Final Thoughts on our Britannia cruise & ‘the cutbacks’

[Selbourne]

As those who have been following my ‘Live from Britannia’ thread will know, my wife and I have just returned from 14 nights on Britannia. By way of background, this was our 20th cruise with P&O and our 4th on Britannia but, most significantly, our first P&O cruise since Covid. As regulars on this forum may know, I had been concerned about what the post Covid P&O would be like, especially having heard about all the cutbacks and reading quite a few mixed reviews.

 

I am pleased to say that it was a lot better than we expected. Most of the cutbacks didn’t affect us as much as we thought they would (and some not at all) and we certainly didn’t feel that the product had changed beyond all recognition. Many of the things that we liked about P&O were still present. The customer profile (on this cruise anyway) was no different than before Covid. We coped well with the app whenever we could, but IMHO the concept is flawed and causes inefficiency that wasn’t there before, which impacts on both staff and customers alike. Specialty restaurants were a bit inconsistent, but the biggest and most pleasant surprise was that both the food and service in the MDR, once you got in, were excellent. 

 

Rather than just repeating what I’ve already said on the other thread, I thought that I would use this thread to address the concerns and issues that had been flagged by others before our cruise and to also go through the cutbacks that we noticed and say whether or not they impacted on us. Most importantly, I can offer some ‘work-arounds’ for some of them. I would like to stress that these were our personal experiences and opinions based on one cruise on one ship. Others on the same cruise (and certainly other cruises) will have had different experiences. Furthermore, just because we didn’t have issues with certain things doesn’t in any way mean that I doubt that others had problems in these areas either on Britannia or other ships in the fleet.

 

To keep this manageable, I will split this over several posts and the next post will deal with the biggest change since we last cruised with P&O - the My Holiday ‘app that isn’t an app’.

[Selbourne]

My Holiday App - I was absolutely determined to use this for everything, firstly so that I could give robust first hand feedback on it and secondly to see if the issues that I foresaw with it were unfounded. I use an iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch so am confident with technology, but it became apparent that a lot of passengers weren’t using it, either because they couldn’t or simply refused to.

 

It all started well, with me being able to make all of our speciality restaurant reservations within 10 minutes of sitting down for lunch after we boarded. Thereafter, it was OK most of the time but the system falls over at busy times and shows as ‘Queue Full’, so app users cannot even join a queue whereas non-app users can. We spoke to a few people who had started off using the app but had ditched it and gone back to just doing walk-ups because of this, as they were getting in quicker than using the app and, in some cases, immediately. 

 

Those who dine in the first half of each meal session, whether that be breakfast, lunch or dinner, will probably find that they have no issues with the app and it will be the most convenient way to get a table. Those who, like us, prefer to eat towards the end of each meal session will need to be alert to a number of things (see tips below). The other problem that the new system has caused is ‘table down time’. With the original Freedom dining concept (first come, first served), as soon as a table was vacated and re-layed, the next guests to arrive were shown to it. Now, people are told that their table is ready and have 15 minutes to get to the restaurant. We saw tables sitting empty for considerably longer than this, even though the app was showing ‘Queue Full’. The cumulative effect of this seems to be causing longer wait times than we had experienced before the app was introduced. 

 

Tips;

 

The 6 digits that you need to activate the app (the last 6 digits on your key card) are the same as the last 6 digits on your boarding pass, so you can start using the app as soon as you are in the terminal or ship, for example whilst having lunch. Handy to get reservations in nice and early. 

 

iPhone users need to switch the phone to Airplane mode, switch WiFi on and connect to the free P&O guest WiFi. Worth remembering this as the WiFi signal is very patchy and I had to keep going through the process of reconnecting, which I think is what throws most people. When setting up the first time, click the box to remember login details as this makes it much quicker each time you log in (which I had to do continuously).

 

When in a queue, it is worth refreshing the page regularly. The page will sometimes update on its own but doesn’t always, especially as the WiFi signal is so poor. This will also flag if the signal has been lost and you will need to get back on to the ships WiFi for your queue position to update. 

