We chose this cruise on Britannia for the convenient Southampton embarkation, a good price and an ideal 7 day itinerary for introducing my husband's parents to our love of cruising. We travelled with our 9 month and 22 month old children so convenience, a family friendly ship, and some easy to explore low key ports were our key requirements.

We arrived early at the cruise terminal and used CPS valet parking which was excellent as usual. We waited an hour or so to board and did face some queues however overall it was very efficient and we were on board in time for lunch. We had a quick bite to eat in Horizon (buffet) before heading off to find our cabins. We had booked HD balcony cabins close together but my in laws had been upgraded and moved to a higher class balcony mid ship, whilst we were aft. Our cabin (C726) was an accessible cabin which we had kindly been allocated at the time of booking to accommodate two travel cots - a standard cabin just couldn't have done this comfortably. Our room steward was so friendly, great with our children and looked after us so well all week.

Britannia herself was lovely, however actually a little too large for our needs, not something I had ever expected to say before the trip having always picked out larger ships previously. The flow of the public rooms was not great with some decks not having access along the full length of the deck and some lifts not having any nearby stairs meaning many able bodied people waited for lifts when on another ship they may have trotted up or down a few flights of steps quite happily. Read more