Iona should we be worried ?

[Holidayfun141]

Friends our age (late 70’s) have recently been on a cruise on Iona, they said they had so many problems. The cruise had many children on board 

even though it was not a School Holiday cruise.

They  had problems every evening trying to book a table for two in any of the Freedom Dining restaurants at the first sitting, plenty of tables for 4 or more but tables for two always had a long wait.

Speciality restaurants were also booked up.

They said it was chaos everywhere.

The problem I have is I need to eat early due to a medical problem, therefore on P and O or Cunard I always book early sitting and table for two.

Could anyone who has been on Iona please give me an opinion of their experience on Iona , as I then can weigh up if I should change my cruise to Brittania (which I love) or Ventura please.

Thus forum has always been a tremendous help to me in the past. So I am hoping regular P and O cruisers can give me their opinion .

 

 

 

[CRUISENSNOOZE]

49 minutes ago, Holidayfun141 said:

Friends our age (late 70’s) have recently been on a cruise on Iona, they said they had so many problems. The cruise had many children on board 

even though it was not a School Holiday cruise.

They  had problems every evening trying to book a table for two in any of the Freedom Dining restaurants at the first sitting, plenty of tables for 4 or more but tables for two always had a long wait.

Speciality restaurants were also booked up.

They said it was chaos everywhere.

The problem I have is I need to eat early due to a medical problem, therefore on P and O or Cunard I always book early sitting and table for two.

Could anyone who has been on Iona please give me an opinion of their experience on Iona , as I then can weigh up if I should change my cruise to Brittania (which I love) or Ventura please.

Thus forum has always been a tremendous help to me in the past. So I am hoping regular P and O cruisers can give me their opinion .

 

 

 

Hi. We have just come off a b2b on Iona. We never booked on the app and never had to wait for a table. Early sittings were always very quiet. Don't use the app and just turn up 10 minutes before you want to eat at one of the 4 x MDR. I think the 2 larger ones at the back would seat you quicker. We always said we hadn't booked and willing to share etc and we went in straight away. The people who turned up seemed to have priority over booking on the app....they don't want passengers littering up the entrance!

The Olive Grove was easy to get into early evening as it opens from about 5.15pm...only pay for some of the dishes.  Another tip. When you come out your restaurant, ask them to book you in for the following evening.

As for chaos everywhere...that's a bit of a tall tale!. We had 195 children on board over the 28 days and must say hardly saw any of them. They love their clubs. Most kids were well behaved when we saw them, and it is a family ship, not adults only. We are 70's and love the size of the ship, but saying that, we love any ship if it means we are cruising!!

 

[GOQ]

Well I am in my early 70's and am a solo cruiser. I went on a 14 day cruise on Iona last February to the Canaries. I didn't have any problems apart from disembarking at Southampton.

 

On every P&O cruise I usually use the app to book a Freedom Dining restaurant as soon as the app lists the restaurant open for bookings, about 10 to 15 minutes before they actually open. Then I join the queue 5 to 10 minutes before they open (because everybody else seems to have the same idea). I have never had to queue for more than 10 minutes.

 

The only chaos was disembarking at Southampton, they ship was 4 hours late docking and everybody wanted to self disembark, it took me over an hour of queuing. Apart from that everything was fine. 

The secret is to book everything via the app early.

 

Quite a difference of opinion here, regarding the app, but it worked for me.

Edited December 24, 2022 by GOQ

[purplesea]

We were on Iona in January and I didn't use the app for booking dining times at all. We just walked down to the restuarant when we wanted to dine on the first night and then booked the same table for the same time each night at the desk. After the first few nights the staff automatically booked for us unless we said different.

We didn't use any of the speciality restuarants although we did notice that the Olive Grove seems to be full nearly all the time. I would not say that we experienced any chaos anywhere. 

 

[Holidayfun141]

Thank you all for your experience of Iona, it looks like I will be able to let the staff at the door book me the same table every night at the same time as I am allergic to some foods and prefer the same waiting staff.

I am so pleased you all enjoyed Iona .

 

[GOQ]

16 minutes ago, Holidayfun141 said:

Thank you all for your experience of Iona, it looks like I will be able to let the staff at the door book me the same table every night at the same time as I am allergic to some foods and prefer the same waiting staff.

I am so pleased you all enjoyed Iona .

 

 

As a solo cruiser I like to ask to share a table so that would not work too well for me.

But for you that's a brilliant idea, I am sure you will enjoy Iona.

[the wandering two]

Olive grove is now available to pre book online, two weeks prior to

sailing.

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Holidayfun141 said:

Friends our age (late 70’s) have recently been on a cruise on Iona, they said they had so many problems. The cruise had many children on board 

even though it was not a School Holiday cruise.

They  had problems every evening trying to book a table for two in any of the Freedom Dining restaurants at the first sitting, plenty of tables for 4 or more but tables for two always had a long wait.

Speciality restaurants were also booked up.

They said it was chaos everywhere.

The problem I have is I need to eat early due to a medical problem, therefore on P and O or Cunard I always book early sitting and table for two.

Could anyone who has been on Iona please give me an opinion of their experience on Iona , as I then can weigh up if I should change my cruise to Brittania (which I love) or Ventura please.

Thus forum has always been a tremendous help to me in the past. So I am hoping regular P and O cruisers can give me their opinion .

 

 

 

Britannia is our favourite too, but we are on Iona next October. We know we will have a great time.We did a stay cation cruise in Iona. It was fine. All cruises are.😁

[purplesea]

1 hour ago, Holidayfun141 said:

Thank you all for your experience of Iona, it looks like I will be able to let the staff at the door book me the same table every night at the same time as I am allergic to some foods and prefer the same waiting staff.

I am so pleased you all enjoyed Iona .

 

My mother has allergies too, we informed P&O before we sailed and the maitre'd would bring that next day's menu to our table for my mother so she could discuss the option and the possibility of the dishes adapted to suit.