Iona and Norway ,an honest opinion

[Dermotsgirl]

From what I've read, passengers generally like the ship, but the itineraries are somewhat of a mystery tour.

 

We all accept that weather can cause missed ports, but in the case of Iona, it sometimes seems as if there's only a slim chance of keeping to the originally planned itinerary.  

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Billish said:

But Iona's tonnage is 50% greater. I'm not a sailor, so not sure if that is significant.

Displacement isn't necessarily how big it is,just how heavy.

[P&O SUE]

I’d like to try Iona but as is often said it doesn’t seem a good fit for the Fjords. 
Shame as I want to do Norway again as when I went before it was early season and all the waterfalls had frozen!

[Host Sharon]

21 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I am disappointed that Iona seems to be struggling with windy weather, she has azipods and these should make her far more manoeverable than all the other P&O ships, except for Arcadia.

I wonder if in fact the lack of azipod ships to train on in the P&0 and Princess fleets could be the major problem.  On our Celebrity Eclupse cruises the Captains could turn her on a sixpence and on one occasion in strong winds we managed to dock in Stavanger when 3 other ships failed.

Not an issue, P&O captains train at a simulator in Holland as well as have placements on other azipod ships such as Queen Victoria etc.

[grapau27]

19 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

The tonnage figures we all quote are based on enclosed volume and not really the weight, although it will obviously be higher, having 2 extra decks and being wider and a bit longer.

I did however notice that Iona seems underpowered compared to Eclipse at 61.7mw vs 67.2 me, but there is no comparable propulsion data on wikiperdia. However Eclipses top speed is 24 kts  vs 21 kts, so it does seem Iona may not have the same oomph.

Good points John.

A lot of people don't realise the Displacement weight of Iona is less than half of the 186,000 ton advertised.

[grapau27]

23 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Having just returned from a week long cruise on Iona to Norway here are our thoughts .

Firstly the ship itself is very modern with lots of light flooding in and feels quite spacious in all the main areas , we had 4600 pax on this trip but it never felt crowded, embarkation and disembarkation were pretty smooth and the level of service was overall very good ,but allowances had to be made for quite a number of new staff who were "bedding in". The self serving eating areas had an American feel to them in the way they were set out, (the quays and the horizon) and at times it was easy to forget you were on a P and O ship, there were some pinch areas at peak times but nothing major and we always managed to find seats, something that doesn't always happen on the other ships in the fleet. It was evident that with this been the new flagship that the best is put on show with excellent staffing levels and top end entertainment, we pre booked the limelight club and the whole deal was one of the best we have had on a cruise ship , top marks there P and O. Food was to a good standard everywhere we ate and drink prices had not increased as much as we thought they would.

One or two things were a little disappointing, though some of it is not the companies fault, we accept that this is a family ship but the standard of some passengers, and their offspring left a lot to be desired,  a great deal of people on board were the new to cruising that P and O are trying to attract and allowance has to be made for there exuberance , but good manners cost nothing and throwing food around in the buffet and throwing water from the infinity pool isn't acceptable, our thought was that at least one pool ,Infiniti perhaps, should be adults only and also the same for the jacuzzi, they were nearly always full of unsupervised kids.

As for the Itinerary it soon became obvious that this ship is not suited to the Norwegian Fjords, first two ports Stavanger and Olden went ok but then it went pear shaped as the captain announces that due to EXPECTED  high wind the Hellisyilt port is cancelled and also the scenic cruising part of Gerainger but we will go to Alesund instead ,which is nothing like a Fjord, and finally due to EXPECTED storm conditions coming from Britain we will leave our last port Haugesand at 1.30 to avoid it ,another port that looks like it could be anywhere other than a Fjord, as we had first time cruisers with us this was a major, major disappointment as apart from a few hills at Olden they never got see what they had booked for ,we did feel really bad about this as we had sold them the proper Fjords and they ended up with some towns that could have been anywhere. As for the expected bad weather we never saw or felt any of it .Iona is a lovely ship but just cannot cut it to these destinations and a lot of other people will suffer the same issues of missed ports etc 

Would we go on Iona again? Certainly not to Norway and not anywhere near school holidays, it is a very stylish ship with lots of up to date facilities but to be honest the type of people that P and O are trying to attract on these ships are not always the people we want to socialize with , we are just average working class people but the behaviour of some passengers showed that cruising was just a floating Butlins to them, others will no doubt disagree but as the title suggests an honest opinion 

Very interesting read thank you.

We have been on Iona twice and booked on her for next year and agree with most of your comments.

Fortunately we always avoid school holidays.

Graham.

[Thejuggler]

21 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Iona may have a lot more passengers but she is not massively bigger than Eclipse.

