Live from Britannia

[AndyMichelle]

3 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Think I've mentioned before many moons ago. 

We prefer to go down to eat at about 7.30pm expecting to eat at about 8.15pm. (Old system)

 

In May it was ridiculous. It was hit and miss. Book on the app at 6.45pm and it told you to go straight away (even though you aren't dressed). Book at 7pm and it was full. Wait until about 9pm each evening. Service in the MDR was terrible 2 nights and ok 3rd night. (Though we still ate at 9pm).

Even considered cabin service to be able to stay in ! 

 

We like to eat in the speciality restaurants on every ship we've been on. In May we wished we'd booked every night to avoid the stress of trying to get a meal. I don't really want to go on a special cruise and not have the chance to experience the other restaurants to be honest. 

 

In May they suggested the buffet as a last resort for us. We tried that one night. Never again

 

Perhaps we had a bad experience as it was school holidays so the whole experience was magnified and made worse.

 

The more I think back and reflect, we were too generous with our 4 out of 5 review 

There seemed to be plenty of tables for 2 in the mdr late sitting. 

Andy 

[Presto2]

34 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

There seemed to be plenty of tables for 2 in the mdr late sitting. 

Andy 

My problem is I want it to be as good as I know it can be and have been told I am 'risk averse' 😉

Do we risk that we may end up sitting with Mr and Mrs Bucket every night or risk hubby jumping overboard if the app does his head in?

 

Mmmm decisions. Oh well, my sense of humour is returning ........ 

[AndyMichelle]

44 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

My problem is I want it to be as good as I know it can be and have been told I am 'risk averse' 😉

Do we risk that we may end up sitting with Mr and Mrs Bucket every night or risk hubby jumping overboard if the app does his head in?

 

Mmmm decisions. Oh well, my sense of humour is returning ........ 

On the first night of our recent cruise, half the mdr (fixed) was closed off as most passengers seemed to prefer freedom dining. 

On the 2nd night, it was fully open with loads of passengers switching from freedom dining after app issues... 

I doubt anyone on our cruise who was select fare didn't get the table size they wanted, but we know it can change from cruise to cruise. 

Andy 

[two hoots]

9 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I believe that you can on Iona and Arvia. As you know, with Britannia the only restaurant you can pre book is the Limelight Club. Those of us who get priority boarding have a distinct advantage in being able to grab the best slots when we board, but that’s not entirely fair for everyone else. 

Not on Iona, only the limelight club could be pre booked, you could book speciality restaurants once you got to the terminal building apparently.

 

[Selbourne]

DAY 13 (Hamburg)

 

I woke just before 6am so was able to see some of our arrival into Hamburg. Quite a complex manoeuvre to get into the Steinwerder Cruise Terminal, including reversing a considerable distance. That always impresses me. There’s a lot going on in this port. In addition to the usual container port there seems to be a huge shipbuilding industry, with big hangers and also things that look like enormous open ended skips, that a ship is built on and then is presumably lowered into the water to float the ship out. Ships being built here include Super Yachts and military vessels plus some unidentifiable ones that are covered in a sort of polythene scaffolding!

 

We had breakfast back in the Peninsular restaurant and then after 3 days on the ship I was definitely more than ready to go ashore. Unfortunately the cruise terminal isn’t walkable to / from the city centre due to a complex and lengthy road network in order to exit the docks, which means relying on shuttles. My wife decided to stay on the ship and when I saw the distances and ramps involved to get from the ship to the shuttle buses, plus the fact that, unlike Copenhagen, I couldn’t see a single accessible shuttle, I was quite relieved. The P&O the standard shuttles were plentiful though. When one of our daughters came here with MSC she had to wait for nearly 90 minutes for one. 

 

We have been to Hamburg before, but on a tour from Travemumde, so the attraction this time was less about the city itself and more about the transit down the River Elbe, so it was good that the ‘all onboard’ time was 5.30pm as that would mean being able

to enjoy much of the transit before dinner. It was a nice sail out, in spite of the constant thudding around from the kids next door (as my wife said, it’s been bad enough for us, but imagine what it must be like for those underneath them) and a group of teenagers sitting in the corridor outside the aft suites making a lot of noise. I am SO relieved that we don’t book suites anymore. One has been used as a rendezvous point for all the teens on board and another has the screaming baby from hell. Pity the poor souls in the suite between those two 😱 There are some serious properties on the banks of the Elbe in the first 5 miles after leaving Hamburg. Clearly a lot of well paid jobs in the area! 

