Selbourne

The vast majority of tables seemed as close as that when we were in Princess Grill, hence why we jumped at the table that nobody else wanted, but was very much on its own and suited us perfectly 😂 Have many reported that they wanted a table for 2 but were allocated a shared table and unable to change it?

My understanding is that there has only been one cruise on Britannia recently where you could pre-book anything others than the Limelight Club, and that was a trial.

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I’m pleased to hear that the positives are outweighing the negatives, but not at all surprised to hear that you feel that the ship is very crowded and that you are struggling with the lifts. We had exactly the same issues on Iona last week and had the added problem of trying to get into those busy and tiny lifts with a wheelchair! From what you have seen, I’m sure that you can imagine what that was like! We certainly wouldn’t entertain Iona or Arvia in summer school holidays again and, unfortunately, the experience has put my wife (the wheelchair user) off those ships altogether, even though I know that the problems wouldn’t be any where near as bad at other times. However, once bitten…. If you haven’t tried the Olive Grove yet I thoroughly recommend it. We really enjoyed it on Iona.

@Dermotsgirl Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review and, in particular, your comparisons with P&O. I’ve only just had time to go through it all properly now that I have finished all the washing, drying, ironing etc from our week on Iona (and I haven’t even begun to tackle the garden yet) 😂 As you know, we are keen to try Saga but my hesitance is the very high prices, as it’s more than double what we are paying with P&O and some of the included items with Saga wouldn’t be that beneficial to us. However, I know that you usually get what you pay for. Your review was fascinating and I have gone through it all with my wife. There are three things that you have highlighted that give us pause for thought; Chauffeur transfer - We would have to have a shared car due to distance. My wife wouldn’t be able to step up into a mini van type vehicle, so an estate car or SUV would be better. However, as we would have luggage and a wheelchair, I’m not sure how that would work if we were sharing. If the only solution is us having to drive ourselves then neither Tilbury or Dover are as attractive to us as Southampton. Portsmouth would be fine, but someone mentioned the need to use a bus within the port which, again, would not work for my wife. Tables for 2 - We have to have a table for 2 and, like you, dislike those that are ‘pretend’ tables for two with just inches between them. The Saga setup sounds worse than P&O, which is not what I’d expect given the price premium. Early shows - We tend to dine late and, if it appeals, go to the 10.30pm show on P&O. None of the other forms of cruise ship entertainment appeal. If the shows are an hour or so earlier on Saga then we would either have to dine earlier than we’d like, or miss the show. Also, even if we went to the show, we wouldn’t have anything left to do afterwards (although I’m sure that the included drinks help). We definitely need to consider all the above carefully before committing. Thanks again.

OK, I have now had chance to have a proper look at the Cunard ‘Sale’, having only had a hurried look previously whilst on Iona. Even allowing for the way that I work out the net price of a cruise (quoted fare less OBC), the two 14 nighters that I’ve booked on Queen Anne would indeed each be a few hundred pounds cheaper if we were booking now. However (and this is a big however) I wouldn’t be able to book either of them now, as both accessible Club cabins are already sold. Now obviously one of the two cabins is my booking, but there’s no point in cancelling and rebooking as the deposit that would be lost is far greater than the saving. If it wasn’t for the fact that we have to have an accessible cabin, I might be regretting booking early, but Sod’s Law if I hadn’t booked and was trying now, both cabins would still most likely be sold. So I’m quite relaxed about it. I’m going to have a look at the P&O offers next. We wouldn’t be interested in Iona or Arvia and Azura is only doing fly cruises, so that helps to narrow down the search. We currently have no P&O cruises booked beyond next March. Our self imposed P&O price cap may be the stumbling point though.

For us it was the best table we’ve had on any cruise 😂 The other PG tables were in packed rows just inches apart and the restaurant was noisy. We were in our own little oasis of calm and absolutely loved it. As you say, we all like different things!

So would I, and that’s why I think it’s impractical and would only work where people are sharing by choice so dine at the same time. It would also be confusing for the waiters and would make for a very messy dining experience all round. I’m not going to worry about it. I’m feeling confident that we’ll get a table for 2 at initial allocation and if not I will get it changed. I will be very polite but leave the restaurant manager in no doubt that it is a non-negotiable given my wife’s needs. I would even take it beyond the restaurant manager if needs be, but I can’t believe for one minute that this would be necessary. I have always found that restaurant managers want people to be happy and I have never had a battle about this before and very much doubt that my first problem will be on a Cunard ship. It struck me on QM2 that almost all the table in PG were tables for 2 and they just push them together to make bigger tables if required, so I really don’t think it will be an issue.

