floor plan royal yacht britannia deck plans

Britannia Deck Plans

View the deck plans for P&O's Britannia by simply selecting a deck from the below drop down.

• Hydrotherapy Suite
• Treatment Rooms
• The Limelight Club
• Market Cafe
• Meridian Restaurant

• Headliners Theatre
• Brodie's Bar
• Peninsular Restaurant
• Oriental Restaurant

• The Crystal Room
• The Glass House
• Future Cruise Sales/Loyalty
• Photo Gallery
• The Live Lounge & Bar

• Inside Cabins with Shower
• Balcony Cabins with Shower and Sofa
• Suite with Bath/Shower
• Launderette

• Inside Cabin with Shower
• Balcony Cabin with Shower and Sofa

• Balcony With Shower (Without Sofa)

• Balcony Cabins 

• Larger Inside Cabins with Shower
• Balcony Cabins with Shower

• Superior Deluxe Balcony with Bath/Shower

• Single Inside Cabins with Shower
• Single Inside Balcony Cabins with Shower
• The Crow's Nest
• The Marlow Suite
• Ivory Suite
• Fine Dining Restaurant
• The Pizzeria
• Riviera Pool
• Ice Cream Grab & Go
• Riviera Bar
• Horizon Restaurant
• Beach House

• The Retreat
• Whirlpool Spa
• Serenity Pool & Bar
• Children's Play Area
• Surfers (The Reef)
• Aerobics Studio
• Splashers (The Reef)
• (Night) Nursery Under 2's
• Scubas (The Reef)
• H2O (The Reef)
• The Cookery Club
• Terrace Pool

Sports Deck

• Sunbathing Arena

Britannia isn't just the biggest ship ever built for the British market she's glamorous too, combining the excitement of cruising with the sophistication of a five-star hotel. There has never been a more stylish way to see the world! Nothing beats the feeling of stepping on board a new ship for the first time, and whether you are new to cruising, or a veteran of the high seas, your moments on board this new cruise ship, Britannia, designed by world-leading interior design experts, are sure to be truly memorable.

You've the chance to explore a string of different destinations in one holiday.

On board, you can savour delicious meals, relax and recharge and choose from a whole host of daytime activities. While evenings are deliciously spontaneous. Take your seat for a theatre show, a live band or some comedy, or seek out a cosy corner in a bar. It's up to you. From glittering Black Tie nights to Gala Dinners, it's all on offer.

Join us to discover for yourself what makes us Britain's favourite cruise line.

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• Britannia deck plans

Britannia deck 12 plan (C)

Deck layout and review, review of britannia deck 12 (c).

• Cruise cabins from C101 to C737, of which Inside cabins (PA, PB, PD and PE), Large Inside rooms (OA and OB), Balcony rooms (HA, HB, HD, HE, GD and GB), Superior Deluxe Balcony rooms (DA and DB) and Suites (B4, B5).

Royal Yacht Britannia

The original meaning of the word Yacht is ‘a vessel of state used to convey princes from one kingdom to another’. As such the British royal family have had yachts since the Restoration, Charles II and the Duke of York being keen recreational sailors. The Hanoverian kings also had yachts and Victoria and Albert used theirs extensively to travel round the kingdom. By the 1930s the royal yacht was used for domestic travel and naval frigates or liners requisitioned for overseas tours.

Britannia had its birth partly in the need to provide suitable transport round the remains of Empire and the emerging Commonwealth, and partly to provide a means of giving the ailing King George VI fresh sea air. As plans were laid for a new ship in 1951 the king and queen emphasised that economy was vital but the king died before the keel of the new vessel was laid.

It was thus that her majesty the Queen began to supervise the only new royal palace built in her reign (so far). She and Prince Philip were heavily involved in the design with its architect Dr. John Brown. The brief was not to produce a pleasure craft but to design a ‘working palace at sea’ that could double as a hospital ship in times of crisis. Sir Hugh Casson was in charge of the interior decoration combining private and state rooms and re-using as much furniture as possible from the old royal yacht Victoria and Albert. The ship cost £2,098,000 and the interiors a further £78,000.

