P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[Purdey16]

[Guest ccpm]

Lovely photos of Iona. My December cruise is booked on her and reading reviews it seems a lot of folks share your views.  I am still going to give it a go I'm sure the TA will ban me if I change it again. Editing to add am I the only person who hates that Pea and Chervil thingy as a starter? I have tried about 5 times.

Edited February 26, 2022 by ccpm
Addition

[Purdey16]

 

This one caught my breath strong but lovely 

[Peanut006]

6 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

Lovely photos, makes me want to get on a cruise ship right now

[Purdey16]

2 minutes ago, ccpm said:

Lovely photos of Iona. My December cruise is booked on her and reading reviews it seems a lot of folks share your views.  I am still going to give it a go I'm sure the TA will ban me if I change it again. 

Yes a lovely ship for some but it’s made our minds up to cancel our cruise on Arvia in January and stick to the small ships we like  and possibly adult only, not liking children in hot tubs age 2 etc and rules being broken. 

[yorkshirephil]

23 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

Good morning everyone from cloudy/rain in fuerteventura on our second week on Iona , been through a few storms as you all know last week back home but the first week was rough and we are on deck 5 and I nearly fell out of bed , back in Southampton last Saturday and then heavens opened up and we were ready for our next storm heading out to Madeira, but we’re unable to dock due to winds , so disappointed after 19 years of waiting to visit again, so for us we had 6 days at sea before getting off , I haven’t read through all the thread so not sure if others on the first cruise made any comments about the first week, anyway my thoughts on Iona is in the middle really we don’t hate her or love her , lovely ship , fantastic happy crew, lovely food in all restaurants included or pay extra, and brilliant entertainment, don’t like the atrium too big and cold and cheap looking with all the silver and the furniture, people tend to sit there for hours or all day reading and doing crosswords and find it hard to get a seat for a coffee and move on .

that’s our main dislikes so not much , plenty of entertainments to choose from to suit everyone.

Our cabin on deck 5 window seat with a big couch and big tv and big shower with good power is all brilliant, we have the last cabin next to the gym and don’t hear any noise whatsoever from there, but we do have noise from the limelight club after hours above us until midnight but that doesn’t worry us the big problem being the lifeboats above us that squeak all day and night and m7ch worse during rough weather.

Im at my sisters today for the internet so will send some photos so I hope some don’t get annoyed for some food porn 😉and will answer any questions if I can .

I will give you a wave, we are sat on the balcony and can see the coast of Fuerteventura. We had a cloudy start with drizzle but it is brightening up now, if you get the same weather as us it looks OK for the rest of the day with sun and cloud forecast, temp of 72oC in old money.

[Angel57]

8 minutes ago, ccpm said:

Lovely photos of Iona. My December cruise is booked on her and reading reviews it seems a lot of folks share your views.  I am still going to give it a go I'm sure the TA will ban me if I change it again. Editing to add am I the only person who hates that Pea and Chervil thingy as a starter? I have tried about 5 times.

Agree. Hate peas anyway so would avoid. All the other food looks so lovely……

[Jennizor]

We were originally booked on this cruise but I moved it to next February instead. The food looks amazing, I hope the standard continues and it tastes as good as it looks. 
 

Enjoy your second week. 

[CRUISENSNOOZE]

15 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

Yes a lovely ship for some but it’s made our minds up to cancel our cruise on Arvia in January and stick to the small ships we like  and possibly adult only, not liking children in hot tubs age 2 etc and rules being broken. 

Oh don't say that, we are on Iona next week. We are just so pleased to be getting away for a couple of weeks. Mind you, haven't really explained to hubby how large this ship really is!!. He still hankers after FO and Black Watch and no children...oops.

 

Purdy...which speciality restaurants were your pictures taken from or is that the MDR?

Edited February 26, 2022 by CRUISENSNOOZE

[Son of Anarchy]

Off to find a sports bar with this afternoon's rugby on.  Hopefully wont end up too worse for wear and still be able to have another fantastic meal here in Krakow.

[Purdey16]

We went in the affinity pool at 7 in morning while docking in Tenerife and the hot tubs on the back of the ship are lovely , breakfast this morning 😋 ps don’t anyone tell I’ve posted a picture of husband in tub 😎

[Vampiress88]

23 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

Yes a lovely ship for some but it’s made our minds up to cancel our cruise on Arvia in January and stick to the small ships we like  and possibly adult only, not liking children in hot tubs age 2 etc and rules being broken. 

what is the age for the hot tubs? Would have thought kids needed to be a lot older than 2. Especially if they still have nappies. 

