{"id":17292,"date":"2015-03-19T09:26:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T09:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/?p=17292"},"modified":"2015-03-23T16:22:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T16:22:00","slug":"britannia-royal-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/britannia-royal-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"P&O’s Britannia – special preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Britannia-2\"<\/a>MIKE PICKUP\u00a0takes a look around\u00a0P&O Cruises newest\u00a0ship\u00a0Britannia<\/h3>\n

What with clothes for travelling, formal evening wear for the black tie dinner, and smart day wear for the Queen, we needed a lot of luggage for just one overnight!<\/p>\n

Named by Her Majesty the Queen on 10 March 2015, Britannia is the largest cruise ship ever built for the UK market and is unmistakably British with a huge Union Jack emblazoned on her bows. So it was with some excitement and anticipation that\u00a0my wife and I\u00a0headed off to Southampton to get a good look at the ship and join the other guests for the gala dinner on the eve of the christening. \"Atrium<\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike new ships from other cruise lines, there are no gimmicks on board Britannia, just more of all the good things that\u00a0seasoned travellers\u00a0expect from cruise ships.<\/p>\n

First some basic facts. The ship holds 3,647 passengers and 1,350 crew. There are 15 passenger decks, 13 bars, 13 places to eat, 9 entertainment venues, 4 pools and a \u00a31m art collection.<\/p>\n

There is a strong focus on the five \u2018Food Heroes\u2019. Popular chef James Martin overseas cookery classes in the specially-designed kitchens, while Master Patissier Eric Lanlard adds his expertise to the Market Cafe, a lovely cake and coffee shop which also serves traditional afternoon tea.<\/p>\n

Atul Kochhar, the only Michelin-starred Indian chef, continues his successful P&O relationship with his Sindhu restaurant, served us\u00a0the finest Indian and Western fusion fare. For the gala dinner he served\u00a0Chicken Tikka Makhan Masala with spiced tomato foam, kachumber and cress, while James Martin’s choice was Bourbon Whisky and Vanilla Cured Salmon, Exmoor Caviar and Morecambe Bay Shrimp with pickled cucumber ketchup, ginger and tapioca beetroot rye crisps.<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone, Marco Pierre\u00a0White offered Romney Salt Marsh Lamb Loin Dijonnaise with slow cooked Madeira Infused lamb and creamed truffle potato croustade, buttered samphire and orange curd baby carrots.<\/p>\n

For pudding, Eric Lanlard produced Quenelle of Red Berry Parfait “en velour”, Dark Maracaibo Chocolate Tear Drop with Amarena Cherry, and Lemon Cheesecake with Amaretti Biscuits. Charlie Turnbull, the international cheese judge, offered a selection of award-winning artisan British cheese, Damson Jelly, Ditty’s smoked oat cakes, fruit and nut toasts.<\/p>\n

\"Britannia-suite\"<\/a>In keeping with the concept, Britannia\u2019s decor is elegant rather than flashy. Unusually, all outside cabins have balconies and there are 1,313 of them in total. The remainder of the accommodation comprises 64 suites and 460 inside cabins.<\/p>\n

Whilst there is nothing revolutionary on board there are some great innovations. Headliners Theatre has the latest LED scenery and is home to west-end style productions.<\/p>\n

The Crystal Room, with its wooden floor and chandeliers, is a great dance venue and feature in \u2018Strictly\u2019 themed cruises.<\/p>\n

Another innovation is The Limelight Club which combines dining and entertainment along the lines of traditional supper clubs.<\/p>\n

\"Cookery<\/a>Raising the bar in the food stakes, Britannia is the first British ship to have a Masterchef-style teaching kitchen, the Cookery Club, where the five food heroes, headed by James Martin, offer guests the chance to brush up their skills in two-hour-long classes. There are\u00a012 fully equipped cooking stations which each one accommodating two guests.<\/p>\n

The gala dinner consisted of a series of courses from the Food Heroes so we had a taste of the delights future guests would enjoy. After dinner we went out on deck for the firework display. It was a little chilly but P&O had thoughtfully provided hot toddies for all and pashminas for the ladies. Now that\u2019s what I call service!<\/p>\n

The following morning we went out to the quay where grandstand seating had been arranged, many ladies taking the opportunity to wear fancy hats and fascinators.<\/p>\n

Acrobats performed in large transparent spheres and there was music from the bands of the Irish Guards and Royal Marines. Tess Daly and Darcey Bussell introduced a team of \u2018Strictly\u2019 dancers who put on a spirited display on the quayside. However, the biggest round of applause went to the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, a band, as Rob Brydon put it, combining the unforgettable blend of bagpipes and trombones.<\/p>\n

\"Queen<\/a>The Queen arrived, on time, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. After a short speech from P&O\u2019s Chairman, she uttered the well-known words \u201cI name this ship Britannia, God bless her and all who sail in her.\u201d She then touched a button which sent a huge bottle of English bubbly zooming down a zip wire and into the side of ship. She stayed for lunch before returning to the Palace.<\/p>\n

Itineraries<\/h4>\n

Britannia is based in Southampton until the winter. For those who are not sure whether cruises are for them or not there are a couple of two-night taster cruises to St Peter Port in Guernsey with prices from \u00a3349 per person including all food and entertainment<\/p>\n

Britannia\u00a0offers 14-night sailings to the Mediterranean, covering Italy, Spain and Monaco and seven-night cruises to the Norwegian Fjords. The Canaries also feature in a number of 14-night itineraries and there are seven-night cruises to ports such as Bilbao and La Coruna in northern Spain and France.<\/p>\n

On 23 October, Britannia leaves Southampton for the warmer climate of the Caribbean. The 14-night repositioning cruise with return flight from Barbados starts at \u00a31,199 per passenger, then throughout the winter there are 14-night cruises round the Caribbean islands with flights to and from Barbados from \u00a31,349.<\/p>\n

For more details go to www.pocruises.com<\/a> or call 0843 374 0111<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIKE PICKUP\u00a0takes a look around\u00a0P&O Cruises newest\u00a0ship\u00a0Britannia What with clothes for travelling, formal evening wear for the black tie dinner, and smart day wear for the Queen, we needed a lot of luggage for just one overnight! Named by Her Majesty the Queen on 10 March 2015, Britannia is the largest cruise ship ever built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[7916,155,7918,5085,7913,7925,7917,7911,7909,7920,7910,7919,7923,7914,7922,4549,7924,7912,7915,7921],"class_list":["post-17292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 00:26:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17292"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17430,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292\/revisions\/17430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17292"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}