Iona Construction ?

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

Strange how we all differ in our experiences, I found little difference between Azura/Ventura and Aurora as regards crowding, but I thought that Aurora made me feel more claustrophobic that either of the two bigger ships, and Aurora was certainly much less user friendly for a wheelchair user. It will be very interesting to see how Iona compares.

Oceana is the one that felt hideously overcrowded to us, far worse than any of the others, but we do tend to do more winter cruises, perhaps we would have a different perspective on a sunshine cruise. 

I get the 'claustrophobic' bit about Aurora, although we find it quaint and cosy. 

Each to their own. 

Andy 

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

I wonder how Iona is getting on. Hopefully she is still on schedule. With Meyer announcing a very long delay on Mardi Gras and I thought she was behind Iona in the delivery schedule. These Excellence class ships seem to take longer to build than expected.

 

I am keeping my fingers crossed for her second voyage. I have already had one maiden cancel on me for 2020 with Ponant but that was because the ship is being delivered early. 
 

I am beginning to think about booking hotels, parking and or  train tickets for the Iona cruise. Might hold off for a while. 

 

Best wishes, Stephen  
 

PS I would assume that Carnival will be compensated by the yards for late delivery. If I remember two AIDA ships were years late. I heard a rumour that one of them was effectively free as a result. 

[Monorail Orange]

These ships are in the £800m range, so that's a huge dent for the yards if they had to pay even a percentage of that back.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

Passenger space ratios can be deceptive.  Queen Mary 2 is in theory very spacious but she has double and triple height public spaces. All that height is nice but not really usable. Some very big suites take up space that is not accessible to most.  Extra chargeable venues and the spa are only accessible on paying a fee.  Queen Mary 2 does have some pinch points in her flows of passengers around the atrium and Kings Court. Then again she sometimes only carries 2000 passengers because of single occupancy..

CMVs Astoria is in theory unbelievably crowded. Here space ratio is so low. To me on three cruises she has never felt crowded even though several spaces were not in use. I wonder how full she was on my cruises. 

 

Iona does have a lot of extra charge dining spaces so that will take up space that I might not use. Then again the cabins are quite small.  The design of the ship makes a big difference too. The real test will be school holidays when those extra berths are used. 
 

Best wishes, Stephen. 
 

 

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

5 minutes ago, Monorail Orange said:

These ships are in the £800m range, so that's a huge dent for the yards if they had to pay even a percentage of that back.

Meyer are building these ships I think. It must be a concern for them as financially as I am sure Carnival are not going to suffer as a result. They are willing to go to court if necessary. 

[jaydee6969]

No firm date as yet, but a mid February is looking likely for float out.

 

 

[jaydee6969]

Possible mid/end March date has been suggested to me for Ems conveyance. There is usually a lot of live streams for these events, as it is quite spectacular to see such a vessel being moved stern first along a river! I will post any that I come across.

[jaydee6969]

For anyone interested, there is a documentary on History channel tonight titled Mega Transports at 20:00. This is about the conveyance along the river Ems from the Meyer Werft shipyard for the Norwegian Joy. A similar journey to which Iona will take next year.

[emam]

Thanks, I will look out for that. We watched Mega ships (not sure if that is the right name) the other night, seen a couple of them before but always interesting to watch.

[emam]

Well it just goes to show how much I watch TV. We don't have the History Channel and probably haven't for about 10 years. However we can watch most expensive ships at Christmas tonight.

[jaydee6969]

And Meyer Werft yearly round up video with a section on Iona.

 

[jaydee6969]

The Meyer Werft webcam update is working again, and another photo from their latest press release.

[Happy2b@sea]

She is looking beautiful.  I have just watched the NCL Joy on the History Channel and it was very interesting but the sail out made for anxious viewing.  Those guys are so clever. There are also a couple of funny names to watch out for!

 

Edited December 27, 2019 by Happy2b@sea
wrong ship name!

[pete14]

30 minutes ago, Happy2b@sea said:

She is looking beautiful.  I have just watched the NCL Joy on the History Channel and it was very interesting but the sail out made for anxious viewing.  Those guys are so clever. There are also a couple of funny names to watch out for!

 

I just hope Iona is no wider than NCL Joy otherwise she might never be able to leave. At least there is no water slide to complicate things.

[Presto2]

She looks HUGE !!!! Hope it wont be like getting a ship out of a bottle when the time comes for her to leave here ;-)

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

She looks HUGE !!!! Hope it wont be like getting a ship out of a bottle when the time comes for her to leave here 😉

She is hardly any longer and quite a bit narrower than Indy OTS, but she is taller. But when compared with RCIs Oasis class, she is is a lot smaller.

[Monorail Orange]

^I read "Indy OTS" and wondered if it was a new Harrison Ford film....  took me a second to realise what it was. ☺️ 😉

 

I think I've had too many mince pies... or not enough...

[AndyMichelle]

29 minutes ago, Monorail Orange said:

^I read "Indy OTS" and wondered if it was a new Harrison Ford film....  took me a second to realise what it was. ☺️ 😉

 

I think I've had too many mince pies... or not enough...

No, you are right. 

It is the new film where Harrison comes down a giant waterslide and is charged 18% gratuity on his Martini at the bottom... 😊

Andy 

[Monorail Orange]

58 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

No, you are right. 

It is the new film where Harrison comes down a giant waterslide and is charged 18% gratuity on his Martini at the bottom... 😊

Andy 

😂😁 Sounds about right!

[Monorail Orange]

This just popped up in my suggestions. A little relevent to what we've been discussing on capacity.

Couple of notes:

Its about the Mardi Gras - Iona's 'cousin'.
It's a little bit of a PR video, naturally.
The tile states 6,000 people - that's including the crew - Mardi Gras has an occupancy of 5,200 same as Iona.

 

 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

No, you are right. 

It is the new film where Harrison comes down a giant waterslide and is charged 18% gratuity on his Martini at the bottom... 😊

Andy 

Sounds about right Andy however if, like us, your Celebrity loyalty status give you Diamond status on RCI, then you get 3 free drinks for happy hour (5:30-8:00pm) in any bar, including all dining rooms. That's generally enough to keep me happy every night, then my OBC covers any day time drinks. Ended up with a final charge of under $20 for our cruise this summer.

[AndyMichelle]

7 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Sounds about right Andy however if, like us, your Celebrity loyalty status give you Diamond status on RCI, then you get 3 free drinks for happy hour (5:30-8:00pm) in any bar, including all dining rooms. That's generally enough to keep me happy every night, then my OBC covers any day time drinks. Ended up with a final charge of under $20 for our cruise this summer.

Excellent John, didn't know they did that. 

Every day is a school day.. 

Andy 

[eddie11]

How do you reach Diamond?  How many nights?  Is that the top level?  Sounds good - but possibly costly

What other perks?

Almost sounds like we need a loyalty benefits across cruise lines thread but ...

[eddie11]

I’ve done a search & answered my own questions.  Here’s a link in case anyone else is interested.  
Now, back to Iona ...

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/gbr/en/crown-anchor-society

 

[Presto2]

6 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Sounds about right Andy however if, like us, your Celebrity loyalty status give you Diamond status on RCI, then you get 3 free drinks for happy hour (5:30-8:00pm) in any bar, including all dining rooms. That's generally enough to keep me happy every night, then my OBC covers any day time drinks. Ended up with a final charge of under $20 for our cruise this summer.

 

Sadly we are not at the dizzy heights for RCI or Celebrity so without a deal it would cost us a fortune ----- BUT, we will always have a great time ;-)