TigerB (not at all) live from Iona (G404 - Portugal, Spain, and Canaries)

[TigerB]

25 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Very different to the menu on Aurora as well. My two favourite meals were the 6oz fillet steak surf and turf with garlic prawns and the sea bass in banana leaf with curried prawn broth. Neither appears on the Iona menu although Keel & Cow will presumably provide dishes similar to these?

 

Unfortunately young man, they don't serve anything like the sea bass in banana leaf; if they did, I would favour the restaurant more than I do now.

They do have the option to make a steak dish surf and turf, but not with prawns; you can get half a lobster for and additional supplement of £7.50.

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, TigerB said:

That's right, and in addition to the location of the restaurant right in the atrium, it is the reason we don't care for it on Iona or Arvia.

We disliked the Glasshouse on Iona for the same reason - plus the restricted menu. We didn’t enjoy Keel and Cow either, again due to poor location (and my Primeminister Burger was luke warm). One lunchtime I walked through Keel and Cow and a couple were having steaks and they did look sensational though!

[TigerB]

Our lass had the Prime Minister burger on a trip last year, and she thought it was just okay, nowt special.  She had it again on this cruise, and said it was better.

[Ilovemygarden]

3 hours ago, TigerB said:

Further to my last post, I've realised there may be a problem for some in downloading the menu, so I have done screenshots ....

 

 

Thank you very much for that. I see what you mean but my pathetic appetite can be satisfied with 3 or 4 starters nowadays so I think this would be good for me. 

[TigerB]

23 minutes ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Thank you very much for that. I see what you mean but my pathetic appetite can be satisfied with 3 or 4 starters nowadays so I think this would be good for me. 

 

Not mine! 🐷🐯🤭

[Windsurfboy]

Thank you for glass house menu , looks good, but for only once per cruise

[Windsurfboy]

What I can't understand is given restaurants like glass house are bigger on the bigger ships , I would have thought they'd have more extensive menus than smaller ships.  However it seems other way round.??

[Peanut006]

8 hours ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Michelle - I hope you have a good journey on Saturday and a fabulous cruise.  Could you post a copy of the Glasshouse menu sometime as I believe it is very different from those on the smaller ships?  When you return would be fine. 

Will do

 

Michelle

[grapau27]

On 3/13/2024 at 5:07 PM, Peanut006 said:

We are joining Arvia on Saturday so we will see how the lift etiquette plays out. Hubby usually steps forward, puts his arm out to give me chance to get to the lift in my scooter before everyone jumps in before me

 

Michelle

I hope you both have a fantastic cruise on Arvia Michelle.

Graham.

[grapau27]

4 hours ago, TigerB said:

 

Not mine! 🐷🐯🤭

Thank you for your review and excellent photos.

[Peanut006]

12 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I hope you both have a fantastic cruise on Arvia Michelle.

Graham.

Thank you Graham, we are both looking forward to it

 

Michelle

[daiB]

3 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

What I can't understand is given restaurants like glass house are bigger on the bigger ships , I would have thought they'd have more extensive menus than smaller ships.  However it seems other way round.??

It looks to me that because you have the Keel and Cow one deck above the steaks and fish has been moved to that menu and the Glass house has concentrated on Tapas type food. There are dishes on the Glasshouse menu which are not on the menus of other ships.

[P&O SUE]

I like the Glasshouse locations on Azura and Ventura. We like having the tapas dishes at lunchtime on a sea day when there’s hordes in the buffet! 
I know many of you go to the MDR for lunch but we’re usually happy with the buffet.

[Josy1953]

5 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

I like the Glasshouse locations on Azura and Ventura. We like having the tapas dishes at lunchtime on a sea day when there’s hordes in the buffet! 
I know many of you go to the MDR for lunch but we’re usually happy with the buffet.

We like the Glasshouse for lunch on sea days but are equally happy with the MDR.  Having seen people in the past touching items such as bread with ther hands and then not taking the item I would miss a meal rather than eat in the buffet.

[TigerB]

Final Thoughts

 

Disclaimer:  Sorry folks, when I started writing this last entry I intended to keep it short and punchy, but it ran away with me, and ended up as long as some of my other entries, but without the dozens of photos.  So, what exactly is the written equivalent of verbal diarrhoea?🤔

 

 

So, that is another cruise over and, as time moves forward it will become more and more of a distant memory.  I've never been a diary or journal keeper; in fact, our eldest bought us both one of those 'memory' books where you write about your life for your children and future generations. A good idea, but I am ashamed to say that we have yet to start them. Those of you that are retired will relate to the truth that, although you no longer have to go to work for forty-odd hours a week, and you thought you would have more time to do all those things on your list, life has a tendency of getting in in the way.  

