My first cruise

[SarahHben]

58 minutes ago, Twogreynomads said:

Very enjoyable cruise diary Sarah. Have a safe journey home. Can you confirm whether the buffet is back to self service or not? Thanks Viv

Thank you. 
Yes, the buffet is self service. There is also a small self service area in The Quays as well as the food you get from the counters.

[SarahHben]

7 hours ago, DamianG said:

Thanks for your wonderful updates Sarah, you have a lovely writing style that brought your voyage to life for me and I'm sure many others (and it was never too long, wordy, or over detailed). I still enjoy getting up early and taking a few photos as well but I've never quite mastered the art of not disturbing the sleep of my spouse at the same time so if you've already cracked that well done! I'm also still fascinated by the whole docking and letting go of the lines procedures, even after many years of cruising.

 

Thanks too for all your wonderful photos, clearly you know what you're doing in that regard and I think the quality of the shots reflects the fact that you've been using a DSLR camera. What a pro!

 

It's such a shame that you weren't able to dock at Stavanger as I think that you'd have found plenty of things of interest there and certainly lots of photo opportunities. When our Iona itinerary kept getting changed due to high winds the captain went to great lengths (almost propaganda-like) to state that this was not a problem exclusive to high sided cruise ships but it feels to me that it's becoming more of a regular occurrence.

 

Have a lovely sea day today and safe travels home tomorrow.

 

Best

 

Damian

 

 

Thanks Damian.

The photos I’ve posted on here were taken with my phone. I have taken hundreds on my DSLR, I’m looking forward to going through them all when I get home. I’m hoping there might be one good enough to be made into a canvas or framed print for our home.

I use an app that uses photos from the phone to send postcards in the post so I always take lots of my phone as well as big camera.

[indiana123]

7 hours ago, Ranchi said:

Really enjoyed reading your reports. We should open a sweepstake on how long it will be before you book your next cruise!  

 

 

Me too.

 

I reckon they will be looking or booking by Sunday afternoon!!!🙂🤣

[SarahHben]

We actually booked cruise number 2 last year before even going on number 1 😁

We’re due to go to the Canaries in August 2023

 

[Harry Peterson]

2 hours ago, SarahHben said:

We actually booked cruise number 2 last year before even going on number 1 😁

We’re due to go to the Canaries in August 2023

 

That's sits well with your present cruise - a nice contrast. I've always thoroughly enjoyed the Canaries cruises for the mix they bring, but particularly for Madeira, which is just beautiful. Not too many sea days either, and we cruise very much for the port days.

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, SarahHben said:

We actually booked cruise number 2 last year before even going on number 1 😁

We’re due to go to the Canaries in August 2023

 

Great choice Sarah.

Are you sailing round trip from Southampton or flying to Tenerife and sailing from there and flying back to England ?.

Graham.

[SarahHben]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Great choice Sarah.

Are you sailing round trip from Southampton or flying to Tenerife and sailing from there and flying back to England ?.

Graham.

We’re doing a round trip from Southampton on Ventura. It will be nice to have a few sea days to relax into the holiday.

[Purdey16]

Thank you Sarah for you brilliant post over the past week your cruise family on here have all enjoyed reading your post and your first time thoughts of your very first cruise, it’s very much appreciated on here because we all know it takes time out of your holiday to do this , and you’ve got cruise number two booked up already so something to look forward to so no cruise blues when you get home .

Have a safe journey home and I hope your mum’s broken leg recovery goes well and she’s soon back up and running around .

[SarahHben]

We had a relaxing sea day yesterday, packing, reading, walking, sitting in the sun, shopping & eating 😁

I can’t remember if I said yesterday but my sister & brother in law booked yesterday  to do the same cruise in 2024. There was a big queue for booking cruises. 
I went and sat in the Crows Nest in the morning for a while, it’s a lovely area.

 

The Quays was pretty busy at lunch time so we took our food and ate it in the ClubHouse along with quite a few others. 
As we were finishing a magician called Steve Ashcroft came on stage, he was quite funny, there were some children at the front watching, calling out totally irrelevant titbits, it was very amusing. One little girl announced she had a tattoo & the guy said he didn’t really know what to do with that information, he managed to stay on track though 😂

 

I had intended to buy some jewellery on board rather than a handbag but, me being me, I bought a handbag early on in the cruise 🥴 

I looked at the Pandora rings, they didn’t have the one I liked in my size but then I found a nice Swarovski one and Mr B was very kind and bought it for me.

 

When we went back to the cabin we filmed a cabin video for YouTube, we found it helpful to see other people’s cabin videos. 