Iona length 1130ft, beam 138ft, total decks 19.

Eclipse length 1040ft, beam 121 ft, total decks 17.

 

You don't need a large increase in decks or length to have a very large increase in sail area.  IIRC from a talk by a Celebrity officer Eclipse has a sail area of at least a hectare.

 

A 10 knot wind against 26,000 sq m of steelwork is a huge amount of force, kinetic energy is based on velocity squared, so stopping a ship isn't easy once the wind gets hold of it.

[Essex Racer]

Was on Iona 2nd week of July. Lovely ship but struggled to put finger on what was missing. Plastic pint glasses inside really!!

 

As for guest attire in the evening - so many shorts / sweat bottoms / t-shirts and trainers. First night 2 ladies in main restaurant for dinner in swimming costumes and shorts!!

Only 2 of the planned ports visited and third substituted, forth was extra day at see in the end - all we got was an announcement from the captain.

 

Luckily no more P&O cruises booked…

[gsmt47471015]

Yes this was the cruise we were on, to be fair on the first night in the MDR a lot of people turned up in what they had travelled in, which is common on most cruises (not sure people travelled in swimming costumes 🤣🤣) We always like to shower and change but accept other people are different, on the celebration night we were very impressed with how people "rose to the occasion" but after that it did go down hill , if the dress code is smart casual meaning no shorts etc then it should have been enforced, if passengers can see that they will be allowed in wearing said shorts etc then others will think, if they can I will.

[Cruiser5137]

I'm thinking of forming a new and, from reading many of these comments, what I imagine will be a rather elite club. It'll be called the 'I did an Iona cruise to Norway and got to all four ports!' club. 

[gsmt47471015]

3 minutes ago, Cruiser5137 said:

I'm thinking of forming a new and, from reading many of these comments, what I imagine will be a rather elite club. It'll be called the 'I did an Iona cruise to Norway and got to all four ports!' club. 

Probably fit them all in a telephone box 😂😂

[Valfan]

6 hours ago, Cruiser5137 said:

I'm thinking of forming a new and, from reading many of these comments, what I imagine will be a rather elite club. It'll be called the 'I did an Iona cruise to Norway and got to all four ports!' club. 

I'm booked on Iona for 3 weeks time. For over 3 years now I've thought about all I'd look forward to on my longed-for return to cruising. Now that it's nearly here, after reading many of these comments, I find myself thinking, "I'm really excited to get back to cruising and try Iona. I wonder where I'll actually go." 

[Just 47]

I have just returned from iona cruise starting 23 July.we had an amazing time ,loved the ship and all the staff we encountered were friendly  and helpful.The covid measures and cleaning of everything was impressive. Yes we missed haugesund port due to technical fault but we didn't miss it one bit and very much enjoyed our sunny day on sun loungers etc.The captain refunded us £100 which was great.I honestly do not understand the bad reviews about iona.I appreciate its disappointing missing ports and I know in previous sailings 5his has happened quite a lot but norway is a windy place!!olden and hellesylt are breathtaking .I personally wouldn't hesitate to book iona again.

[gsmt47471015]

2 hours ago, Just 47 said:

I have just returned from iona cruise starting 23 July.we had an amazing time ,loved the ship and all the staff we encountered were friendly  and helpful.The covid measures and cleaning of everything was impressive. Yes we missed haugesund port due to technical fault but we didn't miss it one bit and very much enjoyed our sunny day on sun loungers etc.The captain refunded us £100 which was great.I honestly do not understand the bad reviews about iona.I appreciate its disappointing missing ports and I know in previous sailings 5his has happened quite a lot but norway is a windy place!!olden and hellesylt are breathtaking .I personally wouldn't hesitate to book iona again.

Its not so much Iona its the fiasco of missing ports on a weekly basis, we were not so lucky as to receive £100 for missed destinations as we were taken to another non descript port which had no resemblance to a fjord , also you were fortunate to have a sunny day to lounge out , as the weather is so changeable in that part of the world, as I mentioned earlier we would cruise on Iona again but Norway is a definite no no on her, its just not fit for the destination and its unrealistic to expect passengers to accept the mystery tour instead of what they have  paid for

[AchileLauro]

4 hours ago, Just 47 said:

I have just returned from iona cruise starting 23 July.we had an amazing time ,loved the ship and all the staff we encountered were friendly  and helpful.The covid measures and cleaning of everything was impressive. Yes we missed haugesund port due to technical fault but we didn't miss it one bit and very much enjoyed our sunny day on sun loungers etc.The captain refunded us £100 which was great.I honestly do not understand the bad reviews about iona.I appreciate its disappointing missing ports and I know in previous sailings 5his has happened quite a lot but norway is a windy place!!olden and hellesylt are breathtaking .I personally wouldn't hesitate to book iona again.

