Britannia Aft Suites & Cabins

Now, don't take me the wrong way, but I never had you down as the John Travolta type :D

We're more the tinkling piano and cocktails types and just boogie from a distance ;)

No you are not wrong at all. :) I sit and listen someone else does the booging:) now had this been 50 years ago. Even 30 years ago I would have been there.

Oh no! We have had F729 and it was ok and we have booked the same again for May. We did get some dull sounds from the bass but nothing that caused us a problem at all. Hope the bar bill isn't too bad !

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We have just returned from a 2 night trip to Bruges on Brittania. we wanted to try out one of the aft suites with the wraparound balcony. The cabin (G733) was lovely BUT the vibrations from the engines were horrendous and we had a lot of soot on the balcony on both mornings. My relatives had the cabin next door which was G731. We knew this cabin was above the Live Lounge but we did not realise how loud this actually was.

The loud thumping went on till 5am so they were shattered the next morning. We cut short our day in Bruges as they wanted to have a cat nap before the formal night. They just nodded off when the music started again.Seems it was rehearsal time! The noise level was unacceptable and after a couple of hours complaining they were moved to a midship cabin so they could at least get some sleep that night.

We are in talks with P&O but I would like to hear from anyone else who has had this cabin.

You can email me at disneybabe24@hotmail.co.uk.

In the meantime please don't book this cabin.

Hi.

We had cabin F724 last year for a fjiords cruise. Did not have any noise problems. One advantage is that you are very near to the rear lifts. I am sure you have heard about the central lifts but you will have no problem at all with the aft lifts.

Hi.

We had cabin F724 last year for a fjiords cruise. Did not have any noise problems. One advantage is that you are very near to the rear lifts. I am sure you have heard about the central lifts but you will have no problem at all with the aft lifts.

Many thanks for posting this. I was very concerned reading the previous post as we are going to be just one level up from G deck in F730 (aft corner wrap suite). I see that F724 is right next to our suite and, in particular, our bedroom, so your post is reassuring as I have been very concerned about potential noise disturbance from the Live Lounge. Out of interest, did you experience the vibration problems that the previous poster also reported?

One other specific question, if you don't mind. I'm also concerned about smelling cigarette smoke on our balcony from the smoking area, which is outside the Live Lounge on the Port side and underneath these cabins. Did you have any issues with that, or noise from smokers in that area late at night? Thanks in anticipation.

Hello Cool Cruiser.

You will not have any problems with smokers. We sat on our balcony quite a lot and never smelt any smoke.

With regards to vibration we did not feel anything. In fact we liked that cabin so much we have rebooked it for next year! Just go and enjoy yourselves.

Hello Cool Cruiser.

 

You will not have any problems with smokers. We sat on our balcony quite a lot and never smelt any smoke.

With regards to vibration we did not feel anything. In fact we liked that cabin so much we have rebooked it for next year! Just go and enjoy yourselves.

Many thanks. Much appreciated! There's so much conflicting info on this site about the aft cabins on Britannia it's difficult to know what to believe. I haven't had any feedback on our specific cabin and you are the first to provide feedback on the cabin immediately adjacent to us, so I will take your feedback to be the most relevant! Thanks again.

Many thanks. Much appreciated! There's so much conflicting info on this site about the aft cabins on Britannia it's difficult to know what to believe. I haven't had any feedback on our specific cabin and you are the first to provide feedback on the cabin immediately adjacent to us, so I will take your feedback to be the most relevant! Thanks again.

Try to stop worrying and go an enjoy your cruise. :-)

Try to stop worrying and go an enjoy your cruise. :-)

Thanks! My wife keeps telling me the same thing. This cruise is costing me over £11k for the Suite and adjacent balcony cabin for our daughters, hence my paranoia. Anyway, with the £100 OBC I have received for the recent charging error, we are now up to £1,110 OBC, so if we do experience any of the problems I am concerned about then I shall just have to drown my sorrows.

Thanks! My wife keeps telling me the same thing. This cruise is costing me over £11k for the Suite and adjacent balcony cabin for our daughters, hence my paranoia. Anyway, with the £100 OBC I have received for the recent charging error, we are now up to £1,110 OBC, so if we do experience any of the problems I am concerned about then I shall just have to drown my sorrows.

Hi Selbourne, have a great trip and don't forget that people party long and hard on two night cruises, which may account for the differing feedback. My friends had the G deck suite, loved it and said they had no noise. I have E deck aft-wrap booked in October.

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Hi Selbourne, have a great trip and don't forget that people party long and hard on two night cruises, which may account for the differing feedback. My friends had the G deck suite, loved it and said they had no noise. I have E deck aft-wrap booked in October.

 

 

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Thanks :D

Thanks :D

I do think that if you go looking for any issues you will find some. Aft cabins will get a judder and more noise when docking than other cabins due to the position of the engines. There will be some soot some days and you may just hear the odd beat from the disco.