[Purdey16]

7 minutes ago, CRUISENSNOOZE said:

Oh don't say that, we are on Iona next week. We are just so pleased to be getting away for a couple of weeks. Mind you, haven't really explained to hubby how large this ship really is!!. He still hankers after FO and Black Watch and no children...oops.

 

Purdy...which speciality restaurants were your pictures taken from or is that the MDR?

Epicurean twice , the keel & cow with the prime minister’s burger, glass house, and the chef’s table , and also the limelight club , but the mdr has been good as well but I’ve not posted everything, the only one we haven’t done is the Sindu which we might do next week and the ice cream afternoon tea which looked fun 

[mrsgoggins]

34 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

 

IMG_9199.MOV 34.86 MB · 4 downloads  

This one caught my breath strong but lovely 

 

Very impressive.  I loved your photos and have a trip booked on Iona, but not until next year, so you have definitely whetted my appetite as it were 😉

[Purdey16]

7 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

what is the age for the hot tubs? Would have thought kids needed to be a lot older than 2. Especially if they still have nappies. 

The age limit is 8 and above and a time limit of 15 mins and no more than 4 but this family was 6 and spent a hour in it 

[Vampiress88]

2 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

The age limit is 8 and above and a time limit of 15 mins and no more than 4 but this family was 6 and spent a hour in it 

One of mine will be 8 and I actually can’t imagine her going in a whirlpool. She just wouldn’t be bothered. Gonna try the splash zone though cos that looks fun and best is I can stay dry. 
do wish they had a kids pool like the do on azura though. 

[Dermotsgirl]

Thank you Purdey for the photos, looks lovely. My last surviving cruise is on Iona next March, so hopefully I’ll be able to try her for myself 

[Purdey16]

2 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

One of mine will be 8 and I actually can’t imagine her going in a whirlpool. She just wouldn’t be bothered. Gonna try the splash zone though cos that looks fun and best is I can stay dry. 
do wish they had a kids pool like the do on azura though. 

Yes we had a quick walk past the childrens area and it looks really cool and lots to do ,

last week we had 400 children on board and didn’t see any until the last day , this week we only have 119 and see them everywhere , all well behaved though, so 

ast weeks cruise was 3,100 adults and 400 children, this week is 3,700 adults and 100 children 

[Purdey16]

Sorry 119 children reception said 

[grapau27]

4 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Lovely photos Sandra.

I recognise some of Epicurean restaurants meals.

Graham.

 

 

[purplesea]

Glad to hear you are enjoying your cruise and lovely photos.

We boarded Iona mid January and like you we didn't make it into Maderia due to winds.

I can't make up my mind if I like her on not. The cabins to me were very narrow and possibly because we could only access our cabin by the midships lift found it more difficult, with having my mother in a wheelchair,  to access certain areas of the ship without having to change lifts!! 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

[Purdey16]

We did find a lot of people were be moved cabins because a lot of practice goes on during the night in the skydome with music and lights and the pulley’s and in the atrium with the noise of the pulley wires going with practice, so cabins above atrium and near skydome will be noisy , this is information from someone I talked too from cabins from atrium 

[AndyMichelle]

'Lady Michelle' and I visited Highclere Castle today, it was fantastic. 

The history was fascinating and the Egyptian exhibition mind blowing... 

It was a great day. 

Hope you all had a good day. 

Andy

[Vampiress88]

5 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Yes we had a quick walk past the childrens area and it looks really cool and lots to do ,

last week we had 400 children on board and didn’t see any until the last day , this week we only have 119 and see them everywhere , all well behaved though, so 

ast weeks cruise was 3,100 adults and 400 children, this week is 3,700 adults and 100 children 

we are going during school time. Shocking I know but hey ho. Unfortunately couldn’t get any good deals on during school holidays, we only seemed to drop on with the 2020 one that turned out cursed it seems. 
 

always tend to get older people who stop and talk to my two and it will be mid November so assuming there won’t be many other kids. Hopefully the club will be on cos they like that. 

[Presto2]

Just been looking at this amazing photos of the food and Iona. Thanks so much for posting -- we are now off to put on our evening meal ... something with frozen chips me thinks 😉

 

Seriously, thank you for taking the time to post. The clip of the cocktail with the sound of a piano in the background took us back to many a happy cruise. x