There's been many a time where we've tried to remember things about a holiday from years before, and can only recall snippets, or get the memories of one holiday confused with another. So, while I enjoy writing a blog or report to entertain you good folk, and help with your planning and expectations, there is also an ulterior motive; that is to help with our memories. @Selbourne hit it on the head when he wrote about having 'some great memories, which will be aided by the blog and the vast number of photos that I took'.   I intend to save each of the final report notes, probably along with screenshots of the actual posts, in the same location where I save photos from holidays and other events.

 

I want to apologise to some of you for having to endure photos of almost every one of our meals. I say 'I want to' but I won't. I know some of you enjoy food porn, we certainly do, while others may not be so keen. For us, we are of that breed (thick-skinned northerners) that do not care what neighbouring diners think, and frequently take photos of meals, much to the chagrin of our youngest daughter who, when we post them on the family WhatsApp group, ignores them, and probably even deletes them. We still do it though because we know it winds her up. More than anything, we use them as a means of reigniting memories, and we enjoy it when Google alerts us with those 'memory photo' albums. Small things, I know!🙄

 

It has been mentioned that my posts have been upbeat, that we appear to have had a lot of fun on this cruise, and that I should receive commission from P&O; I know the last comment was written in jest.  There were some things we didn't care for, but it has to be said though that the positives of this cruise far outweighed the negatives. I certainly think that having the surprise company of our son and daughter-in-law, and seeing our eldest daughter and son-in-law in Lisbon, had an impact on our enjoyment of the cruise. Both were total surprises, and we were still pinching ourselves days later; perhaps because of those, we viewed most things thereafter through rose tinted glasses. 

 

So here it is, my thoughts on what was good, not so good, and downright poor...

 

CPS:

This is the second time we have used them, and had a good experience last October. This time, the check-in procedure was even better, with us being immediately directed to drive under the canopy. So, 10/10 for that.  Upon our return, our car was parked in a disabled row close to the office, but I was a little annoyed that the nearside of it was too close to the next vehicle, making it impossible for our lass to access without me pulling our car back a bit.  Not a great inconvenience, but one mark deducted for that!

We will definitely use CPS again when on a select fare; in fact, it is booked for two more trips next year.  And, if you are in an inside cabin, it works out cheaper than all the other operators.

 

EMBARKATION:

This was a relatively pain free experience and, having a porter take our luggage from the car to the drop off helped a great deal.  Common with previous cruises, even though we were a little early, we were directed straight through to check-in.  Although it wasn't busy outside, there were about twenty parties ahead of us at the special assistance check-in; previously there's been no more than two or three.  I have wondered this before, and the longer queue exacerbated the situation, but why does it take so long for the pair on the first desk to process the guests? After all, their role is just to check your name is 'on the list' and attach the mobility tag.  After that desk though the herd is thinned out, with those that need additional assistance having to sit down and wait for an escort, and those, like us, that can self-board, joining the queue for the passport and document checks. This desk has two people on it, each checking in separate passengers, so is more efficient than the first desk; the consequence being that, as we have experienced previously, sometimes there is no queue at this second desk.

 

Getting through security, actually boarding the ship, and visiting our muster station was an absolute breeze.

 

CABIN:

Ideally we would choose a balcony cabin every time. However, I don't want to delve into my lump sum, and it isn't always necessary to have one. If we had one on this cruise I don't think we would have got the full benefit of the balcony for more than about five days out of the fourteen.  The partially accessible inside cabins have been fine for us on three of our last five cruises on Iona and Arvia; the other two being balcony cabins.  I do take issue with P&O stating carte blanche that the partially accessible cabins are only suitable for manual mobility equipment, without clarifying that, under certain circumstances, they are probably fine for some power chairs and some small mobility scooters. Each time we have booked such a cabin we go through the same rigmarole of receiving an email to say it's not suitable for us, and giving us the option to book another cabin, and me emailing them back to say, "oh yes it is".

As for the accessible features of the cabin itself, apart from a couple of minor points, such as the floor level fridge, and the height of the bed, they were great. As Selbourne was, we would have been annoyed if we couldn't store our cases under the bed.

On our last trip, we had a problem with the wardrobe. For those of you that are not familiar with the wardrobes in the accessible cabins on Iona, the rail pulls down thus...