Yes, time will tell. If it doesn’t work out as expected then we will simply vote with our feet and not book anything above Britannia in future. No point in paying a premium if you don’t end up with what you thought you were paying the premium for! We dine late, so hopefully would have less issues with Cunard’s version of Freedom dining, although I’ve not been keeping an eye on the Cunard boards to see how it’s going as I believe it’s a fairly recent thing for them. Hopefully, like with P&O, most of the demand will be early.

Thanks that’s useful. Our TA (the cruise specialist that many on here use) has notified Cunard that we need a table for 2 due to me needing to assist my wife at times and to avoid embarrassment. This, coupled with the fact that we booked our May cruise on launch day and are in the highest of (only) 2 Club cabin grades leaves me feeling confident. Many will of course want to share anyway and not everyone wants a table for 2. We were 3 couples in 3 cabins last week but wanted a table for 6. We sometimes cruise with friends and want a table for 4 with them. Also, due to my wife’s difficulties, we are happy to have the ‘out of the way’ tables for 2 that many wouldn’t like, such as the one in this photo that we had in Princess Grill on QM2. Many would have hated it as we couldn’t see any windows and were out on a limb, but it suited us perfectly and we would choose it every time 😂

If you just go onto the Cunard website, the home page promotes the Cunard Sale 10% off. When you go on to each cruise the price reductions are clearly shown. From the ones I have looked at so far the headline price is down 10% but OBC is also down, so the net price isn’t really any different (same marketing tactic that P&O use). Both our 2024 Cunard cruises (booked well before the Sale) work out no cheaper, but I need to look at a few more to get a better picture and I’ve only looked at Queen Anne so far.

The plan that I saw showed tables and chairs, so easy to add up, but I think we are saying exactly the same thing - it’s only indicative and not a precise layout plan, as the number of covers shown on the plan was less than the number of Club passengers so it didn’t make sense . I’m also aware having been in Princess Grill on QM2 that you don’t get any more room (in fact, I’d say that the grills restaurants seemed to have less room between tables than the Britannia MDR), but we were fortunate in that I asked the PG manager if we could have a table for 2 that wasn’t very close to other tables (I didn’t like the one they had allocated us) and he gave me a choice of 2, one of which we were delighted with. We’ve booked Club solely for the dedicated table for all meals and the ability to dine when we want without queues or waits, not because we feel that there will be more space. The slightly enhanced menu will also be appreciated though. As to whether the Britannia MDR in Queen Anne has enough capacity to seat everyone I’ve no idea I’m afraid. We haven’t booked any Cunard cruises in Britannia yet so I’ve not really looked at it. I know that @Megabear2 has raised this same question following her experiences on Arvia, wondering if the same assumption has been made that greater numbers of those allocated the standard MDR will use speciality restaurants than has turned out to be the case.

I’m going to try to have a look today. Club for our first Queen Anne cruise in May was £1k above Britannia in total (for the 2 of us over 14 days), which was a no brainer given that it’s sometimes significantly more. That was booked at launch. It broadly equated to a Suite price with P&O, but as the sole dining privilege on P&O is breakfast in Epicurean there’s no comparison. There are also only 2 accessible Club cabins, so we felt that if we didn’t book at launch we wouldn’t get on the cruise. However, we booked our 14 night November cruise well after launch (but long before the Sale) and this was considerably cheaper than the May one. We are getting $950 OBC (plus my $250 shareholder OBC) and the net price (fare less OBC) is working out much cheaper than many P&O cruises in standard balcony cabins, and certainly cheaper than 90% of cruises on Aurora and Arcadia. Again, a no brainer. Amazingly we also got one of the 2 accessible Club cabins. I haven’t seen any others at anywhere near that price yet, so we seem to have just struck lucky with that one. I have a feeling that the MDR plans are just indicative. I think I totted up the covers when I first saw the plans and worked out that it was below the number of Club cabins. Given that everyone has their own table and, as a result, there’s no doubling up per sitting, it didn’t add up. I shall be interested to know whether the response you get when you query the ‘Table of 2 - request’ is the same as I had.

If this helps, we were on Iona last week and our scheduled port times were; Stavanger 0830-1630 Olden 0900-1730 Hellesylt 0700-1600 Haugesund 0900-1630

@Clodia has confirmed that you do get invited. It’s much better than the welcome aboard buffet lunch used to be. Small chilled buffet food plus hot choices, such as Chicken Tikka Masala with rice, a sort of roast and things like small haggis filled pasties. The usual P&O mini puds that look nice but all taste the same 😂 We preferred the proper waiter served lunch that we got on Britannia but, as I say, it was a marked improvement on what we’ve had before.

