Britannia Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I thought I'd do a detailed review of our recent Britannia cruise, especially as there were so many mixed (and rather short) reviews about this ship, which were starting to make us wonder if we had made the right choice. Overall, iit was an amazing experience and we were really glad we chose it.
My new wife and I chose this cruise as our honeymoon. It was our first ever cruise and we chose it as the itinerary covered a lot of places we had always wanted to see. We were a little sceptecal after hearing the average cruising age was 45-60 (we are 28 and 30), but there was a good mix of age groups on the ship and we met quite a few couples also on their honeymoons.
We flew from Manchester Airport to Barbados on the Thomson Dreamliner, which is a very nice plane. We upgraded to premium class and it was nice to get the honeymoon started with an unlimited bar! Food was very good too.
Cabin Review
Very nice cabin. Not the biggest, but enough for what we needed. Kept very clean by Maria our cabin steward. The bed was very comfy and we slept very well. We upgraded to obstructed balcony from an indoor cabin a few weeks prior to honeymoon and really glad we did. There was barely any obstruction really and being able to sit out on the balcony on a sea day was very nice.
Port Reviews
St. Vincent
We heard alot of bad things about St Vincent, such as it being dirty and there being nothing to do. Sadly, there is not a great deal to do, but it is not as bad as people say. We heard mixed reviews about beaches, but people said the botanical gardens were nice. There is also a fort to visit, but we did not see any. We wandered through the town and it is a poor island that tourism has not found (yet). We stopped on a friday and there was a massive market on so it was interesting having a wander around that. We tried not stray too far from other cruisers as it had a similar feel to Grenada. We found a nice bar and chilled for abit, but took advantage of an empty ship and headed back early for some top deck sunbathing. Again there are shops and bars around the port if you need supplies and Wi-fi.
Curacao
Curacao is a nice island, with a spanish feel to it. A big shopping village near port (we like shopping), but sadly it was a public holiday so 60% of shops we closed. We pottered around the town in the morning, which is close to the port and then tried to book on to a tour through local operator. No-one would take us though as they are not interested if they dont have a full bus. All the full busses left early doors. My advice, if you dont like shopping book a beach trip or tour.
St. Maarten
St Maarten is a very nice Island, but very American. It was very busy as there were 7 other cruise liners in port that day, one being Harmony of the seas. There were probably 20000+ people who got off ships that day so as you can imagine everywhere was packed. We decided against going to the beach because of this and just walked around the port and did some shopping and drinking. We booked an evening cruise around the island and watched the sunset, which was lovely. Would be a nice island to explore if not so busy!