Bluemanc100

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Iona is now south of Falmouth. I wonder if she will take shelter in Torbay to let the storm pass, before heading into Southampton overnight?

Due into Soton at 05:30 tomorrow so I expect she’s sheltering 

8 hours ago, daveoc said:

According to a post by P&O on their Twitter account we will get £75pp for delay.

Not sure if that is good or not.

£120 pp for suites 

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I would be quite happy to receive compensation by means of Radley bags..

 

I have bought Radley onboard, and find that they are usually priced less than they are in high street shops, and if not using OBC, can take advantage of my loyalty club discount. 

The compensation for the lost day is £75 per head for mortals or £120 per head for suite dwellers… heard this from a friend “in the know”

42 minutes ago, CarlaMarie said:

Queen Elizabeth is due in on Saturday and currently is still coming in as planned.

 

I hope the following Iona cruise isn't disrupted too much for the passengers.

It’s scheduled to be 24 hours late departing so far… 

Just now, WINDSONG2 said:

 

We are also on this cruise.   So disappointed about the delay.   Onboard credit really does not make up for losing a whole day and possibly one port day.

 

Iona is just off the tip of Spain at the moment and the weather looks fine there, so perhaps the problem is Southampton.   We have friends on Iona at the moment, so wonder what compensation they will have for a delayed return.

The compensation is an extra day on board with a slight sea chop 😉

18 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Just seen announced Iona will not be arriving in Southampton until Sunday instead of Saturday due to bad weather. 

I know it can't be helped, but really feel for the excited cruisers who's plans have to change rapidly. 

Andy 

I don’t see why they couldn’t have cut todays stop in Lisbon short or travel at speed to dock in Soton on Friday… We’re on the cruise and feel pretty disappointed about this..

We’ve been on a Britannia cruise before that did exactly this and docked on the Friday because of forecast high winds.. This is no different… We lose 24 hours on board in exchange for a token non-refundable credit as compensation for the delay 

G138 now delayed (departure) by 24 hours… 

Disappointing but hey ho

The passengers on board get an extra (choppy) night and we lose 24 hours 🤬

On 10/23/2021 at 3:44 PM, Bin man said:

Just done  our plf's what a long winded form .At least I managed to get a 4 page print out so good to go .Just one thing left to print health questionnaire 3 days before departure. Nearly have printed a book for the both of us to carry onboard . Well at least we will know what to print out next time !

Why not just save them as documents on your phone or tablet?? 

On 10/21/2021 at 1:34 PM, Son of Anarchy said:

A friend of mine used someone else's code when flying back from Spain last week.

We’re also on G138 leaving this weekend..

I went to the Champions League final in Porto earlier this year and while there I met lots of fans who had copied the PCR certificates and other travel documents.. I was asked about my documents but there were zero checks on my way back into the UK though I did receive a call from National Health Wales to ask me about my trip and whether I had any symptoms or not.. I was waiting for the result of the day 2 test at that point (which never came) but they told me that I had no need to isolate..   A farce IMHO

We had a cabin on Deck 4 for a staycation in September… The space was excellent with a window seat, rectangular layout and a very good sized bathroom… I can’t comment on Deck 5 but we are on G138 at the end of the month and opted for Deck 4 again… Midships this time (we were forward but they upgraded us to a different cabin)

The best thing about Deck 4 was being first in the lift on the way up as they had a 4 to a lift policy in place for the last cruise meaning they were hard to get at rush hour.. We had no issues because we were generally first in 

10 hours ago, indiana123 said:

They Quays is a great place for lunch on Iona.  The fish and chips were the best,  the Asian Fusion was too.   Believe it or not, the Southern Fried Chicken was a lot better than KFC.  It wasn't a tacky place either, similar to the buffet in atmosphere.

 

Well worth a visit.

+1 for the Quays… We only tried the Katsu Curry and breakfast so we’ll definitely be back there on G138 at the end of November!!

On 9/15/2021 at 2:23 PM, Britboys said:

Yes, it would make sense to have one towel per person in the cabin, which can be put in a bin on deck when used. New towels could be placed in the cabin at evening service.

