Why Cruise?

[Interestedcruisefan]

17 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Iona twice. Second time only because it was so cheap!  As a solo cruiser I hate freedom dining or dining alone. Queues everywhere. Crowded - awful pinch point between theatre/pub to atrium - bad design. Atrium like an airport terminal. No atmosphere. Arvia probably much the same! I am considerably older than you and have probably done many more cruises than you. Have tried all size ships. Love Britannia and Ventura. Try cruising solo and you will get my drift! Different experience.

Yes the smaller ships will make perfect sense in your situation. I totally understand that. Arvia will be the exact same as Iona. You wouldn't like it. Having said that Britannia itself is still a reasonably big ship?

Edited April 9, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Fionboard]

2 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Yes the smaller ships will make perfect sense in your situation. I totally understand that. Arvia will be the exact same as Iona. You wouldn't like it. Having said that Britannia itself is still a reasonably big ship?

It is not the size of the ship, it is the ambience and amount of overcrowding I dislike. Britannia (about 10 times) is fine for me. Circa 3600 pax is enough. Prefer adults only too, hence two small ships best for me.

[Yorkypete]

13 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Re my Scottish Hotel. It was featured on amazing hotels of the world. The one with Monica Galetti. It's been on my bucket list for a while. 

 

And we are working 4 hrs drive from it which makes it closer than normal so we are taking the plunge. Special hotel and special location. 

 

So will give it a go

 

Don't forget I'm on inside savers when I cruise. I'm on of those strange cruisers who don't want to sit on balconies. 

 

I'm hyperactive on holiday!

 

Can't sit still for long!

 

Malta would bore me to bits after the first week max

Obviously then you don't like culture and history. There are enough historical sites in Malta to keep you going for months.

[Tapi]

15 hours ago, Yorkypete said:

With all these negatives why do people still cruise on P&O? Iona still continues to go weekly up to Norway, visiting the same ports week in week out.

I think that many of the negatives that you mentioned (which have plagued, not only P&O but all cruise lines) during COVID, have subsided although not completely. 
 

We are new to P&O and we are new to the Norwegian Fjords itinerary. We selected our upcoming cruise on the Britannia specifically because it offered something completely new to us (and for a substantially cheaper price than any other cruise line sailing this itinerary during that time frame).
 

For me, cruising, even with all the changes and recent downgrades, still provides an excellent opportunity to explore new places in an easy and affordable way that land vacations simply can’t replicate.

 

I do understand feeling burnt out after sailing on the same cruise line over and over, to the same ports over and over. I get that same feeling on this side of the Atlantic (we live in the USA) where I can’t stand another Caribbean cruise to Cozumel or Nassau on the same cruise lines. So my remedy to that is to go somewhere else and try different cruise lines (which is why we’re sailing on P&O next). One good thing that I’ve learned about trying different cruise lines and exploring new itineraries is that everything feels fresh and new. I spend zero time comparing things to “the way it used to be”
 

What feels repetitive to you may be completely new to someone like me who has never sailed on P&O. I’ll make sure to come back and report on how things went once we return from this upcoming cruise. 😀

[mercury7289]

3 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Boarding Aurora this morning. No stress. You only need to see the problems with air, road, train and ferry travel this weekend to understand why we still love cruising, Have tried Cunard and not noticed much difference from P&O except the price! Am happy to cruise 6 or 7 times a year with P&O on the small ships in a balcony cabin and pay the premium. Each to their own.

Have a good trip,we are on her in a few weeks,first time since the plague.If you would be so kind and if you have time will you find out if the ships laundry is operating,the white bag in the cabin one. Thank you

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CarlaMarie]

Have a wonderful time @Fionboard

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Iona twice. Second time only because it was so cheap!  As a solo cruiser I hate freedom dining or dining alone. Queues everywhere. Crowded - awful pinch point between theatre/pub to atrium - bad design. Atrium like an airport terminal. No atmosphere. Arvia probably much the same! I am considerably older than you and have probably done many more cruises than you. Have tried all size ships. Love Britannia and Ventura. Try cruising solo and you will get my drift! Different experience.

Funny we came off Iona on 18th March and never encountered queues anywhere on the ship and she was sailing full. What I don't understand is you say you hate Freedom dining so why did you book it knowing that was the only choice. Doesn't matter how cheap a cruise is whatever the ship or cruise line if you hate it why did you book it because I certainly wouldn't.

[Ardennais]

1 minute ago, majortom10 said:

Funny we came off Iona on 18th March and never encountered queues anywhere on the ship and she was sailing full. What I don't understand is you say you hate Freedom dining so why did you book it knowing that was the only choice. Doesn't matter how cheap a cruise is whatever the ship or cruise line if you hate it why did you book it because I certainly wouldn't.

When you say ‘sailing full’, do you mean all cabins full but not the additional 800 children? As I’ve said before, we really enjoyed Iona but there were very long queues in the buffet, especially late at night, and we failed to get into the cinema to see any films as they were full a good half hour before screening time. That was half term Feb when it was really full including all the children. 

