Dowmai2022

I would have had had I of been aware and this not been the first time I've ever taken any breakables abroad. Which is why I called P&O before boarding to confirm what to do, and their advice was to put it in the suitcase. I won't be doing that again. However it is hard to apply common sense with something like this when you have never done it before and don't know the rules.

I wondered the same as well. The raw chicken was the only bad meal we had luckily. The chefs table meal was ok, but the location of it let it down and I found most of the other food was better. They did have a Christmas dinner night with Christmas crackers which was the best meal I found, plus the eggs benedicts for breakfast. I think I ate that for breakfast pretty much all week lol

I have learnt my lesson with that for next time. Unfortunately the last P&o cruise I went on I was 17 so I have never had experience of bringing alcohol on board and relied on P&O's advice. I agree with that number it very likely would be impossible. But at least a dedicated telephone number for the ship to be given to passengers would be ideal, that way if issues like this happen again passengers would know what to do. Unfortunately for us it was very much guessing and calling every number we could find. The manager did mention yesterday about agreeing to look further in to a dedicated phone number so hopefully they are taking the incident on board! Oh that's a shame we didn't see that, maybe we walked to the wrong bit. But where we were recommended and directed to there really wasn't much there. 1 Christmas Market was less busy but it was just white tents and a couple of lights. The other we saw was very lit up and beautiful to look at, but as expected it was rammed and not big enough to accommodate everyone which was a shame.

We also had a similar issue with the my holiday app. It unfortunately did not work on my phone at all, but I assumed it may be something on my phone blocking it. It eventually worked after 2 days on my partners phone but he did have to go down to reception to get them to sort it for him. We went and watched 1 act in the sky dome - a female singer that I cannot remember the name of. It did sound like she had a fantastic voice but I agree the sound quality was terrible. Often couldn't really hear what she was singing because the background sounds drowned her voice. I calculated I went down to reception 15 times on the cruise, which was not ideal. Most were chasing up things that were promised to be sorted at a certain time but weren't. For example, the reception manager decided to tell my children to their face that he would have gifts delivered to their room by Monday evening to cheer them up after the shuttle accident, as they were very scared and anxious. It was 2 days later before they received them, which I was very grateful for (they received 2 captain Teddy bears and 3 big tomblerone bars which they loved). But making promises to 6 year old and 4 year old children and then not following through with them when expected isn't great. It would have been more ideal if they didn't state a time to my kids. Most of the complaints I heard from other passengers were about the queues, my holiday app and the closure of Christmas markets in rotterdam, despite being ported there for 2 days.

Just returned today from Iona's trip to Hamburg, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge, and wanted to share my experience/see if some of these experiences are across the board. Problems started right on arriving at the terminal on the coach. We were diverted to the QE2 terminal to wait for over 40 minutes before even being taken to board. When we arrived on board I received a text from a random number saying 'hi your bag is leaking looks like wine', no signature to say it was P&o so I thought it was spam. My husband opened the suitcase when it arrived (5 hours later) and cut his finger on shards of glass. A bottle of gin I had wrapped smashed in the suitcase and leaked everywhere, covering £200 of birthday presents I had bought for my husbands birthday onboard. I took it to reception and must admit some of the receptionists were incredibly rude and really struggled to understand English. They said we shouldn't have packed it in the suitcase but I had called customer service a few days before the cruise to ask where I carry the gin, and they said the suitcase not hand luggage. At risk of this being a long post, Iona took the suitcase and promised it back by Monday evening (husbands birthday was on the Tuesday) but we didn't receive it. Didn't get the suitcase until Thursday and I had to repeatedly go to reception to demand my husbands presents back. In hamburg on Monday, the shuttle bus crashed and the driver (who could not speak a word of English) couldn't tell anyone what was going on. Another passenger had to use Google translate to communicate, but we were stuck on the side of the road for nearly 2 hours. Some of the passengers, including my 2 children under 6 were standing up because we were stationary for a long time, when the driver decided to drive off without warning any of us. Both my children went flying in to their seats. We all acknowledged a crash is completely out of P&O's control but as it is the main shuttle company they use, you would think they would ensure someone who could atleast speak a word of English is there incase situations happen. You would also think they would provide a number to passengers that they could easily get through to if issues arise. Passengers on the bus called many different numbers and all were constantly engaged. Additional concerns - on Sunday night a high number of passengers (including me and my mum) were served completely raw chicken in the coral restaurant. They did give us a bottle of wine to compensate but took them until Friday to actually sort it out. Queues were massive for absolutely everything, most things were constantly booked and the only reason we could access some of them was because of reception management booking them for us to compensate for the issues we experienced. I stood on a shard of glass in the cabin despite stewards saying they had thoroughly cleaned it. The Chefs table was alright, but disappointing that for a celebration night they have that meal in a section of the horizon buffet restaurant. There seemed far too many passengers on board for what the staff could cope with. Long queues for drinks. Constantly long queues for reception, and every passenger we came across had many complaints. But the most disappointing part was the port days in Hamburg, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge. All were advertised as having great Christmas markets, but they had already finished in Rotterdam and Zeebrugge. Hamburg had 2 small ones that you could finish in 30 minutes, very expensive and you could barely move. However, 1 of them was beautifully decorated though and Hamburg as a whole had some incredible buildings to look at. Talking to some other passengers it did appear that this is not always normal for Iona. Many said they came on earlier this year and had a fantastic time, but it appeared this specific trip was just disaster for everyone the whole week. I will say though that the ship itself is incredible to look at and is very beautiful. The entertainment was fantastic - my children were particularly obsessed with the aladdin pantomime and deck the halls performance. Entertainment definitely made the cruise worth while for us. All other staff apart from reception were so polite and friendly. All in all, it was an alright trip. The experience put my husband off cruising (he's a first timer), so are some of these things consistent across the board? My last cruise was ventura in 2014 and I had the most incredible time and want to take the family on to that one next. But if some of these issues are across most ships, then maybe I might have to avoid.

Hi, I am booked to embark P&O Iona in 2 weeks and was told to make a reservation for The Chefs Table for Celebration night ASAP, due to it's popularity. My P&O account said the lines opened today to make reservations for restaurants but it does not give me the option to book anything other than The Limelight Club. I've googled it a few times and got conflicting advice. So does anyone know if you can pre-book The Chef's Table before the cruise? Or do you have to wait until you have embarked and then ask at reception? Thank you.