A group on Britannia with a 3yr old- questions!

I'm trying to gather a little info on cruising with a group of 8 adults and an almost 3yr old to Norway on Britannia. This would be a family cruise for my mums 60th, and as the only cruiser in the family it's down to me to work out the details!

My nephew would be 2yrs 11months (next summer). His parents would be on a budget so said they'd book an inside. However it seems like the only option for the 3rd and 4th berth is a Pullman bed? Obviously not ideal for a 3yr old! Mum and dad are both big and tall so not sure it would work for one them to take the Pullman either. Is there any insides with a sofa bed or will they have to go with a balcony? I'm worried the added cost would be a deal breaker for them. If he was a little younger they could put him in a travel cot but I think he'll be too big by then (but then again I don't have kids so I'm a little clueless here).

Again as cost is an issue for some of us travelling, we'd be looking at early saver fares, but I'm worried this could end up a complete mess if we want to dine together. Could some of us end up on early, some on late, some on anytime? Is there a way to link our reservations so we at least get all on the same time/anytime and we can go from there? I know a table for 8/10 isn't easy to come by, but with a baby they may prefer the buffet most nights anyway. So it might be for 6 instead some nights.

Last question promise! I can see there's kids clubs and a babysitting service for under 4s which is great, however at least at the moment baby is very clingy. I know he will be a little older then, but are there also kids activities on board that the parents also attend rather than leaving the child at?

Thanks for any help in advance :) Any general experience anyone has of Britannia with a toddler is very much appreciated as well.

We’ve cruised with ours from as early as 4 months old. We love P&O for what they offer for our children.

Cabins on Britannia can’t help that much only been on once in a obstructed balcony cabin with a sofa. Would be ideal as has a sofa bed and a normal double bed, but I do understand about budget constraints sometimes they can be quite reasonable. We have used Pullman’s on other ships, me on Pullman I’m 6ft. Could the 3 of them fit in a bed? If so could they try a cot and let them in the bed if it’s not working?

I’m sure on the ship the restaurant manager would try their best to get you altogether. Request freedom dining then just turn up altogether. If some of you get allocated fixed dining they are normally good onboard in trying to change your allocation.

The kids club is fantastic. They are really good even with the most clingy children. They also normally allow a parent to stay for an hour with their child in the kids club. There is also usually a baby room which is unmanned but staff often come in to interact with children and parents. This room has toys and games in it and often a nice place to meet other parents. On Britannia their is also a small outdoor wet play area they can use. The night nursery we’ve never used as ours didn’t settle very well with others. They have cots for the children to sleep in but I’ve seen children in their pushchairs parked up asleep in there. If you manage to leave your nephew in the night nursery they give the parents a pager so they can contact you if they wake up and they can’t resettle them.

Something that works for us as we are early eaters anyway is to take the children to children’s tea first. This is in the buffet restaurant and starts at 5pm. It has normal type of childrens food, fish fingers, Bolognese, fries, roast and veg amongst lots of other stuff. I normally take our children here whilst mummy gets showered and dressed. She then takes over when ready and I change. Our children then join in the children’s club activities whilst we go to the main restaurant for our meal. It’s nice to have a meal without entertaining the children. We ask our children if they would rather dine with us but rarely do they choose to do so. Hope this helps a little.

Thank you, that helps a lot! I don't know anything about how cruising with little ones works so that's really good info. The childrens tea in the buffet sounds great, I can't imagine him wanting to sit through a dinner in the MDR. It would be nice if the parents could join the rest of us for dinner though! The info about the kids club is really good as well. She's a nervous mum so I can't see her just wanting to dump him and run! She would definitely want to sit with him and settle him in.

I will have to ask them about the Pullman- dad is over 6ft and mum isn't far behind and they are both big people (not fat necessarily, just big!). Their little boy is taking after them, he's going to be a rugby player we think lol. All 3 of them in the bed made up as a double would probably be more practical, although if they can swing the cost I can see the balcony with sofa bed working so much better. Do P&O provide cots or would they need to bring a travel cot?

Also, how did you work it with only having a shower with your little one?

Once booked we phone p&o and request a cot which they provide. Also a baby bath for the shower and bed rails. My daughter at around the same age as your nephew will be, used to cry when we left her, within 5 mins she was fine and would come back all smiles. We’ve never forced the issue with them both and they both look forward to going now.

You could think about a blow up/roll up bed (like they use for sleepovers) to carry aboard for the little one. There’s not much floor space though!

Useful information on the P&O website.

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/childrens_club

Brian

Once booked we phone p&o and request a cot which they provide. Also a baby bath for the shower and bed rails. My daughter at around the same age as your nephew will be, used to cry when we left her, within 5 mins she was fine and would come back all smiles. We’ve never forced the issue with them both and they both look forward to going now.

