Introduction
This research focuses on a new cruise experience with Britannia. It covers the design of the boat, décor, and designers. In addition, the research highlights entertainment and meal experiences believed to be beyond what other cruise ships can offer.
Britannia’s Design
Britannia has a capacity for over 3,647 guests, and it is the largest ship ever built for the UK holiday market (Griffiths 2015, p. 9). The state-of-the-art ship combines elements of freshness and modern styling to create perfect harmony that defines classical elegance in its interiors. The interior reflects conceptualisation of the best Italian designers at Fincantieri. They are among the world’s finest hospitality designers. They have created some of the most luxurious interior designs for some of the most iconic structures in the world.
They were focused on developing public utility areas that captured the tradition and elegance of Britannia. At the same time, the designer elevated the interior design to create a more contemporary element of past, present and future.
By concentrating on fluid curves and elegant lines, lightened spaces and the acceptable recreation of public spaces, the designer symbolically approached the interiors of Britannia with a sense of music and architecture. That is, the designer aimed to develop interiors that could tell stories, which guests could easily relate with during the voyage. It reflects a combination of music, architectural elegance and geometry (Osborne 2013).
The key to interior design in Britannia is the use of visual interaction and related effects to reflect exactly what customers wanted (Griffiths 2015). In this manner, travellers can easily connect with the architecture instead of just moving through it in a passive manner. The interior design of Britannia sought to evoke the sense and splendour of a design done gracefully to enhance striking textures, lighting effects and contemporary use of materials. Height and majestic spaces have been used to amplify grandeur in every part of the ship.
At the centre of the ship, for instance, the designer introduced a central atrium to create visual effect. With three decks higher, Britannia’s interior adorns a spacious stainless steel structure that reflects modernity. It creates different experiences as travellers explore various areas of the ship.
The skylight for the atrium creates a perfect backdrop for the space light projection. Travellers have opportunities to experience wispy cirrus clouds and the reflected image in water, and the atrium changes its colour during the evening to create a magnificent starlit constellation.
Britannia has hallmark venues done with a different method. For instance, ship’s main dining area occupies a double floor and offers a nice view of the sea. At the same time, the interior is bright to reflect contemporary, design and provides a new definition for incomparable dining experiences.
The ceiling is curved and strong to bring out the rising ceiling while chic, customised furnishings and current glass lighting have been installed just for Britannia. At the centre of the room, there is a curved copper casing enclosing a large wine tower with an excellent collection of the best wines.
Britannia has one of the best lounges with a modern, elegant theatre and an entertainment arena that covers two floors. The lounge has been hosting excellent musicians and other entertainers with guests enjoying the spacious and largest dance floor in Britannia. Architects and designers worked together to create a modern style characterised by elegant hallmarks. These innovative styles were responsible for creating life in Britannia.
The design elements incorporated in Britannia have never been seen before and they have evolved the feeling and look of the ship while keeping an exciting feeling for guests. The ship has a large glass-enclosed pool area that occupies two floors. The lower section reflects a traditional pool while the upper section displays a new brand. Other design elements by Fincantieri included areas that emphasise basic features of nature such as fire, earth, water and wood. These are innovative designs that set Britannia apart from its peers.
The Caribbean has always been among the best and most popular cruise destinations for many travellers, and one can only experience and enjoy the ship in such vacation destinations.
Entertainment
Britannia has changed the approach to entertainment in the cruise industry. It has a live blues club in a large lounge that is held every day. To enhance experiences of travellers, Britannia has partnered with performing artists to provide an enthralling large space dedicated to the music complex.
The same space is used for other entertainment purposes after evening blues performance. It provides live music supported with modern sound technologies and special LED lighting that provides unique lighting effects.
Earlier in the day, the club lounge is used as a comfortable venue for hosting presentations, various speakers and other shows, including special entertainment activities, afternoon recital and an ensemble performing chamber music for guests. Britannia offers an afternoon recital accompanied by tea. In addition, the cruise ship offers wine tasting before and after any performance.
In this regard, the ship offers several interesting possibilities. The whole concept of music has enthralled guests at the ship. In fact, it is the music experience, which differentiates Britannia from other cruise lines. Therefore, for travellers who love music, Britannia should be the first choice.
It is noteworthy that Britannia is not all about blues and classical music. There are piano bars, live bands and trending loud music venues, which have enhanced the success of the ship.
In addition, it has Billboard Onboard that delivers an interactive music at the request of listeners. The billboard is based on more than 40 years of chart-topping musical hits. Blues club lounge has two floors to provide more space dedicated to music. This normally involves audience participation.
