Iona Thoughts

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

I suppose it all boils down to what you personally want from your cruise.

We are comfortable on Aurora and Arcadia, they give us the style of cruising we enjoy. Maybe they are more expensive ppd, but to us, cheaper is not always better. We are happy to pay more for what we want.

Avril

We like Arcadia, but are unlikely to ever cruise on Aurora, as balcony cabins are imho not value for money. I'd rather pay a bit more, and get the Saga experience. 

 As sailing purely on Arcadia is not really feasible,  we  need to look at some of the bigger ships, in which case Princess appeals over P&O,  especially with their drinks package.  Plus, if you are prepared to fly, Princess offer more options in the Med than P&O,  including three week cruises. 

[Adawn47]

20 minutes ago, wowzz said:

if you are prepared to fly, Princess offer more options in the Med than P&O,  including three week cruises. 

Therein lies our problem wowzz, neither of us are able to fly anymore, hence our options are limited.

Avril

Edited August 25, 2021 by Adawn47

[Adawn47]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

If we are still talking RCI, then I never heard that once on Indy. There was nearly always a friendly interaction  but it was usually polite and respectful, something that would improve the P&O experience IMO.

I'll try to reply again now the site is up and running🙄

It definitely was Indy John, that's the only American ship we've been on, 2011, 19 nights to the Med. I'm not saying they weren't polite and respectful, just 'over enthusiastic'. It became pretty wearing after a few days.

Avril

[wowzz]

18 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Therein lies our problem wowzz, neither of us are able to fly anymore, hence our options are limited.

Avril

Understood.

We are flying less these days, but fortunately can still do so, when necessary.  

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I'll try to reply again now the site is up and running🙄

It definitely was Indy John, that's the only American ship we've been on, 2011, 19 nights to the Med. I'm not saying they weren't polite and respectful, just 'over enthusiastic'. It became pretty wearing after a few days.

Avril

I think it's important not to assume that all US lines are similar. There will be others who will have much more first hand knowledge than me, but I was always of the opinion that a line such as Carnival would be much more "in your face" than, say, Holland America,  with Princess somewhere in the middle. 

[zap99]

4 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

If we are still talking RCI, then I never heard that once on Indy. There was nearly always a friendly interaction  but it was usually polite and respectful, something that would improve the P&O experience IMO.

We have been on Indy 3 times from Southampton. It was mainly Brits, with a few Americans. Pound for pound the Brits won the obnoxiousness stakes.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, zap99 said:

We have been on Indy 3 times from Southampton. It was mainly Brits, with a few Americans. Pound for pound the Brits won the obnoxiousness stakes.

Ive done RCI 3 times. Once out of Southampton  (Adventure), once out of Barcelona (Symphony) and once out of Miami (Navigator). All cruises had a completely different pax ratio. Out of Southampton it was 95% Brits, out of Barcelona it was probably 25% brits,  25% Chinese, 40% American and 10% European. And out of US it was 80% Americans, 20% ROW. It makes the cruises very different. The British are certainly better at partying (and complaining- the guest services queue was always busy!)

 

I'm yet to try Celebrity or Princess out of the UK. All the times i've cruised with them has been part of a fly cruise, and predominantly American passengers. Would be interesting to see if it changes the feel onboard! 

 

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Glitterati said:

Ive done RCI 3 times. Once out of Southampton  (Adventure), once out of Barcelona (Symphony) and once out of Miami (Navigator). All cruises had a completely different pax ratio. Out of Southampton it was 95% Brits, out of Barcelona it was probably 25% brits,  25% Chinese, 40% American and 10% European. And out of US it was 80% Americans, 20% ROW. It makes the cruises very different. The British are certainly better at partying (and complaining- the guest services queue was always busy!)

 

I'm yet to try Celebrity or Princess out of the UK. All the times i've cruised with them has been part of a fly cruise, and predominantly American passengers. Would be interesting to see if it changes the feel onboard! 

 

We have done a couple of Celebrity cruises. One out of Southampton was mainly Brits and one in Alaska was mainly Americans with a good number of Aussies. It's nice to have a mix.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

It's nice to have a mix.

Absolutely! 

[Britboys]

On 8/24/2021 at 10:38 PM, wowzz said:

My next two cruises with Princess,  with a drinks package included,  are cheaper pn a pppd basis,  than my March 2022 cruise on Arcadia! 

Of late, the Princess Plus packages have been at very good prices. It will be interesting to see if they remain at a very competitive level.

[Britboys]

On 8/25/2021 at 1:23 PM, wowzz said:

I think it's important not to assume that all US lines are similar. There will be others who will have much more first hand knowledge than me, but I was always of the opinion that a line such as Carnival would be much more "in your face" than, say, Holland America,  with Princess somewhere in the middle. 

Would certainly agree about Princess. I would happily sail them if they had more smaller ships.

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Would certainly agree about Princess. I would happily sail them if they had more smaller ships.

Island and Coral Princess are only around 2000 pax, but obviously they don't operate out of the UK.

[Britboys]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Island and Coral Princess are only around 2000 pax, but obviously they don't operate out of the UK.