 

Breakfast - Last entry was 9am on port days and 9.30am on sea days. However, the app was showing ‘Queue Full’ at least 10 minutes before these times and sometimes earlier than that, and never opened up again. As you have 15 minutes leeway, I would advise getting in the queue no later than 20 minutes before the last entry time (ideally 30 mins).  

 

Lunch - On sea days, the app was showing ‘Queue Full’ from around 45 minutes after the MDR had opened for lunch, so get in the queue by then. It was fine on port days, with most people being ashore, but waits of an hour were not uncommon on sea days. We’ve never experienced that before. 

 

Dinner - Formal nights can be problematic, particularly the ‘Celebration Night’. The app queue closed at 7.45pm and didn’t re-open until 8.25pm. We then joined the queue and weren’t called until 9.15pm

 

In summary, once you know when the queue is likely to become full and how long the waits are likely to be, you can join the queue at a time that should result in you dining roughly at the time you want to. We coped with it, and if we were early diners we would be fine with it, but it’s a faff and if we could 100% guarantee a table for 2 on Club (fixed) dining we would probably revert to 2nd sitting to at least alleviate the hassle with dinner.

[swanseaboy]

Very comprehensive review of the App. Thanks.

 

I never book the MDR on the App. I just show up and share. It's very rare that I don't get seated immediately. This is both as a solo traveller and with cruise buddy. Always happy to share tables and normally it's instant seating.

[AndyMichelle]

6 minutes ago, swanseaboy said:

Very comprehensive review of the App. Thanks.

 

I never book the MDR on the App. I just show up and share. It's very rare that I don't get seated immediately. This is both as a solo traveller and with cruise buddy. Always happy to share tables and normally it's instant seating.

You have to do what suits you, but what is the sense of the app then? 

This was also our experience, walk ups being given priority. 

Surely either use the app or don't... 

Andy 

[swanseaboy]

3 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

You have to do what suits you, but what is the sense of the app then? 

This was also our experience, walk ups being given priority. 

Surely either use the app or don't... 

Andy 

I think the App helps them prepare the much sort after 'tables for 2' otherwise they would be overwhelmed. Particularly on Arvia and Iona. 

[Selbourne]

Next topic Cabins. We noticed quite a lot of changes here. 
 

Turndown Service - As has been well documented, there is no longer an evening turn down service, unless you are in a suite. This means that you don’t get fresh towels (if you need them) and chocolates. In all honesty, we didn’t miss it, so it wasn’t an issue for us. I’m sure that the cabin stewards would oblige with additional towels for those who require them.
 

Towels - Small face towels are no longer provided, but others have stated that stewards will supply those on request. The blue pool towels are also no longer provided in cabins, but are available in the pool areas. 

Toiletries - We had a White Company liquid hand wash, which we prefer to soap (which is no longer automatically provided) but, as with face towels, others have indicated that stewards will provide them on request. There were two pump dispensers in the shower - body wash and shampoo. Fine for me, but my wife goes armed with an arsenal of Liz Earle products 😂 

 

Biscuits - You now just get one packet of biscuits at the start of the cruise and they are never replenished thereafter. However, when I queried this with our steward after a couple of days, we had them replenished every day thereafter, so it is still possible. The variety of flavours has gone though, and all they have are some St Michel (as opposed to St Michael) things that are like rich tea with an egg glaze 😂 .

 

Water - The two complimentary small bottles of water are no more. You can buy cans of water but they are expensive. Tip - Next time we will take a couple of small bottles in our hand luggage and when we have drunk them we will top up from the bathroom tap and leave in the fridge overnight with the lid off so the odd taste goes. 
 

Furnishings - The decorative bedding / bed runners etc have gone so you just have a stark white duvet, which looks a bit cheap and nasty but obviously had no impact on our holiday. Obviously with no turn down service, it would be a faff for passengers to have to remove them and they’d just get stuffed in a cupboard. 
 