The performers are normally in touch with their audience during performances every night to ensure that experience is successful. Thus, they must be flexible and well versed with music. The ship ensures that guests are entertained in a different way at the large blues club.
To ensure that all guests are satisfied with music during their cruise, Britannia has a mix of talent to cater for various tastes of guests. For instance, there are pianists, DJs and guitarists who take turn to entertain guests through the billboard-sourced music. The venue was actually designed to deliver optimal entertainment for guests.
The ship has a well-developed onboard automatic choreography to ensure that guests have amazing entertainment experiences. In fact, they are encouraged to sing, dance and play with some trivia questions that run on the wide screens in the lounge.
Britannia entertainment is fun and game while the billboard is the ultimate voice in the music industry and it has a strong presence in the ship. The billboard creates an interesting concept and reinforces the entertainment theme in the ship. The billboard offers credibility and power within the ship. The new music venue provides an opportunity for artists to demonstrate their talents.
The meal experience
Britannia has an interior design that embodies a fresh, modern style to ensure excellent harmony that matches the intended meal experiences for guests. The ship has a culinary arts centre that offers guests up close and personal food experiences with excellent chefs who demonstrate and lectures guests about food.
Britannia has introduced several innovative concepts and large public spaces to enhance experiences of guests. By accounting for these innovative features, new culinary approaches delivered for guests are unique. Experiences noted so far confirm that Britannia’s interior designs incorporate the idea of its unique dining experiences. This reflects a focus on culinary, which is designed to please travellers, critics and fans of the ship. These travellers will take the ship into the future.
It has been noted that some of the cruise lines may be moving away from the normal dining room experiences. However, Britannia has embraced the main dining room experience to enhance and promote several alternatives for guests and create a large roster of culinary selections. There are new, tried and true options for travellers who love food in these modern alternative dining experiences.
From what one can observe, the ship is designed to accommodate various taste and preferences for guests and therefore creates an important distinction from other cruise lines. In a world where cruise lines strive to offer the best experiences for travellers and guests, there are always opportunities for improvements and could be of interest to Britannia. One can therefore conclude that all the available dining options and culinary spaces offered by Britannia are of great interests to majorities of travellers.
The culinary area is one of the most dedicated places in the ship. It has a dramatic show kitchen and personalised cooking areas, which are exclusively used for culinary activities. Guests can attend live cooking demonstrations and practical cooking classes delivered by visiting celebrity chefs and Britannia’s cooking experts.
In addition, the culinary experiences are further captured through cooking workshops, classes offered to kids and teenagers onboard. The ship also provides open kitchen, viewing screens and large mirrors for observation of live activities in kitchen. In this manner, every guest can observe live food preparation processes and learn more about foods from the comfort of their chairs and tables.
Dinner experiences at the culinary centre are equally exceptional. This is a completely new concept introduced by the ship. Every evening, guests experience the room change to a dinner with an absorbing farm-to-table experience.
In these cases, chefs are encouraged to prepare simple but creative dishes in the display kitchen while guests enjoy every fresh meal prepared. Britannia ensures that every food served showcase freshness, carefully selected ingredients while incorporating other unique ingredients obtained from a glass-enclosed section dedicated for growing them just next to the kitchen.
Britannia has a grand cafe. The cafe is an ideal place for travellers to enjoy their snack, beverages or beer that flows from the tap.
The ship offers a lido market, which is different from the normal lido dining places. This one acts as a modern place with coated wide varieties of delicious foods that guests can either eat on the go or easily grab their orders.
There are also various themed stations with walk-up services for dinners. These service areas display certain types of foods, specifically freshly prepared novel sandwiches, international fare, salads, desserts and other unique simple foods. In fact, the design ensures that the place creates an environment similar to a market because of daily special menus featured on the display menu boards, shelves, servers with unique uniforms and signage that depicts market practices.
Currently, the cruise line offers breadboard, which specifically serves freshly baked breads and sandwiches among other signature wheat products. Salads, fruits and other healthier alternatives are considered as wild harvest. In addition, the homestead consists of breakfast with home-themed scrambled eggs, roasted chicken with herbs and other favourable meals during lunch and dinner.
Britannia also features distant land foods, which mainly includes foods from other parts of the world and other places the cruise line has toured. Finally, desserts and treats are also offered in the ship.
Close to the dining area, there is a festive held each evening with various dinners sharing experiences. Guests get rare opportunities to sample various dishes from various parts of the world and share their food experiences with families and friends. There are meals served in small plates to increase the time for enjoying the meals and create long-lasting, authentic experiences. Guests must however pay a minimal fee to enjoy a variety of dishes served in this dining location.
