A Right Royal Send Off For Britannia ?

Not long to wait now for P&O`s new flagship Britannia. I am lucky enough to be getting the chance to see her on 10th. March – 4 days before her maiden voyage to the Mediterranean.

I can`t wait to see her as she will be a completely different concept for P&O with, hopefully,  high standards and new innovations especially for the British market, which will rival Royal Caribbeans Anthem of the Seas. She will be the largest ship ever built for P&O and the third with  the name Britannia.

Her cabins will be boutique in style featuring a large flat screen TV,with films on demand, pamper packs from The White Company, bathrooms with glass shower screens ( how much nicer than nasty plastic curtains  ) and bespoke stunning from British artists.

Food will play a huge part in the success of the new ship, and its one of the things I am most looking forward to sampling. Food Heroes James Martin, Marco Pierre White, Atul Kochhar and, my favourite,  Eric Lanlard with his fabulous cakes, will all have venues on board. Olly Smith’s Glass House  will be a  relaxed restaurant and bar offering an informal menu of steak and seafood, to accompany Olly`s choice of wines by the glass. She is also promising new and innovative entertainment with a state of the art LED theatre amongst other things.

If you are a regular P&O cruiser this should  sound like music to you ears. So many clients I have spoken to recently despair at the apparent fall in standards on board P&O ships. Poor entertainment, poor food, unhappy staff are many of the complaints I hear over and over again, and all blamed on cost cutting exercises. So Britannia you have a big job to do and I can`t wait to see you for myself !

Of course the other big question about Britannia is who will be her Godmother and Christen her ? Tradition dictates that this has to be a female who, providing the champagne bottle breaks, will bestow good luck on the ship. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was Godmother to Royal princess last year, but she is expecting second child which would appear to rule her out. So who else could it possibly be as P&O are keeping this a BIG secret. We don’t even know the exact date yet !

All I can say is that rumour has it  a certain very important  Royal will be in Hampshire, with her husband, on 10th March. Well this ship does have a very royal name doesn’t she !