Britannia aft suites

Am looking at a few options for our next cruise and may like to try an aft suite. We have had a suite at the front and it wasn't for us. We do like the aft of Britannia. The cabins that are free include E742, B726 , B724 and F730. My hubby fancies a wrap around aft . There seem to be some variations in size of cabin, balcony and patio door arrangement. Have tried to enlarge some of the Britannia photos.Have ruled out one on A deck due to the fact that its overlooked under the bar area plus G deck as its over the live lounge. Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

Am looking at a few options for our next cruise and may like to try an aft suite. We have had a suite at the front and it wasn't for us. We do like the aft of Britannia. The cabins that are free include E742, B726 , B724 and F730. My hubby fancies a wrap around aft . There seem to be some variations in size of cabin, balcony and patio door arrangement. Have tried to enlarge some of the Britannia photos.Have ruled out one on A deck due to the fact that its overlooked under the bar area plus G deck as its over the live lounge. Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

We have used F730 and would never book it again. If you search, you will find my review and there is already a thread on Britannia Aft Suites. Our experience of the forward suites was positive, apart from the shallow balconies. Other than that, at the front we had no movement, no vibration, no soot, no noise and the bedroom area was fabulous with a superb forward facing panoramic window, behind which we set up our own private Crows Nest using the two chairs from the living area. We also enjoyed watching our approach to ports from our bed! The bedrooms of the aft and side suites are half the size of those at the front (stated cabin sizes are misleading as they don't count all the bedroom area in forward suites due to the part sloping ceiling).

By contrast, the aft suite had constant vibration when the ship was moving (the vibration didn't particularly bother me, but the constant rattles it caused did), the well publicised soot issue (which severely offsets the sole advantage of the much bigger balconies of the aft suites), lack of shade, noise from the Live Lounge (very loud even on F deck when live music is being performed - and noticeable when it's recorded music). In addition to all of this we had another significant issue which was possibly unique to that suite but may affect aft corner wrap suites.

If you are insistent on booking an aft suite in spite of all of the known problems, I would suggest B726 of all those you have quoted.

Thank you I did find your review interesting and am trying to do my "homework" . At present my other half is favouring F730 and I will take your points on board.Could I ask how was the room was configured with regard to the patio doors?

We had F729 which I know isn't a suite. However for us the soot issue meant we didn't use our balcony at all after Day 2 of a 14 day cruise. The poor steward came equipped with wellies and a hose every morning and evening, but on sea days we didn't know when soot would land on us / the balcony. We complained to P&O and would strongly advise against having an aft on Britannia although we love them on other ships.

Would definitely advise against booking an aft balcony on britannia. We had b725 a few weeks ago. The well publishized issues are fully correct

Thank you I did find your review interesting and am trying to do my "homework" . At present my other half is favouring F730 and I will take your points on board.Could I ask how was the room was configured with regard to the patio doors?

D and F deck corner aft suites have a different layout to the others (see photo below)

http://www.motorship.com/__data/assets/image/0033/428568/Britannia-photobyJAMES_MORGAN-DSC_7692-1.jpg

As you enter the suite, you are facing the rear patio doors, which give access to the balcony from the living area. The other patio doors are in the bedroom but on D and F deck they are at an angle to the side of the bed. The foot of the bed faces a solid wall with a TV on it. The bedroom size and layout are significantly worse than the bedrooms in the forward suites. With F deck aft corner wrap suites, as you enter the suite, there are two panel doors that enclose a large plant room which contains the vacuum plumbing system for the bathrooms for multiple other cabins. As this room is within the suite, you hear the loud flushing noise every time someone in one of the (several) cabins serviced by this area uses their toilet. I believe that the inclusion of this large servicing room within the suite explains the differing layouts on D and F decks but I haven't stayed in any of the other corner suites to know if that exclusive to those floors. Servicing rooms for the toilets of cabins are usually accessed from the corridors. On Britannia, some are accessed from within the aft corner wrap suites. A major design flaw. This is not an issue that we had heard about before we booked. You have now been warned. We really like Britannia, but I cannot over state how compromised these suites are due to multiple factors.

I am in E743 tomorrow so opposite to E742 (which we originally booked and swapped). I will let you know what we think, based on my research a aft-wrap on B deck is best.

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Thank you Selbourne that is something that I had not previously heard of and certainly wouldn't appreciate listening to flushing loos all the time. Obviously there is a lot of money involved booking a suite and I wouldn't like to compromise our enjoyment. That was very decent of you to share that information. Much appreciated.