Thank you that's really useful. I wonder if they could get a larger inside to allow a little more space for the cot. Although it doesn't seem to offer this when I do a dummy booking, so maybe larger insides only take 2 PAX. Really good info on what P&O will provide thanks!

My parents would book a balcony so if they really struggle we could move the cot to their room and granny can have him for the night lol.

Useful information on the P&O website.

 

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/childrens_club

 

Brian

Great link thank you! I will pass that onto my sister. I think they would love cruising but as my sister suffers from anxiety I want to make sure she is totally happy with how everything would work before she commits to it. It's hard planning a cruise with a group of newbies- I'll totally feel responsible if they all hate it :eek:

To link separate bookings each lead person on each booking needs to say they want to be linked with the other bookings and give their codes. The cruise line can tie them all up.

Eight adults plus one child can mean booking four cabins. In my opinion you could look at doing one big telephone booking and get a good deal by seeing what the cruise line can do for you based on different scenarios. If you have people that can share a cabin you can enquire about better cabins for three or four. Third and fourth share prices tend to be substantially lower and do not really rise as you ascend the grades. Superior Deluxe Balcony has a sitting area which can be curtained off and the bathroom contains an actual bath. If you phone in you can get a lot of information without necessarily commiting yourself then get back to your other people and see what they think. Early saver on one giant booking will have you all dining together but cabins will be on different decks and locations.

The children's tea is for children only and the adults with them are not supposed to eat anything. Therefore your friends will still be hungry and need a proper evening meal.

Regards John

Hi John

Thanks for the info! I understand now about the children's tea. So maybe they will just dine together in the regular buffet if the parents want to do that.

We'll be having 4 separate cabins for sure lol. It's a long time since I've been on holiday with my parents and I think we will all need our space! Good point about calling and asking about doing it all on one booking- I didn't realise it might be cheaper. The superior deluxe balcony would be great for the 3 of them but no way can they afford that unfortunately. The inside price is their limit, but I spoke to my sister and she is happy to make it work even if it's a little cramped. Maybe my parents will book a superior deluxe and they can use the bath in there. Thanks for the info on linking the cabins!

We have been on Britannia twice, once with a 2 year old and once with a 3 year old. Both time we took a blow up kids bed we got from Amazon and as the room was set in a twin we put him on the floor in between us, however last time we pushed our 2 twins together and had him on the side. Our cabin steward then set it up as a double. If there would of been any problems we would of just moved the furniture ourselves when we got into our room on a night and moved it back in the morning.

Regarding the kids club they are amazing. they were quite keen on adults not staying too long as the other kids then start asking for their mum and dad but I was really worried our little boy would be clingy but they just distracted him and said we could go. We also phoned the kids club from the phones around the ships or in the restaurants to check on him which was a great help.

The night nursery the little people have to be happy to stay in the cot to stay really lat.e but we would pick ours up about 10pm and the kids were all snuggled up under blankets watching a Disney film.

hope that helps x

Trying to do a booking with a child on PO website isnt possible. You have to go either via a TA or direct with PO. Very young children are restricted to certain cabins as well. We are travelling with grandson (2 yrs) in a balcony cabin and we were restricted to the cabin we could have (TA said it was PO Health and Safety regs.) Insides were available but again PO will tell you which you can have. Another point (though I may be wrong) is you cant book a saver fare with a child although it could be just a late deal. You need to ring PO to find out if price is an issue as they charge the same for a 2 year old as a teenager of 17 yrs 11 months (which is a percentage of the full fare - so not cheap!)

Trying to do a booking with a child on PO website isnt possible. You have to go either via a TA or direct with PO. Very young children are restricted to certain cabins as well. We are travelling with grandson (2 yrs) in a balcony cabin and we were restricted to the cabin we could have (TA said it was PO Health and Safety regs.) Insides were available but again PO will tell you which you can have. Another point (though I may be wrong) is you cant book a saver fare with a child although it could be just a late deal. You need to ring PO to find out if price is an issue as they charge the same for a 2 year old as a teenager of 17 yrs 11 months (which is a percentage of the full fare - so not cheap!)

It seems to let us go through a dummy booking ok with a child on a saver fare? It does say you must ring if they are under 24 months so maybe thats why you haven't been able to in the past.

I suspect the cabin restrictions would just be that some cabins can only take 2 guests, and last minute they may be reaching overall ship capacity.

It does seem that they charge the same for a 3yr old and a 17yr old which is annoying! I have discovered they also charge more for kids during the school holidays.

