Problems from the start. Ticketed as new cruisers when in fact it was cruise #3 for us , it took 3 visits to the pursers office (waiting in line) to correct that error. Even then, there was no way to ensure early dinner sitting, a requirement of our booking, yet never advised as a problem until we had been ticketed and fully paid up. Different table at most dinners. Did I say dinner? A sample from the Britannia's international menu follows. And I challenge you to find this in any cookbook. Taglioline (ribbon pasta) in a light tomato sauce and sitting on top: TWO turkey breast schnitzels! Missing items -No fried egg on top, and no chips! From what hell's kitchen did this dish emerge? Try cutting up turkey schnitzels on top of pasta without ruining whatever qualities you may have thought were present underneath!

In the Lido each day, for breakfast there were the same 3 kinds of (possibly, it wasn't labeled) yoghurt, along with 2 or 3 kinds of melon: water, rock (sometimes) and honeydew. On the one morning bananas were served, they were soft and very close to black.In Sydney, our departure port, there were available abundant quantities of papaya, strawberries, raspberries, bananas, mangoes, plums, white and red grapes and pears. None of these was available. Instead we had the aforementioned melons, cut pineapple, and canned peaches, pears, prunes and pineapple rings.

Smoked salmon with your breakfast? Forget it. Beef sausages? Forget those too. No just pork or chicken, every morning, day in and day out. And as for fish! Have you Aussies ever heard of a "long tailed snapper" that had all the markings of a sea mullet, (dark, large u-shaped remnants of scales on the black skin with brown flesh underneath, and the only whitish flesh in the centre. The whole lot tasting like something you'd normally throw to the gulls? )Try Cunard for a whole new understanding of this delicacy. Read more