 

We ate our dinner in Coral restaurant and it’s not a complaint but service was slower and we realised we would miss the theatre show we had booked if we had pudding. Pudding won the toss 😁 

 

After getting changed and putting our cases out we went to the Club House and listened to singer Laura Evans, she has a beautiful voice and we really enjoyed the evening.

 

One lesson we learned last night is that empty hangers in an empty wardrobe clang around. At midnight we were taking them out and putting them all on the sofa!

 

We were awake by 6 this morning, got showered and dressed, did an idiot check of the cabin and went down for breakfast by 7am. Easily got some tables and helped mum & dad down with the wheelchair and hand luggage. We didn’t notice our final service bill outside our door so had to go back for that. 
no surprise but we spent much more than my sister & parents. My sister had £9 credit left!

 

Anyway we’re off soon, very sad!

 

[purplesea]

Thank you for taking the time to post about your first cruise. It has been an interesting and informative read. 

I hope you don't feel too down when you get home, although you have another cruise to look forward to. I have two booked and still suffered post cruise blues!🙄

Safe journey home and hope your Mum recovers soon.

[Angel57]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading about your cruise Sarah.
Start counting down to the next one now!

Safe journey home.

 

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, SarahHben said:

 

One lesson we learned last night is that empty hangers in an empty wardrobe clang around. At midnight we were taking them out and putting them all on the sofa!

 

Ha ha. We really should have warned you about that. 

[Peanut006]

Really enjoyed reading about your cruise, thank you for taking the time to write about it.

 

Hope your mum recovers quickly and that you have a safe journey home

 

Michelle

[SarahHben]

I had to finish my last post quickly because my family were leaving without me.

Just as we we’re getting up to leave we met @davecttr If you see this, it was lovely to meet you, shame it was on disembarkation day.

 

I expected disembarkation and finding our luggage to be chaos, but it was quite painless. The team were ahead of schedule so we disembarked about half an hour earlier than expected. It took a few minutes to locate our  cases, a little bit longer to find mum & dads, then we went straight though, directed to CPS who had out keys ready and we left in our car at what was due to be our disembarkation time, pretty smooth process.

 

We had a good journey home, 3 lots of washing done already. Daughter & Grandson are here so I haven’t got round to unpacking anything else apart from dirty washing and presents. Grandson is hugging the blow up Iona toy, it was a success!

 

Dad called half way home, he left mum’s Zimmer frame in the luggage hall 🥴

[bbtablet]

Glad you didn't do what we did one disembarcation once.

We got hold of one of the porters so we didn't have to carry our 2 heavy pieces of luggage out to the car park.

When we got to the car we discovered we had picked up one suitcase that was not ours, and were of course missing one of ours too!

It wasn't a case (sorry!) of simply walking back to the luggage shed because that was now the other side of customs!

Eventually our porter managed to beg permission for us all to retrace our steps, replace the wrong case and find the right one, all the time being closely watched by security.

I hope the owner of the "wrong" one wasn't looking for it for too long - we never saw them, thank goodness!

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, SarahHben said:

I had to finish my last post quickly because my family were leaving without me.

Just as we we’re getting up to leave we met @davecttr If you see this, it was lovely to meet you, shame it was on disembarkation day.

 

I expected disembarkation and finding our luggage to be chaos, but it was quite painless. The team were ahead of schedule so we disembarked about half an hour earlier than expected. It took a few minutes to locate our  cases, a little bit longer to find mum & dads, then we went straight though, directed to CPS who had out keys ready and we left in our car at what was due to be our disembarkation time, pretty smooth process.

 

We had a good journey home, 3 lots of washing done already. Daughter & Grandson are here so I haven’t got round to unpacking anything else apart from dirty washing and presents. Grandson is hugging the blow up Iona toy, it was a success!

 

Dad called half way home, he left mum’s Zimmer frame in the luggage hall 🥴

Thank you for letting us all share your cruise experience Sarah.

I really enjoyed reading and seeing your lovely photos.

I am delighted for you all that you enjoyed Iona and had a fantastic cruise.

Sending my best wishes to your mam that her broken foot heals quickly.

Graham.

[mrsgoggins]

I’m late to your posts Sarah but I’ve really enjoyed catching up tonight. We’re not on Iona until 2024 but I’ve loved the details you provided.  Can’t imagine why ever you thought your posts might be boring or too long; they were excellent, so thanks from me for a great evening’s read 🏆

[Ardennais]

It’s been great reading about your first cruise, surely the first of many! Many thanks. 