I agree about solid flooring being so much easier when pushing a wheelchair. I usually like marble, but I thought that the style of marble used on Iona, with a sort of brown pattern in it, was particularly unattractive.

I think we are currently thinking that Britannia is also the ‘sweet spot’ for us Andy (when it comes to P&O). Aside from the issues that we had on Iona, the itineraries are too limiting and whilst the food was great, neither of us particularly liked the ambiance of the ship. Following the app / freedom dining issues that we had on Britannia we have changed our two Ventura cruises to Club. If we book another Britannia cruise I think we will go for Club as well. Whilst most of our best cruises have been on Aurora, I think that we would miss the modern facilities now. The cabins are very dated, the dining choices are quite restricted and the newer TVs are still rubbish compared to those on Britannia and the newer ships. Also, the prices for the P&O adult only ships are usually way above what we now consider to be the maximum that we are prepared to pay per night for a P&O cruise. We are really looking forward to our two Cunard cruises on their new ship Queen Anne next year. Similar size to Britannia but with even more facilities, all the things that we like about cruise ships are present and the theme is Art Deco which we absolutely love. The grade we have booked will also be proper freedom dining (no app or queues) but with the benefits of Club (reserved table etc). On paper it should be pretty much our perfect cruise ship - but then again we had thought that about Iona 😂

If asked, I think I would just say “my wife fancied a break” 😂

I shall answer on the assumption that you are asking me these questions 😂 If it was solely down to me, I’d probably be happy to give Iona another shot well outside of school holidays, as feedback seems to be that the problems we experienced are far less then, which makes sense. However, at present, my wife is dead against it. I have to see it from her perspective. She likes cruises because they are well set up for people with disabilities and on all our P&O cruises in the past (20 ish) we have been extremely well catered for. Iona was a very different experience though. The lack of the usual notices at the lifts asking people to give those in wheelchairs priority, the complete absence of the usual announcements about this, the fact that our fellow passengers very rarely considered our issues and many jumped in front of us (neither of which have really been issues before on other ships), the fact that the lifts were too small and, the icing on the cake, the complete lack of interest from the reception manager when I raised the fact that we were experiencing problems, all left a very nasty taste in my wife’s mouth and she very much felt that those with disabilities were carried under sufferance rather than genuinely welcomed. Frankly, I can live with this because the Iona and Arvia itineraries don’t appeal very much (very repetitive) and their longer cruises (14 nights plus) seem to do less ports than the smaller ships do in the same time period, and we aren’t fans of sea days. I’m sure that our daughters would go on Iona again in a heartbeat (although one said that she thinks she prefers Britannia). The problem that we have is that the partner of one of them is a teacher, so is tied to the school holidays 😱

In all honesty I wouldn’t be anywhere near the best person to answer this question. There are a number of regular solo travellers on here who would give a far better perspective. All I can say is that if I found myself considering cruising Solo in the future, I would probably favour the ships that have Club (fixed) dining, as I think I’d prefer that to freedom as a solo. I wouldn’t really fancy eating on my own every night, but neither would I fancy having to explain why I was travelling solo (I know it’s nobody’s business, but people are bound to fish around it, even if they don’t ask directly). With Club I’d only have to explain once on the first night and I also believe that solos are sometimes placed on the same table, which I think would make things easier. However, if you like dining alone then the choice of speciality restaurants on Iona is superb and that might be a deciding factor for you.

We were on deck 10, so pretty much in the middle of the 16 decks serviced by the lifts which, I guess, may go some way to explaining some of the challenges we had, as whether we were going up or down the lift had already had the potential of picking up people on 5 or 6 floors before us! As for school holiday factor, we were concerned that the ship would feel overrun with kids but, in all honesty it didn’t. As you say, most were probably in the kids club, although we kept away from the Sun and pool decks where I suspect that quite a few were. There seemed to be a lot of babies and very young toddlers, but we probably noticed them more as we seemed to be a bit unlucky in that we regularly seemed to be within earshot of one that was crying or kicking off 😂 The noise in busy areas (such as the atrium in the evenings) was adults rather than kids, but simply due to the volume of people on the ship and the number of venues that are around the atrium on Iona.

Thanks John. I figured that the problems must have been mostly down to peak school holidays, as I knew that you hadn’t flagged these issues on your cruise, although it was interesting that you also commented earlier in the thread about how small the lifts were. I agree that the forward and aft lifts, whilst still busy, generally had shorter waits than the midships ones, so once we worked that out I tended to go to them more, even though it resulted in a lot more to-ing and fro-ing.

