Iona info

[jipsy]

Hi all

I'm taking my parents & my niece on Iona on 29th Oct. 

Maybe someone who has recently been on Iona could answer a couple of questions.

I'm a regular cruiser and usually once on board I go to the loyalty lunch.

However I haven't been on Iona before. Is the loyalty lunch still going ahead? I was on Ventura in Jan and it did then.

My parents are not as high on the loyalty scheme and are not in my cabin & my niece is only on the first level but is sharing my cabin. I couldn't possibly leave them. Would they be allowed in? What level do you have to be on?

Also does the penisular lunch go ahead? 

Finally, I believe p&o state that there are only one formal night per week on Iona as opposed to the normal 2 but when I look at the itinery on the cruise personliser I can only see 1 in the whole 14 night's.

Has anyone been on a 2 week cruise recently who could tell me how many there were.

Sorry if this info has been asked elsewhere and thanks in advance for any help.

 

[smokey01]

Hi,

 

The loyalty lunch is still going ahead and is only for Caribbean and above loyalty level and suites. Strictly speaking the other 3 members of your party are not entitled to go but I suppose it might be at the discretion of the restaurant host whether they will overlook the rules.

 

The Peninsular lunch still goes ahead but again technically only for yourself (possibly your niece as she is sharing your cabin, but not sure).

 

There is only one formal night per week on Iona. One on evening 2 or 3 and then the night before the last night.

 

 

[Son of Anarchy]

We're on Iona in November for 14 nights.  Cruise Personaliser is showing a total of two formal nights (one per week) for our cruise.

[purplesea]

We spent two weeks on Iona in January and had two formal nights (one each week).

[FluffyFiFi]

I went on Iona and we had loyalty lunch in Pearl restaurant, our daughter and her boyfriend were allowed to join us as well and they were in a different cabin. We didn’t expect them to be allowed in but very pleased they were. It was a great start to our Fjord cruise and as her boyfriend hadn’t been on a cruise before he was blown away with it - think the free flowing beers helped with that!

[jipsy]

Thank you for the replies. 

5 hours ago, FluffyFiFi said:

I went on Iona and we had loyalty lunch in Pearl restaurant, our daughter and her boyfriend were allowed to join us as well and they were in a different cabin. We didn’t expect them to be allowed in but very pleased they were. It was a great start to our Fjord cruise and as her boyfriend hadn’t been on a cruise before he was blown away with it - think the free flowing beers helped with that!

Thanks for all the replies. That's great news.

[molecrochip]

Be polite, expect to be told no, and hope for the best.

 

Invites generally extend to anyone in your cabin. However, the restaurant manager will manage his restaurant as he/she sees fit.

 

It usually depends on how many loyalty guests there are per cruise, whether they all turn up at once, and how many staff have been allocated to work the tables. Especially the embarkation lunch is designed to feel like a quiet oasis away from the huddle and bustle of the guests boarding.
 

Make sure your bookings are linked as travelling together. Finally, if you ask anyone other than at the restaurant podium you will get the formal ‘no’ answer as they are advising per the rules.

[daiB]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

Be polite, expect to be told no, and hope for the best.

 

Invites generally extend to anyone in your cabin. However, the restaurant manager will manage his restaurant as he/she sees fit.

 

It usually depends on how many loyalty guests there are per cruise, whether they all turn up at once, and how many staff have been allocated to work the tables. Especially the embarkation lunch is designed to feel like a quiet oasis away from the huddle and bustle of the guests boarding.
 

Make sure your bookings are linked as travelling together. Finally, if you ask anyone other than at the restaurant podium you will get the formal ‘no’ answer as they are advising per the rules.

I think the OP is asking about the Peninsular lunch in the middle of the cruise not the one on the day of boarding. The Peninsular lunch is by ticket only of course.

[molecrochip]

The OP asked about the loyalty lunch on embarkation day as well as the Peninsular lunch. My comments apply to embarkation day.

[LLOM]

I cannot find out in my cruise personaliser how many formal nights there are on Iona , it just says there will be time to dress up with our gala evenings, black tie nights and celebration nights. Our daughter has just come back of Azura they had 2 celebrations nights and 2 gala nights on their 14 night cruise, on the 4 nights men wore a tux or suit to go in the MDR and ladies a cocktail dress or long dress.

we were on Iona last year but I can only remember 2 so called formal nights.

