Iona Thoughts

[Adawn47]

12 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Avril - your time in the top tier of the maths class (on another thread) was very short lived. It’s 3 very long years, not 2 😉 

No Selbourne,  When/if we go in 2022 it will have been 2 years since our last cruise. We cruised in November 2019  and missed 2020 & 2021.

Thinking about it, I now what you mean, but  to me I've missed two cruises which is why I say 2 years. We will be cruising in the 3rd year.

Avril

Edited August 19, 2021 by Adawn47

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

No Selbourne,  When/if we go in 2022 it will have been 2 years since our last cruise. We cruised in November 2019  and missed 2020 & 2021.

Avril

No, it will have been roughly 35 months between your cruises - I make that closer to three years than two.

[Adawn47]

Just now, wowzz said:

No, it will have been roughly 35 months between your cruises - I make that closer to three years than two.

I've just edited my post as to why I say 2 years.

Avril

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, LondonLad60 said:

Happy to respond Britboys. To begin with, Arcadia has for a number of years been exhibiting a large amount of rust and corrosion around its windows and doors ,both internally and externally. On our last two cruises with them our balcony had severe corrosion in evidence. I believe this problem has been mentioned elsewhere. As far am I'm aware, nothing has been done to address this. Not to mention the fact that balcony dividing doors tend to rattle and bang in anything other than flat calm seas.

 

I have also reported to P&O  (again several times) the plumbing problem whereby buckets have to be placed at several locations around the ship to catch water dripping from the ceilings, not to mention corridors and WC''s being flooded. This is not a recent issue; this has been evident for several years. Again, no satisfactory reply - in fact, no reply at all.

 

On one of our Arcadia cruises back in 2019 (remember those halcyon days?) freedom dining was an absolute fiasco. Freedom dining was oversubscribed, and to make matters worse, we were told that the ship was short of nineteen waiters. Obviously the early sitting had to take priority so that the tables could be cleared and reset for the second sitting, but freedom diners suffered the brunt of this. A wait of 40 minutes even for a sharing table was nothing unusual. There were plenty of tables available, but insufficient waiters to service them. 

 

Arcadia has two select restaurants - Sindhu and the Ocean Grill. I feel that two such restaurants are insufficient for two ships carrying 2000+ passengers. Even Aurora, which carries fewer passengers, has three such restaurants. Plus, having cruised on Arcadia since 2014 the Ocean Grill and Sindhu menus have only changed once.

 

On evenings when my wife and I didn't fancy the main dining room menu we chose to eat in the buffet. However, one side of the buffet was closed off, because it was designated as an officers dining area. However, there was only one servery open, which was on the passenger side. This led to long queues and somewhat frayed tempers. 

 

The last time we disembarked from Arcadia was chaotic to say the least. If you would like me to expand on this I will be happy to do so.

 

I will also add that I disagree with creeping extras, such as charging for room service and including gratuities in the cruise price, which is passed on by increasing cruise prices.

 

And now, my pet peeve. When boarding the ship, the first thing passengers encounter is the big sell. Actually, and this has only just re-occurred to me, on our last two P&O cruises in 2019, the spa girls and select restaurant crew couldn't wait until passengers boarded - they were plying their trades in the cruise terminal! Now I may be wrong, but I would hazard a guess that the majority of passengers on the adult only ships are seasoned cruisers, and they know how to book the select restaurants, or how to buy a drinks package, or where the spa is and how to book it, or where the casino is, and so on. Many passengers will have had long, tiring and possibly stressful journeys to Southampton, and all they want to do once they board is to find somewhere to relax and have something to eat and drink, instead of having a camera pointed at them and being subjected to multiple sales pitches.

 

I'm happy to expand on my comments or to defend them should the need arise!

 

Bob

Thanks for that, useful. Fortunately for me some of those issues wouldn't affect me. I don't usually have a balcony cabin and always go for Club Dining. The hard sell is sadly on all ships now, including Aurora if my last cruise on her was anything to go by.

I'd still book on either ship at the moment but once Aurora has left the fleet, I will probably no longer be a P&O cruiser.

[Selbourne]

11 minutes ago, wowzz said:

No, it will have been roughly 35 months between your cruises - I make that closer to three years than two.

Yep. The maths class has definitely reduced to 3 😂 

[zap99]

53 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Avril - your time in the top tier of the maths class (on another thread) was very short lived. It’s 3 very long years, not 2 😉 

We cruised in 2019 and 3 times in 2021, so Only missed 2020. A single year🤣

[Adawn47]

7 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Yep. The maths class has definitely reduced to 3 😂 

You misread my post. Let me explain this another way and prove I still deserve my elite maths status.👩‍🎓

What I said/meant was, it's been 2 years since we were last on a cruise, not that it will have been 2 years when we go on the next one. 

