[SquishTheWhale]

Originally Posted by Clamshell

I believe Britannia is having a refit in mid October - we are doing a 2 night trip to Bruges on the 23rd Oct which is its first trip after the refit. I saw on a cruise forum someone said they thought the central staircase was being opened up to the public as part of the refit.

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I've heard a lot of talk as well about opening up the staircase but nothing confirmed. She didn't feel like a refresh was needed on the interiors to be honest, looked very clean and tidy. Always nice to sail a ship straight after a dry dock/refit, we did that on the Crown Princess! They just replaced all the mattresses as well and they were heaven.

Originally Posted by Echo18

Sounds like a nice cruise. Your comparison of P&O versus NCL pretty much sums up my thoughts too. We've got Britannia booked for next August and it was a great deal but just having come back from NCL I'm just not that enthused about P&O and funnily enough when advert has just come on TV my 13 year old has just said he's not that keen on P&O anymore. The kids like NCL and RCI more these days - and even Princess. First world problems! With the free drinks and dining package NCL is hard to beat for us and we love the informality and more lively entertainment.

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We absolutley love NCL but I feel it's kind of unfair to compare it with P&O as the price points are different. Saying that our first cruise was on the Epic and was only £400pp for 10 nights! The NCL prices seem very high lately though. And the RCI prices sailing from Southampton next year are verging on ridiculous. So I can definitley see the attraction of P&O and I'm sure you'll still enjoy.
Love the dining package on NCL! We never end up bothering with the specialities on other lines.

Originally Posted by Omega1

Thanks for a great review. It seems we had a slightly better experience on the Ventura Fjords cruise in June. I can see how a half day in Bergen is disappointing- we had a full day (5pm departure). Your point about service on board echoed our experience exactly - service just wasn’t sharp enough, especially in dining areas. Not a patch on, say, Princess or any of the US lines I guess. We thought the food was fine and I can’t remember a disappointing dish.
Totally agree with your comments about the lack of a central staircase - it was a design disaster - same issue on sister ships the Royal and Regal Princess. The staircases are there, just not fitted out. The Royal Princess was going into dry dock when it would be refitted (might have been done) hopefully P&O will do it on the Britannia.
For future reference there is a service bus that goes from Olden to the Briksdal glacier for a fraction of the cost of the ship or local transfer.
From Stavanger, a short bus ride to Sverd i Fjell is worthwhile (only takes an hour or so overall) - it’s a gorgeous spot and beautiful monument.

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We should definitley have planned Olden better to make the most of it. Is that the glacier sightseeing bus we saw going from port? We were going to do that but my 3yr old nephew was very adamant he wanted us to go on the train!

The lack of the central staircase mainly bothered us as we felt bad taking up lift space that less able people needed when we could easily walk! We tried to avoid it but sometimes we'd forget and end up there instead of the forward stairs.