[majortom10]

4 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

When you say ‘sailing full’, do you mean all cabins full but not the additional 800 children? As I’ve said before, we really enjoyed Iona but there were very long queues in the buffet, especially late at night, and we failed to get into the cinema to see any films as they were full a good half hour before screening time. That was half term Feb when it was really full including all the children. 

Being out of school holiday time there did not seem to be many children onboard but as cabins occupied 2 instead of 4 were still classified as full. Question is why did you go at half term and what did you expect.

[majortom10]

8 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

When you say ‘sailing full’, do you mean all cabins full but not the additional 800 children? As I’ve said before, we really enjoyed Iona but there were very long queues in the buffet, especially late at night, and we failed to get into the cinema to see any films as they were full a good half hour before screening time. That was half term Feb when it was really full including all the children. 

I suggest that was down to being because the cruise was during school holidays. We saw 3 films without having to go 30+ mins before start and never encountered queues at the buffet. 

[Ardennais]

1 minute ago, majortom10 said:

Being out of school holiday time there did not seem to be many children onboard but as cabins occupied 2 instead of 4 were still classified as full. Question is why did you go at half term and what did you expect.

I wasn’t complaining, merely pointing out that the queuing situation might be different when you’re on a school holiday cruise. Having children around doesn’t bother me. It wasn’t half term in Wales anyway, just the southern half of England. Regardless, people who cruise during the school holidays also deserve a good level of service. Yes of course, things are going to be busier, and you expect that, but staffing levels should be sufficient. 

[Ardennais]

4 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

I suggest that was down to being because the cruise was during school holidays. We saw 3 films without having to go 30+ mins before start and never encountered queues at the buffet. 

Of course it was, but they could have alleviated some of the waiting by opening additional sections of the buffet late at night, for instance. It didn’t bother us, we only wanted a hot drink and some crackers, but the queue for the hot food was the longest I’ve ever seen on a cruise! 

[Ardennais]

To be clear, the point that I was making is that there’s a difference between sailing ‘full’ in term time and a ‘full’ ship during the school holidays. 

[majortom10]

5 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

I wasn’t complaining, merely pointing out that the queuing situation might be different when you’re on a school holiday cruise. Having children around doesn’t bother me. It wasn’t half term in Wales anyway, just the southern half of England. Regardless, people who cruise during the school holidays also deserve a good level of service. Yes of course, things are going to be busier, and you expect that, but staffing levels should be sufficient. 

They cannot increase staff capacity just for short term events like school holidays they are all employed on long term contracts and staff numbers will stay fairly constant all year round. They would find it difficult to employ staff on short term contracts and then send them back home.

[majortom10]

2 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

To be clear, the point that I was making is that there’s a difference between sailing ‘full’ in term time and a ‘full’ ship during the school holidays. 

Of course there is because many cabins will take an occupancy of 4 during school holidays but most of the year sail with only 2.

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

When you say ‘sailing full’, do you mean all cabins full but not the additional 800 children? As I’ve said before, we really enjoyed Iona but there were very long queues in the buffet, especially late at night, and we failed to get into the cinema to see any films as they were full a good half hour before screening time. That was half term Feb when it was really full including all the children. 

Good point. As far as I know, Iona has yet to sail truly ‘full’. They often say the cruise is full or sold out when all cabins are sold. Out of peak, that usually refers to lower berths only (not counting sofa beds or Pullman berths). Also, off peak some cabins have been sold at keen prices for Solo travellers.
 

School holidays are a different matter, but even then there are variations. Christmas, Easter and Half Terms will be much busier than off peak, but I suspect are still below the numbers that will be on board in the main summer school holidays, when I believe that the capacity can reach 6,000 passengers. That’s probably around 1,000 more people than an off peak cruise deemed as being ‘full’. Last year there were still some restrictions on numbers during the summer holidays, so I think that end July & August this year will be the first true test at full capacity for Iona.
 

I hope that I’m not being naive, but I’m hoping that the fact that Iona has 4 MDRs will mean that she won’t experience the degree of difficulty that many are reporting on Arvia during school holidays. Most reviews of Iona seem to be quite positive and I would have thought that there would be indications already if a problem was looming. Thankfully we don’t use the buffet or cinema, so the areas that you experienced problems wouldn’t impact on us. 🤞

[Ardennais]

1 minute ago, majortom10 said:

They cannot increase staff capacity just for short term events like school holidays they are all employed on long term contracts and staff numbers will stay fairly constant all year round. They would find it difficult to employ staff on short term contracts and then send them back home.

Possibly, but they could deploy staff in different ways. As I said, they could have opened another station in the buffet. To be honest, I thought they were very short staffed in places - not clearing tables in the atrium, etc and it wasn’t a good look. If the cabin staff aren’t servicing the cabins in the evening, then I imagine they’re doing something else, but what exactly, I don’t know. In the past, the supervisors would be walking around telling staff to clear up etc. That wasn’t the case on our cruise. So I believe other posters when they say that they encountered queues etc. It does happen, but probably not on every cruise! 
 

