Iona Queries

[The Yorkshire Cruiser]

I'm on the next Iona cruise and would be grateful for any help with the following:

 

- Disembarkation - what is the earliest time? I need to be off the ship ASAP and plan to carry my own luggage. Is it still possible to do this early?

 

- Onboard account - is it possible to pay part cash and part card? On Ventura I believe I registered my card, paid so much cash and then the rest was charged to the card. 

 

- Main Dining Rooms - with all four being Freedom Dining is there any difference between them (such as decor) or is it just a case of searching out the one with the shortest queue each evening? I imagine we'd like to give all four a try. Also, can we request larger tables or will we be kept as a two 'for Covid'?

 

 

[TravelMadBrits]

11 minutes ago, The Yorkshire Cruiser said:

I'm on the next Iona cruise and would be grateful for any help with the following:

 

- Disembarkation - what is the earliest time? I need to be off the ship ASAP and plan to carry my own luggage. Is it still possible to do this early?

 

- Onboard account - is it possible to pay part cash and part card? On Ventura I believe I registered my card, paid so much cash and then the rest was charged to the card. 

 

- Main Dining Rooms - with all four being Freedom Dining is there any difference between them (such as decor) or is it just a case of searching out the one with the shortest queue each evening? I imagine we'd like to give all four a try. Also, can we request larger tables or will we be kept as a two 'for Covid'?

 

 

Hi

just recently off - disembarkation and taking your own luggage off - you have to go to guest services and register to do so and ask for a time. I think the earliest was 6am. We got off at 7 and it was very quiet and very quick. From leaving our room, getting the lift and to the car took 15 minutes!

 

You can add cash any time on to your account at guest services. 
 

On the 11/9 sailing only 3 of the MDRs were open. We used Coral and Pearl and they had the same menu (we asked) and looked very similar, decor colour was different. 
 

I don’t think they were mixing groups of people if not travelled together, we didn’t ask for a larger table so someone else may know. 
 

Have a great time, Claudine 

[The Yorkshire Cruiser]

5 minutes ago, TravelMadBrits said:

Hi

just recently off - disembarkation and taking your own luggage off - you have to go to guest services and register to do so and ask for a time. I think the earliest was 6am. We got off at 7 and it was very quiet and very quick. From leaving our room, getting the lift and to the car took 15 minutes!

 

You can add cash any time on to your account at guest services. 
 

On the 11/9 sailing only 3 of the MDRs were open. We used Coral and Pearl and they had the same menu (we asked) and looked very similar, decor colour was different. 
 

I don’t think they were mixing groups of people if not travelled together, we didn’t ask for a larger table so someone else may know. 
 

Have a great time, Claudine 

Thanks - we should be able to make an early train then 🙂

 

One more thing (sorry) - do you know if drinks packages were available to purchase on board? There were a few stories of it being sold out on the early Iona cruises

[TravelMadBrits]

No prob! Yes it was available we saw early on but didn’t take much notice as we decided not to bother due to the bar menus being very different at each venue and quite a few drinks we liked were over the £6.95 price, which you then had to pay the full price minus 20%. 
We saw the bottles of spirits to purchase for your room and these were in 1 litre bottles and really good prices. 

[Harryjacobs]

In all fairness I thought the drinks package overpriced.

The cost of drinks is on par with high street pubs and I would have needed to drink 9 pints of beer just to break even.  I opted to pay as I go and didnt have that nagging feeling that I MUST drink to get my pounds worth!