if this bar is open in the evening. With the longer, warmer nights coming I thought this would be a nice bar to drink at after our meal (8.30 seating).

Thanks for the muster information Freddie1974 - we can now work out our route :D

Thanks for taking the time to give your informative review. We are sailing on Britannia in three weeks on A deck - mid aft. Where did you have your muster drill please?

Many thanks

Susan

Hi Sapphire - we are on club dining, second seating. As much as I enjoy shows, we will not be rushing our meal just to get a seat in the theatre. If it's full, we will just go elsewhere - there is a solution to everything. Thanks for the trainer tip!

Good post Espirit. I have read all reviews, good and bad and I just know that we will have a wonderful time on Britannia when we sail on her in June. Although we are very new to cruising, this being our fourth cruise, I have done my homework and picked out our cabin so that we can get around the ship without using the lifts and get fit in the meantime! As for people complaining about the balconies being so small, its our first time in a balcony cabin which is a massive bonus for us. We feel very privileged to be sailing on Britannia and will be steering clear of moaners.

Many thanks for helpful responses

Thanks MajorTom - I love shows but wasn't prepared to rush dinner in order to get a seat. Hopefully will not be a problem for us.

I have read that people are entering the theatre on Britannia up to 45 minutes before a performance in order to get a seat. For those of you who have already been on Britannia, does this include the 10.30pm performance? I will give shows a miss if it means having to be there that early. Thank you in advance.

Hi Kevin

Fantastic, informative review and thank you for posting. We are cruising on Britannia in June and are in a cabin A deck, aft. We are now looking at the deck plans so that we can work out our routes around the ship so that we do not use the lifts - this will hopefully keep the pounds off that we would normally put on ;)

Many thanks, Susan

Thanks David - timings may be better this time in that case

Hi David

I wanted to know if anyone who had already sailed on Britannia knew where the muster station was for A deck, middle/aft. Our first cruise was on Ventura and by the time left of our muster drill and put our jackets back in our cabin, we had missed the initial sail away and we were so disappointed. I'm just trying to work out our route and hoping it will be in the Crows Nest on Lido deck but don't think muster stations would ever be so far away from the lifeboats??

Hi Sharon

I've already posted my query under 'Muster Stations and Overhang Balconies, Deck A' but did not receive a response. When I saw that Lennie74 had posted a review and had a cabin close to where we were, I thought he/she would be able to respond. Only 9 weeks on Saturday and I will be able to see for myself :D

............mmm; are we all doing something wrong I wonder?

Thank goodness - thought it must just be me as I'm fairly new to this site. I wonder if I'll ever be able to track down the illicit lennie74??

Hi David

lennie74 has written a review of Britannia on Cruise Critic. I did look for him/her on the members list but couldn't find a match - mind you, I couldn't find myself either and I'm a member :confused:

Hi

Does anyone know how I can ask a question from someone who has written a review please. 'lennie74' has written a review on Britannia and was in a cabin very close to ours so would be be able to answer my questions. Lennie74, if you're out there, I would be most grateful if you could respond.

Many thanks

Susan

Hi Esprit

Thank you for the advise, especially as this is only our 4th cruise. However, I knowingly booked this deck (even though I could have had my pick) as we wanted to be close to the Lido Deck and had worked out that being in this particular location, we would try to use the stairs on aft (no lifts for us) and this would be our exercise for the duration of our cruise. Our cabin is towards the end of the Horizon Restaurant and we may hear some noise but as we are early risers / late to bed, we cannot see that this would be a problem for us. We cruised on Ocean Countess five years ago, right next to the engine room and were amazed at how soon we just got used to the constant noise, in fact when we got home I could not sleep due to the deathly quiet :eek:

Many thanks for your comments.

Susan

Hi All

A quick question to those of you who have sailed on Britannia. Where is the muster station for deck A (middle to aft). May sound like a silly question but when we sailed on Ventura, our muster was so far away from the upper decks that we missed sailaway and we were gutted. I want to plan our getaway from muster, back to our cabin and onto a good vantage point. :D

Also, has anyone stayed on deck A in one of the overhang balconies. I booked our cabin because my husband moans if the sun is too hot but is now having a little moan as he thinks we will get no sun at all (I cant win):rolleyes: Has anyone stayed in one of these overhang balconies and can give me their experience.

Many thanks

Susan

Hi

We have just booked a cruise next year on Britannia with Thomas Cook and received past passenger discount. The last (and only) time we sailed with P&O was July 2009 and the girl in the travel agents found our details just by giving our telephone number alone. I was pleasantly surprised.

I would love to live near Southampton so that I could see all the ships coming and leaving port and have considered a trip to Southampton just to see the ships (we live near Durham). My sister has an apartment in Montenegro, just inside of the bay of Kotor and I made up a little booklet for her a few years back with all the ships that would be sailing in on their way to Kotor. I included details about each ship, i.e. size, capacity, year ship was built, last port of call and future port of call etc. She laughed at me the first time I did this but each year she now asks me for her 'cruise log'.