The queen’s apartments are aft and the crew quarters forward. The state rooms comprise an ante room, drawing room and a very large dining room; between the dining and reception areas are two small private sitting rooms one for the Duke and the other for the Queen. On the deck below are rooms for the royal household and secretaries. The royal bedrooms are on the upper deck; two suites each with a dressing room and bathroom.

The last major role Britannia played was during the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997. A few months after this it was announced that there would be no replacement for the royal yacht. It was decommissioned in December 1997 and started a new life as a tourist attraction in Edinburgh in 1998.

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I visited the Royal Yacht Britannia, the royal family's luxurious private cruise ship known as a 'floating palace.' Take a look inside.

• The Royal Yacht Britannia was the royal family's private yacht from 1953 to 1997.
• The ship is now a museum open to the public in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• The tour shows the Queen's bedroom, state rooms used for entertaining, and crew bunks.

The Royal Yacht Britannia was the royal family's private yacht from 1953 to 1997.

With its many royal family vacations and official tours, the yacht logged over 1 million miles , the equivalent of one trip around the world for each of its 44 years at sea.

The Queen once said that "Britannia is the one place where I can truly relax."

The Labour government decommissioned the ship in 1997 due to its high operation cost of £11 million each year, Reuters reported . That's equivalent to about $23 million today.

At the decommissioning ceremony, the Queen  shed a rare public tear .

The ship has made several appearances in Netflix's "The Crown," including season five .

The yacht is now a museum open to the public in Edinburgh, Scotland.

On a recent trip to Scotland , I booked a ticket for the Royal Yacht Britannia museum, which costs £18.50 ($23) for adults.

The entrance is located inside the Ocean Terminal shopping center in Edinburgh.

Before boarding the yacht, visitors walk through a museum detailing the boat's history and connection to the royal family.

The five-story ship was a royal residence as well as a Royal Navy ship, with a full-time staff of more than 240 royal yachtsmen and officers.

The museum displays photos of the royal family's life aboard the ship, as well as items like crew uniforms.

Then, a walkway with more photos leads to the deck of the boat.

The ship is docked on the water just outside the shopping center.

I listened to the audio tour of the ship on my phone by scanning a QR code.

There were also separate listening devices available.

Each room of the ship had a number that you could type in and press "play" to hear about your surroundings in an array of languages.

The first stop was the bridge, the main control point of the yacht.

In this small space, officers navigated the seas and recorded data in the ship's logbooks.

Outside, the flag deck is the highest point on the ship.

Britannia had three masts, and different flags were used to communicate with other ships on the water.

The admiral's cabin and suite is the most spacious on the ship, aside from the royal apartments.

The admiral's accommodations featured a day room, bedroom, bathroom, and pantry. The sofa and armchairs in the dayroom are over 100 years old and came from the previous royal yacht, Victoria and Albert III.

The royal family often sunbathed, played deck hockey, or swam in a collapsible swimming pool on the Veranda Deck.

Part of the yacht's royal quarters, the deck was also used for receptions and group photos.

Prince Philip occasionally set up his easel on the deck to paint.

Overlooking the Veranda Deck, the Sun Lounge was one of the Queen's favorite rooms on the ship.

Queen Elizabeth would often take her breakfast and afternoon tea in the Sun Lounge.

The Queen's bedroom on the Royal Yacht Britannia featured bed linens that once belonged to Queen Victoria.

The embroidered silk panel above the Queen's bed, commissioned in 1953, cost £450 ($560, or $6,250 in today's money).

Her sheets were embossed with "HM The Queen."

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had separate bedrooms connected by an adjoining door.

Each room had its own bathroom.

Philip's bedroom featured red linens, and he requested pillowcases without lace trim.

A button next to each of their beds would summon a royal steward.

Across the hall, the Honeymoon Suite was the only room onboard with a double bed.

The double bed was requested by then-Prince Charles when he honeymooned with Princess Diana in 1981.

The room was also used as a nursery when the royal children were young.

The Anteroom served as a recreational space for the officers, off-limits to the rest of the crew.

Officers would spend their time here listening to the radio and playing board games.

The royal family occasionally dined in the adjoining Wardroom.

Britannia's 19 officers ate meals here, accompanied by the Royal Marines Band.

