P&O Britannia Cruise Review -- Sept 2024
P&O Britannia Review -- September 13-20, 2024
This was our first cruise on P&O UK cruise line. It was great value and included the daily service charges included in the fare. It was a British experience where everyone was lovely and the vibe was more relaxed. As an American, you can only book P&O UK through VacationsToGo; we booked through Emma Cruise's US travel agent, who went through VacationsToGo.
Embarkation
Our assigned embarkation time was late -- 2:45pm, but it worked out and gave us time to explore the SeaCity (Titanic) Museum. We went early, at 10:30 am, to drop off our luggage because it did not work out to store it at the Airbnb. There were people available to let us know that they start taking luggage at 11am. This is the first time that we brought luggage before our check-in, and it worked out well after we knew the state time. Originally, we wanted to carry it on since the rooms should be ready before our check-in time, but when that did not work out, we checked them. We also learned that our luggage tag had a number that matched to the luggage drop off areas, which inside had a carousel that after that I could not see what happened.
We arrived back early (walked too fast -- cruise excitement), about 2:30 pm. We were put into a line outside, and pretty quickly chosen to enter the line inside. The inside line was long and slow; we were about halfway through it at our original 2:45pm boarding time. When getting to the check-in desk, she checked our boarding passes, took our passports, scanned with iphone, updated one data element, and our pre-submitted pictures were good. This was quick. Then we were seated, but pretty quickly called to join the security line. After security, we got on the ship quickly, though a stoppage on the ship to direct people to their muster station. For muster, you visit the station and get your boarding passes scanned (keycards only available at the cabin door) and then watch the safety information on the TV in the cabin.
We left from Southampton's Ocean Terminal, right across from where the Titanic originally left from, and the terminal was nice. Look at that pretty sunshine in the UK!
Buffet
We always found a spot to sit, so the ship could handle the number of passengers. Travis liked the buffet better than me. I thought some days were better than others; after not really finding much one day, the next I went outside for a burger. It was good. I also had some outside pizza. Smoothies are a cool idea and inclusion at breakfast; however, it was too sweet for Travis's taste. Some stand outs were the iced buns and sirloin steak for breakfast. Travis noted the cheeses as the stand out. The only afternoon cookies that I saw were almond cookies (I think); there were no chocolate chip or chocolate cookies, boo. I tried the almond cookies one day; not great. I was also disappointed at the lack of British food -- I was excited for a Yorkshire pudding, but no Yorkshire puddings.
MDR
Before the cruise, online, it looked like we had anytime dining, but after getting in our cabin, we found a paper assigning us 8:30 pm dining. This was way too late for us, so we went to the noted place to see if we could have anytime or earlier. He noted too many people on anytime and assigned us 6:30 pm at a table with 8 near a window. It was a nice spot, and we had great tablemates. Our waiter and assistant waiter were good. Also, a cultural difference -- I do not like fruit in my desserts, but the British do, so the desserts were too fruity for me. Travis liked the desserts. Most dishes that we had were good or very good, maybe a couple of just okays. There were two Celebration Nights (formal nights); the first had much more fan fair and was really nice with champagne served and the Captain speaking in the atrium before dinner. We forgot to go to the atrium on the second formal night but did not see that the Captain was speaking, like before, from the daily schedule. There was a medical evacuation during the second celebration night; though I do not think that impacted the possible fan fair. This was concerning to us, and we could see the helicopter out the window. See the menus, what we ate, and what we thought here.
Ship
There was a little rust on the hull, but the inside and the outside passenger decks were well maintained. The ship needed a better promenade. There was only two small sections on each side, one was the smoking section. After these sections, each side was blocked, citing safety and not wanting passengers near the lifeboats. We normally get to walk around the promenade on other ships with lifeboats with no issue. We enjoy walking the promenade and taking in the views. Included food was MDR (with some upsell items each night), the buffet, and a pizza and a hamburger places by the pool. The Crow's Nest, a front 270 degree view of the ocean, was very nice. The gym also had good window views. P&O did a great job of keeping as up to date as things occurred (delayed departure, missed port, and medical evacuation). Also, the Captain's daily announcement was not always done by the Captain, but by anyone on the Bridge team. I heard that there was the possibly of P&O having a dark and silent channel that would only un-silence and wake one up if the Northern Lights were out. They had been spotted the night before in north UK. I did not see anything about this, so I called Guest Services. They said the web cam channel, which we had to mute because it played music and cruise ship ads. Travis still did not want me to leave the TV on, so we only had it on the first night. When I was wake I looked at the channel for any signs of Northern Lights, though the quality was not good in the dark. The TV also went into sleep or suspend mode, so I finally grabbed the remote to wake it up when I woke up. No room announcements for the Northern Lights. I did not get to see the Northern Lights and was sad, being on the cruise in September, we did not have the long hours of daylight and had some good Northern Light chances. We used the P&O Holiday webpage (the non-app, app) to watch our onboard spending account and to see the the daily schedule. Since we had set dining, we did not need the app to join the dinner queue.
Cabin - room: B516 - Inside, deck 14
We really liked the room. Since it is challenging for American's to book P&O, I could not see the prices of each room category and see which rooms were still available, so we just booked a guaranteed inside. It was assigned about a month before the cruise. I was happy with the location; nothing nosy around. It was a very quiet room. The layout was also very good. There was a large closet that blocked light at night from the bathroom to the bedroom. On the other side of the closet, the full length, was a desk. The vanity area (a small stand mirror and lamp) was not well lit. The TV was big and included ondemand movies and TV shows, which was very nice. I liked the two drawers in the nightstands. The shower had a shower door, instead of curtain, and was good size. Some room pictures here. The cabin also had a wonderful tea kettle for Travis that our room steward kept stocked with tea and biscuits. Our room steward was awesome! She left a pad of paper and pen for requests. We were able to get ice, wash clothes, and an extra hair towel for me. The towels were very big and soft; we never had less than three. She also began filling the tea supplies with sweet-n-low after Travis brought some from the buffet, thinking that she did not have any on her cart. We were two decks below the buffet and further to the MDR.
Entertainment
There is not a Cruise Director on P&O, but an Entertainment Manager. She made some announcements. Nothing over the top, and not as annoying as American lines. More relaxed and laid back. I did not hear any: "IT'S BINGO TIMEEEEE". I would have liked more activities; the majority of the activities were extra pay activities (may be true of all cruise lines now). We did two Pub trivias/quizzes, and one after dinner trivia. The after dinner trivia had an impressive prize of a 30 GBP wine voucher. We only went to one show: magician and illusionist. It was light on both; however, it had some cool acts so was enjoyable. They had crew that found empty seats in the theater and got people seated right before the start, which was nice assistance to provide. The ship had a very nice and big library.
Disembarkation
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