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, LLOM said:

I cannot find out in my cruise personaliser how many formal nights there are on Iona , it just says there will be time to dress up with our gala evenings, black tie nights and celebration nights. Our daughter has just come back of Azura they had 2 celebrations nights and 2 gala nights on their 14 night cruise, on the 4 nights men wore a tux or suit to go in the MDR and ladies a cocktail dress or long dress.

we were on Iona last year but I can only remember 2 so called formal nights.

Iona only has one formal night per week, so two over a 14 night cruise.

[LLOM]

Thank you terrierjohn for your reply,

yes our cruise on Iona last year was a 14 night one and can only remember there being 2 dress up nights, one each week, not sure why they have kept the 4 on

Azura !

[Britboys]

28 minutes ago, LLOM said:

Thank you terrierjohn for your reply,

yes our cruise on Iona last year was a 14 night one and can only remember there being 2 dress up nights, one each week, not sure why they have kept the 4 on

Azura !

Probably because many of us still enjoy two Formal nights per week. It is only on Iona (and Arvia) it has been cut to one. The rest of the fleet still have two per week.

[LLOM]

We like the formal nights as well ,  such a shame for those who do but I fear this may be carried out throughout the fleet in the not too distance future.

[Britboys]

27 minutes ago, LLOM said:

We like the formal nights as well ,  such a shame for those who do but I fear this may be carried out throughout the fleet in the not too distance future.

I'm hoping it won't change until P&O has disposed of Aurora and Arcadia. It won't bother me then as I am unlikely to be sailing with P&O at that time.

[molecrochip]

The change was made with Iona as the majority of her cruises are fairly port intensive and logical days to have a black tie night are limited.

[zap99]

21 hours ago, LLOM said:

We like the formal nights as well ,  such a shame for those who do but I fear this may be carried out throughout the fleet in the not too distance future.

We tolerate formal nights and won't miss them at all. We are on Britannia in a couple of weeks and have decided to skip 2 of them and dine somewhere informal. If folk want to take part, good luck to them and enjoy. I hope it will be informal when we go to the Limelight club. 4 poofs and a piano. £37 with discount.

Edited September 18, 2022 by zap99

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

We tolerate formal nights and won't miss them at all. We are on Britannia in a couple of weeks and have decided to skip 2 of them and dine somewhere informal. If folk want to take part, good luck to them and enjoy. I hope it will be informal when we go to the Limelight club. 4 poofs and a piano. £37 with discount.

The Limelight Club is a concept I really disagree with. I don't have issues with speciality restaurants but strongly feel that no-one should have to think about paying extra for any entertainment. Thankfully they don't have one on the ships I cruise on...

[zap99]

6 minutes ago, Britboys said:

The Limelight Club is a concept I really disagree with. I don't have issues with speciality restaurants but strongly feel that no-one should have to think about paying extra for any entertainment. Thankfully they don't have one on the ships I cruise on...

Each to their own. We enjoy most of the speciality restaurants.  We will do Limelight, Shindu probably twice, beach house. Glass house. Probably twice each. We may skip epicurean, but who knows. All part of the cruise to us. We will restrict our protest to missing Eric and Ern. 😁

 

[MaisieMoo123]

On 9/17/2022 at 3:08 PM, LLOM said:

I cannot find out in my cruise personaliser how many formal nights there are on Iona , it just says there will be time to dress up with our gala evenings, black tie nights and celebration nights. Our daughter has just come back of Azura they had 2 celebrations nights and 2 gala nights on their 14 night cruise, on the 4 nights men wore a tux or suit to go in the MDR and ladies a cocktail dress or long dress.

we were on Iona last year but I can only remember 2 so called formal nights.

Just 1 formal night per week on Iona

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Britboys said:

The Limelight Club is a concept I really disagree with. I don't have issues with speciality restaurants but strongly feel that no-one should have to think about paying extra for any entertainment. Thankfully they don't have one on the ships I cruise on...

I don't like the idea of paying to see the sort of acts they are currently booking,, especially when there are more suitable acts, for me, on for free in the theatre and other lounges.

But I have no objection to these lounges, and I know that other passengers do seem to enjoy them.

[Bazrat]

3 hours ago, Britboys said:

The Limelight Club is a concept I really disagree with. I don't have issues with speciality restaurants but strongly feel that no-one should have to think about paying extra for any entertainment. Thankfully they don't have one on the ships I cruise on...

We don't have a problem with paying extra for the limelight club, if we don't like the food or entertainment we just don't go, but the great thing is we have a choice.