Passenger Information - An end of cruise ‘Cruise Log’ is no longer provided, which we thought was a shame. You are no longer issued with the cruise card holders with the fold out deck plan. Tip - these are still available from reception. 

 

In all honesty, whilst that’s quite a list of cutbacks just for cabins, none of it impacted on our cruise experience and, as I have demonstrated, there are work-arounds for many of them. 

 

 

[kalos]

29 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

The decorative bedding / bed runners etc have gone so you just have a stark white duvet, which looks a bit cheap and nasty but obviously had no impact on our holiday.

 

Let you into a little secret. My Mrs takes them off the bed even in our overnight stay hotels.

She very much doubts they see a washing m/c  very often and dreads to think what has been on them ,

So no big loss to us really.

Thanks for your helpful posts and as you say most can be worked around . Thank you .

[Selbourne]

Next topic - Included Restaurants (MDR & Buffet)

 

Whilst there were a lot of noticeable changes, I will start this section by stressing that the meals that we had in the MDR were, with just one exception, excellent and all were served hot. Portion sizes were also OK. Less than I’d serve at home, but as you eat so many meals on cruises it wasn’t an issue. The Marco Pierre White Celebration Night menu was the weakest meal that we had all fortnight in the MDR.

 

MDR

 

Reduced Choice - It is indeed the case that there is less choice now than before at dinner. This is because the menus have been padded out with the previously ‘always available’ items now being listed within the main menu each night, so it gives a bit of a false impression. That being said, there was only one menu where neither of us fancied anything, so we went to the Beach House instead (thankfully they had a late slot available). 
 

Afternoon Tea - The MDR version has gone. We never rated it, but I know that many did and used it if returning to the ship after lunch service had ended. There is a poor man’s version from the buffet but no clotted cream - just the squirty stuff 🤢

 

Wine Waiters - These have gone and you order through your waiter and a separate person delivers what you have ordered. The waiters only offered drinks around half the time, so you may have to ask. With just one exception, the drinks arrived promptly. 

 

Wine Storage - The ability to have a part used bottle of wine retained for your next visit has gone. You either have to carry the part used bottle out with you or do as we did and just order by the glass. Tip - Unlike in bars or restaurants at home, it’s no more expensive to buy wine by the glass. Whilst it wasn’t our intention, we found that this policy meant that we drank far less wine in the MDR than before, as we didn’t want to be carrying around bottles. A case of unintended consequences me thinks 😂 

 

Food ordering - Many waiters will now ask what you’d like for dessert at the same time as you order your starter and main. We refused to play along with this and just politely said that we would decide what we wanted once we had eaten our main course. This was never a problem. 
 

Cheese - This is now shown in the menu as one of the dessert courses, rather than as an extra course. However, it was never a problem having both. On the occasions that I did, I told the waiter that they could bring the cheese at the same time as the dessert, which helped them and also suited me as I prefer cheese at room temperature. 
 

Lunch - The idiotic new menu layout (which was introduced pre Covid) remains, so you have no idea with some items whether they are a starter or a main. The equally daft ‘sharing platters’ can be ordered by one person, so why bother?

 

Breakfast - I was really pleased to see that Eggs Benedict is now available daily and not just one day per week. The smoothies have been watered down and had an unpleasant texture and tasted odd. Shame, as I used to love those. You can now buy (at extra cost) proper freshly squeezed orange juice, which was very good. One change that I really didn’t like was the removal of the new mini glass pots of conserves. You now get open tubs which look like they’ve done the rounds. I found that a bit off putting. Given how good P&O are at recycling, they can’t use that argument for stopping the little pots and the waste from the much larger open pots must be vast. 
 

 

BUFFET

 

We don’t use the buffet, so have very little to comment here, but people that we spoke to who had cruised with other lines cited the buffet as being a P&O weak point by comparison. I called in late on a couple of nights to pick up a hot chocolate and noticed that the cheese had reduced from a choice of 3 (cheddar, Red Leicester and blue) to just one, which was poor. I was also surprised that there were periods when no food was available e.g 5pm to 6pm and 10.30 to 11.00pm. If we did use the buffet, I would find the abolition of trays irritating and a number of people commented on this. 

