Sunday, April 21, 2024

Britannia Itinerary, Current Position, Ship Review

britannia cruise liner

MV Britannia was designed to make guests feel special, and all of her was planned with flair and imagination. The Britannia ship offers the very best of Britain's contemporary design and an unprecedented number of facilities for passengers. Britannia has the most popular features of the P&O fleet, such as The Crow's Nest Bar, Atul Kochar's Sindhu restaurant, Olly Smith's The Glass House, as well as brand new amenities. P&O says that Britannia cruise ship engine power output (MAN diesel engines) is equivalent to 70 Challenger tanks’ power or 86 supercars Bugatti Veyron. Britannia cruise ship is also the greenest yet and designed to deliver greater levels of environmental and operational efficiency. The new form of the hull is expected to reduce fuel consumption by approx 20%.

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A couple of days before boarding we were told we’d be in A247, a HF grade balcony on Deck 15. This room is perfectly located right next to the forward lifts & stairs, with just one flight between you and the pool deck. Entering through the atrium on Deck 5 you quickly get a good impression of how Britannia was designed. The decor is muted, there’s dark wood panelling, iron-effect railings – it says “upscale hotel lobby” more than cruise ship atrium.

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There are some venues on each ship where dress codes don’t apply, so make sure to check your Horizon paper that’s delivered to your cabin each day to check where these are, as they vary ship by ship. For those travelling on family-friendly ships, dress codes also don’t apply to children aged 12 and under. Though ultimately owned by a U.S. company (Carnival Corp.), and built in Italy, the ship is registered in Southampton (due to European tonnage tax laws), and has a very British feel to it. For the first time a British design company, Richmond International, has overseen the whole of the design of the ship's interiors rather than parts. The ship has the feel of a luxurious boutique hotel, with expensive-looking textures of wood, leather and glass in every public space and lavish use of marble.

Britannia Cruise Ship

It is difficult to pin-point exactly what we mean when we say we felt that the cabin needed a ‘deep clean’ but it just felt ‘un loved’ and in need of a freshen up. We couldn’t remember / ever feel it looking this way at all in the past on any P&O ship. Not a great first impression, but once we had unpacked it felt more ‘homely’ and we made the most of it. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t terrible, but standards not as good / special as we had remembered. As mentioned previously the MyHoliday portal used to manage dining, view your account and make bookings really isn’t quite up to scratch and caused plenty of headaches for us and our fellow passengers.

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Booking a table was slightly chaotic, we’ll get to that later, but once we were seated we found the service attentive and polite. Our Eggs Benedict were perfectly cooked and came out quickly, the orange juice was freshly squeezed and the coffee perfectly acceptable. Whilst the Britannia has no shortage of places to eat, due to COVID safety measures choices were often quite limited and we didn’t feel quality was up to par with other cruise lines. On this particular sailing I was travelling with a friend, as my partner couldn’t get time off work, so we had our cabin set up with twin beds.

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britannia cruise liner

These verandas also don't have transparent fronts, but steel railings. Balconies with fully obstructed views (by lifeboats) are located midship on Deck 8. These are numbers G310-G308, G314-G325, G330-G402, G442-G504, G510-G517, G522-G535, G603-G615, G618-G627. Even with the good portions of the starters my stomach was rumbling – because it knew what was coming next. Our sides were thick cut chips, tenderstem broccoli and a garden salad.

The 3700-passenger ship Britannia is the biggest ever cruise liner built especially for the British source market. The £500 million new-build is a result of four years of planning. P&O Britannia is 25,000 tons heavier than Azura and Ventura sister ships (previously the largest vessels in the P&O fleet). The Britannia ship alone boosts the capacity of the P and O line by almost a quarter – 24%. Britannia impresses with her Union Jack livery and offers British-style cruising with modern look and feel.

