Britannia Review (B617 – Fjords back to back with B618 – Guernsey)

Sorry, it's a long one... If you don't want to read, let me just say this: we thought we wouldnt like Britannia after reading some reviews but we actually loved her!

We booked B617 as our honeymoon cruise and decided to also do B618 so friends could join us for the final two nights.

We have done several short cruises before, so know what to expect from P&O but after reading the reviews for Britannia we were slightly worried, but prepared to make the most of it. I'll base this review mostly on the main cruise and will touch on the differences we noticed between B617 and B618 at the end.

If you want to see our video, its here:

Embarkation & Disembarkation (and Change over day):

We arrived earlier than we were supposed to and it was busy in Ocean Terminal. We were given our lettered card and sat patiently waiting to be called, check in was smooth and efficient as was security. We still managed to get on before our allotted time – as P&O say they are not going to make you wait but will give priority to those that turn up early. So all good. Change over day we just collected our new cruise cards from reception and had a wonder around the ship – by midday everything was open as normal again, so that wasn’t too bad. We also didn’t have to do Muster Drill again – bonus!

First impressions of the ship:

Wow! We love the décor and the star burst in the atrium was amazing – everything so clean and fresh. Many say there appears to be no atmosphere in the Atrium - but we don’t agree with that, we loved it! We found the ship quite easy to navigate considering its size. There lack of midship stairs didn’t really bother us too much as we were close to the forward ones. The lifts are another story, or should I say the people using them! People would not look at which direction the lift was going and would get in one to go up and come back down, or worse still, give up and get out early or give up waiting and the lift would then stop for no reason. We did try to avoid them but sometimes its nice to be lazy. The pools were all open and clean, the main pool area was always busy, the quiet zone was a bit better. There was loads of sunbeds but I could imagine the best ones would fill up quick on a sea day somewhere hot and sunny. The aft decks were dirty and sooty even though they were cleaning them often – this is the only let down we could really find. There were flakes of soot – thankfully it was not an area we needed to visit often, just when having a little walk. I hope P&O have plans to resolve this somehow..?!

Cabin:

We were in F104 (F/9th deck, forward, HE grade, Balcony with Shower but without sofa). The cabin was light and airy, with good décor. There was a large TV, one bedside cabinet and tea and coffee making facilities. The hairdryer was nice and powerful and the fridge did a good job at keeping our wine cool. The balconies were apmle for us – smaller than other ships but we could both comfortably sit out there. It had 2 chairs and a table with doors each side that could be opened if you also had the cabin next door. There was lots of hanging space and a further cupboard with the safe in it between the bathroom and bedroom. They have the new lifejackets that have a strap that go between your legs, so practice before you go down to muster! The bathroom was clean and the shower was great too – with the glass door. The shower is bigger than our cube shower at home! Our cabin steward was Ayjay who worked hard and always had our room made up when we were out, bought us clean wine glasses daily and even organised things like an ice bucket and extra Champagne glasses for us when we had friends coming onboard – best steward we have met so far. Stewards you would walk past in the hall always give a hello and were friendly. We did find there was some vibrations during docking and also when the anchor was being dropped, but this was expected and as we were always up around 7am this was ok.

Food:

We dined in the Epicurean on the first night – the food and service in there was excellent. We also had Eric Lanlards afternoon tea here on a sea day but unfortunately it was far too sweet tasting for us, not something we would do again. We also tried Atul Kochhar Sindhu, again excellent food and cocktails. For breakfast we used Room service – this was very good and was delivered on time. We also had the hot breakfast in the MDR, the P&O breakfast was delicious. Our main dining room was the Meridian, as we were freedom dining we were always given a page for a table of 2, but by the time we were coming to the end of our drink we were getting called to dinner, perfect timing. Service and food in there was up to the usual P&O standard, very happy with it. We ventured in the Horizon a few times, could be a bit chaotic in there but the food was good. Midnight snacks here were also excellent. Handwashing facilities were operational with maybe only 1 or 2 taps not working but staff were on standby with hand gel or requesting you washed your hands. We looked at the Grab and Go, the selection looked good but didn’t try it. The burgers and hot dogs from the Lido Grill were very tasty, we had a lunchtime snack there a few times. We also enjoyed Afternoon tea in the Oriental – give me a constant supply of tea and I'm happy. During B617 we ordered 2 platters of Canapés to be delivered after muster on B618 as a welcome to our friends – these were mostly fish based and some of them were huge- tasty and well worth the £11 per platter (each platter served 4).