[Thejuggler]

No food in buffet was a thing when we cruised with P&O over ten years ago.

 

Early evening closure was to allow families to take children for a child oriented tea (lots of 'brown food', awful) and change from afternoon to evening meal options.  The later time was to allow the change from evening meals to late evening light bites.

[Presto2]

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

You have to do what suits you, but what is the sense of the app then? 

This was also our experience, walk ups being given priority. 

Surely either use the app or don't... 

Andy 

We walked up we were told there were 300 infront and we were given a time of 9.45pm. Still hadn't been called so hubby went to ask and they let us in. Must let it go and not counter but it ruined our cruise experience 3 nights 

[Presto2]

Thanks so much for this.  Beginning to think that it is a case of If you don't ask you don't get. So we will ask ....

[AndyMichelle]

5 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

We walked up we were told there were 300 infront and we were given a time of 9.45pm. Still hadn't been called so hubby went to ask and they let us in. Must let it go and not counter but it ruined our cruise experience 3 nights 

It's not right, it shouldn't be ruining your cruise experience. 

Preempting the situation, thanks to your review, we switched to fixed dining, table for 2 late sitting with no issues. 

Andy 

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, AndyMichelle said:

It's not right, it shouldn't be ruining your cruise experience. 

Preempting the situation, thanks to your review, we switched to fixed dining, table for 2 late sitting with no issues. 

Andy 

Glad my moaning helped. I really don't want to become a moaner ! How did you swap sittings?

[AndyMichelle]

26 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Glad my moaning helped. I really don't want to become a moaner ! How did you swap sittings?

I called P&O, after fighting through the automated nonsense and waiting 45 minutes, the nice lady swapped it with no issues. 

Andy 

[purplesea]

Reading through all the comments with the app I am glad that we have booked club dining for our cruise. The experience we had with it on Arvia has also put me off freedom dining.

[AndyMichelle]

3 minutes ago, purplesea said:

Reading through all the comments with the app I am glad that we have booked club dining for our cruise. The experience we had with it on Arvia has also put me off freedom dining.

It seems to work fine for many, but it's club dining for us whenever available now. 

There doesn't seem to be much 'freedom' involved nowadays. 

Andy 

[jeanlyon]

Yes we have swapped back to fixed dining, second sitting, table for 8.

 

I just hope we can order a bottle of wine in the Crows Nest or Andersons before we eat and take the rest with us.  Never done it before, but maybe someone can confirm.

[Presto2]

We will be swapping to 2nd sitting fixed as well. 

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

It's not right, it shouldn't be ruining your cruise experience. 

Preempting the situation, thanks to your review, we switched to fixed dining, table for 2 late sitting with no issues. 

Andy 

You have asked for a table for two. It does not mean one will be allocated to you. It depends on demand. 

[miniyorkie]

17 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes we have swapped back to fixed dining, second sitting, table for 8.

 

I just hope we can order a bottle of wine in the Crows Nest or Andersons before we eat and take the rest with us.  Never done it before, but maybe someone can confirm.

 I am surprised at the MDR wine not kept with cabin number for the following evening. This  was available on Britannia in February.  We did note that we could take the wine out of MDR in the  glasses provided  whereas  previously we had to decant into generic wine glasses to take out. 

[AndyMichelle]

Just now, Gettingwarmer said:

You have asked for a table for two. It does not mean one will be allocated to you. It depends on demand. 

I know, but we got it. 

We wouldn't have minded sharing if we had to, at least we would know when we were eating... 

Fortunately, it seemed on our cruise that the majority had requested freedom as half the fixed dining restaurant was closed off on the first night, with plenty of tables for 2 available. After the shambles of the first evening with the app, loads of them had switched to club dining. 

