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Why Is P&O Cruises' Iona the Most Popular Cruise Ship in Britain?

GSPG

By GSPG,
in P&O Cruises ( UK )

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Windsurfboy Great Review Rare

Windsurfboy

Posted
Posted

Reading the article definition of popular is how many visits on CC web site.

 

So bigger ships are at top , more passengers. 

 

Visits can be praise or complaints 

 

Some ships like Saga with a very loyal clientele have very few online cruise critic active passengers.

 

So basically  meaninglessness

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Froxfield

Froxfield

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Frankly, from my perspective, 3 out of 5 is very unfair to Iona. It seems to be driven by traditional P&Oers who prefer the old style P&O. We have in the past been put off P&O bye the older ships and went back to try the new style. And like it a lot!!  In the past P&O featured silver service in the dining rooms, which seemed to us to include piles of over cooked veg! That's long gone. But our last experience on a freezing cold, not fit for purpose, Oriana finished us. Although we had one or two good, and enjoyable cruises, we found that Cunard offered a better alternative for the traditional British cruise product.

Of course, the clickbait title of the CC email is a PR puff, to be taken with a pinch of salt.  Most CC emails come under the same heading! A cruise ship experience is only as good as the last cruise and we are on Iona from this Saturday to see if we still love it. For example, non availability of speciality restaurants such as Epicurean would make a big dent in our enjoyment!

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Juevgoo

Juevgoo

Posted
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We’ve recently been on this ship and disagree with most comments in the article.

There was no ‘wow’ factor in the atrium. Entertainment was mediocre. Day time activities abysmal & boring.

Food was cold/lukewarm but improved following our complaints. There is NEVER any excuse for cold food.

The cabin was ok, but we had noise issues (not from other people), it was as though the cabin wasn’t ‘connected’ to the rest of the ship. It wasn’t the usual creaking you get from rolling seas.

We weren’t the only people not happy with the ship, many seasoned P&O cruisers were moaning/complaining. We won’t be going with P&O again.

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zap99

zap99

Posted
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8 minutes ago, Froxfield said:

"Seasoned P&O cruisers", says it all.  We had no cold food in a week on Iona, t least none that was intended to be hot. Indeed the food was probably better than we had previously had on P&O and more varied. I suspect that Iona is intended for a new market for P&O and a facebook group I have joined is full of new to cruising  who absolutely love the ship.

We prefer Britannia, but Iona is very acceptable,very acceptable indeed. Iona is booked for next October. Last time we were on her ,everything  was fine.

 

 

 

 

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Britboys

Britboys

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I guess I am a 'seasoned' P&O cruiser and without going on Iona know that I wouldn't enjoy the style of cruise experience she offers. I don't however doubt that (having seen numerous photos & videos) she has some very nice interior spaces. I often wonder why many of those 'seasoned cruisers' book every new ship and then complain about them...🤔

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zap99

zap99

Posted
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12 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I guess I am a 'seasoned' P&O cruiser and without going on Iona know that I wouldn't enjoy the style of cruise experience she offers. I don't however doubt that (having seen numerous photos & videos) she has some very nice interior spaces. I often wonder why many of those 'seasoned cruisers' book every new ship and then complain about them...🤔

Having been on Iona I can understand some ' Seasonned cruiser " comments. We prefer Glass house and beach house on Britannia. Late lounge is better on Britannia. but the keel and cow is nice as is the Quays. 710 is good. I struggle to understand folk who criticise because she is big, new, or not Saga. Many of those criticisms from folk who haven't been on her.

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Britboys

Britboys

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46 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Having been on Iona I can understand some ' Seasonned cruiser " comments. We prefer Glass house and beach house on Britannia. Late lounge is better on Britannia. but the keel and cow is nice as is the Quays. 710 is good. I struggle to understand folk who criticise because she is big, new, or not Saga. Many of those criticisms from folk who haven't been on her.

Those who complain Iona is too big after they have sailed on her really make me laugh. The fact she can carry five to six thousand pax kind of gives you a clue...🙄

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zap99

zap99

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29 minutes ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Went on Iona a couple of weeks ago. Much prefer Britannia. Each to his own but suspect we wouldn’t choose to go back on Iona. 

We have been on Britannia 7 times and Iona once  so it's obvious which ship we prefer, but we have a cruise booked on Iona for October. Folk have their own preference.  As you say. each to their own. We will probably go on Arvia at some point. but won't complain that she is too big. We know it will be big.👎

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terrierjohn

terrierjohn

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38 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Those who complain Iona is too big after they have sailed on her really make me laugh. The fact she can carry five to six thousand pax kind of gives you a clue...🙄

She is not much bigger than Britannia, they are both 44m beam and Iona is 344m long while Britannia is 330m, but Iona's capacity is 5200 as against Britannia's 3650.

However she has far more inside and outside space than Britannia and certainly did not feel crowded last month with 4800 passengers on board.

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zap99

zap99

Posted
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1 hour ago, alpha whiskey said:

With all the chatter from folk on here of ' we love Iona' and 'we hate Iona', there was only one thing for it and we've booked early 2023 to find out for ourselves🙃 

Can't wait....and fully expect to be in the 'love it' category. 

We have been on about a dozen ships with 6 different cruise lines. The one we didn't enjoy was............nope  enjoyed them all.

 

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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
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3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

She is not much bigger than Britannia, they are both 44m beam and Iona is 344m long while Britannia is 330m, but Iona's capacity is 5200 as against Britannia's 3650.

However she has far more inside and outside space than Britannia and certainly did not feel crowded last month with 4800 passengers on board.

Although those capacities are "Normal operating capacity". P&O don't tend to state maximum capacities these days. Whilst I doubt maximum capacity is likely to be a common occurrence, I have seen the new ships' maximums as being in the region of 6200.

Glad you had a time on her last month.

I somehow suspect many who have sailed on Iona and complained that she is too big probably said the same after going on Britannia...

I just find it strange that some people don't seem to do much research about what they are going on.

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terrierjohn

terrierjohn

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29 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Although those capacities are "Normal operating capacity". P&O don't tend to state maximum capacities these days. Whilst I doubt maximum capacity is likely to be a common occurrence, I have seen the new ships' maximums as being in the region of 6200.

Glad you had a time on her last month.

I somehow suspect many who have sailed on Iona and complained that she is too big probably said the same after going on Britannia...

I just find it strange that some people don't seem to do much research about what they are going on.

I imagine that most cruise ships only ever sail anywhere near full capacity in school holidays, out of the main holiday periods they will be sailing nearer to their lower berth levels, and that is generally when we sail.

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jono777

jono777

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For us having sailed on Oceana Arcadia Ventura Britannia and Iona each one has its place and special memories there are good and not so good on each however my only critisism of Iona was the size of (in our case balcony) cabin the bed was almost against the window and hard to walk around also the wardrobe was tiny we were on it for a week heaven knows how you could cope for 2 weeks or more. Britannia however has great cabin space but lacks what Iona has in terms of eateries bars clubs and pools/hot tubs. Will try Arcadia again but can imagine that our heads have been turned by the young upstart ships!

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grapau27

grapau27

Posted
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15 hours ago, zap99 said:

We have only been on Iona once. Probably the first of many. Stunning

We have been on Iona twice with another booked for next year.

Lovely ship with the only negative for anybody not aware is the deck 8 balconies on the promenade which have no privacy.

We have been on all of P&O ships.

Imo the only class of ship better than Iona is Royal Caribbean Oasis class.

 

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