TigerB

You're welcome.🙂 For parking you could look at Triangle or, as Majortom states, Parking4Cruises. There are other options such as hotels with parking and even the long stay car parks in the town, at a push. When are you travelling?

See post #16

Last September it docked at berth S167, Stadsgarden. I think the shuttle bus was £4 for saver passengers. To the best of my recollection, it dropped off and picked up again on Strömgatan, near the opera house.

Just one each; are you travelling light, then?😉

One litre each, but they don't really count. If you are so minded to, you can spread a few bottles amongst your baggage. You can also take on as many soft drinks as you wish.

So, when I get back to our cabin of an evening and parade up and down in my rhinestone studded shorts and cowboy boots for our lass, that's a no-no is it? 🤔

Unfortunately, we're in the same boat as Selbourne, and others who require an accessible cabin. If there is a cruise we really want to do, we have no option but to book a loooonnnnggg time in advance, more often than not when the cruise is released. I wish we didn't have to do so, but that is the way it is.

This is the fridge... On Arvia the main smoking area is on the port side of deck 18, near the Beachcomber bar; I expect it is the same on Iona.

She said the same to us. I had half a mind to register for the first season of 2028, which is when I turn 60 and we could justify pushing the boat out (pun intended!)😉

Once again Selbourne, many thanks for the advice.👍 I have just come off the phone with a lovely young lady from Saga, and paid our pre-registration for both 2025 seasons; and while I was at it, I also paid for both 2026 seasons.🙂

Thanks, doing that now🙂

I can't find anything on the Saga site for pre-registration. Google results suggest it may only be open at a particular time of year, and then by phone call. Is that correct?

Ah, thanks for that.👍 I recall there being a fee involved but didn't think it was refundable. I'll look into it now.

Do P&O offer this excursion? 😉

I was being flippant in my first comment.😉 To be fair, we would be prepared to pay £450 per night for a Saga cruise, which is a more superior product than P&O offers. Trouble is, we are Saga virgins so cannot benefit from the advance booking option, and by the time we are able to do look at booking, the accessible cabins had either gone or cost far too much than we were prepared to pay. £250 or less for a P&O balcony cabin or similar on a compatible cruise suits us but, like you, paying £200 or less would be more ideal.

£3? I would have had that spent. Don't a small bag of Maltesers in the shop cost about that much?😉

Most P&O excursions are very expensive anyway, but for some I think they just think of a number and treble it. We are booked on an accessible tour in Olden, for which we paid £85 in September. I looked today and they are selling the same tour for £170. Surely they must have priced it incorrectly when we booked; otherwise, how can they justify a 100% increase?

Further to what John says about refilling bottles, there are water fountains dotted around Iona for just that purpose. You can also take as many soft drinks onboard as you can carry. We take on cans of carbonated beverages which can be chilled in our fridge and used as mixers for the Southern Comfort and rum we take on with us. If you didn't already know, you can take on one litre of booze each. Tipping: At the end of the cruise we will tip our cabin steward, and if we have the same waiting staff in the MDR throughout the cruise, they will usually get a few quid.

For us, that less another £200! #Yorkshire!😉 Seriously though, pre-covid we would do a long RV holiday in the US or Canada each year; we were just about to start one when Trump closed the borders. Now that things are getting back to as they once were, we have been looking at completing that planned trip. RV hire now has almost tripled, and with other increases over there such as food, fuel, site fees, together with the poor exchange rate, such a trip would now cost us about £370+ a day; that includes all expenses, the flights too. So, paying £250 per day or less for a cruise, and getting OBC too, is a no-brainer for us. We will continue with cruising for quite a while, and the land based holidays we used to enjoy could be some way in the future.

Yes, that's the problem with accessible cabins. However, I hope things change a little in our favour with the larger ships and them perhaps struggling to fill them. On our last trip, when we had no problem upgrading to another accessible cabin, I discovered one near our new cabin was empty and our new neighbours, and the neighbours of our first cabin, were able bodied and didn't require accessible cabins; both said they were on saver fares and were allocated them just before cruising. So, that could be a positive for the future; time will tell.

Funny you should say that. I was researching our ports the other day and in doing so looked at a Google image of Iona docked in Hellesylt. She is about three times longer than the jetty and dwarfs the village.

Sorry, I realised after posting, that you had already contributed to that previous thread.

That is always my policy.................................................in an ideal world! However, sometimes I may be sat while our lass is watching a programme I'm not into, and in my boredom I may look for something to do that doesn't require me to lift my backside off my chair. That's when the little fella on my shoulder says, "Hey, just have a look at that cruise and see if it's cheaper"! I try not to, but he is so persuasive. Perhaps I need therapy!🙄

We are in the same boat as you, with the accessible cabin conundrum, so book as early as we can. We always used to pay off the balance early, but have changed that approach with our last two booked cruises, given that fare prices sometimes reduce a fair bit as time goes on. Having secured those two cruises with a total deposit of £100 each, we don't intend to pay anymore until the balance is due, so I can monitor price fluctuations until the last possible moment and act accordingly. Now that I'm retired, and we can go away at the drop of a hat, we are going to take another different approach to cruising. We intend to have two 'in the bag' that we really want to do each year, and look at deals close to sailing for others. Yes, accessible cabins are traditionally as rare as rocking horse poo close to sailing, but with the larger ships, it isn't a given that all will be sold. If we get one then fine, if not then that's also fine. It's not as if I would have wasted any annual leave.

I read those after I had posted. The point of my post was that cabins in our grade for the cruise in June are £300 cheaper than they were three weeks ago, but still £150 more than we had paid. Reading your post (#7) again, is it your understanding that they may be subject to a further reduction in a few weeks?