Selbourne

Although the average age on Aurora and Arcadia is usually around 75 🤔

Interesting. We had wondered (thinking along the same lines as @Megabear2) 😂

Some of the Iona cruises do 2 of the top 3 fjords, Olden & Geiranger, albeit with Geiranger they stop short at Hellesylt and then do a cruise down towards Geiranger in the evening, prior to heading out to sea.

It’s one of those places where the ship berths smack bang in the middle of the waterfront, so no need for a shuttle bus (which is always a plus) as you are already in the heart of things. There are two promenades, one along the waterfront where the ship berths and another alongside a vast beach the other side of the peninsular (a short walk via the town centre). Glorious outlooks across the Gibraltar Straights and out to the Med. It’s a lovely town as well, with lots of shops, interesting buildings and sculptures. Beautifully manicured parks and gardens. There’s a lovely water park (not the ones with slides etc, more a landscaped swimming lake). It had only just opened for the season when we went. We didn’t want to swim but asked how much it was to just wander around the gardens and they let us in for nothing. We couldn’t believe the contrast with Gibraltar. Chalk and cheese.

As I mentioned in a previous post, in-suite dining was the only area where we felt Butlers added value. In all other respects they were superfluous. That being said, we no longer book P&O suites as we don’t feel that they offer good value for money any more. We are happy to cruise in balcony cabins with P&O (around half the price of suites) but if spending the equivalent of P&O suite prices we would prefer to book with Cunard or Saga. It’s not a class thing, although we do have a butler at home - me 😂

We had a private dinner with our daughters on the balcony of our corner wrap suite, whilst cruising down one of the most beautiful fjords in the world on a warm summer evening. Spectacular scenery and near silence. We could have thought that we had the ship to ourselves. Magical. We couldn’t have done that ourselves.

We had the same issue with an aft suite on Britannia. We were 2 decks above the Live Lounge, so thought we’d be OK, but we could hear every song clearly. It was worse with live music, but still noticeable with recorded music. I think that there might have been some sort of void, or vent, between our cabin and the next one which allowed the noise to travel up, something that’s not always obvious from deck plans.

There are no suites without balconies. I was meaning that the only area of a ship where there is a noticeable difference in poor weather is very low down midships. Any cabins down there are outside ones without balconies (or insides). I once did a walk all around Britannia in very rough seas and in all honesty the difference between foreword, midships and aft was negligible on the main balcony decks when it came to movement. My point being that if you fancy a suite, the aft ones are better than the midships ones and you won’t get any noticeable difference in movement.

In all honesty, I have heard the things that you describe on virtually every P&O ship that we have been on. It’s possibly slightly worse on Aurora, but we have heard noise from adjacent cabins, or cabins above us, on almost every cruise!

There’s very little movement in aft cabins, other than some slight vibration at times. Personally, I find the movement in rough weather to be fairly similar anywhere on the ship, including midships. To minimise the sensation you need to go very low down in the ship, where there are no balconies! If it’s a special cruise and you can afford it, I wouldn’t let worries about sea sickness put you off an aft suite.

Having been countless times, Gibraltar does absolutely nothing for us. It’s a great shame that more ships can’t get into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave cut out of Morocco, directly opposite Gibraltar. One of the nicest places in the Med that we have been to.

We tend not to bother with excursions, but wished that we had in Messina. There’s not a great deal to see and we were pestered quite a bit by persistent beggars both in the main square and immediately outside the cruise terminal. An hour was enough and we went back on the ship. Thankfully our balcony was facing the harbour and it’s a busy port, so we just relaxed watching all the comings and goings, but we said that if we go again we would go beyond Messina.

Friends of ours booked a Suite in that location on their first P&O cruise. They were woken very early every morning by the crew dragging the deckchairs around in order to wash the decks down. It completely put them off booking another suite! You are far better off with an aft Suite on C deck (first choice) or D deck (2nd choice) IMHO. Avoid the E deck ones as they are directly above the show lounge and you will get noise until late at night.

I’m struggling to remember the detail, but it was mostly things that I didn’t consider to be particularly collectible. I remember seeing interior seats that I recalled from cruising on her, but nothing particular that tempted me. I suspect that the really desirable things didn’t make it as far as the public sell off.

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. 🤞

I also wish that there was a way of knowing which menu was on which nights. I am thinking of pre- booking Epicurean twice for our 7 night Iona cruise. The first and last nights would be preferable. Ideally I’d like menu A for one visit and menu B for the other, but there’s no way of knowing until you are on board, by which time it may be sold out.

Like you, I wasn’t a great fan of the original Eric & Ern. Seemed quite dated humour even back in their prime. For that reason the tribute didn’t appeal, but friends saw them and really enjoyed it. We saw Darren Day (who was very good) and Claire Sweeney (not so good). I’m hoping that we have the drag act that others have recommended (Mary Mack?) when we are on Iona in August, as our daughters and their partners would really enjoy that. That may not be P&Os choice for a school holiday cruise though 😂

When one of the P&O ships was sold (it may well have been Oriana) I remember there being a website where you could buy items such as furniture from the ship.

Thanks. We haven’t ditched P&O. We are concerned about all the things that have changed since the resumption of cruising post Covid, but want to experience it for ourselves to see how it impacts on our cruise experience. We have cruises on Iona and Ventura booked for this year and will still book with P&O, but at a lower price ceiling than we have paid previously. We are booked on our first Cunard cruise next year and will book a Saga cruise when an interesting itinerary at a sensible price comes up.

I can relate to most of the positives mentioned above, but the biggest plus for us these days is that cruise ships are great holidays for wheelchair users. Adapted cabins are good, things like assisted embarkation are appreciated and we find that the vast majority of staff on the ship are extremely accommodating. My wife feels comfortable and safe on a cruise ship which, given all that she has to endure with her disability is a godsend. As her carer, it’s also a break for me. It’s just a shame that there’s no ability for wheelchair users to use tenders.

Thanks. It’s probably the closing time I’m particularly keen to know. 10am may be a bit early for one of our daughters 😂 . Can I ask, do the staff plate everything up for you? In other words, you queue, ask for what you want and then are handed a plate which you take to a table? If so, sounds like a good half way house between the MDR and the buffet.

I think our daughters would like The Quays for breakfast. Did you happen to notice what time window they offer breakfast?

Are they down to just one act per cruise now? When we were last on Britannia (pre Covid) there were at least 2 different acts rotating. May have even been 3.

I agree. I was referring to people attempting to switch from Club to Freedom.

As you say, it’s always worth asking, but we have been on a few cruises where there were notices outside the Freedom Dining restaurant on the day of boarding saying that the restaurant was full and they were unable to accommodate any requests to change from Club / fixed dining.