[Selbourne]

Sarah - I’ve had a very busy week, so I’ve not been on Cruise Critic much and have only just come across this thread. Thank you so much for providing such an informative and balanced perspective on Iona. We are booked on her next year and I have been wondering if we might regret it, but your review has reassured me quite a bit. 
 

As my wife is a wheelchair user your comments about this aspect have been useful. I need to accompany my wife in the disabled loos so I can imagine the reaction if I manage to trigger the sensor that opens the door! Having read mixed reviews about the food, your comments were reassuring and the photos looked encouraging. 

[SarahHben]

11 hours ago, bbtablet said:

Glad you didn't do what we did one disembarcation once.

We got hold of one of the porters so we didn't have to carry our 2 heavy pieces of luggage out to the car park.

When we got to the car we discovered we had picked up one suitcase that was not ours, and were of course missing one of ours too!

It wasn't a case (sorry!) of simply walking back to the luggage shed because that was now the other side of customs!

Eventually our porter managed to beg permission for us all to retrace our steps, replace the wrong case and find the right one, all the time being closely watched by security.

I hope the owner of the "wrong" one wasn't looking for it for too long - we never saw them, thank goodness!

Oh no! That must have been very stressful for you, not a relaxing end to your holiday.

 

The day we left for Southampton my sister had read about someone who took the wrong case, so I quickly found some bright ribbon in my sewing drawer and tied bits onto our case handles, it did make it much easier to spot.

[SarahHben]

10 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Thank you for letting us all share your cruise experience Sarah.

I really enjoyed reading and seeing your lovely photos.

I am delighted for you all that you enjoyed Iona and had a fantastic cruise.

Sending my best wishes to your mam that her broken foot heals quickly.

Graham.

Thank you. She did find it was swelling up after hopping round the cabin and various other times she escaped the wheelchair!
 

 

[SarahHben]

8 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Sarah - I’ve had a very busy week, so I’ve not been on Cruise Critic much and have only just come across this thread. Thank you so much for providing such an informative and balanced perspective on Iona. We are booked on her next year and I have been wondering if we might regret it, but your review has reassured me quite a bit. 
 

As my wife is a wheelchair user your comments about this aspect have been useful. I need to accompany my wife in the disabled loos so I can imagine the reaction if I manage to trigger the sensor that opens the door! Having read mixed reviews about the food, your comments were reassuring and the photos looked encouraging. 

I’m glad I’ve helped to reassure you a bit.

 

I am conscious that different people enjoy different things and have different tastes and opinions, and also that it was our first experience of cruising so everything was new to us.
Later I will start jotting down our summary of opinions and I’ll make sure I reflect his views as well because I was a bit like an excited child on Christmas morning.

 

One thing we didn’t expect after coming home was to feel like we’re still on a ship. We were swaying as we walked yesterday, and in bed it felt like the room was gently rolling. My husband said he woke up thinking he was still in the cabin because of the movement.

Its a very strange sensation 😂

[Eddie99]

Yet another of the things we could/should have warned you about.  It might take a couple of days to completed regain your land legs!

 

I’ll look forward to your retrospective when you’ve had time to sort your thoughts (and your laundry?)

[middlehaitch]

Sarah, like everyone else, I have really enjoyed the review of your first cruise. You have a lovely writing style and weren't long winded or boring at all. You were my bed time happy read.

I loved your photos and was going to say how much you and the mister look like the avatar that you use (lots of folk don't), only to find it gone today.

 

I have a dream/hope that one day when I'm back visiting my sisters in the UK that I will have a chance to pop on a cruise from Southampton, you have had me scouring the P&O offerings. I fancy the Canaries as it sounds exotic to me.

 

Cheers, heather 🥂

[gsmt47471015]

1 hour ago, SarahHben said:

I’m glad I’ve helped to reassure you a bit.

 

I am conscious that different people enjoy different things and have different tastes and opinions, and also that it was our first experience of cruising so everything was new to us.
Later I will start jotting down our summary of opinions and I’ll make sure I reflect his views as well because I was a bit like an excited child on Christmas morning.

 

One thing we didn’t expect after coming home was to feel like we’re still on a ship. We were swaying as we walked yesterday, and in bed it felt like the room was gently rolling. My husband said he woke up thinking he was still in the cabin because of the movement.

Its a very strange sensation 😂

That sensation happens to my other half every time ,and the longer the cruise the longer it takes to resolve itself, I must be immune as it has never affected me at all, glad you had a great time and as I suspected you have got the cruising bug, its the one addiction nobody wants to cure !!!!!