Iona voyage 2nd January. Part 1.

[Eglesbrech]

15 minutes ago, the wandering two said:

At least Olive Grove is now pre bookable around 2 weeks prior to online.

Not on all cruises. It keeps saying “oops,  not available, cancelled”. 

[Yorkypete]

4 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Not wishing to be nasty but surely you knew Iona didn't have ice rinks and golf courses - assumedly the latter couldn't have been used in the bad weather either.

 

It seems then the cruise offered was simply not to your taste on this occasion and the entertainment offering was not actually poor but not something you personally could enjoy.  

 

When you refer to cinema showings being restricted are you referring to the time and number of showings, I understood there to be 4 screens showing different films in each.  It was unfortunate that the speaker was of no interest to you but again many others may have found him enjoyable.  

 

I assume the dance classes etc were also not to your taste either but these do appear on every cruise line I've sailed on and actually are very well attended.  My husband had never done these before but at Christmas he took part every day (I watched) and really enjoyed them.

 

There is unfortunately a limit to what can be offered and maybe it's a case of you can't please all of the people all of the time.

 

I do however agree the cruise lines seem very happy to rely on things like sports events to entertain us but that's maybe the way the world is going.

 

I assume overall the experience was reasonable as I note elsewhere you are looking at a Britannia cruise despite saying never again after the one before your Iona cruise.  

Megabear...the point about ice rinks etc was in answer to a question 'what would I like to see'? I have been on Iona before and knew that they were not included on the ship. The entertainment is poor compared with other cruiselines and the ones in the dome are spoilt by the acoustics..or lack of them.The only reason I am looking at another P&O cruise is that I have got a £350 voucher for the casino if I book another P&O cruise before the end of April, to be taken before the end of October. I do doubt if it is worth it though.

Edited January 23, 2023 by Yorkypete

[Yorkypete]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Not on all cruises. It keeps saying “oops,  not available, cancelled”. 

It did for us. We booked two for the first week but it would not show the second week until we were on board. As we were late boarding all were booked up.

[Eglesbrech]

35 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

It did for us. We booked two for the first week but it would not show the second week until we were on board. As we were late boarding all were booked up.

Just shows the system is imperfect and changeable as several people on cc are getting the same oops message. I’m glad you at least got something.
 

Perhaps P&O should advertise the fact that if they give you a later embarkation time you won’t be able to book the things they advertise? Seems a bit unfair that some people will get the drags,  if anything at all. 

[Megabear2]

24 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Megabear...the point about ice rinks etc was in answer to a question 'what would I like to see'? I have been on Iona before and knew that they were not included on the ship. The entertainment is poor compared with other cruiselines and the ones in the dome are spoilt by the acoustics..or lack of them.The only reason I am looking at another P&O cruise is that I have got a £350 voucher for the casino if I book another P&O cruise before the end of April, to be taken before the end of October. I do doubt if it is worth it though.

Okay, sorry we had a misunderstanding.  I recall some time last year you mentioning your preference for RC. 

 

Although your points are valid - as you know I didn't have a particularly brilliant cruise on Britannia last month - there is little point in saying we didn't know in advance the offering and the mention of ice rinks confused.  

 

It is no secret that after my four cruises last year the final one on P&O was a long way short of my experience on Celebrity Edge and Regal Princess (medical emergency aftermath excluded)! Interestingly though the other comparison is Britannia January 2022 -v- Britannia December 2022 and frankly the latter was vastly inferior.  That being the case I know where you are coming from on the entertainment overall as we too found it lacking in quality and the debate on the food quality, availability, and service is being amply covered on other threads.

 

If you have a £350 casino voucher I hope that means at least your experience there was more enjoyable.  However in view of your rather disappointed tone perhaps you may be better to walk away from P&O now rather than being unhappy with another cruise.  You've given it another go after your covid problems and unfortunately it doesn't sound like your latest cruise is one you want to put down to experience as just unlucky.  

 

I will be interested to read your section 2 on the cruise and apart from missing ice rinks etc look forward to hearing what you found good, bad or indifferent.

[Eglesbrech]

As per Megabear yes I would be very interested in part 2.