 

The mechanism is spring loaded so it will return to the upright position. It doesn't lock in the upright position, but there is a piece of plastic, or rather there should be, inserted into the side mechanism to stop the rail resting against the back of the wardrobe.  In October that piece of plastic was missing; the result being that the rail rested against the back of the wardrobe, thus...

...resulting in squashed and creased clothes. A carpenter did a bodge job repair on it for us.

This time we had the same problem but in a different cabin; the piece of plastic had been removed.  That made me think of a different reason for the missing piece of plastic. If the rail is overloaded, and because it doesn't lock in the upright position, it will fall forward. I wouldn't be surprised if guests have complained about this, and the remedy has been to remove the piece of plastic from the mechanism of all wardrobes in accessible cabins.  I will know for sure if we find it also to have been removed in our accessible cabin on Arvia in September.

I didn't want to wait for a carpenter, so I bodged it myself...

 

Our cabin steward was fine, not really great, as we've had before. It was no problem for her to get us the body lotion and conditioner at the beginning, and she brought the ice as regular as clockwork. She was a bit stingy with the biscuits to start with, but brought more each day after I asked her to.

 

MDRs:

We ate in all of them; Pearl, Coral, and Aqua for breakfast, and Opal only for dinner.  The welcome from the restaurant host for all of them was always warm.  Service from the waiters overall was hit and miss, more hit than miss, but the service we received from Nixon and Valentino in Opal was head and shoulders above what we received in the other MDRs.

The quality of the food in the MDRs was better than it was when we cruised in October/November. Some of the portions were a little meagre, so I (very rarely 🤭) asked for double portions or extras.

 

SPECIALITY RESTAURANTS:

In Sindhu the service was really good, as we have always found, and the food was very good.  We do think though that the single menu is overdue a refresh.

 

We feel no different now to Keel and Cow as we did the first time we tried it; it's okay but nothing more than that. There's a lot of choice for a carnivore but not that much for a pescatarian, like me.  The service was really good though. We only went there whilst on this cruise to join the kids; I'm not so sure we will visit again.

 

We only visited Olive Grove once and, unlike on our last Iona cruise where the service was not so good, the service we received from our waiting team was excellent.  The food was really good too, especially the desserts.  We would have visited a second time but couldn't get in.

 

Beach House is another venue that I think needs a menu refresh, and usually one visit per two-week cruise is enough for me. For a main course I usually plump for either the Caribbean seafood basket or the fajita sizzler with halloumi, albeit I'm not a fan of that cheese; I've had the hanging seafood kebab before, but I think it is all fur coat and no knickers.  Having the king prawns on my sizzler for our second visit was an absolute game changer, and made that the best meal I have ever had in Beach House.  The staff were great too, but none more so than Maria, our main waiter for both visits; she was absolutely fantastic.

 

I've saved the best for last, Epicurean.  The food was as good as we've always found it, and the service from all staff, but particularly Arman and Lalit, was fabulous. Despite, like Sindhu, the menus being in need of a refresh, on future cruises it will still remain a two-night venue for us. The revelation for us though on this cruise was the breakfast; it was really nice, and good value at £8.50.  We have resolved to have breakfast here at least once on future cruises.

 

THE QUAYS:

We didn't eat in here as often as we have done previously; I only had fish and chips once, and I'm quite sure I only had one thing from Fusion.  We did grab cakes from the corner several times though and ate them on deck with a brew.  I've only once had a breakfast item in here, and that was a single fried egg on a piece of fried bread, on Arvia last April, when we were up at sparrow's fart for the passage through the Straits of Gibraltar. When the kids didn't join us for breakfast in the MDR, they usually had it in the Quays. Our lad was telling his Ma about the waffles and crispy bacon, and that piqued her interest.  So, on the day we ate breakfast in there, she had just that. She said it was just okay.  The veggie omelette I had was nothing special, it was tiny and had no seasoning whatsoever. I mistakenly thought, with it being served from an 'omelette station', that it would be like those you get in the breakfast buffets of hotels in the likes of Spain and Las Vegas, where you can build a bespoke omelette and watch it get cooked. Not so! There was only a choice of three ingredients for the veggie one, so very disappointing. And don't get me started on the so-called American pancakes. They are nothing like the pancakes we have in America, nor like the ones I make. The only saving grace was the fried egg on fried bread I had for afters.  I know folk like the Quays for breakfast, and @Interestedcruisefan has sung it's praises before, but for us it is somewhere we won't visit for breakfast again; we'll stick to the MDRs.

