bronzevernis

7. Afternoon Tea at Epicurian Disappointing. We would have like nice dainty sandwiches rather than mini brioche rolls with Parma ham or crab quiche. No clotted cream. It’s overwhipped cream. The jam was definitely not Tiptree jam. Just basic supermarket quality. I didn’t eat the cake pop, instead donating it to the adjacent table. My husband ate his but said it was sickly sweet. I’m not a chocolate fan so didn’t eat the mini chocolate tart either. Overall, neither of us were particularly impressed with the quality and the selection on offer. We wouldn’t book Afternoon Tea again.

Continued… 5. Chef’s Table - Celebration Night SUPERB! We were very impressed with the quality of the food considering it was not additional charge dining. We both had the shellfish starters and mains. We had the fruit salad for dessert. And we’d never have known it was the Horizon buffet either. It had been beautifully and elegantly laid out. Definitely pre-book the Chef’s Table - totally worth it. 6. Horizon - aka The Buffet Bedlam. Hordes of people, it felt very chaotic and overwhelming. We had a quick look at the food on offer and very little looked appealing. If you want a roast dinner every day, the Horizon is where to get it. The buffet is clearly popular as it was absolutely rammed. it was nowhere as clean and tidy as the Quays. The buffet felt like a canteen. We didn’t have anything to eat there.

So, we’re Day 2 on our Iona cruise to the Fjords. Here’s our hot takes on dining so far: 1. Epicurian - our dinner on Saturday night. - if you’re into seafood like us, the giant Indonesian tiger prawns were stellar. - the starters were trying too hard. The snow crab cocktail which contained grated apple and the accompanying salty cucumber drink shot with lemon foam was a bit all fur coat and no knickers. Style over substance. My husband had the slow cooker in ox cheeks which were presented on a hollowed out bone, or a “canoe” as the menu referred to it. My husband liked it to a Greggs steak bake on a piece of bone. -dessert - we had a lemon meringue tart with looked like a dinosaur - a trail of tiny dots of meringue over the tart “mound”. Tasted good. We’re going back again later this week to have the tiger prawns again. Sublime. 2. Olive Grove - lunch yesterday The hanging beef kofta didn’t look anything like what we’ve seen in review videos on YouTube. It was 2 short stubby beef patty-esque tubes on a metal skewer. Well seasoned though and tasted good. It came with a teaspoon of salsa/ salad and flatbread. It just didn’t look very attractive in its presentation. . Extra charge : £4.50 Baklava dessert - very generous in quantity and one portion quite easily feeds 2 Afogato - ok. Expresso was good but the icecream was a bit own supermarket brand in terms of quality. extra charge: £2 We’ll eat there again later this week to try the paella 3. The Quays - lunch on Saturday and today (Tues) and breakfast this morning Lunch Fantastic! Fish and chips stellar - a lovely light and crispy batter and haddock cooked to perfection. Katsu curry - of a Wagamama standard in terms of taste. Mine came with noodles which was a bit of a surprise. Breakfast Waffles, crispy bacon and maple syrup. Yum! Hubby liked it too. Free coffee on tap which is if decent quality. Skip the fancy Costa coffee and just go to the Quays. Staff working tirelessly to clear and wipe tables. Lots of seating inside and outside on prom deck. Ambience is good too. A hit with us We’ll be back for breakfast tomorrow. And most likely for lunch as well after we get back from the Loen Skylift. 4. Sindhu The emperor’s new clothes. Alas. Incredibly overhyped. If you’ve been to any Dishoom you’ll be very underwhelmed with Sindhu. I think Sindhu is trying to be everything to everyone. It tries to “Indianise” British type meals rather than be truly creative with Goan cuisine. my starter was nothing like described on the menu. It was a glorified cold chicken salad. The chicken had a curry flavour. I wasn’t expecting a cold dish. Similarly the chickpea puri were stone cold. They tasted like cold crispy poppadum shells not like a puri. Husband had the beef fillet. He liked it. I had the slow cooked pork shoulder. Mine was very good. We skipped on dessert as we were just pretty underwhelmed overall with Sindhu. We had a single scoop of sorbet in a pot at Ripples instead. We also cancelled our Friday reservation at Sindhu. The decor is lacklustre too, looking much like conference hotel decor. Menus were stained and tatty. A real disappointment. We just don’t get the hype.