 

As the cruise along the Elbe takes all evening, and we didn’t fancy anything on the MDR menu, we chanced a second booking in the Beach House as there was a late slot at 9pm available, hoping that most of the kids and babies might have left by then. Thankfully they had! We both had the fillet steak on lava stone and whilst it wasn’t quite the 10/10 that I’d had the week before, it was still a far better steak than you’d get at home. Top marks for service. The drinks waiter found me a bitter that hadn’t been in a fridge and the food waiter, noticing that I’d left some of my steak as it was a bit fatty in one part, offered us a free dessert.  

 

Whilst we have managed to get into all the speciality restaurants that we wanted to (thanks to early boarding) one thing that we have noticed is that even though every restaurant has been sold out, and some passengers will have been unable to make bookings, we have noticed at least one table of officers dining in every one of them

during every visit. This surely cannot be right? Call me old fashioned, but customers should always come first. If a restaurant is sold out then surely the staff should be bumped?

 

We didn’t bother with the show. The description of the artist as a ‘singing diva’ was enough to put us off. Hoping we have an undisturbed night as I am fearfal that the teenagers in the suite 2 doors away are likely to have a last hurrah with their new found friends on one of the last 2 nights. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong 🤞

[Presto2]

Am I the only one asking why these children are not in school.. or is the rest of the UK on a school holiday?

Thanks for your review Selbourne and hope you sleep well 😴 

[TigerB]

Thanks for keeping us updated.👍

I think if we were subjected to the noise problems that the neighbours of those two cabins experienced our lass would have been having some (proper Anglo-Saxon) words with the offenders.  You can take the lass out of Hull....😉

 

I'm with you on the 'preferential treatment' of the officers at the expense of fare paying diners.

 

Tell me, how does a free dessert in Beach House work given that it is a set price for three courses? Do they take a couple of quid off the bill?

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, Presto2 said:

Am I the only one asking why these children are not in school.. or is the rest of the UK on a school holiday?

Thanks for your review Selbourne and hope you sleep well 😴 

Scottish schools and private schools are off, although I don’t think that the noisy pair next to us fit either category 😡

[TigerB]

44 minutes ago, two hoots said:

Not on Iona, only the limelight club could be pre booked, you could book speciality restaurants once you got to the terminal building apparently.

 

 

Which cruise was this for? We were able to pre-book Sindhu and Epicurean two weeks out for our Fjords cruise in June.

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, TigerB said:

Thanks for keeping us updated.👍

I think if we were subjected to the noise problems that the neighbours of those two cabins experienced our lass would have been having some (proper Anglo-Saxon) words with the offenders.  You can take the lass out of Hull....😉

 

I'm with you on the 'preferential treatment' of the officers at the expense of fare paying diners.

 

Tell me, how does a free dessert in Beach House work given that it is a set price for three courses? Do they take a couple of quid off the bill?

I have wanted to have a word, but Mrs S won’t let me. 
 

We had the Chocolate fondu, which should be a £4 supplement, free. 

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Scottish schools and private schools are off, although I don’t think that the noisy pair next to us fit either category 😡

Plus the teenagers have probably finished early due to GCSEs etc. 

[Presto2]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Scottish schools and private schools are off, although I don’t think that the noisy pair next to us fit either category 😡

And while you are still awake .... thanks for all your posts today re my questions about dining. It is very much appreciated.  Enjoy the rest of your cruise and sleep well 

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

Which cruise was this for? We were able to pre-book Sindhu and Epicurean two weeks out for our Fjords cruise in June.

Yes our Iona cruise looks as though we can pre book most speciality restaurants 2 weeks out. 

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

Plus the teenagers have probably finished early due to GCSEs etc. 

Ah forgot about those .. we don't finish until next Tuesday

[TigerB]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

Yes our Iona cruise looks as though we can pre book most speciality restaurants 2 weeks out. 

 

Perhaps the contributor missed them when they were released, and later saw them as 'enquire on board' only. 

[Beckett]

@Selbourne: Thank you so much for your very informative, well-balanced, and structured diary of your cruise. i've thoroughly enjoyed reading every post and when I saw a long entry I settled down with a coffee to read at leisure knowing how much I would enjoy it.