Avril

[Selbourne]

7 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

You misread my post. Let me explain this another way and prove I still deserve my elite maths status.👩‍🎓

What I said/meant was, it's been 2 years since we were last on a cruise, not that it will have been 2 years when we go on the next one. 

Avril

I was being slightly tongue in cheek Avril (hence the ‘wink’ emoji) after the exchanges on another thread about arithmetic. You had said that your autumn 2022 cruise was 2 years later than your autumn 2019 one, hence why both Wowzz and I pointed out that it was actually 3 years later, but I realise that you were meaning to say that with cruises in 2019 and 2022, 2020 and 2021 will have been 2 long years with no cruises. The English language is a joy, as is the art of pedantry, to which I plead guilty 😉 

[Adawn47]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

I was being slightly tongue in cheek Avril (hence the ‘wink’ emoji) after the exchanges on another thread about arithmetic. You had said that your autumn 2022 cruise was 2 years later than your autumn 2019 one, hence why both Wowzz and I pointed out that it was actually 3 years later, but I realise that you were meaning to say that with cruises in 2019 and 2022, 2020 and 2021 will have been 2 long years with no cruises. The English language is a joy, as is the art of pedantry, to which I plead guilty 😉 

I took no offence Selbourne, as I've said many times before, the written word can be read in different ways. Sometimes I don't even understand what I've written and have to edit. 

Avril

[terrierjohn]

15 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Sometimes I don't even understand what I've written and have to edit. 

Avril

I find that when predictive text mangles up what I was posting, the problem I then have is trying to remember what I had actually intended to say.🤔

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I find that when predictive text mangles up what I was posting, the problem I then have is trying to remember what I had actually intended to say.🤔

Strangely enough,  the inventor of predictive text died last week.

His funfair is next monkey. 

[Cathygh]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

 

I guess a CV19 precaution,  so as to avoid stewards being exposed unnecessarily,  but as we all know, once changes are made, they don't always change back. 

 

I did read somewhere that the stewards are helping turn tables in the restaurants in the evening, so hopefully this is a temporary measure until the ships are fully staffed again.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Strangely enough,  the inventor of predictive text died last week.

His funfair is next monkey. 

Many a good post urined.

[Son of Bare]

Apologies if this has been asked and answered before.

What passenger numbers is Iona running at presently, in particular for cruise G136?

 

[kalos]

1 hour ago, Son of Bare said:

Apologies if this has been asked and answered before.

What passenger numbers is Iona running at presently, in particular for cruise G136?

 

 

Last night was  2274--1462 crew 

[Son of Bare]

That's pretty good if everyone knows what they are doing.

[smokey01]

How is the buffet working? On our recent Anthem cruise a waiter showed us to a table and all drinks were served by the waiter. I did see an Iona YouTube where the passengers who filmed it just walked in and picked their table and made their own tea and coffee. On other videos there appeared to be a waiter serving tea/coffee at the drinks stations.

[Selbourne]

I’ve just received a marketing email about Our Vera and this is what they say about the Sunset Bar, which is directly underneath the aft cabins and suites. I presume that the same will apply to Iona as the aft layout is the same;

 

“For fun in the sun Café del Mar style, make Sunset Bar your day-to-night destination. With whirlpools to enjoy, sun canopies to relax under, swinging seats to admire gorgeous sea views, and chilled DJ sounds, Sunset Bar is the ultimate place for sundowners”.

 

The words “day to night destination” and “DJ sounds” confirm to me that, sadly, the tranquil aft cabins and suites that many of us enjoy will be a very different experience on Iona and Our Vera, with a source of noise underneath at all hours. Unfortunately there is only one accessible suite on each of these ships and it’s an aft corner wrap (which we like) but is just two decks up from the Sunset Bar so is now a definite no for us. If we go on either of these ships we will now book a midships accessible balcony cabin, which is obviously a lot cheaper but removes the ability to have breakfast in Epicurean and them space and balcony of a suite which we have enjoyed on our 3 previous cruises on Britannia. 

[Presto2]

Oooooo that makes me edgy as we have an aft cabin booked on deck 12 so thought it may be okish. Then again we've had aft cabins under venues on some ships where we could hear music and on Britannia we could hear the bass from the Live Lounge booming out all night and during afternoon rehearsals. Fingers crossed it isn't too bad. 