Laundry on P&O Britannia

The vessel is fitted with five tier II-type engines supplied by MAN Diesel & Turbo. Two of the five engines are V48/60CR-type and have a power capacity of 14V each, whereas the remaining three are of 8L48/60CR-type. The engines have a total power capacity of 62,400kW and allow the ship to cruise at a speed of 22k. Another unique feature onboard the vessel is a cookery club, where guests can create their own cuisine with UK celebrity chef James Martin. The ship sailed on its maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to the Mediterranean on 14 March 2015. The inaugural itineraries include a voyage covering the Norwegian Fjords, the Canary Islands and the Baltic Sea.

Aside from the beds there are was one bedside table, a small desk with mirror and chair, an arm chair and matching side table. There were also two full length mirrors in the room, which is always welcome when more than one of you is trying to get ready for dinner. The darker, more intimate, upscale hotel feeling continues throughout the ship with well-blended choices of wood, marble, and blue accents – all with subtle lighting. This would be my first time on P&O Cruises, a line I’d always been curious about but had not yet booked with. I suppose I had some preconceived notions of what a British branded, British marketed cruise would be like.

I would compare this to a mini-suite on sister ships with Princess Cruises. The en-suite bathroom is stocked with toiletries from The White Company and a notably there was a shower door (instead of a shower curtain). There is generous wardrobe space with shelves and drawers, which I found was plenty of storage for a fortnight’s cruise. Yes, Freedom and Club dining are both available in the Peninsular, Oriental and Meridian Restaurants.

Eric “Cake Boy” Lanlard has also recently given Britannia's sweet treats a makeover, with new menus in the Market Cafe as well as his Afternoon Tea in the Epicurean. Britannia is also big on art, with a huge collection of more than 6,000 pieces. You can see these pieces everywhere -- in the cabins, the corridors and the restaurants -- and all are originals from British artists, commissioned by the line. The aim is to incorporate P&O Cruises' 150-plus years of history, but use modern design touches and a non-traditional cruise ship look and feel to try and bring in new-to-cruise passengers. Celebrity chefs are an obvious draw, as are Britannia's Strictly Come Dancing link-up and intimate performances by stars in The Live Lounge. Families can take advantage of the biggest and best children's facilities of any P&O Cruises' ship.

The Epicurean Restaurant specializes in fine dining and molecular gastronomy. The Glass House is home to nearly 40 different wines from all around the world, including labels from Greece, Croatia, and Japan. Wine expert Olly Smith pairs wine with food from the menu, featuring dishes like a Wagyu burger, sea bass ceviche with lime, lobster buns, Morecombe Bay and Devon crab sliders. The first British ship to offer cooking lessons at sea, The Cookery Club provides guests an opportunity to hone their cooking techniques under the watchful eye of food experts and chefs. Aboard the Britannia, passengers can cook alongside baking queen Mary Berry and TV chef James Martin.

Large facilities are present for children and teens, including a dedicated teens-only pool deck and the Reef children’s club featuring a night nursery and activity zone. Tracksuits, sports wear and trainers are not permitted in the evenings. If you are cruising in the Caribbean, tailored shorts can be worn in the buffet. Evening casual wear can be worn on non-formal nights of your cruise.

Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar teaches guests how to make dishes from Sindhu - his signature restaurant. Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White also runs a class, demonstrating his famous dishes whilst passengers cook alongside him. Built in 2015, the Britannia cruise ship weighs 144K tons and has 1836 staterooms for up to 4406 passengers served by 1350 crew.

On MS Britannia, P&O also introduced a try-before-you-buy program with consultant-managing tasting tables in the ship's beauty and make-up areas.

This light and elegant venue was used for talks, seminars, ballroom dancing lessons and in the evening – karaoke. Much like The Live Lounge this venue filled up fast and more than once we had to change our plans. There are benches outside The Crystal Room on the port side, but you won’t get drinks service sitting there. Compared to other ships her size Britannia has fewer bars than you might expect, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be short of places to drink. Britannia is a Royal-class cruise ship, weighing in at 143,000GT she’s one of the biggest ships to serve the United Kingdom.

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