 

Re your noise issues, we had a similar experience on our last family cruise in 2019. We had a very noisy family next door - mum, dad, and 14/15 year old quite ferral girl. Sadly, the girl became the ringleader of a group of similar age who incorporated all that is wrong with teenagers left to their own devices. Bearing in mind I was sharing a cabin with my own 13 year old at the time the difference between them was there for all to see. So whilst the rarely sober parents took no notice of my very polite request to stop them all congregating in said next-door cabin, I had no choice but to make an official complaint. The staff were not overly helpful ( just teenagers enjoying themselves sort of attitude) and I don't know what would happened had that very night not brought the situation to a conclusion when this 'gang' started throwing sunbeds overboard! I never saw the family again and was given an additional £200 obc. Silence reigned.

 

Have a good day Selbourne and Mrs Selbourne. Best wishes. Jane xx

 

 

 

[Angel57]

18 minutes ago, Beckett said:

@Selbourne: Thank you so much for your very informative, well-balanced, and structured diary of your cruise. i've thoroughly enjoyed reading every post and when I saw a long entry I settled down with a coffee to read at leisure knowing how much I would enjoy it.

 

Re your noise issues, we had a similar experience on our last family cruise in 2019. We had a very noisy family next door - mum, dad, and 14/15 year old quite ferral girl. Sadly, the girl became the ringleader of a group of similar age who incorporated all that is wrong with teenagers left to their own devices. Bearing in mind I was sharing a cabin with my own 13 year old at the time the difference between them was there for all to see. So whilst the rarely sober parents took no notice of my very polite request to stop them all congregating in said next-door cabin, I had no choice but to make an official complaint. The staff were not overly helpful ( just teenagers enjoying themselves sort of attitude) and I don't know what would happened had that very night not brought the situation to a conclusion when this 'gang' started throwing sunbeds overboard! I never saw the family again and was given an additional £200 obc. Silence reigned.

 

Have a good day Selbourne and Mrs Selbourne. Best wishes. Jane xx

 

 

 

I feel the same about Selbourne’s posts from his cruise. I really feel like I’m on board too.

Re the family next door to you - why is there always a minority of parents who can’t or won’t discipline and/or put down boundaries for their children.  But that’s a whole other subject and probably not for this forum 🤣

[two hoots]

10 hours ago, TigerB said:

 

Perhaps the contributor missed them when they were released, and later saw them as 'enquire on board' only. 

Yes we had enquire onboard showing, perhaps we had lots of people who were fast and booked as soon as they were available 🙂 we found the food in the MDR good so we werent too bothered. 
 

[JeanieC,Aston]

Enjoying the review on probably my favourite P&O ship (Iona my least fav).

 

The noisy neighbours comments reminds me of one episode with P&O,,,I can’t remember the ship but I had an upgrade to a balcony cabin on a better deck than I was on,,,,alas it was next to one of the poshest suites on the ship that had as its feature a Grand piano,,,one of those that played automatically as well as manually.

In the suite was a couple and 2 young children,,,,,all day long it was plink plonk,,no tune just plink plonk plink plonk.

The husband invited my wife and myself in to look around mentioning the Grand piano.

I don’t need to see the piano I said I can hear it all day long,,,,I think he got the message the plink plonking stopped.

 

[Britboys]

4 minutes ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Enjoying the review on probably my favourite P&O ship (Iona my least fav).

 

The noisy neighbours comments reminds me of one episode with P&O,,,I can’t remember the ship but I had an upgrade to a balcony cabin on a better deck than I was on,,,,alas it was next to one of the poshest suites on the ship that had as its feature a Grand piano,,,one of those that played automatically as well as manually.

In the suite was a couple and 2 young children,,,,,all day long it was plink plonk,,no tune just plink plonk plink plonk.

The husband invited my wife and myself in to look around mentioning the Grand piano.

I don’t need to see the piano I said I can hear it all day long,,,,I think he got the message the plink plonking stopped.

 

That will be Aurora then, which has the Piano Suite and the Library Suite. Glad to hear the plink plonk stopped...

[JeanieC,Aston]

1 minute ago, Britboys said:

That will be Aurora then, which has the Piano Suite and the Library Suite. Glad to hear the plink plonk stopped...

Yes,,my wife just reminded me it was our one and only Aurora cruise.

It learnt me never to tick the yes to an upgrade box.

[Britboys]

13 minutes ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Yes,,my wife just reminded me it was our one and only Aurora cruise.

It learnt me never to tick the yes to an upgrade box.

You didn't like Aurora then?...