Thank you Selbourne that is something that I had not previously heard of and certainly wouldn't appreciate listening to flushing loos all the time. Obviously there is a lot of money involved booking a suite and I wouldn't like to compromise our enjoyment. That was very decent of you to share that information. Much appreciated.

You are welcome. I certainly can confirm that the plumbing room sits within the aft corner suites on F deck and I suspect also on D deck as the layout is identical. It may well be that this is not the case with the other decks where the layout is different. Hopefully DaiB will post on this thread as I know that he recently had the starboard corner wrap suite on B deck. He also posted some photos on another thread about aft suites on Britannia and the balcony was deeper than the one we had on F deck (the biggest is G deck, but I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole as it's directly above the Live Lounge and it was noisy enough one level up from that).

On B deck you certainly wouldn't get any noise disturbance. It may also be the case that the vibration would be less 4 decks further up. Again, DaiB would be able to confirm that (or anyone else who has stayed in a B deck aft suite). I should stress, by the way, I am not talking about the obvious vibration you get when the thrusters are in use. I am referring to a constant vibration when the ship is at sea. I don't mind the vibration as such (although it would bother some) but I got fed up having to dampen loads of different things in the cabin to stop them rattling. I'm not just talking about the usual hangers, crockery etc. We had things like the corner of the whirlpool bath and the cover plate over the bedroom air con unit rattling. I did manage to stop them by wedging a towel between the soap holder and top of the bath and by pulling the air con cover, but having spent £7k for the suite this was just wrong on so many levels!

You would most definitely still have a soot problem whichever aft suite you have. Although the deposits are worse some days than others (depending on wind direction and atmospheric conditions), the stewards only manage to clean away the majority of it - not every spot. And just one tiny spot can smudge to a noticeable mark that is difficult to remove from your skin and / or necessitates a change of clothing. On occasion, you can also smell the exhaust fumes from the balcony. Not pleasant.

It is fair to say that the size of the balconies, in relation to the rather pathetic ones elsewhere on Britannia, are a major plus. Views are spectacular and we had the best seats in the house for the International Firework Competition in Monaco (thankfully, my educated guess that the port side would be the side to be for that proved to be correct). It is worth noting that the aft corner balconies are uncovered and have no shade.

In the interest of balance, and to help guide you, I guess that if I was looking to book a suite on Britannia again, if someone who had stayed in a B deck aft corner wrap could confirm to me that there is no plumbing servicing room within the suite and the vibration (and associated rattles) are less the further up you go, I would probably live with the soot in order to get the balcony. But we don't sunbathe - we use the balcony for the views.

Final point - if you are non-smokers and, like us, detest the stench of it, try to go for the starboard side (odd numbers). The port side open deck outside the Live Lounge is a smoking area. The ship deck plans incorrectly show this area as stopping short of the corner of the ship. It doesn't. It actually wraps right underneath the corner suites. It is fair to say that I was very concerned about this as I only discovered it after we had booked (by finding the photo that I posted earlier in the thread). Much to my surprise, we were not bothered by it at all. However, most smokers were further forward, near the door out from the lift lobby, and the further up you get, the further forward the balconies are. You might still be OK (side cabins on the port side aft would definitely have a problem and I have read comments to that effect from someone who stayed in one), but I thought I should mention it.

Interesting comments. Thank you very much. Food for thought and serious discussions to follow this weekend.

No service room in the suite on b deck.

There was some vibration but not as bad as you described Selbourne.

I do feel the vibration is getting worse on the ship though.was our third cruise and noticed it a lot more in the beach house this time and it was a fairly calm evening,

Hi I'm in E Deck Starboard aft-wrap - I think there is a plumbing room next to the door but not sure, there is certainly no noise from it.

There was banging last night but it turned out that next door had accidentally left a door swinging and came to apologise this morning [emoji2]

Soot - yes plenty of big chunks at the moment, weather is rough so can't use the balcony anyway.

The cabin itself is fab and even on E deck the balcony is so much better than usual.

The bathroom is huge.

We are a bit disappointed that we can't plug a memory stick into the TV like you can on Arcadia, GoT is going to have to wait until we get back home!

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Am looking at a few options for our next cruise and may like to try an aft suite. We have had a suite at the front and it wasn't for us. We do like the aft of Britannia. The cabins that are free include E742, B726 , B724 and F730. My hubby fancies a wrap around aft . There seem to be some variations in size of cabin, balcony and patio door arrangement. Have tried to enlarge some of the Britannia photos.Have ruled out one on A deck due to the fact that its overlooked under the bar area plus G deck as its over the live lounge. Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

Hello,

I have just returned from a wonder 2 weeks on Ventura, so am catching up on emails / forums etc.

