P&O Cruises, Britannia, Northern Europe Review

Britannia, Northern Europe

Britannia - Accessible Balcony Cabin No. B709 (HD grade)

Cruise B222 – Baltic & Scandinavia
18th September to 2nd October 2022

Accessible Cabin No. B709 (Deck 14)


NB. This review primarily focuses on a review of an accessible cabin and some other aspects of the cruise that are relevant to wheelchair users. If that doesn’t interest you then feel free to move on. If it does interest you then hopefully you will find it informative.


This was our second cruise on Britannia, in the same cabin grade. In fact, on our last cruise we stayed next door in B719, an identical accessible cabin, but with the layout reversed.

On this cruise we were celebrating my retirement and brought along our three adult children and their partners. They all had balcony cabins in the same grade, on deck 11 (D).

Cabin B709 is aft, on the starboard side and is the third cabin from the aft/starboard suite (B725). It is located between an identical accessible cabin (B719) and a regular suite (B705).
It is less than 20ft from the doorway to the aft elevators and about 40ft from the launderette.

The corridor leading towards it is 116cm wide, and opens to 148cm wide where the cabin door is. This was plenty wide enough for my wife’s wheelchair, which is 62cm wide.

Main cabin:
The greatest main cabin floor dimensions between walls and/or fixed furniture are 6.28m x 3.53m
Floor to ceiling height: 2.14m

The main cabin doorway is 88cm wide and opens inwards; it has a bit of weight to it, so was difficult for my wife to open. I understand the newer ships may have automatic doors for the accessible cabins.
Upon entering the cabin, the doors to the balcony are at the opposite side, the bathroom is on the right, as is the bed, and the wardrobe and dressing table are on the left.
On the left wall as you enter, just ahead of the wardrobe, there is a full length wall mirror, and a low single power outlet next to it.


Wardrobe:
It has a total width of 140cm and height of 207cm, with three full height doors.
The single door on the left opens to six shelves, with the fixed safe on the middle one.
The internal dimensions of the safe are 35cm x 22cm x 22cm, which was plenty big enough for our needs.
The double doors on the right open to the hanging space (W: 91cm / D: 49cm / H: 154cm). There were thirty wooden hangers and the clothing rail has a handle fixed to it which, when pulled, brings the rail down to the level of a wheelchair user.
Above the hanging space is a shelf (W: 91cm / D: 49cm / H: 38cm) on which the life jackets are stored.


Dressing Table:
This is 224cm long and 86cm high.
To the left is a cupboard that houses the fridge, which has internal measurements of 47cm x 32cm x 21cm, and removable shelves. Above the fridge, in the same cupboard, is a small shelf.
To the right is the part of the dressing table at which one can sit. The small upholstered chair can easily be moved and my wife was able to sit comfortably at the dressing table in her wheelchair. On top of the dressing table is a fixed swivel mirror; to the left of that is a phone and a single power outlet. To the right of the mirror are a single power outlet and the power outlet for the hairdryer; both cannot be used at the same time.
Above the mirror is the wall mounted TV.
The dressing table has two shallow drawers under it, each with internal dimensions of 55cm x 39cm x 9cm. The hairdryer was in the left of these. There was plenty of room in them for my wife’s hair care items and electrical appliances, and other bits and bobs.
Below the left side of the dressing table was a single power outlet.
To the right is a single cupboard with two shelves (each W: 44cm / D: 49cm / H: 39cm).
On top of the dressing table at this end are the kettle and the tea and coffee makings.


Bed:
Opposite the dressing table is the bed; for us, two singles pushed together as a queen. Although it was comfortable, at 60cm high, it is too high for a full-time wheelchair user. I had to assist my wife into bed, and an unaccompanied wheelchair user would find it very difficult to transfer. A more appropriate height would be 44cm to 50cm.
Four pillows were provided; we got two more from our cabin steward.
At either side of the bed was a set of bedside units, each 79cm tall and with two large drawers and a shallow shelf. Each drawer has an internal dimension of 74cm x 34cm x 14cm, but clothes can be stacked higher than the 14cm; just check nothing has fallen out at the back. The shallow shelf measures W: 78cm / D: 47cm / H: 10cm.
On the left side bedside unit was a second phone. There were no power outlets on the wall where the bed was.
The space between the left side of the bed and the wall was 95cm. The space between the right side of the bed and the wall was 92cm.
There is a second, smaller chair and an occasional table; I moved both out of the way to give my wife more room.
One thing that the bedroom area lacked was an emergency pull cord or switch; not good for an accessible room.
There was plenty of lighting in the room, operated from different locations.
The A/C was adequate but not perfect, the analogue control panel having just a sliding switch – up for warm, down for cool.
The heavy blackout curtains plunged the room into darkness.