Yes, did Alaska on Coral in 2019. Absolutely loved the ship - as well as the Princess experience and the cruise itself.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Island and Coral Princess are only around 2000 pax, but obviously they don't operate out of the UK.

I think one of them might have been doing Venice cruises recently, so with the new restrictions on most cruise ships into Venice, they might be looking for a new home port.

[Cathygh]

Just got off Iona today. It was a pleasure to be on her and I especially loved the design of the Atrium which allows a lot of natural light in. Food was good but there are so many restaurants to choose from there seemed to be too much choice. We mainly ate in the MDR with one trip to Epicurean for me and Sindhu for DH. I like the MDR as it gives me a chance to eat food I don't often get at home. I can eat pizza and burgers any time. We only had one bad meal - on Celebration night our steak with a mushroom crust was missing the crust. 

We had an EA deluxe cabin. I think it's called deluxe as it's midships and might be a bit bigger than some of the others but it had none of the perks of the deluxe cabins on Azura, Ventura and Britannia. Apparently that is because on those ships they are called "Superior Deluxe." Next time I'll save my money and go for a standard cabin instead.

As we expected there are no drawers but lots of shelf and cupboard space. The bathroom is very good. My main complaint about the cabin is that there is a pipe is hidden in the wall which I think is part of the air con system. It's right by the bed and I had to use ear plugs every night so I could sleep. 

I met some people who had been on the shakedown and said it was greatly improved. There are still problems with the app especially when joining a virtual queue. It worked properly one night. The other nights it seems to have crashed. Last night we waited for an hour and didn't move up the queue so we decided to go to the MDR to see what was happening. They had been sending us notifications, which we didn't get. They sent us one to test the system while we stood there with my phone and I still didn't get it. I can only hope that they iron out these issues before they roll out the next stage.

We were very fortunate with the weather - ok there was some fog but but we had a few hot sunny days, perfect for scenic cruising. Captain Camby always told us where we were going and an eta so we could be on the right side of the ship for the cruise by. 

On most days there was a good choice of venues to listen to music, except on Friday afternoon when there was none at all, just beauty treatment sessions. If you want to see the acrobatic show, Rise, you need to get there an hour early to get a good seat. Ditto 710 club, never got in. It needs to be bookable to give everyone a chance. There were reports that people going to the first show stayed all night.

Oh yes, the incessant piped music, which I think was designed to be relaxing, was very irritating and was even played in the corridors. 

The staff were amazing (and I'm hard to please), nothing was too much trouble and they all did their best to give us a super time.

Any questions give me a shout.

[Britboys]

Thanks for the good, balanced review. Glad you had a good time.

[SarahHben]

20 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

Just got off Iona today. It was a pleasure to be on her and I especially loved the design of the Atrium which allows a lot of natural light in. Food was good but there are so many restaurants to choose from there seemed to be too much choice. We mainly ate in the MDR with one trip to Epicurean for me and Sindhu for DH. I like the MDR as it gives me a chance to eat food I don't often get at home. I can eat pizza and burgers any time. We only had one bad meal - on Celebration night our steak with a mushroom crust was missing the crust. 

We had an EA deluxe cabin. I think it's called deluxe as it's midships and might be a bit bigger than some of the others but it had none of the perks of the deluxe cabins on Azura, Ventura and Britannia. Apparently that is because on those ships they are called "Superior Deluxe." Next time I'll save my money and go for a standard cabin instead.

A helpful review, thank you. 
We have one of those cabins next year. We’re happy to pay extra to get a bit more wiggle room. I don’t suppose you have any photos of the cabin or balcony that you could post?

[davecttr]

Iona last week. In Glasshouse do not choose the octopus, revolting. 1000 more passengers this week but i was told the numbers will drop again next week. The quays is good, especially the fish and chips, proper chips crunchy on outside and soft in middle. cod good as well with excellent batter. You choose your table in the buffet but don't get to handle any of the food at the serveries, your choices are plated for you.. they do man the tea points at busy times but at 6.30 in the morning us dozen regular early risers got our own tea! The promenade deck 8 cabins are every bit as bad as mentioned elsewhere, got some photos to post. Luckily I was on deck 9 midship deluxe. no noise in the cabin except some faint sound from the 716 club which stopped just after midnight.

[SarahHben]

7 hours ago, davecttr said:

Iona last week. In Glasshouse do not choose the octopus, revolting. 1000 more passengers this week but i was told the numbers will drop again next week. The quays is good, especially the fish and chips, proper chips crunchy on outside and soft in middle. cod good as well with excellent batter. You choose your table in the buffet but don't get to handle any of the food at the serveries, your choices are plated for you.. they do man the tea points at busy times but at 6.30 in the morning us dozen regular early risers got our own tea! The promenade deck 8 cabins are every bit as bad as mentioned elsewhere, got some photos to post. Luckily I was on deck 9 midship deluxe. no noise in the cabin except some faint sound from the 716 club which stopped just after midnight.

Did you enjoy your cruise?

[davecttr]

45 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

Did you enjoy your cruise?

