Frontera2

We’re travelling on the Southampton > New York > Caribbean > New York voyage on the 19th November and are a little anxious about our likely disembarkation time when we get back to New York. Our youngest is flying out to NY to join us for a few days before we fly home, and lands at JFK at 12:45. I’m trying to arrange a taxi to take us from the ship to our hotel in Queens so we can drop our bags off, before we make our way to the airport to meet him. Would being off the ship with our luggage by 10:30 be a reasonable expectation?

We’re with you there. The sea days on the Iona are the only time we’ve ever been bored on a cruise. Even on the single formal night on our week on Iona, it felt like a cross between a floating Wetherspoons and Butlins ( I’ve been in / to both ) and just had no style at all.

We booked the select fare, for the reason that we wanted to choose ( request ) our dining arrangements but also because we had a preferred stateroom that we wanted. I’ve dropped P&O an email so hopefully they’ll respond soon. We really didn’t like our experience on the Iona last year, especially the hanging around in the evening in virtual queues to try and have a table for dinner - was enough to put us off cruising.

We made a booking this morning directly on the P&O website for a 2 week Canary Islands cruise on Ventura in June next year. During the booking process we requested “club dining” and early sitting and are therefore concerned that our booking confirmation actually states “Freedom dining - confirmed” as this isn’t what we booked. Logged on to the “My P&O site” and, unlike for our upcoming Cunard trip, there’s no option to either view or change our dining preference. We detest freedom dining, having tried it on Iona last year ( personal choice and all that ) and would rather not go at all if we can’t have club dining. Is this normal now, or likely to be a mistake by P&O ?

Sorry you're right, I mean the 18th - we're staying in Southampton overnight on the 18th.

My wife and I are travelling on QM2 cruise M335A leaving Southampton 18 November, TA to New York then down to the Caribbean before returning to NYC. A friend has booked separately but for the Transatlantic leg only. We're all in Britannia and have requested early sitting dinner. We've contacted Cunard who say that because we're on different itineraries, they can't "link" the bookings and should do this onboard. Is this likely to be difficult to do? we're really keen on keeping our request for the early dinning and want to have the same table each night (we deplore the "open dining) concept but accept some people love it. Thanks in advance for any help!

Another possibly more convenient and cheaper option is to take the short ( 10 mins max ) walk from the ship and catch the ferry ( number 73 ) for the short ride into the city. We did that and found it really convenient.

I’ll be onboard Iona in a few weeks celebrating our wedding anniversary. Which would you say is the best speciality restaurant for a nice, intimate, meal?