I felt I had to add a review to balance some of the moaning which, whilst we acknowledge every-ones right to criticize, does seem to have been quite picky in respect of Britannia and not representative of we experienced. We did our research on the ship and the ports, we prepared ourselves for some of the downsides of this particular ship (they all have them!!) and we were therefore not surprised or upset by strict boarding times, centre stairs/lift service, balcony size, ship size, or any of the other common gripes which frankly should have caused others complaining here to choose another ship as most issues have been well 'advertised' since before the maiden voyage.

Have now had time to reflect on our August med cruise on Britannia which due to the high season school hols timing apparently had the largest no of passengers it had carried since launch. It was great! Even with all those people it only felt like it on the first sunny sea day when everyone wanted to sunbathe at the same time and at sailaways when loads of people gathered to have fun.

We loved the elegance of the understated decor. The furniture choices were particularly good and there are some really great spaces on board this ship which are at least as good if not better than Celeb S class ships. In fact the only criticism would be that they needed a little more activation with some low key entertainment to take a bit of pressure off the more set piece venues. The food was terrific and the speciality restaurants were very good. We did a session in the cookery school and really enjoyed it (though the 2600 calorie a portion James Martin pudding we made had to be offset with some serious exercise afterwards!) Read more