Just booked a balcony on britania next year with a single sofa bed, about to do a cruise on ventura with him in april he is be 3.(not sure if pullman or sofa bed this time..... They do cabins on Britania with single and double sofa beds. They have child places at cheap prices but once gone they get charged at an almost adult rate as we have found out before and declined a 6k quote for three of us last year with a late booking...However this time it was more reasonable at about 50% of our fare. They also have age group total numbers so for the cruise next year we could do the 13 night but not the 14 as they had reached their quota for the age group...

we took him on a cruise at 9months old so this will be a bit different for us and under 2 they are not allowed more than 2 consecutive sea days (or 3 cant remember..) due to possible sea sickness dehydration issues i presume...

we found the night nursery excellent last time and hope our boy will let us use it this time too...

you can link your bookings together and if you book a normal fare you'd be able to co-ord your meal sittings, saver not but you can approach restaurant manger to try and sort if he can once onboard or all swap to freedom... You might get OBC with full fare and bring price down to a saver type fare or close... Never had a problem with a table for 8 when we travelled as a 7 ( child counts as a place even if not used) .

It seems to let us go through a dummy booking ok with a child on a saver fare? It does say you must ring if they are under 24 months so maybe thats why you haven't been able to in the past.

I suspect the cabin restrictions would just be that some cabins can only take 2 guests, and last minute they may be reaching overall ship capacity.

It does seem that they charge the same for a 3yr old and a 17yr old which is annoying! I have discovered they also charge more for kids during the school holidays.

The ship will have an overall legal maximum number of passengers they may sail with on board. This number must not be exceeded. Sometimes people book a cabin which is capable of accommodating three or four passengers but only make a booking for two people. Later on they think it would be nice to add their 19 year old grandson and believe this is going to be possible because they have a spare bed/s. Strangely the ship might already be full because number of beds on the ship and number of passengers legally allowed to transport are not the same. They have a lot of "extra" beds because the last few bookings might want different cabin types.

If the ship was not full but the grandson was under 18 other additional restrictions come into play. The Children's Club age groups (on a standard format) are; 2/4, 5/8, 9/12 and 13/17. During school holidays when children will likely be abundant a situation may occur where for example loads of 5/8 year olds have been booked onto the ship. In this case people trying to make a booking will be refused on the basis of them trying to book a 5/8 year old in the party. This is even though the ship is not full. Outside of school holidays a similar situation will likely be dealt with differently. Older children are in school but the younger ones, pre-schoolers and infant/junior school passengers may be high in numbers with minimal secondary school passengers in this situation the cruise line is more likely to accept the excessive lower age bookings and adjust the age group splits, possibly 2/6 and 7/10 etc, whatever they feel will work.

All this is because the Children's clubs have to function in a reasonable manner and the cruise line needs to maintain revenue as high as felt it can achieve.

Special restrictions apply to babies under 6 months old - they cannot travel and babies 6 months to 12 months they cannot travel when the consecutive number of sea days exceeds a set number. This is based on getting emergency medical cases to a hospital with an acute condition suddenly occurring.

In the past I have sailed with my daughter and she will be charged full adult fare. This is because you need two full fares in every cabin before you go onto 3rd or 4th share rates. So 3 year old pays same as 17 year old on the fare. Now this is something you need to realise Auto-gratuities are charged at £6 per day per passenger. However on P&O they do not charge tips for 12 year olds or younger. Most US lines charge tips at a much higher rate £8/£10 and this applies to ALL passengers including babies, 2 year olds etc. irrespective. Imagine having two children on a fortnights cruise.

Regards John

We took our son on his first cruise when he was 3 and paid extra for a cabin with a sofa bed (and have done so on all subsequent cruises). Some are better than others but as Britannia is one of the younger ships I would not anticipate any problems.

We've tried him in the kids club on various cruises but it is just not for him so we always pack a few games to keep him occupied (usually we remove the games from their boxes and bag them up for packing instead). Similarly he prefers to go to dinner with the grown-ups rather than the kids tea but we've never had any problems whatsoever taking him in the MDR. I actually think some of the waiters enjoy spoiling the kids, either because they have children themselves or maybe it is just a break from the usual routine. Either way our son enjoys the food on the kids menu in the MDR so that is all that matters. When we've been on freedom dining if we are allocated a table with waiters that we particularly like then we ask for the same again the following evening. The restaurant managers are happy to do this for you if the table is available and usually the waiters are happy to see you again.

When he was little we'd usually just go back to the cabin after dinner and get him settled whilst we'd watch a film or read. When we've had cabins on Britannia they've had a huge TV screen which lit up the whole room so our son didn't get to sleep very quickly but we've not had similar problems on the other ships. Now that he is older (7) we take him to see a show after dinner or one of the musical acts. Failing that we find a quiet place for a last game of cards before we usually retire back to the cabin around 10pm.

Good luck with all the arrangements, I hope it all works out for you.

Damian

We shared an inside cabin onAurora there were 3 of us and we had bunk beds and there was also a sofa bed,not sure about brittania though

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