DINE ABOARD THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA
The Queen once said that the Royal Yacht Britannia was the “one place where I can truly relax” and her affection for her floating palace was never more evident than in 1997, when she was seen shedding a tear as her beloved ship was decommissioned as a cost- cutting exercise by Tony Blair’s Government.
For 44 years, Britannia had been a home away from home for the royal family and she sailed more than one million miles on 968 official visits around the globe.
The Queen and Prince Philip enjoyed family holidays on board with their four children, while the Prince and Princess of Wales spent their honeymoon in August 1981 cruising around the Mediterranean, where Diana was photographed gazing adoringly at her new husband.
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon also honeymooned on the yacht, as did the Duke and Duchess of York, while one of the most touching images captured on board saw Diana reunited with her young sons, William and Harry, in Toronto in 1991.
Today, Britannia is the only royal yacht in the world available for exclusive private hire and is billed as one of the most luxurious five-star venues in the world. You can dine in the very spot where Her Majesty entertained Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Ronald Reagan, with top- notch food prepared in the same royal galleys and everything replicated to the same high standards as when the boat was in royal service.
Ten years ago, Zara Phillips hired the venue to celebrate her imminent marriage to Mike Tindall and partied with her mother the Princess Royal and cousins William and Harry, as well as Kate and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
If you don’t have the budget for such extravagance, you can simply buy a ticket to visit the yacht, which is docked in Edinburgh. You can wander around the Queen’s stunning state apartments – the yacht is the only royal residence where the bedroom of a living monarch can be seen – and tuck into a champagne cream tea in the Royal Deck Tea Room, where the royal family played deck games and entertained their guests.
But don’t forget to take a watch as each clock on board points to 15.01, the exact moment the Queen stepped off her beloved Britannia as a home for the last time.
For more, visit royalyachtbritannia.co.uk.