Whilst I haven’t had time to read all the replies I can nevertheless provide some photos of B726 as I stayed in it last year.

We loved wrap around balcony & spent so much time on there. Yes there was some soot issues, but given what’s going on in today’s world, we took it in our stride & reminded ourselves not only how lucky we are to be able to cruise, but that we could also afford a suite.

Someone also sent me some photos of D738 as we were initially booked into that but we’re able to swap when B726 became available.

Hope this helps.

Joan

Very interesting to see the photos of the B deck corner wrap suite as I can now compare and contrast to the F deck corner wrap. The living room, bathroom and wardrobe areas are identical. The bedroom layout is better than those on D and F deck as the window is to the side of the bed. The bedroom size remains less than half the size of the bedrooms in the forward suites however. The balcony on B deck is significantly better than the one we had on F deck as it is deeper and also has an outdoor sofa. It looks similar in size to the one on G deck, which should be avoided due to being immediately above the Live Lounge. Of most interest to me was the fact that there IS a service access door to a plumbing plant room visible in the photos of the B deck suite. It is on the wall in the small corridor between the door into the suite and the door to the toilet. In the F deck suites there are two doors in this area, so the plant room is bigger, but the fact that there is one there at all is enough to confirm to me that I wouldn’t book another aft suite on any level. Thanks for posting them.

Amazing photos thank you.

Hi Florry are you finding the balcony windy on the wrap around aft? We usually like the centre aft as they don't seem to have the wind and are quite sunny.

Hi Florry are you finding the balcony windy on the wrap around aft? We usually like the centre aft as they don't seem to have the wind and are quite sunny.

Hi, no it hasn't been noticeably windy unless the weather has been particularly bad. On the aft-wrap I think there is always a place where it's more sheltered depending on the direction. There hasn't been any shade on sunny days though.

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Hi Florry are you finding the balcony windy on the wrap around aft? We usually like the centre aft as they don't seem to have the wind and are quite sunny.

For what it’s worth, although we wouldn’t book an aft suite again for the multiple reasons described earlier, wind was not an issue. I would concur with Florry’s description.

Sorry to dig this thread back up, but does anyone know whether the soot issue has been resolved slightly with the addition of the canopies over A and B deck suites? 
 

Looking to book a suite for Caribbean next winter. We have a B deck suite booked for this September but it has a small balcony. Would love to book an aft suite but not sure which one!

10 hours ago, Glitterati said:

Sorry to dig this thread back up, but does anyone know whether the soot issue has been resolved slightly with the addition of the canopies over A and B deck suites? 
 

Looking to book a suite for Caribbean next winter. We have a B deck suite booked for this September but it has a small balcony. Would love to book an aft suite but not sure which one!

We had B724 on the TA in 2019.  First cruise after the canopies fitted.  While not to everyones taste it did cure the soot problem and gave us some seclusion from the Sunset bar and A deck.  It also enabled us to sit out on wet days and was great for an evening cabin party.  Would definitely book again

1 hour ago, sueandphil said:

We had B724 on the TA in 2019.  First cruise after the canopies fitted.  While not to everyones taste it did cure the soot problem and gave us some seclusion from the Sunset bar and A deck.  It also enabled us to sit out on wet days and was great for an evening cabin party.  Would definitely book again

Ah that’s great to hear! Do you happen to know whether the corner suites are 100% covered? I can’t seem to find any photos but I imagine the wrap around bit is still open! 
 

Did the canopy fully block the sun? 

We did get the sun in the morning but were protected from the midday sun when it was high in the sky.

Having had A722 in the past, which is an aft balcony, before the canopies were fitted, the Balcony was large but we found that at midday in the Caribbean it was too hot to sit out.

With regards to the canopy wrapping right round on the corner suites, I cannot remember as it was out of our sight but I have a feeling that they did

I have had an aft balcony and an aft suite I think 5 times. From on those cruises speaking to my neighbours none of them had requested aft cabins or suites either it was where they were allocated or where their travel agent suggested. It is the same as being anywhere on the ship you will do well to do a little research. I am happy anywhere if needs must but now I book aft. Why?? I am a good sailor always key. I eat primarily in Epicurean which is situated aft on Azura and Ventura. I have been on Britannia but can not say where Epicurean was sited. My preference now is just to sail and hopefully will book an aft suite or cabin late December 2022. However which ship is debatable who nows which will go where.

Epicurean is high up at front of Britannia near to Crows Nest on port side.

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Epicurean is high up at front of Britannia near to Crows Nest on port side.

And the walk there and back is great for keeping the weight down