We booked this maiden voyage a year in advance of sailing. We were full of anticipation at the prospect of being the first fee paying passengers onboard Britannia and overall, we have to conclude that this ship lived up to our expectations. That is not to say that we considered the cruise ‘perfect’ by any means, but it was a magnificent fortnight onboard a ship that interested and delighted us. Britannia was everything that we hoped and expected it to be. A modern, sleek, elegant and technologically advanced vessel which we believe delivered the right level of sophistication and comfort for the twenty-first century cruise ship passenger. The facilities were well laid out and we felt that there was sufficient space for all – despite everyone being below decks due to the rubbish weather! Sure, there will be those individuals who complain that Britannia, ‘is not like (insert name of ship here!)’ - but of course, she isn’t designed to mimic other ships. P & O have created an individual vessel which sits proudly now as the flagship of the fleet. There will be detractors just as there will be those who fall in love with Britannia in equal measure. We think individuals will make up their mind rapidly and we guess that Britannia will attract a new generation of younger cruisers which is probably the business strategy of P & O anyway. Older, ‘traditional’ P & O passengers will no doubt be more settled on one of the other ships such as Oceana for instance (which we agree is wonderful also).

One of the problems with this maiden cruise was that it was made up almost exclusively of passengers who had travelled with P & O many times and so inevitably, because the ship was so different in terms of character, layout and design, we heard many people grumbling throughout the holiday. Frankly, most of the utterings were nonsense and nit picking really. After a while, we tired of people complaining and tried to associate with passengers who were more positive. One of the most common complaints was the lack of passenger stairs in the middle of the ship. To be fair, although there was no doubt a design reason for this, it did force people to wait for lifts when they would normally have walked up or down a few flights of stairs. So, there was congestion around the lifts frequently.

We think that P & O definitely missed a trick with the maiden voyage in some very critical and key areas. Inwardly, we were quite disappointed that the moment we embarked, we simply wondered around with everyone else. We had hoped to be greeted with perhaps champagne and canapés to make that moment ‘special’. Alas, it was not to be. The actual sail-away was quite nice as there was red, white and blue confetti, the Royal Marines band playing and a fireworks display as we pulled away on our journey. The only thing that spoilt the moment (and this was not the fault of P & O) was the disgraceful and utterly greedy behavior of some passengers who grabbed as many glasses of free sparkling wine as possible in a mad stampede during the party. Not nice. Also, being the inaugural cruise, there had been rumors that a really ‘big name’ act would be performing since the occasion was so important. Unfortunately, although the entertainers were wholly acceptable, there was no-one who could be called a star. It might have been worth P & O paying for a really special personality to give the cruise the ‘wow’ factor that it lacked to a certain extent – even if this extra cost dug into the profits for that cruise. It should be mentioned that every passenger did receive a very nice commemorative Wedgewood teacup and saucer as a gift to mark the occasion of this cruise which we felt was very appropriate and well received. Read more