[carlanthony24]

5 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Possibly, but they could deploy staff in different ways. As I said, they could have opened another station in the buffet. To be honest, I thought they were very short staffed in places - not clearing tables in the atrium, etc and it wasn’t a good look. If the cabin staff aren’t servicing the cabins in the evening, then I imagine they’re doing something else, but what exactly, I don’t know. In the past, the supervisors would be walking around telling staff to clear up etc. That wasn’t the case on our cruise. So I believe other posters when they say that they encountered queues etc. It does happen, but probably not on every cruise! 
 

Cabin stewards tend to be more in the restaurants at night now showing you to a table.

[Ardennais]

8 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Of course there is because many cabins will take an occupancy of 4 during school holidays but most of the year sail with only 2.

Still 13 weeks of the year and I know many parents take their children out of school for a few days either side of official school holidays too. Some half term weeks are different in the 4 nations too, so you’re looking at closer to 16 weeks of the year. These mega ships need to be staffed properly for these cruises too. 

[majortom10]

4 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Possibly, but they could deploy staff in different ways. As I said, they could have opened another station in the buffet. To be honest, I thought they were very short staffed in places - not clearing tables in the atrium, etc and it wasn’t a good look. If the cabin staff aren’t servicing the cabins in the evening, then I imagine they’re doing something else, but what exactly, I don’t know. In the past, the supervisors would be walking around telling staff to clear up etc. That wasn’t the case on our cruise. So I believe other posters when they say that they encountered queues etc. It does happen, but probably not on every cruise! 
 

I suggest you try Iona not during school holidays and you might find the whole experience totally different. I will be honest P&O are not our favourite cruise line and thought Iona would be too big and crowded. I was surprised that we had no trouble getting in any evening for the 1030 show in the theatre, we never struggled to get a sunbed on deck and a seat anywhere on the ship at anytime of the day. The choice of restaurants and facilities were excellent and my only disappointment was portion size of MDR as there was no issue with quality.

[Ardennais]

Just now, majortom10 said:

I suggest you try Iona not during school holidays and you might find the whole experience totally different. I will be honest P&O are not our favourite cruise line and thought Iona would be too big and crowded. I was surprised that we had no trouble getting in any evening for the 1030 show in the theatre, we never struggled to get a sunbed on deck and a seat anywhere on the ship at anytime of the day. The choice of restaurants and facilities were excellent and my only disappointment was portion size of MDR as there was no issue with quality.

You’re missing the point. We had a great time on Iona, and yes, we will sail in her again. Might be school holidays, might not. However, the people who do cruise during the school holidays often can’t sail during term time. Prices are also higher! They deserve a good cruise too, with good levels of service.

I have sailed on Ventura for a 5 week cruise in January where there was only a handful of infants aboard - a totally different experience to our Ventura cruise the previous August. 

[Son of Anarchy]

2 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

I suggest you try Iona not during school holidays and you might find the whole experience totally different. I will be honest P&O are not our favourite cruise line and thought Iona would be too big and crowded. I was surprised that we had no trouble getting in any evening for the 1030 show in the theatre, we never struggled to get a sunbed on deck and a seat anywhere on the ship at anytime of the day. The choice of restaurants and facilities were excellent and my only disappointment was portion size of MDR as there was no issue with quality.

We like Iona, even though we're not fans of big ships.  I can't really explain it, but on the two times we've been on Iona I don't feel like i'm on a big ship, even though I can see that I'm obviously on a big ship.  Arvia in a week's time, hopefully we'll find that she has a similar small ship feel to her older sister.

[windra06]

We chose P&O this time because it was such good value for a great Itinerary (Baltics).

 

We did our first cruise 10 years ago on Celebrity, and our P&O Select Balcony is costing around the same as our inside cabin on Celebrity was back then...I know P&O is not going to come close to celebrity but prices really are good value right now.

 

We had the choice of a 7night RCL or 14 night P&O for the same cost, I liked RCL pre-covid but the longer cruise seemed more appealing.

 

We are also cruising for the first time as vegetarians and looking at P&O sample menus their offerings seem really good, as do the British-isms of the ship like having kettles, UK plug sockets and no gratuities.

 

If the itinerary and price were the same, we would absolutely be going Celebrity...but i'd rather have two cruises and give P&O a try than one on Celebrity.

[zap99]

11 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

We like Iona, even though we're not fans of big ships.  I can't really explain it, but on the two times we've been on Iona I don't feel like i'm on a big ship, even though I can see that I'm obviously on a big ship.  Arvia in a week's time, hopefully we'll find that she has a similar small ship feel to her older sister.

We aren't too bothered about the size of the ship.  In our opinion Britannia is about right, Azura a bit small. When we got on Iona, this is big. Just an observation, all are fine. We have been on NCL and RC of all shapes and sizes ,all were fine. We consider Celebrity Eclipse and Silhouette as medium size. TBH the size of the ship is quite a way down our list of priorities.

[happy v]

A direct reply to the question 'why cruise'. We came off Iona 1st April. One night (only one out of 14) there wasn't much we wanted to see, and we were tired. We went to bed at 8.45pm. We both woke up at 11.50pm. I said to hubby 'let's get some chips'.Where else can you have Korean pork and chips at 12.10am without going out!