Andy 

 

[Britboys]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

My Holiday App - I was absolutely determined to use this for everything, firstly so that I could give robust first hand feedback on it and secondly to see if the issues that I foresaw with it were unfounded. I use an iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch so am confident with technology, but it became apparent that a lot of passengers weren’t using it, either because they couldn’t or simply refused to.

 

It all started well, with me being able to make all of our speciality restaurant reservations within 10 minutes of sitting down for lunch after we boarded. Thereafter, it was OK most of the time but the system falls over at busy times and shows as ‘Queue Full’, so app users cannot even join a queue whereas non-app users can. We spoke to a few people who had started off using the app but had ditched it and gone back to just doing walk-ups because of this, as they were getting in quicker than using the app and, in some cases, immediately. 

 

Those who dine in the first half of each meal session, whether that be breakfast, lunch or dinner, will probably find that they have no issues with the app and it will be the most convenient way to get a table. Those who, like us, prefer to eat towards the end of each meal session will need to be alert to a number of things (see tips below). The other problem that the new system has caused is ‘table down time’. With the original Freedom dining concept (first come, first served), as soon as a table was vacated and re-layed, the next guests to arrive were shown to it. Now, people are told that their table is ready and have 15 minutes to get to the restaurant. We saw tables sitting empty for considerably longer than this, even though the app was showing ‘Queue Full’. The cumulative effect of this seems to be causing longer wait times than we had experienced before the app was introduced. 

 

Tips;

 

The 6 digits that you need to activate the app (the last 6 digits on your key card) are the same as the last 6 digits on your boarding pass, so you can start using the app as soon as you are in the terminal or ship, for example whilst having lunch. Handy to get reservations in nice and early. 

 

iPhone users need to switch the phone to Airplane mode, switch WiFi on and connect to the free P&O guest WiFi. Worth remembering this as the WiFi signal is very patchy and I had to keep going through the process of reconnecting, which I think is what throws most people. When setting up the first time, click the box to remember login details as this makes it much quicker each time you log in (which I had to do continuously).

 

When in a queue, it is worth refreshing the page regularly. The page will sometimes update on its own but doesn’t always, especially as the WiFi signal is so poor. This will also flag if the signal has been lost and you will need to get back on to the ships WiFi for your queue position to update. 

 

Breakfast - Last entry was 9am on port days and 9.30am on sea days. However, the app was showing ‘Queue Full’ at least 10 minutes before these times and sometimes earlier than that, and never opened up again. As you have 15 minutes leeway, I would advise getting in the queue no later than 20 minutes before the last entry time (ideally 30 mins).  

 

Lunch - On sea days, the app was showing ‘Queue Full’ from around 45 minutes after the MDR had opened for lunch, so get in the queue by then. It was fine on port days, with most people being ashore, but waits of an hour were not uncommon on sea days. We’ve never experienced that before. 

 

Dinner - Formal nights can be problematic, particularly the ‘Celebration Night’. The app queue closed at 7.45pm and didn’t re-open until 8.25pm. We then joined the queue and weren’t called until 9.15pm

 

In summary, once you know when the queue is likely to become full and how long the waits are likely to be, you can join the queue at a time that should result in you dining roughly at the time you want to. We coped with it, and if we were early diners we would be fine with it, but it’s a faff and if we could 100% guarantee a table for 2 on Club (fixed) dining we would probably revert to 2nd sitting to at least alleviate the hassle with dinner.

Whilst I have - just about - mastered the basics of basic technology, I am a bit of a technophobe and so am very pleased that I won't have to worry about the 'app' on Aurora or Arcadia...

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Next topic Cabins. We noticed quite a lot of changes here. 
 

Turndown Service - As has been well documented, there is no longer an evening turn down service, unless you are in a suite. This means that you don’t get fresh towels (if you need them) and chocolates. In all honesty, we didn’t miss it, so it wasn’t an issue for us. I’m sure that the cabin stewards would oblige with additional towels for those who require them.
 

Towels - Small face towels are no longer provided, but others have stated that stewards will supply those on request. The blue pool towels are also no longer provided in cabins, but are available in the pool areas. 

