Inside the Royal Yacht Britannia, the royal family's luxurious private cruise ship known as a 'floating palace'
Talia Lakritz
- The Royal Yacht Britannia was the British royal family's private yacht from 1953 to 1997.
- The ship is now a museum open to the public in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Royal Yacht Britannia was the British royal family's private yacht from 1953 to 1997. With its many royal 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 Labour government decommissioned the ship in 1997 due to its high operating cost of £11 million each year, Reuters reported. That's equivalent to about $23 million today.
After it was decommissioned, the royal yacht was turned into a museum open to the public. Take a look inside.
Queen Elizabeth once called the Royal Yacht Britannia "the one place where I can truly relax."
At the decommissioning ceremony, she shed a rare public tear.
The Royal Yacht Britannia is now open to the public as a museum in Edinburgh, Scotland.
On a trip to Scotland in 2023, I booked a ticket for the Royal Yacht Britannia museum, which costs £19.50, or around $25, 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.
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 Queen Elizabeth's favorite rooms on the ship.
Queen Elizabeth would often take her breakfast and afternoon tea in the Sun Lounge.
Queen Elizabeth's bedroom on the Royal Yacht Britannia featured bed linens that once belonged to Queen Victoria.
The embroidered silk panel above her bed, commissioned in 1953, cost £450 back then, or around $6,613 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 on board 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, Queen Elizabeth's sitting room served as her office.
Here, Queen Elizabeth would meet with her press secretaries and prepare for royal visits.
On the opposite side of the hall, Philip 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 Queen Elizabeth 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 Queen Elizabeth'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 on the Royal Yacht Britannia are stopped at 3:01 p.m.
The clocks are frozen at the time that Queen Elizabeth stepped off the ship for the last time during its decommissioning ceremony in December 1997.
The tour concluded 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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