Britannia has three galleys, which are still working kitchens today.

The galleys prepare food for the Royal Deck Tea Room and events hosted on the ship.

The Royal Deck Tea Room offers an extensive menu of soups, sandwiches, scones, and other treats for visitors to the museum.

The royal family once used the space to entertain guests and play deck games.

The state dining room is the largest room on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela, and many other world leaders dined here with the royal family.

The placement of each utensil was measured with a ruler.

Just off the state dining room, the Queen's sitting room served as her office.

Here, the Queen would meet with her press secretaries and prepare for royal visits.

On the opposite side of the hall, the Duke of Edinburgh had his own sitting room.

Both Philip and Charles used the room as a study. Philip kept a model of his first naval command, the HMS Magpie, above his desk.

The telephones connecting the sitting rooms to each other and their private secretaries' offices are identical to the phones used in Buckingham Palace.

The large Drawing Room and connecting Anteroom could accommodate up to 250 guests.

The Drawing Room featured an electric fireplace and cozy floral furniture. When it wasn't being used as a reception space during formal events, the royal family used it to relax and play games on the card tables.

Petty officers and Royal Marine sergeants kicked back in their living quarters, also known as the mess.

Petty officers would occasionally entertain the Queen and other royal family members here.

The crew bunks weren't as glamorous as the royal apartments.

Each bunk folded up into a seat, and crew members stored their possessions in lockers.

Britannia's NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) shop sold souvenirs and sweets, as well as essentials like toothpaste.

Diana once bought Prince William a Britannia souvenir shirt from the shop. Today, it sells homemade fudge to museum guests.

The ship's sick bay and operating theater still feature the original furnishings from the 1950s.

The ship's doctor attended to crew members, while the Queen's royal surgeon traveled with her on voyages.

Britannia's laundry room could reach temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit as it washed up to 600 shirts in one day.

The royal family's laundry was done on different days than the crew's laundry.

All of the clocks onboard the Royal Yacht Britannia are stopped at 3:01 p.m.

The clocks are frozen at the  time the Queen stepped off the ship for the last time  during its decommissioning ceremony in December 1997.

The tour concludes in a gift shop full of royal souvenirs.

Amid the Britannia-themed mugs, pens, and aprons, the gift shop also sold replicas of royal jewelry.

There's even a photo-op at the end of the tour where you can practice your royal wave.

The tour was full of surprising facts about royal life and travels, and I couldn't believe that we actually got to see inside Queen Elizabeth's bedroom on the ship. It's definitely worth a visit.

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The Royal Yacht Britannia, Ocean Drive, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6JJ

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Did you know?

When Britannia was launched, the telephones on board were the same as those in Buckingham Palace. This ensured H.M. The Queen was familiar with them.

A Personal Touch

Britannia was the one Royal residence for which both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had final say in its design. One of the most striking features was the understated elegance of the Royal Apartments, reflecting the austerity of the post-war period when Britannia was built. 

The choice of Britannia's signature blue paint on the hull was inspired by one of their wedding gifts, the Racing Yacht Bluebottle.

1950s Design

Sir Hugh Casson was the designer of the Royal Apartments, who was originally invited to advise on the interior design after the initial plans from Glasgow-based firm, McInnes Gardner & Partners, were considered too lavish by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in this post-war period.

Royal Collection Trust

The majority of items on board Britannia today are the originals, including furniture, artefacts, paintings and photographs. These are kindly on loan from the Royal Collection. The Royal Collection is held in trust by the Monarch, as Sovereign, for their successors and the Nation. It is administered by the Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity.

Visiting Britannia

Tripadvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction 2023

Start your tour at our entrance, currently located on the Ground Floor of Ocean Terminal. Please note that tickets purchased in person are by card/contactless only. 

Please pre-book your tickets to guarantee admission.

Click on the Visit page  for more information before you visit.

Step aboard to enjoy a great day out!

Fingal Hotel

Get away from the everyday aboard Britannia’s sister ship, Fingal.  Extend your visit with a stay in one of Fingal’s luxurious cabins, your own oasis by the sea. 

AA Hotel of the Year Scotland, AA five-star hotel and 2 AA Rosettes

Learn more: fingal.co.uk

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