Britannia has introduced a special kind of seafood. It offers classical French seafood served with current twist. These include fresh oyster, scallops, salt-crusted fish and other special dishes found from the sea.
The ship has a grill for guests. It is a popular restaurant for many guests and features special selections of freshly cut beef and other classical steakhouse preferences. The grill is a well-designed restaurant with a breathtaking glass-enclosed wine room to serve two different hotspots.
Guests can carefully evaluate their preferred drinks from any location within the two restaurants and select their favourite classical wines from many selections available on display. At this grill, guests pay a minimal fee to enjoy food and exotic wines. This is a common practice in all cruise lines, both traditional and contemporary ones.
Tamarind within the ship is different and provides unique experiences to visitors. It has a wide selection of culinary traditions from several regions. It is found on the topmost deck of the ship to offer guests the amazing panoramic views. The sushi bar located within the tamarind is different because it is only designed for a limited number of visitors for lunch and dinner. Guests must however pay nominal amount of money to enjoy meals at the tamarind.
Britannia offers another dining experience for guests in the dining room, specifically designed for that purpose. The main dining room has several windows to offer stunning view for guests during cruise while they enjoy their meals. It is amazing that far more travellers have been able to enjoy such panoramic view simultaneously while aboard Britannia.
The main dining room at the ship has provided various seating arrangements and several menus that contain a wide variety of dishes. In addition, there is a big wine tower, which covers two decks of the dining area. In fact, it is a focal point in the dining room.
An amazing list of Britannia culinary introduces various foods for outdoor lovers. The additional dining area outside the main dining room also feature dive-in pool that offers fresh signature hamburgers, French fries, hot dogs and other room services to enhance experiences of guests.
Britannia provides a culinary adventure to guest who would like to experience various foods sampled from all over the world. Besides, there are many alternative restaurants, bars and grills as well as culinary centre for ultimate meal experiences. Themed serving areas, additional relaxing cafes and other walkway services are meant to provide various selections and alternatives for guests as they enjoy cruise across the ocean.
Some of the best culinary master chefs, including Mary Berry, Antonio Carluccio, and Paul Rankin have developed all menus found in the ship. The chefs have worked alongside other international chefs of the ship to deliver memorable meal experiences to guests. In short, Britannia has a created an exceptional culinary foundation and experience that cannot be found in other cruise lines. This way, guests at the ship can enjoy and appreciate several innovative menu selections and the visionary approaches used by chefs to deliver meals.
The dining experience at Britannia is dynamic. It presents a new approach to cruise cuisine. The dining strategies allow travellers to enjoy their meals wherever, whenever with no specific periods for any specific meals, except the evening dinners. The celebrity chefs and other international chefs deliver what guests expect while onboard. The dining areas are known to fill up fast at any time of the day.
Britannia is for food lovers and entertainment conscious travellers. Within the ship, dining areas are also favourite destinations for guests who wish to enjoy their cruise. World-renowned chefs offer their services in creating menus and preparing meals as guests watch. The openness of the process creates some of the most memorable moments during the cruise.
According to Harpaz (2013), cruise trends have changed significantly over time. Today, many cruise lines offer various forms of entertainment and cuisine experiences so that they can appeal to multi-generational travellers. They continue to deliver new forms of specialty dishes and innovative designs walk-ins, walk-ups, glass-enclosed and gardens among others (Harpaz 2013).
In addition, other forms of entertainment are also available at the indoor active space. Guests can use the transformative space for various purposes, including playing balls or drive rink and bumper cars with DJ music playing at the overhead-suspended booth.
Not really related to food and entertainment, but worth noting are the comfortable, modern cabins. The design also ensures that guests are comfortable in the cabins, which are equipped with different amenities. In fact, they are intended to offer a relaxing treat between meals and other activities during the cruise. The view of the sea is also fascinating from the 360 degrees view. The observation booth ensures that guests can have the most fascinating views of the ocean and nearest ports.
The décor and ship combine various elements of past, present and future to create elegance of the contemporary cruise lines. They are soothing and relaxing experiences enhanced by large wide spaces. Guests can take the perfect selfies during the cruise in these elegant designs and décor, which look like boutique shops (Griffiths 2015).
Reference List
Griffiths, S. 2015, What to expect from P&O’s new ship Britannia. Travel Trade Gazette. Web.
Harpaz, B. J. 2013, Cruise Trends For 2013: New ‘It’ Ships, Attractions & Food For New Year, The Huffington Post. Web.
Osborne, A. 2013, P&O names biggest ever cruise ship Britannia, The Telegraph. Web.