 

HORIZON (the buffet):

I'm glad to say that the two of us never visited the Cattle Market for the whole cruise, and we didn't feel any the worse for it. The other two went a couple of times; she hated it, and he said it was not a patch on the one on Britannia, that being his only point of reference 

 

MY HOLIDAY APP/NON-APP:

For us, this worked fine for us almost all of the time, with a lot less drop-outs than on previous cruises. It was the first time the kids have used it, and they both embraced it, using it a few times for virtual queuing.  I do like that it now has a copy of the day's Horizon on it.  I would like to see the day's MDR menus on it too.  Also, on the entries for bar charges, I would like to see the breakdown of items.  I'm sure both of these would be achievable, but given P&O's history with IT, that would probably end up in the 'too hard to do tray'.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

I can't say much about this as we didn't see much, but that is our choice. We don't much care for the Headliners troupe, and almost all of the supplementary acts did not appeal to us.  I did go to the final show of The Privateers (I couldn't attend the first show as it was on our lass's birthday) and, although they were good, the set was almost a carbon copy of the one I saw on Britannia sixteen months earlier, even with the same 'ad-libbed banter' between songs. That sort of ruined the magic for me.

We usually see four or five of Pulse's shows on a cruise, but our lass didn't see one, and I only saw one of the country sets.  I'm not sure why we didn't go, but it probably had a lot to do with being wiped out when they were performing in the Club House; we don't watch them when they are in the Sky Dome because the acoustics are awful.

There were two aerial acts we wanted to see in the Sky Dome but, at the times we attended, they were cancelled due to the dangerous conditions.

The 7/10 band I saw on this cruise was the best of the three line-ups I have seen in the last year.

The two guests speakers were quite good and interesting, although I missed one talk for each of them.  Why oh why though, on Iona and Arvia, do they only have one guest speaker on when it is a sea day?  I would like to see one on in a morning and another one on in the afternoon.

 

LIFTS:

I don't really need to say anything about these, do I?  The subject has been discussed many times on these boards, and I don't think the situation will get better any time soon for wheelchair or scooter users.  The main causes are the lifts being too small, and an awful lot of selfish folk.  Luckily, we only experienced two bad days, but those two bad days were the worst days we have ever experienced with the lift situation.

 

SMOKING AND VAPING:

I am glad to say that the ridiculous decision to place the forward smoking area on the port side of deck 18, rendering it impossible for most non-smoking disabled passengers to access deck 19, has been reversed, and the smoking area is now on the starboard side.

It's fine having two designated smoking and vaping areas on a ship of this size, and I don't think they need more than that. However, on this cruise more than any other P&O cruise we have been on, I have witnessed far more selfish folk smoking and vaping in other areas, most commonly on deck 8.  It is a common problem in the areas surrounding the Club House, where the anti-social offenders think nothing of nipping on deck to have a quick fag or vape because they are to lazy to go up nine decks to the designated area.  I have also been out on deck 8 to smell folk smoking on their balconies above. 

The senior crew know it is going on but I suspect they are turning a blind eye to it.  One day we were on the port side of deck 8, about to pass through the door near to where the two accessible promenade cabins are; two white-shirts were a few feet ahead of us and they must have seen the same cigarette butts we saw just four feet from that door. 

P&O need to get a grip and take more positive action; simple education is not enough, and more robust enforcement is needed, and soon.  A possible way forward, but I really can't see them implementing it, is for 'fines' to be issued like in hotels. Hurt them in the pocket, I say.

 

PASSENGERS:

As we have experienced before, we had met and interacted with many really pleasant and interesting passengers on this cruise.  But, we have also steered clear of some obnoxious ones, and have witnessed more anti-social behaviour on this cruise than we have previously, and I'm not just referring to inappropriate language or smoking and vaping wherever they fancy; I refer to behaviour that, if it happened at home, could result in sanctions such as a fixed penalty notice.

But, I guess it is something that P&O is prepared to let go, just so long as they can fill their cruises. Let's face it, if they didn't get as many passengers as they could on these ships then they wouldn't turn a profit, and that would mean higher fares.  

 

DISEMBARKATION:

Apart from the initial problem with the lack of trolleys, and not being able to find a single piece of luggage, it was a smooth process.  We will certainly try and get in early again to secure the earliest disembarkation time we can.

