jon01

Near gale force winds and rain for the Hellesylt area, but better weather further south forecast for the Flåm area on Wed 22nd June

ms Rotterdam is due in Geiranger on 22 June, it will be interesting to see what happens to her

4 hours ago, newbie cruissy said:

Comments from onboard in the last half hour, not calling at Stavanger. 

It wouldn't be worth it for such a short stop now, most of the excursions wouldn't operate anyway with the ship so late

Such a shame as the weather is going to be nice on Monday in Stavanger

15 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Iona is currently mid channel opposite Eastbourne doing 18.8 knots. Stavanger is just under 600 nautical miles away, 30 hours at 20 knots. With 1 hour time difference she would arrive mid afternoon?

I calculated a 13:30 arrival local time, departure time is 17:00, hardly time for an excursion

Iona has head winds for some of the journey so it won't reach maximum speed

635 miles to Stavanger, at full speed (21 knots) it would take around 30-31 hours

At an average of 19 knots this journey would take around 34 hours plus a bit extra for weaving around traffic

4 minutes ago, cruise saint said:

Have often wondered why Iona docks the opposite way round from Britannia when at Ocean Terminal.  Any idea?

Somebody mentioned that it was due to the refuelling process that takes place on the starboard side, but when in Haugesund I noticed that Iona was fuelled up with a ship on the port side!

Crazy that a huge airliner can land and depart at Heathrow on a narrow strip of tarmac in winds gusting 60mph and P&O's new megaship can't depart their home, sheltered port of Southampton in winds gusting 35mph with the aid of some tugs

With Arvia coming soon, they are going to double the issues they are having with these huge ships in windy conditions

The ever fated Iona has a big delay on departure to the Fjords on Sat 18 June

Now departing at around 2.00am Sunday

That will mean a half day in Stavanger at best

Reason given as strong winds from an unusual direction in Southampton

On 6/13/2022 at 8:33 PM, darknightsdespiser said:

Why would anyone have a TV on on holiday???

The TV is useful for checking the ship's position, the bow camera, on board spend, the news and the weather forecast. 

I was on this cruise and I agree with most of your remarks

It was surprising at the number of children on board during a school week for most, they were everywhere, in the pools and hot tubs and running across the dance floor

The buffet choice was poor and they were running out of food, cups etc a lot of the time. Some of the food was under-cooked, but we always found a table. Never saw a wine waiter in the buffet!

Service in the MDR was generally good, with plenty of choice. Booking on the website was easy

You did get the impression that they were understaffed in most departments, but this is understandable

The theatre still has reduced capacity and you need to book, it was annoying with people still coming in and disturbing those who were seated, well into the shows. Masks not required now

Grab and go still closed

It was an eventful cruise, with two medical evacuations, including one by helicopter on 5th June, but at least we kept to time

One annoying thing was the announcement one night at midnight in the cabins waking us up requesting staff to attend to an incident, but none of the bridge announcements of interest were heard in the cabins during the day, unless you ran outside the cabin into the corridor!

The television in the room was adequate, with plenty of sport and news channels, plus a special event channel, so we got to see the Jubilee Concert! There is no signal in some of the Fjords though, which is understandable

Iona is big, but easy to find places generally and never seemed crowded, except the pools and areas around them were packed on sunny days

Couldn't complain about the weather, we were lucky with two blue sky days in the Fjords, which looked stunning!

1 hour ago, SarahHben said:

Please could you post a link to that webcam? I had saved it off before our cruise but whatever I try it is stuck on the 10th May 

You need to register an account now to see the Stavanger webcam:

https://www.aftenbladet.no/trafikk/i/mqEEp/webkameraer

(You may need to translate the webpage to English to understand it!)

Good to see that Iona made it into Stavanger this week after the  cancellation last week. Two ships in port today, you can just see Silver Whisper top right

Not very warm there, max temp 11 C

A live camera has been set up to see Iona at Hellesylt: 

Wider live view:

I am new to cruising, done just a few and never experienced port cancellations or alterations

I am due in Geiranger with Iona in a couple of weeks with excursions booked. Do we expect P&O to contact customers with this change of port, or do they wait until you are on board as they fear announcing it before departure they will get a load of cancellations with customers moving to other cruise lines? Am I right in thinking that the original itinerary was to call at Hellesylt briefly in the morning to drop off and then move to Geiranger? So technically this is a cancelled port situation?

As I have lost an excursion and a port call has been altered/cancelled, do I have the right to an insurance claim?  I know I can cancel the booked excursion in advance

I now feel that I will be spending half of the holiday on the ships website checking things, booking dining, shows etc and grabbing a nice excursion from Hellesylt before they sell out

The roads around the port at Hellesylt don't look suitable for coaches, maybe only minibuses and there is no road between Hellesylt and Geiranger, so I'm sure our trip from the latter to the viewing spots and Fjord Centre will be cancelled

If only P&O had thought about this in advance and had a nice small/medium sized ship built for small ports and with less height to help in strong winds, rather than build two monsters to keep up with modern trends!

On 5/22/2022 at 12:10 PM, Origindisney said:

I have had two emails from P&O inviting me to book Entertainment & Dining for our Cruise on the 4th June.

I have been able to book some Dining, but when you try and book Entertainment is informs you the these events are not Bookable.

 

Anyone else having the same same problem.

Entertainment booking is now open for the Iona cruise on 4th June, 8.30pm shows are filling up fast!

I'm not sure why Ventura is milling around in the North Sea with Force 11 winds imminent. It's not as though they were forced to do this, when they could have sailed back to the safety of Southampton on Saturday evening or stayed in Belgium. It's going to be very uncomfortable out there for the next two days. Potentially this could lead to bad press for P&O and if any equipment is damaged or fails, the ship could be in serious trouble

It looks like Britannia had to sail past and miss Guernsey again today (26th April) as it's arriving into Southampton 12 hours early. I would imagine the decision was made because they wanted to get back into port before Storm Hannah hits the Channel

Looks like Arcadia is unable to dock in Zeebrugge on Sat 8th Dec due high winds, so the passengers will have to stay on board for the entire 2 night cruise!