Fionatritton

I'd bet a large amount of money that the "pause" will be extended to 2021 given the current fiasco. Don't think I'll get good odds though 😂 

We must also remember that while P&O might soon announce that late November/December cruises will sail as planned, there still a lot of water to pass under that bridge (Boom boom) before the ships sail. Particularly if the numbers keep rising and more and more pressure is put on the government to lockdown again. The government could lift the travel ban on cruising in September only to reintroduce it later at a moment's notice as they have before and continue to do with quarantines.

Any cruise at the moment, imho, cannot be said to be definitely going ahead until you've actually boarded and it's sailed.

2 hours ago, molecrochip said:

I understand that there will be a decision taken on the rest of the calendar year 2020 cruises in the next couple of weeks. The current plan on the table is still to try from mid-November with substantive Christmas cruises. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Christmas cruises have not seen the cancellation rates that other cruises have in advance of final payments being due (but there is still time).

 

A very good source of mine tells me that P&O held back from cancelling through to March 2021 when they announced the world cruise cancellation because they believe that they can sail. If they try to, it does not mean it will definitely 100% happen - you'll note that both Costa and Aida were held back later than originally announced.

 

Do I think it will be the last cancellations - no I don't. I think those cruises in late November are unlikely to sail. You may get a selection of shorter cruises in that period though. I still doubt that Arcadia and Aurora will sail with passengers before March 2021.

 

I do think that if Iona doesn't sail on her Christmas cruise then you can probably count her out of passenger service until her Norwegian Fjord season starts in early April 2021.

Well we will remain realistic about our Iona cruise on 12th December but secretly hopeful we end up on the maiden with a fab upgrade as we are in a deluxe balcony on select price and the only remaining cabin of a cancelled wedding 😂 

Surely the cost of that last flask which only holds 4 doubles plus the cost of the alcohol itself outweighs the savings 

Hmm swigging gin out of a plastic pouch doesn't really fit with my "cruise holiday" mental image 😦

2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Like you we love the sea days. We like to relax on the balcony, me with my well loaded  kindle and Frank with his painting. He has a travel watercolour set that's perfect for cruising. We could quite happily do a scenic no ports cruise if that's what the restart would be. We love being at sea.

Avril

Yes I reckon I'd get a couple of embroideries done

Thanks wowzz, I'll just stick with two big bottles then - I'm not really into breaking rules when it comes to the crunch ! 
 

whatever is a rum runner ? 

Sounds perfect, sounds like the answer will be taking the laptop to work offline and enjoying a quiet coffee in the horizon 🙂

Sorry to ask an incredibly stupid question. Is there WiFi/4G on cruises close to land ? I know there isn't in the open ocean  eg on a TA closing, We are theoretically on the Iona in December; I run my own business and am a very early riser. My usual holiday procedures is to get up with a coffee on the balcony and do some social media/blogging for a couple of hours at around 6 as I find holidays is a perfect time to schedule and create material for later use. Dh and daughter usually sleep in til 8.30/9 and we then have a leisurely brekkie. I know people probably think I'm bonkers getting up at 6 on holiday but it's one of my favourite bits of the day getting up early with no housework to do ! 
will there be somewhere I can get coffee early as well ? Or somewhere peaceful to sit ? We have a deluxe balcony with sitting area but that's where Little missy will be sleeping and I reckon the balcony might be a bit nippy at 6am in December haha. 
if we don't go in December we will be rescheduling the cruise so question would still be relevant 

DH and I both work full time plus running 2 small businesses on the side, he works so many hours that his idea of a superb holiday is lying on a lounger doing not much other than eating and drinking. 12 days without his phone or any internet is his idea of heaven 

Thankyou for the suggestion, we thought we would try to get as many nights as we could but didn't think of the prospect of not really enjoying it ! 

It would be the balcony deluxe or whatever the best thing down from suite is on the Azura, that's what our 125% would buy 

So if our December Iona cruise is cancelled we are thinking about the March cruise in 2022 from  Bridgetown to Valletta. I think this is a repositioning cruise ? This would be our first cruise, I know there can be rough seas; we are pretty good sailors and have good "sea legs" for what we've done before (dinghy and cat sailing, lots of dive boats haha). Would you recommend a repositioning for a first cruise ? We aren't too bothered about ports, half a day isn't enough imho to see anywhere and we are quite happy with the prospect of lovely chilled out sea days with a bottle or 3 of wine ! 

