terrierjohn

Possibly one of the reasons for Iona and Arvia having shelves and not drawers.

That sounds to be an easy way for the MDR staff to reduce pressure on themselves, but not particularly beneficial for passengers who prefer maximum flexibility from Freedom dining. Royal Caribbean and Princess have gone down this route, but the outcome is lots of empty tables in the MDR waiting for pre booked passengers, and they have much longer queues for walk ups/ virtual queue passengers than most P&O ship.

I very much doubt there will any significant difference in overall height of the 2 ships, especially as both were built by MW at Papenburg.

P&O is quite similar to Princess, but more British and the decor is much more understated. Britannia is a Royal Princess class and the accommodation decks are the same as the Princess ships, but the public decks are quite different.

We also have a foot of snow, it looks quite pretty but it's very disruptive.

Most ships you cannot turn the aircon off, you can only adjust the temp setting.

Its certainly the strangest prawn cocktail I have ever seen.

I agree the demise of specific wine waiters had started in 2017/8, however the computer ordering of food and drink on Iona now seems far more efficient than the old system even with wine waiters. That is of course when the computer is working, fortunately the down time was very limited on our recent cruise.

Actually on Iona they do seem to exist but in a much more junior role, your waiter takes your wine/drinks order, it is brought to the waiter station by a drinks delivery waiter, and then to the table by your waiter or his assistant. I assume the drinks delivery waiter services several waiter stations, and in a Freedom dining set up it is a continuous role.

Aidanova, also excellence class, is due in Bergen this year, so clearly Iona could also use this port, if Carnival wanted her to.

Come on, when was the last time P&O had knowledgeable sommeliers, I certainly dont remember any in our 20 years of cruising.

The problem on Iona is that the only phone number for everything for those not willing to use the app is 7070, which connects you to reception and are often far too busy to answer. So if you have a real problem that needs urgent attention it becomes very frustrating,you either leave the phone ringing in the hope that eventually it will be answered,or you visit reception and join a queue of hundreds. Even then its probable that it wont get resolved. We had a problem with our auto door to the bathroom when we checked into the cabin, so I rang reception and after 20 minutes it was answered and I was assured someone would be sent. However our steward returned to the cabin with a bathroom chair we had requested and we told him our problem with the door and he managed to fix it. On day 3 two maintenance guys arrived to fix our bathroom door???!!!

And there is no telephone directory now on Iona, and only the 7070 number for reception, which at busy times can take ages before anyone answers.

I didnt realise you were into facts wowzz, I thought you used seaweed and pine cones!!😉😇

The Captains have always included similar "advertising" in their announcements for as long as I can remember. Although Wesley Dunlop did not seem to do much of it on our recent Iona cruise.

Late May is almost midsummer, so you have very long days, but I guess Mr Google will have the exact sunrise and sunset times.

This last cruise on Iona from 18th Feb, probably because of the no single supplement offer, there were noticeably more singles on board and most of them were women. As a result out of the 7 sharing tables we had in the MDR, there 4 where the men were well outnumbered, and one where I was on my own with 9 women!!!

We only used the Coral when using an MDR, and found the staff more efficient than they were in November. The main reason though was that the theatre was also on deck 7, as are the main shops.

That's not the smart meter, it's your in house display (IHD), and it depends on how close it is to the meter. The meter itself relies on a good mobile type signal back to your energy supplier, and when your IHD is playing up, you should be able to obtain any usage data you need from your account on your energy suppliers website.

Probably not fixed, on each occasion we joined a queue and then advised we were on the way, we still had to book in at the hosts desk and it certainly appeared that they had to book us on a new table rather than have one waiting for us to join. But the wait was not lengthy, although the other queue for those just turning up was often shorter and moving quicker, and not many pagers were being handed out.

The app does not allow you to make multiple overlapping reservations.

But with such varied types of ship and cruise line unless you survey an extrememy large group you run the risk of exaggerating the built in bias of the different classes in their assessment of the service and quality. A far better survey would have structured the class of cruise lines and compared like for like, instead of lumping them all together.

But to make an 8:30 show you need to dine no later than 6:00, to guarantee you would have finished your meal to make the 8:30 show. That is too early for us, and if the service is slow, it just adds to the stress. As wheelchair users we need to be very early into the theatre because of the lack of seating for wheelchair carers, many of the 7 seats on each side are occupied by those with only partial mobility problems, who, whilst able to negotiate some stairs, prefer to sit at the back so they can make a speedy exit to get to their next venue.

But what if you want a relaxing holiday without needing to book everything ahead, and just dine when you want, or go to a show at short notice. If medallion is similar to Myholiday, then all the 8:30 shows will be fully booked well in advance, and included dining venues like The Olive Grove and American diner, won't be available at short notice either.

There really is no major problem with dining in the MDR or the App, if our experience over the last 2 weeks on Iona are typical. However like most things IT on P&O, they dont always function correctly, and there are times when they dont function at all, thankfully these are few. Then there are those people who cant use the app, those who dont want to, and those who prevaricate. But despite all these issues dining in the MDRs, on Iona at least, is no longer an issue.