[Selbourne]

14 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Oooooo that makes me edgy as we have an aft cabin booked on deck 12 so thought it may be okish. Then again we've had aft cabins under venues on some ships where we could hear music and on Britannia we could hear the bass from the Live Lounge booming out all night and during afternoon rehearsals. Fingers crossed it isn't too bad. 

Well deck 12 is 4 decks above the Sunset bar whereas the suite we would have booked is just 2 decks above it, so you would have less of an issue from inside your cabin I would think. 

[wowzz]

54 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well deck 12 is 4 decks above the Sunset bar whereas the suite we would have booked is just 2 decks above it, so you would have less of an issue from inside your cabin I would think. 

Selbourne - is there any specific reason not to consider Sky and Regal Princess out of Southampton? They have some great aft suites, with enormous wrap round balconies. 

[Selbourne]

15 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Selbourne - is there any specific reason not to consider Sky and Regal Princess out of Southampton? They have some great aft suites, with enormous wrap round balconies. 

We haven’t considered them Wowzz TBH. We have to have a fully accessible balcony cabin or suite now, which does reduce choice considerably. We have stuck with P&O as, unlike some people, we actually like the ‘Britishness’! An Americanised experience wouldn’t be for us. 
 

As we still have reservations about the ‘post Covid’ cruise experience (with all cruise lines, not just P&O), our next cruise will probably be a 7 day Fjords cruise, which restricts our choice even further!

[thornegirl]

We were on the Iona maiden cruise, we enjoyed it.  We liked the Olive Grove restaurant and The Quays, but didn't enjoy The Glasshouse.  It was too 'open' and the food menu was nowhere near like the Britannia menu, we ate in there once but wouldn't rush back. On Britannia we are in there nearly every night either for a drink or a meal.  The Club House at the back of the ship is a superb venue, headliners theatre is also good.  We didn't manage to get in the 710 club there was always a big queue, and didn't get in the Limelight club as that was booked up all week, but we have seen La Voix before.

 

We have decided that Iona is not for us, but we are on there again with our family next August going to the Fjords.  The grandchildren will love it, so many things for them to do, we checked out the kids clubs while we were onboard and the staff in there were lovely.  Our favourite ship is Britannia which we are on again on Sunday.  

 

Next year is a big wedding anniversary so we are on Saga at Easter, looking forward to that.

[zap99]

4 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

We were on the Iona maiden cruise, we enjoyed it.  We liked the Olive Grove restaurant and The Quays, but didn't enjoy The Glasshouse.  It was too 'open' and the food menu was nowhere near like the Britannia menu, we ate in there once but wouldn't rush back. On Britannia we are in there nearly every night either for a drink or a meal.  The Club House at the back of the ship is a superb venue, headliners theatre is also good.  We didn't manage to get in the 710 club there was always a big queue, and didn't get in the Limelight club as that was booked up all week, but we have seen La Voix before.

 

We have decided that Iona is not for us, but we are on there again with our family next August going to the Fjords.  The grandchildren will love it, so many things for them to do, we checked out the kids clubs while we were onboard and the staff in there were lovely.  Our favourite ship is Britannia which we are on again on Sunday.  

 

Next year is a big wedding anniversary so we are on Saga at Easter, looking forward to that.

We have had 6 cruises on Britannia I guess we must quite like it. Our first on Iona is in a couple of weeks with another booked for next year. Looking at all the reviews, I think there are a few things that won't suit us, like the menu in the glass house, We ate twice in the one in Britannia last time, so will give it a go. Lots of the other dinner options look interesting. The ship looks interesting. The Atrium looks a bit bland, but the SkyDome stunning. Not getting into the Limelight won't be an issue if it's Eric and Ern. Like I say it may not turn out to be our favourite, but we won't know until we try.

[cruisenewbie1976]

31 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We haven’t considered them Wowzz TBH. We have to have a fully accessible balcony cabin or suite now, which does reduce choice considerably. We have stuck with P&O as, unlike some people, we actually like the ‘Britishness’! An Americanised experience wouldn’t be for us. 
 

As we still have reservations about the ‘post Covid’ cruise experience (with all cruise lines, not just P&O), our next cruise will probably be a 7 day Fjords cruise, which restricts our choice even further!

We were recently on Regal and it's pretty British at the moment.  Probably a more diverse mix of cabin stewards, waiters etc than P&O; our cabin lady was from Mexico. But all the entertainment staff that we came across were British. It seems as though Carnival UK is running the show whilst they're operating from Southampton. Even the menus have more British style options. The only American aspect we noticed was that everything was in dollars. Other than that, it could easily have been a P&O ship (I have already come under fire for suggesting such a thing on a Princess forum 🤣).