Thanks. Just to clarify, I thought that the undersides of the atrium stairs had the look of commercial air conditioning ducting - not that they actually were 😂 There is certainly a lot to like about Iona. Two of our party were first time cruisers (which, after all, is the market that P&O are primarily targeting with Iona and Arvia) and were really impressed. Our daughters have done quite a few cruises and also loved the ship. There was a lot that we liked about it too. You have confirmed what I expected, that most of the lift issues that we experienced would be alleviated outside of peak school holidays when there are a lot less passengers on board including, of course, less push chairs and buggies. I can’t remember where I heard that there were 5,700 passengers, but it wasn’t in the Captain’s announcements. Frankly, it felt like a lot more than that at times 😂. It may be that my wife changes her mind after some time has passed, but when I asked her again last night before posting our final thoughts, she was still of the view that she wouldn’t be at all keen. Given that Iona and Arvia have quite repetitive itineraries and sometimes visit fewer ports on longer cruises than the smaller ships, this won’t be a huge hardship, but I know that on every P&O cruise going forward now I shall be missing the Olive Grove and wishing that the virtual queuing worked as well as it did on Iona 😂

There was a medical emergency when we were on Iona last week. From memory the announcement was “This is the Bridge. Medical Response Team to deck 18 Sun Deck”. That was repeated but no code words used.