Yes, very relaxing and i put on 7lb due to all those full english breakfasts. Did a fair bit of whale watching and got 8 good dolphin sitings, one probable pilot whale and a very definite Minke. Did not go to the theatre as it appears to follow the P&O tradition of very high volume which drowns any talent the cast may have, I don't like loud noises anyway. Did not use the main freedom dining rooms apart from the peninsular lunch buffet on embarkation day. I found there was plenty of choice elsewhere. The app was interesting, i joined 2 virtual queues but no need as they had plenty of spare tables. So the smart phone went back into the safe for the duration. the entire ship WiFi went down one day and I got a free meal at the Glasshouse that day. The crew seemed very happy and I only witnessed one grumpy passenger complaining about the background music volume. I agree sometimes it is too loud and this modern 'druggy gangster talking over a backing track' stuff just does not fit the passenger demographic. Much better when they played Foreign language stuff. Celebration night did not include any celebrations and the formal venues were the main dining rooms, epicurian, sindhu and the captains table which took over the beach house that evening, only the Crows nest bar had a formal requirement, i don't count sindhu. I would put evidence of formal wear about about 50%.The overall experience was different to normal times. Anyway i have another cruise booked on Iona to the Canary Islands next January, more spanish music please

[SarahHben]

14 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Yes, very relaxing and i put on 7lb due to all those full english breakfasts. Did a fair bit of whale watching and got 8 good dolphin sitings, one probable pilot whale and a very definite Minke. Did not go to the theatre as it appears to follow the P&O tradition of very high volume which drowns any talent the cast may have, I don't like loud noises anyway. Did not use the main freedom dining rooms apart from the peninsular lunch buffet on embarkation day. I found there was plenty of choice elsewhere. The app was interesting, i joined 2 virtual queues but no need as they had plenty of spare tables. So the smart phone went back into the safe for the duration. the entire ship WiFi went down one day and I got a free meal at the Glasshouse that day. The crew seemed very happy and I only witnessed one grumpy passenger complaining about the background music volume. I agree sometimes it is too loud and this modern 'druggy gangster talking over a backing track' stuff just does not fit the passenger demographic. Much better when they played Foreign language stuff. Celebration night did not include any celebrations and the formal venues were the main dining rooms, epicurian, sindhu and the captains table which took over the beach house that evening, only the Crows nest bar had a formal requirement, i don't count sindhu. I would put evidence of formal wear about about 50%.The overall experience was different to normal times. Anyway i have another cruise booked on Iona to the Canary Islands next January, more spanish music please

I’m glad you enjoyed it, a free Glasshouse meal worked out well 😊I’ve seen lots of comments about poor WiFi on board.

How was your deluxe cabin/balcony? I think the one you had was in the same area as the one we have booked for next year.

 

[davecttr]

17 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

I’m glad you enjoyed it, a free Glasshouse meal worked out well 😊I’ve seen lots of comments about poor WiFi on board.

How was your deluxe cabin/balcony? I think the one you had was in the same area as the one we have booked for next year.

 

I will upload some photos later today showing the cabin and balcony, must put some washing on and go for a gentle stroll. Someone measured once around the Iona prom deck as half a mile. i reckon I was averaging several miles a day.

 

edit - forgot to mention the launderettes are open, maximum of 4 users

Edited August 29, 2021 by davecttr

[jaydee6969]

43 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Yes, very relaxing and i put on 7lb due to all those full english breakfasts.

 

I am so glad you enjoyed it, like we did.  I have got to be a bit more strict on the next cruise to stop too much weight gain, and dare I say it find the gym and perhaps sign up to spin classes!!!

 

Good to see the launderettes are back in action, not that we have ever used them, but a positive step forward for cruising.

 

Had a strange day yesterday though, we were at the in laws celebrating their golden wedding anniversary and they mentioned they want to do a cruise.  After a bit of discussion they narrowed it down to Northern Lights or Canaries but from Southampton.  Then they said what about a Xmas one next year.  Looks like today I will be booking 3 cabins on Arvia for the family!!

[Son of Anarchy]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

I will upload some photos later today showing the cabin and balcony, must put some washing on and go for a gentle stroll. Someone measured once around the Iona prom deck as half a mile. i reckon I was averaging several miles a day.

 

edit - forgot to mention the launderettes are open, maximum of 4 users

Good to read that the launderette's are open.  Even on a one weeker I like to try get stuff washed before taking it home.  Don't bother ironing it till we get home though.

[Cathygh]

17 hours ago, SarahHben said:

A helpful review, thank you. 
We have one of those cabins next year. We’re happy to pay extra to get a bit more wiggle room. I don’t suppose you have any photos of the cabin or balcony that you could post?

Sorry I took pics of the scenery, not so much of the inside. We had 14.428, great views, almost in the dead centre of the bulge. It has the bed by the door end, not the window, so if I had a choice I would book one with the bed by the window. There is an Iona cabins group on faceache and someone has posted how to work out which is which. BTW the tv is on the wall in the middle of the wall but you can angle it towards the bed. The fridge is cold for once. I forgot to say in my review beware of the lift doors, they close fast and hard.