The First Officer is a pilot too and can fly the plane! Flight plans always include alternative airports if plane can’t land at original destination and fuel is calculated for destination airport and for alternative airport plus extra to cover having to do any go-rounds. All part of pre flight checklist done by both pilots. highly recommend watching Mentour Pilot and 74Gear on YouTube. Mentour Pilot is a commercial airline captain. 74Gear is a commercial freight First Officer.

There are certain very high altitude airports with difficult terrains in South America which are Captain-only landing. Quito comes to mind. However, it is the airlines that impose the rule not the airports and the captain can authorise the First Officer to be pilot flying for landing.

Blimey, what a spread! We've booked Afternoon Tea on Iona next Sunday (1st sea day). I think we'll need to have a light breakfast and skip lunch to accommodate all of that!!! 😆 What are those things on sticks out of curiosity? And is there a dress code for afternoon tea? Can my husband get away with trainers with smart casual attire - chinos and shirt?

I didn’t know that. We had notice from P&O about 6 weeks ago regarding the Geirangerfjord itinerary change. We’ve booked the ferry trip excursion from Hellesylt to Geiranger so we still get to enjoy sailing it.

I’ve already had a sneek peek of the Norway Taster Menu 😜 The Geirangerfjord issue is down to it being a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s Norway who has decided that cruise ships (not sure about smaller ship or whether it applies to all cruise ships irrespective of size) can’t sail the Geirangerfjord anymore. This will become an increasing issue over the next couple of years with Norway imposing strict limits/ bans on cruise ships in certain parts of the fjords. P&O are being coy about the reason for cancellation of that part of the itinerary. Perhaps it thinks it will put customers off from booking a Fjords cruise.

If booked in advance: Epicurean: £24pp - nothing further to pay Sindhu: £10pp which is offset against your dinner bill. Beach House: £7.50 pp Afternoon tea in Epicurean: £14pp Norway Taster Menu: £24pp I think you can benefit from a further discount if you are a Peninsular Club member. We're not as this is our first cruise

A 7 day pass for the Retreat is showing as available to book for our cruise. It’s been available to book for a while now. £140 for 7 days. I don’t thinks it’s worth doing for a fjords cruise as the weather is quite changeable in Norway.

That’s exactly why I booked all our speciality dining bang on midnight when bookings opened!

All rather academic and abstract in my case as our cruise is in 12 days time and I’ve booked all our speciality dining! No other cruises planned or booked either.

I don’t actually want to eat in the MDR for dinner. The quality and presentation of it doesn’t look very appealing - certainly from watching plenty of YouTube videos. That and the online bun fight to queue etc. If I was restricted in being able to book SD for the duration of the cruise, I probably wouldn’t have booked one.

I wish I could say that our fares were cheap! Standard balcony cabin for 7 days came in at £2.5k (select fare) - booked back in April. The "extras" have cost another £750 (wifi package, refresh drinks package, excursion and speciality dining). This is definitely an expensive holiday for us. We could not just not afford nor justify some of the prices of other cruise lines - Celebrity and RCL prices were eyewateringly expensive.

There are still plenty of available speciality dining slots for our cruise on 2nd Sept - 13 days to go. I’m afraid I am one of those who booked Epicurian and Sindhi x2. To avoid the previous uproar referred to by @Megabear2 I shall refrain from replying to your particular point about this!

The way of the world for most things these days!

Plenty of availability - I checked! Just one dining slot left for the Norway Taster Menu but otherwise a surprisingly significant number of dining slots available for Epicurian and Sindhu. A few “peak hour” dining slots sold out on some days but otherwise lots of availability!