BUT - you will have views that stay in your mind for ever, amazing sunsets, it will be mega quiet at the back and very close to the lifts. The suites we have seen look amazing from above and we were envious!

We have never yet had a cabin that was perfect, but we have loved every cruise.

Please try not to worry too much - just go expecting it not to be perfect and you will have a great time. Anyway, the worst you can do is to drink that OBC ;-)

I really look forward to your review when you get back - am so sure you will love it.

OK. Having started this thread some time back, I thought that this would be the best place to post my findings now that we have just returned from the cruise and have experienced two weeks in an aft corner wrap suite (F730). I should say that we have had forward facing suites on our two previous Britannia cruises and, from reading all reviews about Britannia suites on this site, feel that we may be fairly unique in the respect that we can personally compare and contrast both types from first hand experience. I have just posted detailed feedback on why we like the forward suites on another thread as several people wanted specific questions answered, so I shall restrict this post to observations about the aft suite and, in particular, the specific concerns that we had prior to sailing, having read many contrasting reviews.

I shall take each of the concerns that we had prior to the cruise in turn;

Noise from the Live Lounge - You can certainly hear the music very clearly on F deck and it is mildly irritating, but is not as much of a problem as we had feared. Two things that we noticed. Firstly, the problem is far worse when there are 'live' performances. You can even hear which songs are being sung. Oddly, we found that the noise was loudest in two areas of the suite - by the cabin door and in the area between the living room and bedroom. When the live performances had ended, the recorded music was a low level distant noise and did not disturb our sleep. I should imagine that G deck would be quite problematic, but would suggest that E deck and above would have no issue.

Smoking area outside Live Lounge - The ships plans do not show that the smoking area extends underneath the port aft wrap balconies. I did not realise this until some time after booking and then couldn't swap. I am a passionate anti-smoker as the smell gives me headaches and I was very concerned about this. I needn't have been. It was no issue whatsoever. Surprisingly few smokers used this area and those that did tended to congregate in the seating area immediately outside the door leading out from the front of the Live Lounge. I would suggest that side balconies towards the rear of the ship on the port side may have some issues, but it was no issue for us. I once stood directly above 4 people smoking outside the side stage door (directly below the side of our balcony) and couldn't smell it. And, believe me, I can smell a cigarette from 100 yards.

Soot - The first morning, our balcony was covered in soot. It had been foul weather leaving Southampton and the soot was falling earlier due to rain. As we entered warmer climes, the problem lessened. Some days almost nothing, other days a few specks, other days more noticeable deposits. However, even the specks are a pain, as a piece of soot the size of a pinnhead will smear to an inch long mark and it's very difficult to remove. The cabin stewards hose the balcony down daily if neeed, but the taps are only on certain balconies and they have to trail the hose behind balcony dividers and are governed by what time they can get in to the 'host' cabin. This can often mean that hosing down doesn't commence until very late morning, or even mid-day, rendering the balcony pretty useless in the mornings. You need to trash a pair of P&O slippers for balcony use only as your feet get filthy and it's very easy to walk it through the cabin (I speak from experience). The soot volume does depend on weather conditions (humidity) and wind direction. On occasion, you can also smell the exhaust fumes from the funnel from the balcony. Not pleasant.

Vibration - Having been on a number of cruises, we know that ships move and vibrate (especially when the thrusters are in use), but the aft cabins experience noticeably more vibration than elsewhere. It's pretty constant when the ship is moving. Whilst this doesn't overly bother us, the constant cabin rattles that ensue and the time spent trying to locate them and muffle the offending rattle is irritating. I can imagine that the vibration may be more of an issue for some other people and could in fact be a major issue.

In summary, although some of the things we had been concerned about were, in reality, less of an issue than we had feared, we would not book an aft suite again on Britannia. We do not sunbathe and the sole 'advantage' of the huge balcony was, for us, outweighed by the negatives. We have twice had forward suites on Britannia and much prefer them. They are silent, no vibration at all, no soot and the interior accommodation is bigger. But most of all, we missed the forward facing panoramic window and watching every port approach and arrival from the comfort of our bed. I prefer to see where we are going than where we have been.

We've just returned from the same cruise.

On day two I peeked over from deck 16 and saw the topmost aft cabins were covered in soot .Yesterday they actually closed deck 18 aft due to the soot , it was coated .

We kept towards the rear as it was quieter but on most days soot was an issue although as you say it varied in its intensity.

Many of us were discussing how in this day and age something cannot be done to address the problem.

Thank you Selbourne for a very interesting, informative post . I would agree whole heartedly that even minimal soot can ruin clothes, books, lap tops etc..plus goodness knows what people inhale.

Many thanks for the update.

Have to say, in May some of the top decks were closed as they had to hose them down.

There was definitely more soot than on our cruise in 2015 when she was new and it does concern us that, the older she gets, the more soot there may be.