There’s no evening service currently is there? We didn’t have one on Iona last month anyway 

On 10/12/2021 at 11:04 AM, emam said:

I have just been reading on the face about an incident on Iona with regards to sunbeds. Unfortunately I can't find the original post just replies, but it seems that a lady's father was attacked after moving some towels from a sunbed. The lady said that her dad is ok and that the doctor had given him some dressings and he had to stay out of the pools and hot tubs.

 

From what I can gather a lady clawed his arm after he removed a towel from a chair that no none had sat in for four hours (along with another three saved chairs). There is a photo and the man has a couple of bruises along with two red bloody marks on his arm. The security guards had said that they could have the lady arrested at Southampton, but the man didn't want to do so.

 

The post ends with P&O are looking at ways to stop sunbed saving - not much good for her father but hopefully will help in the future.

It’s simple (assuming there are enough deckhands).. the staff remove towels on unoccupied chairs and beds after   30 minutes.. they are then made available to other guests.

We saw that model used on a Caribbean cruise and it worked well..

The worst case we’ve seen personally was a couple who had placed towels on 8 separate beds as they wanted them in different positions as the sun moved round the deck … somebody twigged what they were doing and the ones they weren’t using had towels removed 

On 10/11/2021 at 8:59 PM, picsa said:

Speaking politely to the relevant head waiters resulted in tables becoming available. 

We tried that for the Olive Grove.. no joy

On 10/9/2021 at 11:41 PM, Technoman2 said:

If anyone really wants to indulge themselves how about paying £40 a day to get access to the retreat!

I nearly needed a stiff drink when they told me that. HOW MUCH🥃

Even Dick Turpin had the good grace to wear a mask BUT WAIT they were wearing a mask. lol

 

It was £40 per day on our cruise last month but if you booked it for the week it was ~£20 per day.. it’s the first thing we’ll buy when we sail next month 

On 10/5/2021 at 5:07 PM, Britboys said:

Would have been a nice gesture by P&O to allow free internet access to the Gov.uk website...

It was free last month… 

On 10/9/2021 at 12:31 PM, Rebjon said:

Thanks for your posts Techoman2. How was disembarkation in Southampton - could you just walk off the ship, pick your bags up and walk out or did you have to queue to have anything checked? We always book a fixed time train home as it's cheaper so need to know if there will be any delays getting to the station.

We sailed on Iona last month and whilst we did have a disembarkation time we just walked off once we’d had breakfast with no issues 

On 9/29/2021 at 9:03 AM, bobstheboy said:

I am disappointed that things are slipping . On both my cruises mask wearing and 4 to a lift were followed by all, the way the OP comments, it appears the 4 to a lift was totally ignored. Is that correct ?

We did a week on Iona in September on a “staycation” and we only saw the four to a lift rule broken once when an extra passenger was invited in as he’d been waiting for some time

We enjoyed the ship so we booked the two week cruise to Spain on October 27th.. Our cruise was relaxed as we had no stops and therefore (I assume) no temperature checking was going on at the dining rooms.. the booking App dropped off twice in the week we were onboard and was the main criticism but staff worked around the issues.. We did realise that “you snooze you lose” as they say and after midweek there was zero availability in speciality restaurants.

I agree that Sindu is no longer anything special but the Olive Grove was good.. didn’t try the burger in the Keel & Cow but will next time… The Quays were a highlight for us as they offered some great options for breakfast and lunch… I tried the Katsu Chicken but have yet to try the fish and chips or burgers though they looked excellent 

Only did one show as we didn’t like the masks and lack of bar service but we really enjoyed the shows in the atrium and the club where the atmosphere was much more relaxed 

We heard lots of people saying that “it’s not the P&O we remember” which is true but overall it was easily enough for us to book again to do the things we missed…  For the money (we saved £100 each as P&O friends and family using a friend’s code who works for P&O) we really don’t think you can do much better… ~£46 each per night for full board with free entertainment.. It’s surely a 10 from Len! 

in no particular order I’ll be eating in the Quays to try the the options we missed, more visits to the Olive Grove, 710 club which was well worth queuing for and I’ll use the gym next time!!