terrierjohn

Our deck 15 cabin on Iona in March did roll from side to side quite a bit as we sailed along the Spanish and Portuguese coast, but very little movement down on deck 5 and 6.

I'm sure you are correct, but equally the other cabin occupant might not be infected, so until someone shows symptoms I don't believe it is necessary for them to be quarantined.

Whilst agreeing that times and tastes have changed, I do think there is, and probably will be, a place for the traditional aspects of cruising on most lines for years to come. We just sailed on Sky Princess and on formal nights the majority in the MDRs did seem to follow the dress code, and I although I have not sailed on RC, Celebrity recently, I imagine that they also have a high proportion of traditionalists in the MDRs on formal nights. I agree that dinner jackets are not regularly worn in public, but I think this is probably why they have remained popular on cruises, and probably will stay popular for years.

On P&O the night nursery is a great facility, when we cruised with my son and family, they used this every night, and were only called twice over 12 nights when our grandson woke up.

Do you ever do that? Most people have plans for their evening, so once dinner has finished they go their separate ways.

We certainly did not adhere to Princesses 2 hour table turnround recently. Our sharing tables were so enjoyable that we often were well into the 3rd hour before we were finished, and I would hope for a similar situation on our next P&O cruise.

On Princess a week ago, and their show times were 8:00pm and 10:00pm, which we thought was much better times than the P&O, 8:30 & 10:30.

Not mine but a friends, and I think the cruise length was 14 days. However if the same friend is correct then we are in for a shock when it comes to extending cover above 31 days, she paid over £100 for the extra 4 days on the Jan Iona Caribbean 35 nighter.

The new Aviva NW policy, charges £27 for missed port cover, but has to be paid for each cruise, and the extra charge for more than 31 days cover is significantly higher than the old UK Isurance one.

Your final comment about the just turn up queue for the MDR is very true, and IMO is the main reason the virtual queue fails to work as efficiently as it should. If, as seems to be proving true, some passengers are not prepared to use the app, or don't have a smart phone. Then P&O need to add a booking feature to the in cabin TV system, which enables passengers to book an MDR slot, and to monitor its progress, but of course that will only work if you stay in your cabin until the table is available, which I guess will p**s off quite a few people.

Just taking you up on the estimated waiting time MB, the app does give an idea by quoting the number of passengers currently in the virtual queue, which would be a far better indicator, if in fact everyone used the app. However because there are so many passengers unwilling to use the app, and probably many more who prefer to just walk up and chance it, no computer system could be designed to cater for those variables. As for first night queues, other than the fact that it is the first night, and even experienced cruisers don't know what to expect, I really don't know. However I do think that even the first night would run much smoother if everyone used the virtual queue.

I think the empty tables is more a reflection on the pre bookin system, where the staff need to leave tables empty to cater for bookings at a later time. Which with an average 2 hrs dining time results in lots of empty tables, and IMHO is a very wasteful way to run a mass catering dining room. No pre booking and the virtual queuing system each day, would be far more efficient, but may need a bigger galley and waiters working at MDR speed, rather than the Olive Grove saunter.

I wonder why P&O have not considered Iona alternating between a Fjord cruise and a Baltic cruise. I could see the latter being a a popular choice.

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Maybe, I could have said most cruise lines want to improve and appreciate this sort of feedback, but P&O appear to be the exception.

It's not a complaint if you are suggesting ways they can improve their passengers enjoyment.

But in the main saver fare passengers will only know the cabin number and location when P&O allocate them a short time before the cruise. Unless they picked a specific grade and find their allocated cabin is in a higher level.

@Interestedcruisefan did you raise any of your concerns with the restaurant senior staff? I commented about some hot breakfast dishes being cold, and not being able to find berry fruits or prunes and figs as topping for my wifes porridge on the, How are we doing so far form, which we received on day 3. A few days later the restaurant manager sought me out at breakfast, amazing what the medallion can do, thanked me for my comments and promised improvements which we did notice, as well as sending half a dozen chocolate covered strawberries to our cabin.

TBH the breakfast buffet was not as good as P&O, as far as the hot options, although the omelette station and the eggs Benedict station were quite good, and don't seem to exist on P&O. The so called english bacon was quite fatty, and the american bacon was not really crispy, the fried eggs were mainly done easy over, as the yanks call them, but I did find the occasional sunny side up one with a soft yoke. However the array of fruits, muesli and cereal offering was far more extensive, and the pastries looked delicious, but I managed to avoid temptation. We only had light snacks for lunch, soup and a roll or maybe a stir fry veggie dish, so did not try the meats. We did have afternoon tea in the buffet once, as I posted earlier, and with real clotted cream, freshly baked warm scones and som excellent desserts, which we thought far surpassed the afternoon tea choice on P&O. I guess you just struck unlucky with a poor head chef. PS the pool deck Pizzas from Slice were to die for, probably the best pizzas we have ever tasted, whether at sea or on land. We enjoyed these quite a times for lunch.

But that can only be done by booking a select fare, and many people prefer to book a saver fare which does not give the option of choosing a cabin location, other than a specific grade, which is likely to have cabins in many different li locations.

But very windy on sea days, that is if the wind allows you to open the balcony doors.

My cruise on Iona was in March this year, so maybe its now resolved?

You're right the P&O price will generally be lower than Princess, but the standard of service and food that we received on Sky Princess was also far superior to what P&O have been offering lately.

Do they still do canned stabilised milk, maybe use some of that to replace part of the standard milk?

I have to confess that I never observed that, but I would have thought it should be a relatively simple fault to remedy.