FINAL THOUGHTS This cruise was a long time coming. We were originally booked on Iona’s maiden cruise (2020?) which never happened due to ‘you know what’. That cruise had pretty much the same itinerary as the one originally sold to us for this year, but was 9 days with 2 extra sea days. No idea why. As previously mentioned, we’d had several disappointments with this cruise before we even boarded, firstly with the removal of Geiranger (which was the reason that we had booked this specific cruise) and then the further removal of the partial scenic transit towards Geiranger that had been put in as a pacifier. If all of that hadn’t been enough, I also found out last year that the run of 3 deluxe balcony cabins that I’d specifically booked, due to their prime location, were in the ‘quarantine zone’ and passengers booked in them were being told shortly before their cruise that they were being moved. This would have been a major issue for us and would have resulted in us having to cancel all 3 cabins and then having a battle royale with P&O to get a refund. There was only 1 accessible cabin that was a higher grade than we had booked and that was the sole accessible suite, which we had intentionally not booked due to its poor location directly above the Sunset Bar and only 2 decks above the Club Lounge. We’d had an aft suite 2 decks above the Live Lounge on Britannia previously and the noise was a pain Then, to top it all, I had read countless reviews of poor MDR experiences (long waits etc) and other issues with the large ships (admittedly mostly Arvia). In all honesty, had the cruise just been for the two of us I would have probably cancelled it a year ago, but we were going with our daughters and their partners who were really looking forward to it, so as we have plenty of other cruises booked we decided that we would go ahead and primarily focus on spending quality time together as a family, which we certainly achieved. In attempting to detail our final thoughts there’s a danger of just repeating what I’ve already reported, so to keep it simple I will just highlight the top 3 things that we liked the most and the worst 3 things, before a final closing thought. TOP LIKES Food - Iona has the best choice of dining venues and food types that we have experienced on any P&O ship. I know that we are not alone on this forum in placing good food very high up on the list of what we look for on a cruise ship and Iona did not disappoint in this regard. Those who consider themselves to be ‘foodies’ can book a cruise on this ship with confidence. Pearl MDR - OK, I have to admit that we did have some preferential treatment with a reserved table for the Celebration night and breakfast each day, but even when we went in for lunch, or members of our group went for dinner independently, we had a 100% success rate with good quality food, served hot and in a timely manner. This forum is full of comments about how poor the MDRs are on P&O ships are these days, but having recently had 14 days on Britannia and then this cruise, we have been very happy with the MDR food. It’s also worth stating that the MyHoliday app seems to work far better on Iona than on Britannia. I couldn’t help but wonder if the fact that the vast majority of cruisers on Iona were first timers helped in this regard, as most people just used the app without question. On Britannia, where the vast majority of passengers were previous cruisers, large numbers of people didn’t use the app (couldn’t or wouldn’t) and, as a result, you had several systems conflicting with one another causing inefficiencies and long waits. Accessible Cabins - My wife really appreciated the enhancements to the accessible cabins on Iona, in particular the electric balcony doors and height adjustable basins, which are perfect for those who are confined to wheelchairs. TOP DISLIKES Lifts - All the P&O ships that have been launched since we started cruising with P&O seem to have a design flaw of some sort. Ventura and Azura have a gym in the prime spot where a Crows Nest should be and their promenade decks have stairs at the forward end. Britannia doesn’t even have a promenade deck (in spite of being designed for the British market) and whoever decided that having no passenger stairs midships clearly didn’t understand how flow works around cruise ships. On paper, it looked as though Iona had nailed all of these issues and would therefore be our perfect ship. We hadn’t for one minute considered that the biggest challenge that we would face on the ship would be that the lifts were far too small. With 16 decks accessible by lift and up to 6,000 passengers wanting to use them, why anybody thought that installing such small lifts would suffice is beyond me. As the week went on, more and more people were commenting on how small the lifts were and how long it could take to get in one, not just those of us with mobility challenges. My wife’s wheelchair is slightly smaller than average, yet with me pushing we occupy very nearly half the lift. That’s just ridiculous and caused us major problems, as most lifts were at least two thirds full, even at non-peak times. Design & Ambiance - Let me start by saying that this is a purely subjective area and the other member of our group (in their 20s and 30s) loved the ship and its modernity. We like a ship to look and feel like a ship, not a conference hotel, which is what we felt Iona looked like. This ship has an entirely different look and feel from any other P&O ship, but not for the better in our opinion. The atrium was a particular disappointment, with acres of not particularly attractive marble flooring and chrome. The metal clad undersides of the feature stairs looked like air conditioning ducting. It was also a loud and crowded space, with the Glass House and Keel & Cow losing any sort of restaurant vibe as a result. It was like eating in a shopping mall. We also didn’t like the design of the Promenade deck. I prefer a covered promenade deck (that you can still walk around in inclement weather) and one that has a traditional side rail that you can stand at and take in the views. On Iona the promenade deck is completely exposed to the elements and for the vast majority of its length has the very high glass screens that are usually reserved for the top Sun decks. Consequently, views from the majority of the promenade deck are through glass. Crowded feel & bar service - There were apparently 5,700 passengers on this cruise. I’ve no idea how many children were on board, but they were never an issue. There were lots of babies, many of which seemed to be crying in the restaurants we happened to be dining in, which was a bit irritating but to be expected on a family ship. Although the ship didn’t feel massively bigger than Britannia to us, it was significantly busier - far busier than any other ship we have been on in fact. The added problem was that staff levels seemed to be tight, particularly in some of the bars. It was an effort to get service in the Crows Nest at times. So, in conclusion, would I recommend Iona? In a word, yes. Many of the things that we had feared would be an issue before we went turned out to be absolutely fine. The choice of food venues and quality of the food (and, in most places, service) was excellent. Our daughters felt that the cabins were the best that they had stayed in and they loved the overall ambiance of the ship, even areas that we really disliked. P&O have targeted this ship for the new to cruising market who may be accustomed to large resort hotels and, in that regard, they have succeeded. As I have said, style and ambiance are entirely subjective and down to personal taste. For every couple like us, who prefer a ship to feel like a ship and prefer refined and luxurious looking interiors, there will be many other couples who prefer modern and minimalistic. There’s no right or wrong to this. It’s just personal taste. I have no doubt that the issues that we had around the ship feeling crowded, and slow service in bars as a result, would be considerably less, if not non-existent, outside of school holidays. 10-20% more passengers than would be the case on a cruise that is outside the peak summer school holidays is bound to make a significant difference. The biggest negative for us was the challenges with the lifts. Those who are able bodied, or even those with disabilities but are able to stand, shouldn’t encounter anything like the level of issues that we had. Lifts are busy and you might not always be able to get into the first one but it won’t be a major issue. I’d also suggest that even wheelchair and scooter users will probably cope OK out of school holidays - again 10-20% less passengers than we had will make a world of difference. If you are a wheelchair or scooter user and have no option but to cruise in school holidays, just be aware that you may encounter some issues and won’t necessarily be extended the same courtesy as you may have experienced on other ships. There are none of the usual signs or announcements asking people to give priority to wheelchair users and those with disabilities and, judging by the response that I had when I raised the challenges that we were having at reception, this appears to be a conscious decision. This attitude, and the challenges that we had as a result, has unfortunately put my wife off cruising on Iona again and would also write off Arvia for us as the sister ship, but as over 99% of the population thankfully don’t have to contend with the severe level of disability that my wife now has to endure, this shouldn’t put others off. I am sure that those of you who are booked to go on Iona, or are considering it, will have a fabulous cruise in every respect, as our daughters and their partners did.

Yes, definitely skip lunch 😂 You get one of those stands between 2, so we had 3 of them! The lollipop things were a great hit. Chocolate covered with a dense tasty filling (can’t recall what it was). No dress code so your hubby will be absolutely fine. We enjoyed it.