Suite benefits for non suite guests

[Kk007]

Looking at booking Britannia aft suite and a second adjoining cabin for children as it is cheaper than all 4 of us in one suite with lots more space, and 2 bathrooms! Will kids be able to join us in Epicurean for breakfast and enjoy the other suite perks available?

[Selbourne]

Looking at booking Britannia aft suite and a second adjoining cabin for children as it is cheaper than all 4 of us in one suite with lots more space, and 2 bathrooms! Will kids be able to join us in Epicurean for breakfast and enjoy the other suite perks available?

 

We do the same. It's daft that there's very little difference in price between all of you cramming in to a Suite and obtaining a second cabin, which P&O could have sold to other passengers! And, as you say, it's far better for you in many respects, not least that the sofa beds are quite small. To answer your question, the Epicurean breakfast is only available to those who are actually occupying a Suite. This doesnt really present us with an issue as, like all P&O restaurants, breakfast finishes very early (too early, considering that you are on holiday) at 9.30am on sea days and 9am on port days and our kids don't get up until at least 10am and often later! However, on the last day of the cruise, prior to disembarkation, we always take them to the Epicurean so that we are all together. This has never been a problem, as we have always dined in the Epicurean in the evening on one or two occasions throughout the cruise, so the Epicurean staff know them and usually, at breakfast thereafter, ask where they are! The Epicurean breakfast menu is also very restricted and on our last cruise we dined in the main restaurant one day and even the buffet (when we got up too late), which we usually avoid like the plague!

 

There are two areas where we have found that accompanying children (and I should stress that ours are adults now) do benefit from the suite priveliges of their parents. The first is priority embarakation, disembarkation and tender disembarkation. You can all do these together. The second is room service. It's not widely known that all room service items (including chargeable items) are free to suite guests, as long as you order them via your butler. On our last cruise our butler suggested that we should order items for our children through him as well, in order to save charges. We only did this a couple of times over the fortnight, but it was the first genuinely helpful thing that any butler has ever proactively done for us.

 

Obviously a lot of this depends on the age of your children, but I'd suggest that if they are teenagers they will want to do their own thing anyway, which is one of the great things on a cruise, as you know that they are always safe and in a contained environment.

[Selbourne]

Sorry, forgot to say. I trust you have done your homework on the aft suites on Britannia and are aware of the problems associated with them? See separate thread on Britannia Aft Cabins & Suites if not. We wouldn't book one again, but if you do have your heart set on one (probably due to the huge balconies) then I would strongly encourage you to keep within B-E decks. You will still get soot on the balcony and constant vibration that you don't get elsewhere on the ship, but you should at least escape the noise from the Live Lounge.

[mandylennon]

Yes as Selbourne says, I think only passengers in Suites get the Suite benefits.

 

Your children would also get a different embarkation time.

[Selbourne]

Your children would also get a different embarkation time.

 

Yes they would, but you ignore that and they check in with you in the priority lane and you all board at 1230pm or earlier.