Jennizor

Hi Michelle, sorry to hear about the spot on your arm, hopefully they will be able to give you some good news quickly. Have a great weekend in London with your grandsons. It will be a lot less busier than last weekend! You will probably need a cruise when you get back though.

My lovely boss once asked me if I wanted to be nominated but I declined. I have no problem with the Royal Family but as a quite shy person, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. My colleague who got the invite, a more confident lady, really enjoyed it. She even had a joke with then Prince Charles.

Not good is it Snow Hill when you hear something like this so close to home? We live on a lovely small estate, only 5 rows of houses. We were absolutely devastated when we heard about an overnight Police raid just across the road from my daughter’s house. The bedrooms were being used as a cannabis farm. The house owner had been left the house by her parents and was renting it. She sold it, once it had been completely cleaned out.

Michelle, so sorry for all you are experiencing at the moment. I haven’t been around a lot this week so I am just catching up. I hope you recover quickly, enjoy your weekend, whatever you are doing. Jennizor.

I know everyone’s taste in entertainment is different but, as I said in my previous post, we thought Ray Quinn was amazing. His singing was excellent, he was very chatty and funny and the audience gave him a standing ovation at the end of the show. If he is on any of future cruises we will go and see him again.

We have become addicted to Wordscapes. We were second in this week’s competition but it’s becoming a bit boring so we need to look for something different.

I tend to agree with you Wowzz. In our early cruising years we did go to some of the entertainment but we stopped as we prefer to have a leisurely meal with no pressure to be somewhere else. On our Feb/March Iona cruise we found ourselves on the same ship as the sister of our friends. She is a solo cruiser and goes to the entertainment every night, she raved about some of it but she thought some of it was poor. The only entertainment we went to was in the Limelight Club. Both weeks were great and the meals were excellent. We prefer to find a nice bar and chat to other passengers but we are also quite happy just the to of us.

We have never used the Epicurean, only because we have looked at the menu (and seen photos on here) and there is far too much for me. My appetite is not great anymore so it would be wasteful for us. The photos look great however. We will therefore use the Limelight Club,Glasshouse, Sindhu, Chefs Table and the Olive Grove and MDR for the rest of our evenings.

We were on Iona Feb/March and could book speciality dining two weeks before. I hope that’s not changed and will be the same for our Iona cruise in July.

Don’t worry about it, you are entitled to make your own choices. We always do the formal nights but it’s a personal choice as is yours. Enjoy your cruise.

I would have complained very early on in the cruise if I experienced these issues. In all the years we have cruised there has only been the odd thing not done, like cups not washed or the occasional towel missing. I wouldn’t have put up with carpets not being vacuumed or shower not cleaned. The cabin crew have always been very hard working and done a very good job in the very short time allotted to each cabin.

I have an M&S credit card and pay it off every month. I use it for the majority of all purchases and accumulate M&S points which I spend on either M & S food or clothes. I get vouchers quarterly and my last lot were worth £57. My recent bill was £5200 which included paying the balance for our Iona cruise in July.

You are just as important as the top tier people Vamps. They have just done more cruises than you. You are a breath of air on this site, that makes you important to me.

I also agree with you Sue. We have done quite a few repeat port visits and mostly still enjoy them. We have a lazy breakfast then go ashore when we want (we don’t do many excursions as we have been on most before). We have a leisurely stroll around the port, look at the shops and occasionally buy something. We then try to find a bar with a view and people watch having a couple of drinks. Only occasionally do we have lunch in port. We are not big eaters these days and are quite happy with a salad in one of the MDRs. It wouldn’t do if we were all the same would it?

We should go on the same cruise Andy you just seem to enjoy exactly the same evening as we do. We have recently tried other alternatives on Iona but whilst we enjoyed them we also had a lot of shared tables in the MDR which were generally brilliant. You can always tell a good table when the waiters are clearing up around you at the end of the evening and you are all still chatting.

We were a bit apprehensive about The Chefs Table as it part of the buffet restaurant but decided to give a go. It was sectioned of from the rest of the buffet and it just felt like a small restaurant. Everything was laid out meticulously and the menu was varied and interesting. We completely enjoyed the whole experience and will try it again on our July Iona cruise.

Me too, I love your posts Vampiress.

You should both be able to book excursions before you sail through your cruise personaliser. I think they will be there to book now, if not keeping checking.

Brilliant review Dai and I could visualise a lot of your cruise as we were on Iona Feb/Mar. I was a bit wary of trying a bigger ship but we really enjoyed it. So much so we have booked Iona for the Fjords in July and transatlantic next March on Arvia, flying out to Barbados and sailing back to Southampton. We haven’t abandoned the rest of the fleet, we are on Azura at Christmas and will happily sail on Britannia for the right destinations. Thanks again your review it was a lovely read and it brought back memories of our recent cruise.

That’s a shame. We started cruising on smaller ships - Oriana our first on P &O, then moved on to larger ones, Arcadia, Ventura, Britannia and Azura. We then moved up again to Iona this year and are booked on Arvia next year. All our cruises provided different experiences and that’s what we love. You never get bored!

When were on Iona Feb/March we could book speciality dining and some entertainment two weeks before. It was very easy and hopefully it is the same on Arvia.

I won’t be disappointed as we have done a similar cruise before and I am aware of the sea day at each end of the cruise. I was just responding to a previous poster who said we were only going to Stavanger and Alesund.

I agree with you Dave. We generally go for a table for 6 fixed dining (obviously not or Iona or Arvia). We have had some great table companions. On one of our Caribbean cruises we had a lovely couple from Preston and the other from Leeds. The Leeds couple talked about themselves all the time and how much money they had and how many cruises they had done, constantly reminding us that they were Ligurian. The wife quite often came down drunk and seldom ate anything. She was once drunk in the Blue Bar, sitting on a bar stool and slipping all the time. Her husband was nowhere to be seen, the poor waiters did not know what to do with her. She didn’t arrive at dinner that night.

I can’t believe in this day and age people are still using phrases like ‘lower classes’. I suppose you will think I am lower class. I was brought up in a council house, my mum used to clean for a local councillor, my dad worked on the shop floor at De Haviland, none of which I am ashamed or embarrassed about. I went to a very good local grammar school and had a good career, as has my husband (another one brought up in a council house). As a result we both have good pensions that allow us to cruise regularly. Not bad for the ‘lower class’.

We are on Iona in July for a week and we stop at Stavanger, Alesund, Olden and Haugesand and cruise-by Innvikfjord and Nordfjord on two other days.