Bars and Entertainment:

We didn’t really go to see shows as this is not out cup of tea. We did pop our head in the Live Louge to see Badness and the Ventriloquist but they were too hot and busy for us, guess you need to be there early and not 10 minutes after they start as was in our case. The service in all the bars was excellent, though we did find you often had to ask for a menu, especially in the crows nest - no real bother though. I tried to work my way through the Gin menu in the crows nest, really liked it up there. While waiting for our pager to go off we would visit the Blue Bar as this was close by and had a really good feel about it. Quite a bit of time was spent in the Glass House. We had a few wine flights and food pairings. We also did a wine tasting here with Albert, he was excellent – we don't know much about wine so we did learn a lot from that midday session. The cost of this was £15 with 5 small glasses of wine and nibbles - about 2 hours long. That night Albert spent time with us talking some more about wine and trying to convert us in to Red wine drinkers (we always stick with the same old white wines) - he was excellent. A good tip: if you want to try a wine just ask for a taster and they will give you a tiny glass to try it, no need to be scared of trying a new wine there! Brodies also has a wide selection of Beers for thouse who don’t like the grape.

Spa

We took out a spa pass, £199 for both of us for the first 7 nights. Wasn’t worth it to be honest as we could have just had a day pass or two, but saying that had they sold out and not made day passes available (as we have had happen) would have been disappointed. The facilities within the spar were good, a hydro pool, hot beds, water beds, Sauna, 3 mood showers, a light sauna and a steam room. Only improvement would be maybe complimentary tea and coffee

Retreat

We spent one day here, £25 per person – after climbing 550m mountain we took full advantage of jacuzzi and bar service. Snacks and afternoon tea are also available up here. On a summer cruise, I would guess It's well worth the money to guarantee a sunbed and get away from the busy areas. On our port day, there was less than a dozen of us up there.

Now, to finish off, I will return to the back to back aspect of the cruise. During B617 we had an amazing time and loved the ship, but once on B618 – the atmosphere completely changed. It was a party cruise, so that was expected but you could sense the staff were tired and rushed, they just were not as attentive as they were on the 7 nighter. The real let down on this was the guests! Stags and Hens, some who had no respect for the staff or Ship (c'mon, we even caught some guy about to urinate in the main pool area behind one of the fake leafy walls – think we got his attention quick enough so he didn’t!) - so because of this, we would never do a 2 night cruise on Britannia again.

So overall, an amazing ship that exceeded our expectations – we would do it again tomorrow if we could! For those that have doubts about Britannia, don’t - just go with an open mind and you will love it!

Lovely reading this, it's made me look forward to our holiday after a bad day!

Great review, thank you for taking the time to do it.

We are viewing Britannia for the first time on Saturday on a ship visit :)

Thanks! First ever time we have written a review! We were so apprehensive going due to the negative things we had read and seen but we needn't have worried! Doing a short Cruise on Oriana in Ocrober (had already booked before going on this one) - we loved Aurora so hope we will love Oriana, also hoping being mid week it won't be so party cruise like! Can't wait to be walking the real promenade decks either!

Hi, thanks for such a great video and review.

Congratulations as well on your honeymoon, you both looked great. :)

I love reading reviews and am very surprised how few reviews are on the P&O section of cruise critic. :(

So thank you very much again and I hope I get to read a few more reviews before I go on Britannia next year, which will be my first time on P&O. :D

Take care,

Mark. :)

Congrats on the honeymoon. Comprehensive review. Like you we really enjoyed the Britannia and after a trip on the Ventura earlier this year ( finding it tired) we have booked again later this year. it was interesting to read your comments about the mini cruise which for us would definitely be one to miss.

Congrats on the honeymoon. Comprehensive review. Like you we really enjoyed the Britannia and after a trip on the Ventura earlier this year ( finding it tired) we have booked again later this year. it was interesting to read your comments about the mini cruise which for us would definitely be one to miss.

We did B618 to get a taste of P&O and Brittania. The drinking of the stags and hens started whist waiting for check in to open. We witnessed smoking by people using the lido deck whirl pools. Brodie's was noisy. We understand there was a punch up there on the Sunday night, although we did not witness this, but did see some injured faces on the Monday morning.

Despite this we enjoyed the experience, there were numerous venues that were not invaded by the hens and stags. We have decided we will try Britannia again if the right cruise comes up.

Thanks for your really fair review. We sailed on Britannia last August for 2 weeks and loved her. Glad you had a great cruise. :) Congratulations re it being your honeymoon as well :)

Re the short cruise .... sad really and perhaps something to be addressed. People often say that some ships are like 'Blackpool at sea'. We have stayed at a 4 star hotel in Blackpool many, many times and never seen such behaviour there. :(

That was lovely watching your video:D I've done those very same cruises on Britannia this year and I just loved watching and thinking ,,ohhh I was there,,I did that!! I love love love Norway , been twice now and will definitely go back for more. Thanks for putting your video up,,and congratulations.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments! I'm hoping being a fair review it may put people at ease as we were worried at one point we had booked the wrong ship for us! Will try and get it added to the review section when at a PC :)

I thought it was a very good review too .... Thank you very much :)

I think my daughter was on the Guernsey cruise ( not a hen ) and said some stags were jumping fully clothed into the pool? Was that on yours? She was surprised no one told them off.

Re stags and hens on the short cruises, I wonder if it is now the time for P&O to restrict the number of groups onboard?