HalifaxYorksCruiser

The first VLOG episode of Paul and Carole’s Love to Travel journey on Quest is due to be released on YT tonight at 6pm. According to their Live Chat AZ have contacted them in an attempt to resolve their complaints.

If everyone answered the questionnaire honestly there would be a lot of empty cabins on sailaway.

The Food & Beverage Manager will blame it on staff shortages. When we were on Iona at end of October that was the reason given to us for no food in the Glasshouse.

Seems a bit early for Christmas decorations.

I agree entirely. The Atrium at night is truly soulless and during the day can be cold if docked and they are using deck 6 as the disembarkation point. The Crows Nest only had a choice of 3 red and 3 white wines and they were not a patch on the wines available in the Glass House. We love the Glass House on Britannia but on Iona it is just an open space . On our cruise due to staff shortages no food was being served in the Glass House.

We were on Iona at the end of October and we’re in cabin 8123 which is at the end of the slope. The balcony was big but everyone could walk past and due to the ramp were at the same level as the balcony . The cabin didn’t have any net curtains and so privacy was pretty much non existent. The only solution was pulling curtains partly across. The cabin itself was very nice but wouldn’t book such a cabin for a Summer cruise but was ok for an Autumn/Winter cruise when the opportunity to use the balcony was limited in any event.

Went on Iona a couple of weeks ago. Much prefer Britannia. Each to his own but suspect we wouldn’t choose to go back on Iona.

We got back on Saturday from 7 day Iona cruise. From day one lots of passengers were coughing - clearly many people lie when completing the health form in order to avoid cancellation. I don’t blame them as I would do the same. On another matter it was very interesting that there was absolutely no attempt by staff on Iona to encourage hand washing or use of gels when embarking or entering restaurants- I am surprised Norovirus wasn’t rampant.

Just got back from Iona. You have to go into a Virtual Queue for MDR restaurants. It worked ok for us but we dine fairly early. Lots of folk complaining at the restaurant doors that the My Holiday App was not updating their position in the queue. The app did crash on two nights.

Just got back from Iona. The free shuttle for Select Fare passengers (£5 otherwise) dropped us off close to the Rathouse.

I don’t think sun bed availability on deck will be an issue next week . I’m packing wet weather gear.

We are on deck 8 on 22/10/22 and been given 4pm

After two nights on the same Brilliance cruise as yourself I complained to the Head Waiter plus the Food & Beverage manager. My main complaint about the MDR was that the food was cold. After complaining from there on in we had piping hot food . I actually found that when served hot the quality and portion size was superior to P&O . Sadly the food on RC not up to the standard of Azamara although Azamara quality had slipped a little in April this year compared to pre pandemic. I would also add that if US forum members think Speciality dining is getting expensive think about us poor Brits at £1=$1.15 !

We do the same. My wife is not bothered about internet access during the holiday so I create a log on in her name and use her free 24 hr on my iPad one day and then on another day use my free 24hr. It’s slow but adequate for e mails etc.

Top Tier ( Diamond Plus and above) was on Brilliance 14/21 August but apparently was very poorly attended and crew outnumbered guests by a very large proportion.

Be prepared for a long walk from the Aircraft bridge to the Baggage Carousel and then another long walk from Arrivals area to the Coach park .

The Azamara reps were waiting in the public arrival area at Venice airport along with private Limo drivers. They wait until they have a group of passengers and then walk you to the coach/ bus parking area. They use full size buses but didn’t wait until it was full.

It’s still the same long walk though. In fact the walk was so long that our baggage was already going around the carrousel.

Be aware it can be a very long walk from the air bridge at Rome FCO to the baggage carousel and then out to the coach park. We did it in April and it certainly gives you a good amount of exercise.

At least in April we only had to do the transfer one way as we sailed from Rome. Just hoping that Jet 2 do better than in April as had a 3 hour delay taking off from Marco Polo which meant we were in Marco Polo from 8am to take off at 3.30pm ( scheduled to Manchester was meant to be 12.20 pm)There were no queues at Marco Polo for either check in or security.

We didn’t have any stops last month and passengers were specifically told that there would be no comfort stops and the coaches didn’t have toilets ! Being a Sunday morning the road to Marco Polo was very quiet. Can’t say I’m really looking forward to doing the transfers all over again in Mid August.

I note that the above letter says the journey from the Port to Venice is 3.5 hours. I can tell you that last month the coach transfer from Ravenna Port to Marco Polo airport took exactly 2 hours. This was on a Sunday morning leaving the Port at 6 am. Pleased to see that Royal transfers depart at 7 instead of Azamara which was at 6am. Check in and security at Marco Polo was very quick.

Enjoying your review. We will be on the same cruise in Mid August. I saw on Vesselfinder that you left Corfu early afternoon so only half a day in Corfu. I guess they need time to get to Athens.

Yes people were freely mixing onboard and sharing tables last week