Bathroom:
The bathroom is a good size and the door opens outwards, into the bedroom area. The doorway is 84cm wide.
The greatest bathroom floor dimensions between walls and/or fixed furniture is 2.4m x 2.08m
The tiled floor offered good grip and the good sized shower area has ample drainage.
There is a good sized pull down bench seat which, at 46cm high, was easy for my wife to transfer to.
There are plenty of safety bars in the bathroom and a pull down one next to the toilet.
The toilet was at an appropriate height for my wife to transfer to.
The sink has a height of 85cm and is open underneath; my wife had no problem sitting in her wheelchair at it.
The shower, wand only, was easy to use and there was no fluctuation in pressure or temperature.
One annoying feature, which is not unique to this bathroom and something we often encounter in accessible bathrooms in hotels, was the lack of a shelf in the shower area, apart from a tiny shower dish. Toiletries had to be left on the floor, and I put them on the bench for my wife when she was ready to shower.
There is a ceiling to floor emergency pull cord in the shower area and a switch next to the toilet. I accidentally knocked the latter and no sooner had I stood up, the phone rang; it was reception asking if we required assistance.
There are no sanitary bags provided in the bathroom, so if you need them you will have to bring your own; not a hassle for us as we always have them with us.


Balcony:
A common complaint about this ship is about the small balconies. Granted, the accessible cabins have slightly longer balconies but they are the same width as the others on both sides of the ship.
The double glazed sliding door to the balcony is heavy but did have a good sliding action, and it was easy to lock.
The balcony is 4.12m long and 1.2m wide; the side of it, up to the handrail, is 113cm high.
Furniture on the balcony comprises of two non-folding chairs, a foot stool and a small table.
My wife’s wheelchair (W: 62cm / L: 82cm) could fit on the balcony with some effort, but she didn’t bother. It turns out that the handrail was at eye level for her so she couldn’t see much anyway. She preferred to sit just at the door threshold, where the cabin floor level was raised, thus giving her a view over the handrail. On our previous trip my wife used a larger chair (W: 68cm / L: 117cm) and was unable to manoeuvre it onto the balcony.


Good points:
Plenty of room for my wife to easily move about in her wheelchair.
Lots of storage space
Comfortable bed
Large bathroom
Alarm responded to promptly

Poor points:
Small balcony
Bed too high for a wheelchair user
No alarm in the main cabin
No adequate shelf in shower

----------------------

Other aspects:

The aft elevators went up as far as deck 17 and down as far as deck 6, the latter being ideal for the Oriental restaurant. We though had breakfast and most of our evening meals in the Peninsular restaurant; we would often take the elevator down to deck 7, make our way to the mid elevators, and take another down to deck 6. An alternative route was to travel along the corridor on deck 14, wide enough for my wife as previously mentioned, to the mid elevators, and go down to deck 6 from there.

The aft elevators would allow us rapid access to the Live Lounge (deck 7 aft), and the Horizon buffet restaurant and Beach House (both deck 16).

Our favoured deck for sailaways or just chilling was deck 18 – Promenade deck. We would take the aft elevator to deck 17, then another elevator to deck 18; able bodied guests could take the stairs, adjacent to the cookery club, to deck 18.
My wife could do a full circuit of deck 18 and have a good view aft, starboard and port, and of the main pool area. Unfortunately, she was unable to access deck 17, the sun deck, from it as there were only stairs. To access deck 17 she would have to go to a lower deck and use the forward elevators to go to deck 17; thereafter she could visit the Serenity area, the Retreat, the mid sun terrace, and as far back as the gym. There was no way though that she could access the aft terrace area; access was by way of steps down from deck 18 or up from the Sunset bar on deck 16.

The Sunset bar, which covers the aft, from starboard side to port side is a smoking bar. Ordinarily, it did not bother us but, when the doors were open for a while and it was windy on deck, the smell of tobacco would make its way onto the area near the aft elevators and down the stairs as far as deck 14.


All crew members we encountered were really pleasant and always eager to please. Particular mention goes to our cabin steward, AG; nothing was too much trouble for him and, whenever he saw us making our way towards our cabin he would open and hold the door open for my wife.

We travelled as a party of eight and when we ate together in the Peninsular restaurant we would have the same table or, when eating as smaller parties, we would eat in the same section; consequently, we had the same waiter, Prasanta, and his assistant, Anindya. They were really good with us and patient with our fussy family (four were cruise virgins), and Prasanta was very knowledgeable about the dishes, their ingredients and food allergens, making sure our coeliac daughter was able to have the dishes she fancied.

We ate in all the other speciality restaurants at least once, some twice, and found them to be of a very good standard, particularly the family meal we had in the Epicurean. We all agreed though that the menu choices in the Limelight Club on the evening we were in there were poor.

We had no problem getting into restaurants or shows; even if the My Holiday app showed no capacity, a visit to our desired restaurant paid off, and we were able to eat more or less when we wanted to.

We were under capacity on our cruise, with only 2100 passengers, so it felt quieter than the full capacity cruise we took on her in the Caribbean four year previous. A benefit of that was there weren’t folk crowding around the elevators, apart from the forward ones when Headliners turned out or on disembarkation day. That said, there were still one or two who were clearly able bodied, and rather than use the stairs to go down a couple of decks, rushed to the arriving elevator as if their lives depended on it, oblivious to waiting wheelchair users and other physically disabled or infirm guests.

With the lower capacity onboard we were able, in the most, to keep our distance from folk. I was aware after about 7 days that guests had tested positive for Covid-19, as I had read posts from one of those passengers. It was not until day 11 that the captain declared there were cases onboard and that masks should be worn.