Selbourne

Still interesting and relevant IMHO and I’m not at all surprised with the results.

That would appeal to me too. P&O itineraries can be tediously repetitive, so any that go to somewhere different get my vote. Places like that are of course very different in terms of culture and standards than we are used to, but that’s half the attraction for me, otherwise we just live in a sanitised bubble.

You’re welcome. We are a (mostly) friendly bunch on here 😂. Feel free to ask any other questions. The search function on this site isn’t the best.

You might have also come across the original Chefs Table on P&O, which existed prior to Covid. This was very different to a gala night in the buffet! It was around £75 a head, restricted to around 12 guests and was held in a private dining room (such as the wine room adjacent to the Glass House on Aurora - not usually open to the public). It was an absolutely superb multi-course fine dining experience, with paired wines and lots of other nice touches, hosted by the Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Manager. We did it twice and it was the best thing we’ve ever done on a P&O ship. I think we might give it’s name sake a miss 😂

First of all, I think that a Fjords cruise is the best first cruise. It’s short (7 days) but the best scenery on an ex-U.K. short cruise. P&O cruises, especially on Iona out of the school holidays, are as cheap as you will get a cruise, so it’s low risk if you don’t like it (although I can guarantee you will). To take your questions in turn; 1) Weather is always pot luck. We have been to the fjords several times and had scorching weather on several occasions! Out of your dates, I’d go late June first choice as you get the longer daylight hours for transit in and out of the fjords early morning / late evening. 2) Balcony cabins are a must IMHO. We would rather not cruise than not have one, especially in scenic places like the fjords. No fighting for viewing spaces in bars or decks. Just soak in the constantly changing views from your cabin or balcony. As for location, always make sure that there are other cabins above and below you, not public areas (decks or inside bars, restaurants, lounges etc). If you are above a source of amplified noise (theatre or show lounge) make sure that there are at least two other decks of cabins between yours and the source of noise. 3) On Iona, if booking a balcony cabin I’d definitely opt for NO upgrades. You could end up being ‘upgraded’ to one of the dreadful Conservatory Mini Suites that are on the Promenade deck, where your balcony is overlooked by guests walking past, people can sit or stand right outside, and your views are blighted by being set right back from the edge of the ship. 4) The three best fjords are Flaam, Geiranger and Olden. Never book a fjord cruise that doesn’t do at least two of these (very few do all 3 in the same cruise). Iona stops short of Geiranger at Hellesylt (probably spelt that incorrectly) but the ship does a bit of the transit towards Geiranger before leaving (at least it does now - no guarantee that will always be the case). Other locations on Fjord cruises are coastal towns and cities, not scenic fjords. 5) Iona is 100% Freedom Dining. This means that you can always opt to dine on a table for 2. No need to ever share. 6) Embarkation is by deck. After the priority boarders (suites and high loyalty tiers) general embarkation usually begins about 1pm and you will be allocated a time somewhere between then and around 3.30pm. If you find that you arrive early, you might be lucky and be boarded earlier. 7) As far as I know, yes. One word of warning. You will get hooked. Your first cruise is always your best. Enjoy!

Don’t worry. It was to tongue in cheek! Like everyone else, I am really enjoying your live blog. Many thanks for doing it 👍

Very nice! I can cope better with photos that are the right way up 😉 😂

Hmmm. Not good. Whilst it was half term, there won’t have been as many passengers as August, so I hope that they get their act together by then!

How busy do you think it would feel with 30% more passengers, which is what we will have in August?

Was Epicurean up to pre Covid standard John?

I’ve done this. I asked to change to OBC first, which they did no problem. Afterwards I called CPS to cancel the parking. I couldn’t help but wonder if the dots are joined up and had I not been honest and cancelled the parking I might have ended up with both! As I say, I didn’t.

I know that I am sad (before anyone says) but I find it interesting to sit on a balcony watching a busy commercial port in action. All part of the cruise experience for me! I can think of few things more boring or uncomfortable than sitting on a beach in blazing sunshine, but thankfully we are all different 😉 😂

Like you, I’m apprehensive about our Iona cruise and, in all honesty, wish we hadn’t booked it, but ours is in the August school holidays. I wouldn’t be anywhere near as worried if we were on her when you are and would happily book an off peak cruise on Iona. Take a look at the current live blog on the Arvia Caribbean thread. The poster is having a fabulous time and has experienced few, if any, problems. I also don’t like the idea of having to faff about with apps etc when we are used to just wandering in to the main dining room when we fancy, but non-peak cruises (which yours will be) seem to be OK. You can book many of the Speciality restaurants via your cruise Personaliser before you board, but if you are leaving it until you board (maybe because you have a lot of on board credit?) if you book as soon as you board I suspect you will be successful.

Of the 8 cruises that we have done on Aurora, only 3 have been £200 a night or less for the two of us and some have been considerably more (all Select price, balcony cabins, booked at launch). At the current prices we would be making bookings, but neither of the two that we were interested in had any availability for accessible cabins. The one that we liked most was just £125 a night, admittedly a Saver but they could have only put us in one of 8 cabins and we’ve stayed in 7 of them!

Yes, because if they sell her you’d get your money back!

Does anyone know when Summer 2025 cruises go on sale? I can’t remember when the last release was as we didn’t book anything. It’s going to be fascinating to see what the launch prices are like. It certainly seems that the days of the cheapest prices always being at launch may be over.

Very useful although, oddly, I can’t see the price per night column until I press ‘quote’ when it then appears in the reply 🤔 Basic economics of supply and demand happening here. As with all cruise operators, P&O want cruises to be full as, once fixed costs are covered, the bulk of the profit will come from on board spend. P&O clearly have more supply (cabins) than they have demand at present, so prices have to fall to get occupancy levels to where they need to be. Great news for customers as there are some phenomenal bargains to be had. Less good news for the company though if they have to discount this heavily to fill the ships, especially with the debt mountain that they have to clear.

What a nightmare! We are Freedom Dining so thankfully won’t have that issue. We will just have apps that aren’t apps, P&O’s temperamental IT and MDR queues (virtual or physical) to deal with 🤔. I know that I’m going to really miss the days when Freedom dining was just that - stroll in whenever you felt like it and most of the time just get seated immediately! Sounds as though the British penchant for queues has permeated its way into P&Os modus operandi 😂

Linking bookings only affects the MDR allocation. I don’t believe that it makes any difference to booking speciality restaurants.

Oh dear. That’s another cunning plan scuppered. 109 in the queue? That’s very specific. I come up with stats like that. My wife has told me a million times not to exaggerate 😂

The 16 night Baltic cruise in May (over the Coronation) is half the price of the 16 night one in July. Total price for 2 in a balcony cabin (Saver) £1,998 in May, £3,958 in July.

I asked this question recently, as we are 6 spread across 3 cabins, and apparently you can book up to 6 people on one booking. That’s on the app that isn’t an app. Not sure about before you board.

The very cheapest one is over the Coronation Jean. I can’t help but feel that the two issues are linked. I mentioned this to our TA this afternoon when I was trying to book and they seemed to agree.

Whilst I can’t see Aurora being around for many more years, what would be the logic of that?

Of course. With talk like that you’ll be sent to the Tower 🪓 😂