Am I right in thinking if they aren't happy they would just take it off you till end of cruise ? We are unlikely to drink that much anyway as we will be having the 12 bottle wine package for our 7 night cruise for 2 😁. Just like a little tipple predinner and before bed 

if it goes of course. It's Iona in December 🙄

I note it is 2l per couple. Does this mean I can take 4 x 50cl bottles or is it 1 bottle only each up to 1litre ? How heavily is it policed ? I wouldn't bring more but I'd like to have more choice in smaller sizes ie. gin, Baileys, Malibu and Amaretto 

The only alternative I can think of is that they do blessings at sea so you have a fake ceremony but you have to get the legal done at home. But why would they do that when weddings must be a big revenue stream for them, especially on a big ship like Iona so I would have though they would have that all in place 

It's all very odd. I noticed it a few months ago that they didn't seem to offer them but she's given us all sorts of details, which day , what time, where the wedding room is and that the Captain is marrying them. She's booked via room number so unless there has been some disastrous mixup (and it would be very unlike her not to check, double check and check everything again to make sure) they must have something in place. I'll let you know in December !

9 hours ago, Britboys said:

Weddings at Sea are not available on Britannia or Iona - because they are registered in the UK.

Well all I can go from is our experience which is that our friends have a wedding ceremony on Iona on one of the sea days on our cruise in December, so they are most definitely doing something. The bride is a legal executive so I assume she will have read the fine print 

9 hours ago, Showingthatgame said:

To add to the confusion while not restaurants or buffets the quays are also included without a supplement. This is includes:

Fusion

Hook line and vinegar 

Boardwalk diner - American Grill

 

Its unclear how these will operate but currently I expect that it will operate as grab and go with indoor and outdoor seating. There is also the skydome pizzeria and grill which is grab and go food as well. 

I knew I'd seen included restaurant menus ! It must have been these 

Oh don't worry, we will always ferret out food lol. And if we do go hungry we have plenty of reserves to fall back on 🤣

Thankyou both. So is the buffet a separate restaurant then ? I'm afraid I just don't really get it... 

so is there - buffet resto, MDRs, speciality restaurants that don't charge supplement and then restaurants which charge ? 

We've never cruised before and I'm a bit confused about how dining works. I'm very sorry if there have been lots of posts on this topic but I found the search feature didn't bring many relevant results back.

We will be travelling with a group of 12 on Iona in December for the Christmas Markets. We are a wedding party and all the bookings have been linked.

Breakfast - is it in the 4 main dining rooms and will the dining room be allocated via cabin number or will we be able to all sit together ? We are on deck 15 under the bridge but the rest of the party are midships on deck 12

Afternoon tea - I've seen mentions of buffet service, waiter service in the MDR (which I assume to mean main dining rooms) and the Eric Lanlard tea. I'm a pastry chef so I'm not bothered about the Eric Lanlard tea but I do like a sandwich in the afternoon - is the afternoon tea just served in one of the MDRs as a buffet ?

Dinner - We have "anytime" dining selected on our cruise personaliser. What does this mean ? I googled but got so many answers that I was no surer of what it meant. Will we be able to eat as a party on some evenings and independently other meals ? We'd like to eat as a family of 3 some nights and in a group others. If we decide to eat in one of the supplement restaurants do we need to book this in advance or could we just decide on the evening what we want to do ?

Wine - we are going to opt for a wine package as the premium one covers our main drinks of sparkling wine, white wine and port. We definitely won't drink a whole bottle of port in one go - how does it work if you don't finish the bottle ? And can we order sparkling wine from the package at the bar to have pre-dinner ?

We are booked on Iona for the December Christmas market cruise and we are going because we are part of a family wedding party. We are looking forward to visiting the Christmas markets and spending time with our family. I think the bride and groom selected the ship because it is new and they wanted to go on the maiden season. We are in our early 40s and will be going with our 10 year old, not sure whether this makes as "younger clientele" or not lol.

We will enjoy ourselves whatever it's like

fab, thankyou

it's interesting about the weddings at sea business - because we are booked with a wedding party in December on Iona and they are definitely having a wedding ceremony on board. So either they have got round it or it will just be a ceremony and the legals will have to be done before/after the cruise