1st Cruise EVER!

Britannia Cruise Review to Caribbean

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 46

Overall rating:

4.7 out of 5
Britannia

Caribbean Transatlantic from Southampton

Sail date: October 26, 2018

Ship: Britannia

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

First cruise for me and to be honest there are more pluses than minuses. Britannia and it's staff are amazing. Loved everything about her and the friendliness and hard working staff. One thing I was sorry about was the sail days. I found it hard to cope with squashed together sunbeds and people up and about at 5.30-6am to place towels on them. P&O. sort that out. we all want a bed but at 8 am they were all taken and hardly a person in sight just 100's and 100;s of towels! Plus the quiet pool still had a few kids in and was supposed to be adult only. I never saw any supervisors or parent telling them off for jumping in. that spoilt it for me. I think a shallow pool just for kids is needed. IF I ever cruise again I would opt for less sail days I got bored sadly as I like my beaches. One major problem us 5 ladies had was the Spa and the treatments. It was diabolical completely disorganised. One day on a Ladies afternoon pamper 17 ladies walked out as we had waited 45 minutes in a room only to find out we were sharing with men. Most of the women said their husbands would not be happy sharing steam rooms, Hydra pool and being massaged next to a strange man. So after a huge row with the Spa team we all walked with no apologies! The Spa is in total disarray. When our final bill came 2 out of 5 of us ladies had a bill for a spa treatment we had never had and one for a non existent blow wave. When we went to the Spa to sort it out this caused so much confusion and another row we had to complain to customer services. Be careful if you use the Spa.....or even if you don't!

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Embarkation was fast and smooth considering there was thousands boarding. Found our Cabin and suitcases waiting outside in less than 1 hour!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Drink prices are reasonable. Food was fabulous, we had Freedom dining and felt absolutely spoilt throughout the cruise.

Blue Bar

5 out of 5

Large comfy sofas and a lovely live entertainment on saol days. Staff amazing and remember your drinks.

Brodie's

5 out of 5

More of a pub atmosphere noisy at times but very friendly.

Meridian Restaurant

5 out of 5

Amazing staff and they all remember you and your names after the first day! Silver service was impeccable.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Pools okay not much room for many people, there was no-one around to stop the children jumping or diving in, one boy fell back hitting his head badly, sadly his parents were nowhere to be seen they had gone for a few drinks to a bar. That needs monitoring.

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Saw a few shows, the entertainment teams work hard. They were excellent.

Atrium

5 out of 5

Very impressive and a head turner.

Headliners Theatre

5 out of 5

Some great shows to be had, but get the 1 hour early.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Service impeccable and staff smiled and carried on with their duties quietly but you still felt looked after every moment.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
Found our feet in the first few days, lifts easy to maneuver always found space and everyone friendly. The Britannia is clean and shiny, toilets always well stocked up with hand wash and loo rolls. I never found so much as a sweet paper on the floor. Well done to all the cleaners. Design is wonderful, lots of space and places to visit for a quiet drink or a busy bar for more fun. detailing in the art and stairwells in the atrium are very luxurious.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5
Lovely cabin, although on the small side (for three women) there was just about room for everything. a little squashed for 3 adults. Balcony was a tad small with 2 chairs so 1 adult had to sit on the little table.

Ship tip

If there is more than 1 cabin being booked (perhaps friends or family) make sure they are at least on the same deck! As we were a party of 5 ladies 1 cabin on deck 14 and 1 on deck 10. the lack of communication led to us missing each other and searching the ship for each other constantly during our holiday.....In other words many missed hours. We used the phones in our rooms to contact each other to arrange to meet but sometimes the lifts were slow and we had to look for each other. Wifi expensive so we could not text etc. to say where we were.

Ports of call

Southampton (London), England

5 out of 5
I didn't see much of Southampton, as we came straight off the coach on to the ship. But all areas looked clean and all staff were working hard to get everyone embarked on to Britannia.

Funchal, Madeira

5 out of 5
Loved it so much to do and never realised how beautiful Madeira was.

St. John's, Antigua

5 out of 5
Friendly people beautiful beaches and great little shops, what more do you want.

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5
Found a lovely beach, chairs umbrellas and amazing Rum punch.

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5
Beautiful Beaches of white soft powdery sands.

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5
It rained here so missed the beautiful beaches, we just stopped at the shops close to port and found a few bargains.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
One complaint we had to leave our Cabins at 8am. we found that difficult and a tad too early, It made it a very early morning for us on a day were we knew there would be alot of sitting around and waiting and a long flight back to the UK. ONE shower available in the Spa for everyone! sorry P&O the queue was massive and not fair to expect passengers to wait around on the last day to use this sole facility. Towels were available and not much privacy as the shower was in one big room open to the public. So VERY disappointed with that. Other than that the disembarkation was smooth. Large luggage taken the evening before and hand luggage was stored in the Headliners Theatre. picked up and off on a coach to the airport. Thankfully we had booked the VIP Lounges and we had leather sofas and food and drink in the airport plus air conditioning!
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