 

[Ilovemygarden]

15 hours ago, Peanut006 said:

Will do

 

Michelle

No need now Michelle - as you will see TigerB has already done this for me.  Happy packing today - I’m sure you will so glad to fly away from the rain here! 💦💦

[TigerB]

The Final Word...

 

 

 

Just a few last words from me to thank you all for taking the time out to read my posts. Perhaps my style and the millions of photos I post is not to everyone's liking, which is absolutely fine, as you can't please everyone all of the time, but I am grateful to those that have reacted or left positive responses.

 

For this version I think I made it clear from the title, and the initial post, of what my intentions would be when writing and publishing posts.  In hindsight, it was difficult on this cruise to try and get entries and photos ready to post as soon as I could after the event; the main reason for that is because we had the added but welcome distraction of our son and daughter-in-law being onboard with us. Not only that but, if I went online to post, I would often get distracted and spend too much time down a rabbit hole instead of completing the intended mission.  Consequently, some notes of the day's events were left to complete later, and I had to try and get them finished once we were home but, as I've written before, life gets in the way.🙄

Those of you that have written blogs before will know that it is not easy, and it can sometimes be stressful to meet a 'deadline' so you can give 'your public' what they expect.  I know this will ring true with @Selbourne, so hat's off to him for the absolutely mammoth task he set out to achieve; I reckon he is a shoe-in for the Live Blog category at the next CC Oscars!

 

Our next big holiday is an almost month long RV trip to the US in May and June; something we haven't done since pre-Covid, so we are really looking forward to that.

 

Our next cruise is in September, on Arvia. I do intend to write a blog but will think about the logistics of it at a later time. It may be that I write notes to a publication standard each day, do not go online at all so as to avoid any distractions, and once home, tidy up said notes and format the photos, then post each day one after another, all in one go. Well, that's the theory anyway.

 

So, once again, thank you all so much for sticking with me. Take care everyone ❤️

[mrsgoggins]

Great round up! 
 

Not long to go before your US road trip. We’ve done quite a few road trips in the US and Canada, but never in an RV and would be really interested to know how you find it ……. please ……… 😊.

 

Plenty of space for a few comments over in the ‘What’s it like where you are’ thread; just sayin’ 😉.  

[Junction2]

Thanks @TigerB - I’ve really enjoyed reading your comments. 

[TigerB]

19 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

Great round up! 
 

Not long to go before your US road trip. We’ve done quite a few road trips in the US and Canada, but never in an RV and would be really interested to know how you find it ……. please ……… 😊.

 

Plenty of space for a few comments over in the ‘What’s it like where you are’ thread; just sayin’ 😉.  

 

We've done a few RV trips over the years, both in the US and Canada.  As our lass's MS took more of a hold it became too much for her to go from one hotel to another as a trip progressed.  Since switching to RV trips we have not looked back; they are perfect for her as we unpack at the beginning and pack at the end, and in-between we have the freedom of going where we want. And because they are fairly compact she finds it easy to get around in them as she can furniture walk.

We were just about to set off for one when Covid took hold and Trump closed the borders. This one we're doing next is basically that trip but extended by another week as, now I'm retired, I don't have to stay within the confines of an AL allowance.  

 

We intend to buy one later this year to travel around the UK and Europe; at least for the former we can have our CoCo with us.🙂

[Peanut006]

I have loved reading about your cruise, thank you for taking the time to do it

 

Michelle

[Peanut006]

4 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

We've done a few RV trips over the years, both in the US and Canada.  As our lass's MS took more of a hold it became too much for her to go from one hotel to another as a trip progressed.  Since switching to RV trips we have not looked back; they are perfect for her as we unpack at the beginning and pack at the end, and in-between we have the freedom of going where we want. And because they are fairly compact she finds it easy to get around in them as she can furniture walk.

We were just about to set off for one when Covid took hold and Trump closed the borders. This one we're doing next is basically that trip but extended by another week as, now I'm retired, I don't have to stay within the confines of an AL allowance.  

 

We intend to buy one later this year to travel around the UK and Europe; at least for the former we can have our CoCo with us.🙂

That sounds like a great idea, a long trip around Europe sounds like a fab idea

 

Michelle

[Beckett]

@TigerB. Thank you so much. I have enjoyed every written word and salivated over most of the food porn. I love your style of writing and very much look forward to your next blog. Thanks again. Jane xx

[jh1809]

Thanks for all the informative and entertaining reports.

[Selbourne]

A brilliant blog. Thanks for doing it. I really enjoy your writing style and sense of humour. I’m not missing writing mine each evening 😂