We were on the same cruise. I wouldn't go so far as to say we loved the ship but with a few exceptions we would certainly say that we liked it an awful lot more than Ventura or even Azura, which is a slight improvement on Ventura in my own personal opinion.

 

One of our greatest disappointments was the crow's nest, we were expecting it to be similar to that on Aurora but while this observation lounge is at least at the right end of the ship the decoration and ambience simply doesn't match that of Aurora. We had similar feelings about Andersons.

 

Given the choice we wouldn't have picked Iona and had planned and booked originally to cruise on Aurora a few years ago but since P&O decided to wreck our plans by making Aurora adult only and as we were travelling with four generations our choice was limited. The overall feeling that we have is that P&O have got most of it just about right with Iona for a family ship but there is still a few things that should be regarded as work in progress.

 

We were hugely disappointed that technical issues prevented us from visiting Haugesund (yes I know it's not the most interesting port of call) as unlike some sea days are not that popular in our family. It was just as well that we were blessed with fine weather for our two day dawdle back to Southampton, which allowed the use of the outside decks and pools (crowded with children) because I don't think it would have been quite so enjoyable if confined inside by poor weather.

 

Would we book Iona again?

Probably not but then we would be unlikely to travel with such an age range again.

 

Incidentally we had been warned by a family friend who is a crew member on Iona that the original port would likely to be changed to Hellesylt some weeks before the announcement, so were treating this cruise as a mystery cruise from the very start. Never mind two out of four original ports of call isn't bad for P&O these days. LOL  (We've missed ports of call or been diverted to other ports on the last three cruises we have taken with P&O.)

[P&O SUE]

I’ve always thought I would want more than a week on Iona to experience everything on board. 
I know there are longer cruises over the winter but we have our 2 week cruise postponed from 2020 and not doing it until next October! That’s on Britannia so I think it’s going to be a while until I get to sail on Iona. 

[gsmt47471015]

2 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

I’ve always thought I would want more than a week on Iona to experience everything on board. 
I know there are longer cruises over the winter but we have our 2 week cruise postponed from 2020 and not doing it until next October! That’s on Britannia so I think it’s going to be a while until I get to sail on Iona. 

We could spend a fortnight on Iona BUT it would have to be somewhere warmer and absolutely well out of school holidays and the weeks either side of them ,and without the bargain bucket prices. Still feel one pool should be adults only (probably the Infiniti) as inflatables are not suited to that area, a lovely ship but its becoming tainted by all the problems with its destination 

[Just 47]

Yes I do agree it would have been nice to have an adults only pool and also family's sticking to the 8 and over age range for the hot tubs.Also the crows nest would have been nice as adults only as one particular family thought it was OK for their children to do cartwheels in there which kind of ruins the relaxed atmosphere in there.

[lindyloo22]

On 8/4/2022 at 9:33 AM, Cruiser5137 said:

I'm thinking of forming a new and, from reading many of these comments, what I imagine will be a rather elite club. It'll be called the 'I did an Iona cruise to Norway and got to all four ports!' club. 

I was on Iona in May and we did manage all the ports. Bit let down really as Norway was not like what I was expecting but would go again as long as it’s on a different ship

[Britboys]

17 hours ago, lindyloo22 said:

I was on Iona in May and we did manage all the ports. Bit let down really as Norway was not like what I was expecting but would go again as long as it’s on a different ship

Sorry to hear you were disappointed. I'd be interested to know what you were expecting or what aspect disappointed.

[kruzseeka]

3 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Sorry to hear you were disappointed. I'd be interested to know what you were expecting or what aspect disappointed.

Also interested to know. 

Norway ports can give very different experiences - if you want Fjords and spectacular mountain vistas, you've got to have a combination of ports such as Geiranger (or Hellesylt?), Andalsnes, Olden, Eidfjord, Skjolden (although a tiny place), Flam, etc on the itinerary.  Some coastal ports provide an attractive destination with some variety; Tromso, Alesund, Stavanger, Bergen, Lofoten Islands - but others have limited appeal for me except perhaps for excursions to elsewhere.  Unfortunately itineries these days don't seem to have the balance we've enjoyed in the past with fewer of the 'jewels' represented and I can't say they appeal as much as itineraries we've previously done - although Norway is one of our all-time favourite places to visit.  

[indiana123]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Bit let down really as Norway was not like what I was expecting

 

 

Me too... I would like to know how it differed from what you were expecting   We go next week  

 

 

[lindyloo22]

6 hours ago, Britboys said:

Sorry to hear you were disappointed. I'd be interested to know what you were expecting or what aspect disappointed.

I enjoyed it don’t really know what I was expecting even hubby couldn’t understand what I meant.