I’ve just had an email from P&O this morning about pre booking before boarding. The email says that speciality dining is not pre-bookable on this cruise??!!!: Speciality restaurants, excluding the Limelight Club, are not currently bookable before your holiday. Please speak to the teams on board who will be pleased to advise you about the most up‑to‑date availability. It’s patently not correct and misleads others not to pre-book, only to subsequently find out onboard that’s it’s all sold out.

Ah now I understand! Thanks for clarifying. We'll probably stick with the meat/fish taster menu!

Thank you! Yes, I noticed the 20% discount when booking. I thought Epicurean was £30pp if you booked in advance, but its £24pp. Where we live, you can't get a mains in a gastropub for £24 so on the face if it, this is excellent value for money. Good to know it about being able to mix 'n match with the Norwegian Tasting Menu and normal menu, thanks for sharing that. Some may lament the lack of spontaneity by having to book everything in advance and to an extent I agree given that spontaneity has been at the heart of our independently booked land-based holidays. The first and last time we did a package holiday was 23 years ago. Clearly that approach is not going to work on ships like Iona and Arvia, or any mega ship for that matter, so a plan of action executed with military precision was needed to ensure we could have dinner in the speciality dining venues. For us, it removes all the "dining stress" as you put it, which in turn makes for a relaxing holiday. Which, of course, is what it is all about.

It was the speciality dining venues that was one of the main reasons we booked a cruise. The additional charge is not considerable (although it does all tot up to a more considerable amount) given the types of dining on offer - eg Epicurean. We'll use the MDR and The Quays for breakfast and the occasional lunch but speciality dining is what we want to experience on the cruise. I also just don't fancy the hassle of virtual or physical queues with pagers and negotiating that all on an "app". We may give the buffet a go but I am very nervous about other people's lack of basic food hygiene and etiquette generally when it comes to buffets. All sorts of stories about this on this website as well as on social media. I just don't want to pick up a 'lergy on holiday because another cruiser can't be bothered to wash their hands before handling food. Of course this is the way cruise lines seem to be going. It's all part of the upselling and making as much money as possible from their customers whilst on board. However, we plan not to spend beyond using our £240 worth of OBC once onboard. We have prepaid the refresh drinks package as it has value to us, the wifi package as we need to be available 24/7 for family to contact us, and a couple of shore excursions (one with P&O, the other independently). I don't intend to do any shopping on board or book thermal spa sessions or spa treatments. The aim is to disembark with a nil account balance. P&O have made enough money out of us already!

The talent pool for cruise ships must surely extend beyond reality tv show contestants and Gary Barlow? P&O could be innovative, support our creative arts industry of the future and offer summer internships to talented performing arts school students or recent PA graduates. I do think P&O are a bit lazy when it comes to live music performance offerings.

To be honest, we're actually looking forward to a holiday where everything is planned out in advance. We're both pretty knackered from work for the last 6 months and feeling quite run down. This is the first ever holiday,(and cruise) where we just have to show up and everything is done for us and I am here for it. We usually freestyle our holidays, independently booking flights and accommodation, and deciding what to do and where to eat as we go. Or they have been holidays with a purpose - for instance we were out in Canada in March helping our daughter with the practicalities of settling in to her new life there. P&O do state on their website that speciality dining and entertainment is bookable 14 days before departure. Nothing is sold out yet this morning, although that will probably change over the course of the next few days. P&O could however emphasise that if you don't advance book you may not be able to so once on board due to lack of availability.

It's Matt Terry in the Limelight Club on our cruise. Never heard of him. Ex-X Factor. I'm happy to pass on this.

I did think about booking Afternoon tea for both sea days but I think we'll probably be a bit caked-out by the Friday, so just booked it for the first sea day on the Sunday. Afternoon tea is a lovely experience. And honestly, there's no such thing as a bad cake lol