[gsmt47471015]

14 hours ago, Selbourne said:

DAY 13 (Hamburg)

 

I woke just before 6am so was able to see some of our arrival into Hamburg. Quite a complex manoeuvre to get into the Steinwerder Cruise Terminal, including reversing a considerable distance. That always impresses me. There’s a lot going on in this port. In addition to the usual container port there seems to be a huge shipbuilding industry, with big hangers and also things that look like enormous open ended skips, that a ship is built on and then is presumably lowered into the water to float the ship out. Ships being built here include Super Yachts and military vessels plus some unidentifiable ones that are covered in a sort of polythene scaffolding!

 

We had breakfast back in the Peninsular restaurant and then after 3 days on the ship I was definitely more than ready to go ashore. Unfortunately the cruise terminal isn’t walkable to / from the city centre due to a complex and lengthy road network in order to exit the docks, which means relying on shuttles. My wife decided to stay on the ship and when I saw the distances and ramps involved to get from the ship to the shuttle buses, plus the fact that, unlike Copenhagen, I couldn’t see a single accessible shuttle, I was quite relieved. The P&O the standard shuttles were plentiful though. When one of our daughters came here with MSC she had to wait for nearly 90 minutes for one. 

 

We have been to Hamburg before, but on a tour from Travemumde, so the attraction this time was less about the city itself and more about the transit down the River Elbe, so it was good that the ‘all onboard’ time was 5.30pm as that would mean being able

to enjoy much of the transit before dinner. It was a nice sail out, in spite of the constant thudding around from the kids next door (as my wife said, it’s been bad enough for us, but imagine what it must be like for those underneath them) and a group of teenagers sitting in the corridor outside the aft suites making a lot of noise. I am SO relieved that we don’t book suites anymore. One has been used as a rendezvous point for all the teens on board and another has the screaming baby from hell. Pity the poor souls in the suite between those two 😱 There are some serious properties on the banks of the Elbe in the first 5 miles after leaving Hamburg. Clearly a lot of well paid jobs in the area! 

 

As the cruise along the Elbe takes all evening, and we didn’t fancy anything on the MDR menu, we chanced a second booking in the Beach House as there was a late slot at 9pm available, hoping that most of the kids and babies might have left by then. Thankfully they had! We both had the fillet steak on lava stone and whilst it wasn’t quite the 10/10 that I’d had the week before, it was still a far better steak than you’d get at home. Top marks for service. The drinks waiter found me a bitter that hadn’t been in a fridge and the food waiter, noticing that I’d left some of my steak as it was a bit fatty in one part, offered us a free dessert.  

 

Whilst we have managed to get into all the speciality restaurants that we wanted to (thanks to early boarding) one thing that we have noticed is that even though every restaurant has been sold out, and some passengers will have been unable to make bookings, we have noticed at least one table of officers dining in every one of them

during every visit. This surely cannot be right? Call me old fashioned, but customers should always come first. If a restaurant is sold out then surely the staff should be bumped?

 

We didn’t bother with the show. The description of the artist as a ‘singing diva’ was enough to put us off. Hoping we have an undisturbed night as I am fearfal that the teenagers in the suite 2 doors away are likely to have a last hurrah with their new found friends on one of the last 2 nights. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong 🤞

Your comments re. noisy young passengers has only confirmed our view that it will be adults only for any future cruise ( our next three are). Thank you for the very balanced and factual updates on your cruise 👍  

[two hoots]

10 hours ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Enjoying the review on probably my favourite P&O ship (Iona my least fav).

 

The noisy neighbours comments reminds me of one episode with P&O,,,I can’t remember the ship but I had an upgrade to a balcony cabin on a better deck than I was on,,,,alas it was next to one of the poshest suites on the ship that had as its feature a Grand piano,,,one of those that played automatically as well as manually.

In the suite was a couple and 2 young children,,,,,all day long it was plink plonk,,no tune just plink plonk plink plonk.

The husband invited my wife and myself in to look around mentioning the Grand piano.

I don’t need to see the piano I said I can hear it all day long,,,,I think he got the message the plink plonking stopped.

 

I loved the atrium and the beautiful bright coral restaurant on Iona, but we had the rudest passengers during the first week in July which put us off booking her again 😕

 

[TigerB]

13 hours ago, two hoots said:

Yes we had enquire onboard showing, perhaps we had lots of people who were fast and booked as soon as they were available 🙂 we found the food in the MDR good so we werent too bothered. 
 

 

Yes, that would be it.

To get the times you want in the speciality restaurants, or even to bag the earlier times in the MDRs, you need to be on the Cruise Planner during the first couple of days of the dining reservations being released; the earlier the better.