Toiletries - We had a White Company liquid hand wash, which we prefer to soap (which is no longer automatically provided) but, as with face towels, others have indicated that stewards will provide them on request. There were two pump dispensers in the shower - body wash and shampoo. Fine for me, but my wife goes armed with an arsenal of Liz Earle products 😂 

 

Biscuits - You now just get one packet of biscuits at the start of the cruise and they are never replenished thereafter. However, when I queried this with our steward after a couple of days, we had them replenished every day thereafter, so it is still possible. The variety of flavours has gone though, and all they have are some St Michel (as opposed to St Michael) things that are like rich tea with an egg glaze 😂 .

 

Water - The two complimentary small bottles of water are no more. You can buy cans of water but they are expensive. Tip - Next time we will take a couple of small bottles in our hand luggage and when we have drunk them we will top up from the bathroom tap and leave in the fridge overnight with the lid off so the odd taste goes. 
 

Furnishings - The decorative bedding / bed runners etc have gone so you just have a stark white duvet, which looks a bit cheap and nasty but obviously had no impact on our holiday. Obviously with no turn down service, it would be a faff for passengers to have to remove them and they’d just get stuffed in a cupboard. 
 

Passenger Information - An end of cruise ‘Cruise Log’ is no longer provided, which we thought was a shame. You are no longer issued with the cruise card holders with the fold out deck plan. Tip - these are still available from reception. 

 

In all honesty, whilst that’s quite a list of cutbacks just for cabins, none of it impacted on our cruise experience and, as I have demonstrated, there are work-arounds for many of them. 

 

 

I must admit that I will miss the turndown service. It isn't a deal-breaker but it is something I have always enjoyed - coming back to the cabin with the curtains drawn, bed turned down, light on, Daily Programme and chocolate on the bed always made me feel I was somewhere a bit different and special. I am also aware however that apart from the significantly more expensive lines, it is not something you get on most other lines now.

I will be asking for facecloths on my next cruise but in case they are not available, I will take my own.

Did you use the washbasin liquid soap on your face and if so, how was it? I find it a strange idea to use liquid wash on my face but it is probably just force of habit...

I certainly won't miss the St Michel cardboard biscuits.

I will boil some tap water and once cooled fill my metal water flask and chill it in the fridge.

No cruise log is definitely a shame.

Fortunately I know Aurora well enough by now not to need a map but may need to check the launderette locations.... or maybe not as it is only a 12 night cruise this year.

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes we have swapped back to fixed dining, second sitting, table for 8.

 

I just hope we can order a bottle of wine in the Crows Nest or Andersons before we eat and take the rest with us.  Never done it before, but maybe someone can confirm.

It will be interesting to see whether there are some small differences on Aurora or Arcadia Jean. Iirc, people had said last summer that you couldn't leave part of a bottle of wine on the table to be brought out the next night but on Club Dining that wasn't the case. I had a wine package and my opened bottles were always kept for the next night.

[Presto2]

14 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I must admit that I will miss the turndown service. It isn't a deal-breaker but it is something I have always enjoyed - coming back to the cabin with the curtains drawn, bed turned down, light on, Daily Programme and chocolate on the bed always made me feel I was somewhere a bit different and special. I am also aware however that apart from the significantly more expensive lines, it is not something you get on most other lines now.

I will be asking for facecloths on my next cruise but in case they are not available, I will take my own.

Did you use the washbasin liquid soap on your face and if so, how was it? I find it a strange idea to use liquid wash on my face but it is probably just force of habit...

I certainly won't miss the St Michel cardboard biscuits.

I will boil some tap water and once cooled fill my metal water flask and chill it in the fridge.

No cruise log is definitely a shame.

Fortunately I know Aurora well enough by now not to need a map but may need to check the launderette locations.... or maybe not as it is only a 12 night cruise this year.

I took a box of Heroes and did my own turndown ...... made hubby laugh but it was nice to come back to 😉