sandancer

No. It’s 14/15 days before the cruise. Same time as dining and entertainment is available. You can see who will be performing then. 

Yes, the luggage is collected outside the room.  I’m trying to remember what happened the next morning and I’m fairly sure we had to collect the bags and take them to the coach for the transfer to the airport. 

We had to collect ours and take it to the bus. This was a Jet2 flight but I would assume the procedure would be the same regardless of airline. 

  Very pleased to hear that your mind has been put at rest. Now you can get on with the anticipation of a great cruise. 

37 minutes ago, lethaljoe said:

Yes I told the woman on the phone on the booking we will require a accessible cabin. We have a so called "partially accessible room" which will not be fit for purpose. During the booking the term partially was never given. I feel like I may have been misadvised by the employee that day

Did you book a Saver fare where you don’t choose your cabin and are allocated one near to the sail date. I read somewhere that fully accessible cabins are reserved for full time wheelchair users so that could be the difficultly. 

I’m sorry to hear that you have not been assigned the cabin you require. I have just completed an assistance form for hubbie. We can’t even get a partially adapted cabin and I know we will struggle to cope with both a wheelchair and a Rollator. Did you not choose a cabin when you booked. You should have been made aware at that point that the cabin you had chosen was not fully accessible. 

9 hours ago, TigerB said:

Day 6 - Thursday 22nd February - Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Part 2 - afternoon & evening)

 

When we got back onboard, me and our lass attended Taste 360 for a spot of lunch; a deck burger and some salad for her, a veggie burger for me. I ordered a pint of Punk IPA and a large lime and soda from Laguna. The cost: £8.95, so that was £1.30 for the dash of lime cordial.  That's been three times now at different bars where we have been charged so much for a dash of lime; later that day I attended Reception and requested an appointment with the Assistant F&B Manager.

 

We took our drinks and chilled out for a while on deck 18, until the kids got back onboard and disturbed our peace.🙄

Our lass was a bit wiped out by now, so I took her back to the cabin, got her settled, and I went to the Beachcomber area to write some notes and crop photos.

 

Tonight's dinner for us two was at Beach House; the kids were at Sindhu. They later said that they enjoyed it more than they did on Britannia sixteen months earlier.

 

Our dining time was 19:30, so much later than we normally eat. We were seated at a two-seater near to the window, which was 30cm from a four-seater; thankfully, that remained empty throughout our meal.

Our waiting team were Clarah and Maria.

 

Our lass had a Rekorderlig strawberry & lime cider, and I wanted a pint of Punk IPA, which they don't sell in the Crystal bar, which serves Beach House, but do sell in the Laguna bar at the other side of the Skydome.  I asked Maria if it would be okay for her to get me the pint from the Laguna bar. She replied that she would not go and get it, but had a boy to do that for her; she then called over Christian. She said, "This is my runner, he loves to run out for drinks for me".  Good lad!😀

 

Before I post pics, I just want to ask:

Is it just me, or does anyone think that the Beach House menu on Iona and Arvia is in need of a refresh?

 

 

Anyway, we ate...

 

Starters:

 

Our lass...

 

Me...

 

Mains:

 

Our lass...

 

She had the lava block version 

 

Me...

 

Desserts:

 

Our lass...

 

She wasn't that hungry after her steak, and didn't really fancy a dessert. But being a Yorkshire lass, and paying £7 odd for three courses, she was going to have three courses. She picked at hers and guess who had the leavings!🙄

 

Me...

 

 

We were both quite full after that, so we retired to the cabin to veg out and watch a film.

 

You have made my day Tiger. We board on this coming Saturday and have booked the Beach House for the first night. On the website Beach House menu there is no mention of the lava steak but you have confirmed that it is still being served. Thanks for that. Your comments on pickpockets in Tenerife duly noted and extra care will be taken. 

On 1/15/2024 at 9:39 PM, m011d402 said:

We are going on a New Year’s Eve cruise with p and o on Brittania. I was surprised to see YouTube videos of the deck party at midnite and people didn’t seem dressed up at all? I thought it would be tuxes etc 

Well last NYE on Iona there were many, many DJ’s on show and it’s a wonder the ship didn’t sink due to the weight of the sequins (including mine). 

On 2/22/2024 at 7:48 PM, yorkshirephil said:

We booked the 35 nighter when it was released then rebooked it while on Aurora in October with the 10% discount plus triple OBC. We only booked the 2 weeks to Canaries in December but still got the 10% discount off each cruise for B2B. You don't need to book them both at the same time. You do have to book select to get B2B discount.

Thank you Phil. I contacted our TA and they had P&O add the 10% with no loss of OBC. We have a saying up here in the frozen North - “shy bairns get nowt”. I wouldn’t have even asked without the input of the very helpful folks here on CC. 

1 hour ago, SALAD MUNCHER said:

Hi, I am trying to find out if there is a number I can give a relative to contact me on the ship in an emergency.  We have a very ill relative and it's just in case the worse situation occurs.   We are sailing on Iona next week.