Like someone else has said - they knew that there was an issue with the Royal Princess, so why it was not sorted out is beyond us.

A shame as the location of those cabins is stunning.

I just want to add to Selbourne's post because we had an aft balcony on F deck (F727) on our recent cruise to the Baltic in June. At first we were delighted with our choice but I'm afraid we found the soot a real problem. Our steward appeared every morning (and sometimes evenings) with the hose and wellies and hosed down our balcony and the furniture. We never used our balcony in the evenings after the first couple of days because we were too worried about soot falling on us at sea. In the mornings we generally couldn't use it because of the soot lying on the chairs, floor and table. We didn't notice noise from the Live lounge but we never go to bed early so by the time we were in our cabins the main acts had finished for the night.

We love aft cabins but we would never again have one on Britannia. We complained onboard but basically we were told we just had to let the steward know and he would sort it. We didn't have to tell him as he always dealt with it. However we wrote to P&O to complain when we got back and 7 weeks later we're still waiting for an answer.

Other than that, we absolutely loved Britannia and she far exceeded our expectations, which were low after all the negatives we'd read and heard.

Thanks for the update and comments. Not so sure about our aft wrap in October now [emoji53]

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Thanks for the update and comments. Not so sure about our aft wrap in October now [emoji53]

 

 

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Maybe the issue was exaggerated by the fact that F727 is one of the 2 cabins in the "middle" at the back of the ship - in line with the funnel. If this is the case your aft wrap should avoid the worst of it then?

Dan

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Thanks for the update and comments. Not so sure about our aft wrap in October now [emoji53]

 

 

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Maybe just assume you won't sit out on your balcony as much as usual and actually in October you might not have the weather for it anyway? Apart from that, we had an amazing time and loved the ship so we'll certainly be looking for an itinerary we like so we can go on Britannia again. Don't let it worry you

And despkte some soot we had a fabulous May break. Ok soot but compared the plusses it was a wonderful week.

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Fingers crossed it will be ok, it the first warmish weather cruise we've been on for years, we aren't sunbathers but do like to sit and have a glass of wine. My husband is pale skinned so burns easily ( funny we've just had our DNA tested for genetic origins and he's got a good helping of Scandinavian so maybe that's why [emoji23])

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Maybe the issue was exaggerated by the fact that F727 is one of the 2 cabins in the "middle" at the back of the ship - in line with the funnel. If this is the case your aft wrap should avoid the worst of it then?

 

Dan

 

 

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Not true, I'm afraid. We were in an aft corner wrap and had soot. You get it on all levels of the aft, and in all positions, whether in a corner suite or more central. It does vary based upon weather conditions (damp weather = more soot as it falls sooner) and wind direction. For the majority of our cruise we had very little soot, but there is always some there and a tiny bit causes a smear that is difficult to remove. On the first morning, when our port aft balcony was covered, our steward told us that it was far worse our side than on the starboard side due to the wind direction. Therefore, the reverse must be the case on other days. The cabin stewards are very good at cleaning it daily (the ones allocated to the aft cabins have the worst job of all and I would hope are allocated less cabins as a result) and we didn't ever notice it 'falling' during the day after the balcony has been hosed down, but, try as they might, they just can't shift every last bit of it and there are always odd bits that don't wash away on the floor or are left on hand rails or furniture. You end up being constantly aware of it and having to watch what you sit on, or lean on. Be clear, it doesn't render the balcony out of bounds, but it's a ruddy pain that I could do without on a holiday. The sun loungers have blue padded covers and our steward used to remove them when he serviced our cabin at night and place them against the wall in our bedroom, which helped. Finally, if the soot had been the sole issue then I might have accepted that as the price of having the big balcony, but there were several other things that, cumulatively, would put us off having an aft cabin again on Britannia. We really like the ship (mostly due to the restuarants, modern ambiance and far superior cabin facilities than the other ships), but wouldn't book an aft cabin again. Others love them and can see no faults to them, so it's all down to personal preference.

We had balcony cabin F729 and found the soot a daily problem sadly. At least slippers were provided though. We were chatting to a family that had suite F730 and they'd complained to Reception about the excessive vibration they felt in there and wanted to be moved, it was that bad. So makes you wonder if it's an issue with that particular cabin location? A shame if you've paid suite prices.

I have to agree with Selbourne, sorry to say but we experienced soot issues at the back of Brittania as well.

The black spots spread and if you leave the balcony door open they can even get in onto the carpet, depending on the wind etc.

P&O are well aware that there is a problem, hence the cabin staff cleaning but they are doing very little about it and denying that it is a known issue (but conversely offer a complimentary cleaning service for sooty clothes!)

Florry I would suggest that you put a shot across their bows before your holiday saying that the soot is a known issue and what are they going to do about it / where will they move you to.

You will still have a wonderful holiday, we did, but it is best to avoid irritations like this if you can.

Its worth complaining post holiday if you are blighted with soot.