As are we. Here is the info I found:

If any of your family or friends need to contact you while you are on board, they can do so by phoning: 0800 917 1584 (from the UK only) – they will need to provide their credit card details. They will then be prompted to provide the ship name, as well as your name and cabin number. Their call will then be directed to your cabin. Only upon connection with the ship will charges commence. Calls are a standard £3.00 per minute. If calling from outside of the UK, they should dial 001 732 3353264 (the same procedure will apply). There will be an American call charge for this number in addition to the £3.00 per minute call charge. If you are not in your cabin at the time of the call, a message will be taken and delivered to your cabin. 

That sounds like a total nightmare. However, we were on the NYE cruise and I think that was still school Christmas hols and we didn’t experience any of those things. I must say though that we didn’t eat in the MDR other than on NYE so may  have missed all that bad behavior. 

Has anyone taken this P&O tour? I’m told that there is a walk between the bus and boat and that there are no facilities for a wheelchair on the boat.  This was booked before a wheelchair was needed so I’m thinking maybe if the distance is not too far I could run back to the bus and stow the wheelchair. Or is this impractical. 

The first cruise was transferred from another booking. I don’t know if that would make a difference. The 35 night one was booked onboard Azura and the agent was made aware that we were already booked on the NYE cruise as we tried (without success) to get the same cabin. Maybe I should ask our TA to look into it. 

7 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

We have also booked the 14 night NYE cruise too. I was surprised that they did this as every long cruise we have had always had a short cruise before it so you didn't get the benefit of 10% B to B discount on the more expensive cruise. Happy days.

No 10% for us. We didn’t book them as a B2B. There were months between the two bookings. We added the 35 night when we were on Azura last October. No mention of a B2B discount. 

Hear, hear Bob. We are also on the 35 nighter on Iona Jan 25. We are also doing the 14 night NYE immediately before so a 7 week one for us. 

Hope it may be less busy Baz on our cruise. School hols over so fingers crossed. To be fair we were on the NYE cruise which was pretty well rammed, good spread of age groups and we were never bothered by any misbehaving children (or adults) other than one young sprog who would get into a lift and press every button and then jump out. Grrrrr. 

6 hours ago, waddle said:

All the drinks menus including MDR show the options as C or D so clear which are included in Classic or Deluxe

 

We feel there is a reasonable selection of wines on the Classic, 175ml glasses only 

Also remember that you have to wait 15 mins between drinks so you can’t get a 175ml glass and then order another right away. 

Thanks a lot. If departure is 18.00 then all onboard should be 17.30. The earliest time for tea is 3pm giving us 2.5 hours which I’m sure is fine. I’ve checked the  times for the ships tour and it leaves at 1.30 for a 2.5 hour tour. This includes a sightseeing tour before arrival at Reid’s. It’s a bucket list event for me so fingers crossed we make it. 

On 2/16/2024 at 6:56 PM, carlanthony24 said:

P&O don't supply times but some others sites do show them. Can't name them without the post being deleted. You typically get around 8hrs in port if you can tell me date of cruise I can check the site I use.

I am trying to find out what time Iona sails from Funchal on March 12th but none of the Funchal port sites actually show the departure time. We are going to Reid’s for afternoon tea and don’t want to rush it. I would be very grateful if you could help. Thanks

On 12/17/2023 at 6:46 PM, TigerB said:

Ooh, you have piqued my interest. We are there in January, and as it will be our lass's 60th birthday cruise, I may very well push the boat out for her. It will beat fish and chips in the Quays!😉

Did you make it to Reid’s Tiger and were you on Iona? We are booked for tea at 3pm and as P&O don’t publish a departure time, only “evening” I want to make sure we don’t have to rush, especially as we need a taxi that will take a wheelchair. 

We have booked afternoon tea at Reid’s independently rather than take a ships tour. We plan to take a taxi from the port. Anyone know how easy this would be with a wheelchair. 

(I). We travel by coach and we just go straight to the assistance team regardless of our booked arrival time. 
(I). We travel as a couple and we are kept together. I would think the party will stay together but can’t confirm that for sure. 
 

As MIL has an adapted cabin I assume know P&O know they are travelling with a mobility scooter. On our last cruise one lady was refused boarding as she had not let them know in advance. They are becoming very strict about this.

First of all, have they completed an accessibility form?  This is essential as the guest will not be allowed to board if not. There is a dedicated area where they have a list of everyone arriving who needs assistance. They allocate a “helper” to escort you onboard. This person then takes you the check in and then security. Once onboard they go with you to your emergency muster station. We only have a manual wheelchair so can’t comment on what happens with a mobility scooter but it can’t be much different. Can’t praise them enough for the service they provide. 

Great. Thanks

The problem for us is that a standard cabin is a tight fit with 2 pieces of kit. It’s just manageable in a de luxe cabin although obviously not as comfortable as an accessible cabin. Like yourselves booking last minute is not now an option.