Selbourne

Only on sea days. It wasn’t advertised when the dining bookings opened 14 days before. I only noticed it when I logged on to my cruise Personaliser the night before the cruise and it was only available for the last sea day. I think it might have been on the first sea day as well but had sold out before I noticed it.

Can you remember whether the doors closest to the promenade deck stairs, that wheelchair users would need to use as a cut through in order to do a ‘lap’ of the deck, are automated?

Apologies if I caused any offence. I should have learned by now not to mention it on this forum, but I would like to reassure you that I didn’t say anything to this person, nor would I. I’m sorry to hear that people have said unkind things to your son. On a few occasions some people have said very insensitive things that my wife has overheard and I know how upsetting it can be. I completely understand your reluctance to comment, but thank you for doing so. I often feel the same when highlighting issues that my wife and I can face. I am very aware of hidden disabilities and don’t in any way lessen their importance, but if all of the issues that we experienced on Iona were down to the volume of passengers with hidden disabilities then I am intrigued as to what attracts thousands of people with hidden disabilities, including entire large family groups, to one ship when we haven’t had anywhere near this level of issues on the other ships, even those with significantly older passenger profiles where you might logically expect a higher proportion of guests with both hidden and visible disabilities. Thank you again for your comments and I hope that this issue won’t derail the thread again as it did somewhat earlier last week.

Yes we were on that cruise as well Jean. Thankfully we were on the ship at the time, watching some poor souls car being destroyed by waves coming over the jetty. There were two huge tugs on full pelt, one forward and one aft, pushing against us to try to stop more lines breaking. IMG_2565.mov

You won’t have any issues at all, so can relax and look forward to your cruise knowing that it will be hassle free. For a few years prior to becoming a full time wheelchair user my wife used a wheelchair as and when she needed assistance due to fatigue. If the person using the chair is able to climb the steps into a normal coach then you can book any of the normal excursions and don’t need to book an accessible tour (which are more expensive and far more limited choice wise). There is never a problem with the wheelchair being stowed in the luggage compartment under the coach. The driver will do this for you. As there are so few wheelchair users and no other luggage , the chair would sometimes slide around a bit in the luggage compartment and get a bit grubby, but would wipe off with a damp cloth. The only issue we had in the last few years before my wife became a full time wheelchair user was that she could just about climb the steps into the coach with me lifting her legs, but she was unable to walk on the level so had to have a seat right at the front of the coach. These seats are usually marked with wheelchair symbol labels, but some elderly people with walking sticks who probably have blue badges so related to the symbol, would often jump in them when they could have easily gone to any seat in the coach. From your comments, it sounds as though a seat right at the front won’t be a necessity. As for excursions themselves, look for the ones that have the word ‘Easy’ in the title. These are specifically designed for those with walking difficulties. Each excursion description will also give a warning of where there are steps or difficult terrain, so there aren’t any nasty surprises. Aside from challenges with lifts at peak times (or at most times on Iona), we find that P&O staff are usually brilliant with wheelchair users, even taking the wheelchair on and off the ship when the ramps are at an angle. Cruises are the only overseas holidays that we do now, solely because cruise ships are very well set up for wheelchair users. We had a number of issues on Iona that I think have put my wife off going on her again (or Arvia), but they will only affect full time wheelchair users and even then probably only in school holidays when there are up to 1,000 more passengers on board. Happy to answer any other questions but I really don’t think you need to be concerned.

Exactly the same as us. We don’t vacate the cabin until we have to (8am is plenty early enough for us when on holiday - but we only have a couple of hours drive home) and therefore we have to take our hand luggage. Also, returning to the cabin again necessitates more lift use which, as you say, is usually a complete nightmare on disembarkation day with a wheelchair.

It’s a bit hit and miss. They are meant to park blue badge cars closest to the key pick up booth. This usually happens but not 100% of the time. Sometimes they park them with plenty of space between them (which, as you know, is essential for wheelchair users), other times less so.

DAY 8 - Disembarkation We both hate disembarkation, and not just because it signals the end of our cruise. The process involves the entire ships passengers having to move around the ship (cabin to breakfast, breakfast to disembarkation assembly point, assembly point to exit) all within a narrow time window. All of this, combined with the fact that everyone is carrying bags, means that demand for lifts during this period is intense. This is a challenge for everyone, but can be nigh on impossible when you need to get in a lift with a wheelchair. As a result, we dread disembarkation at the best of times, even on ships with decent size lifts, but given the lift problems that we’ve had all week on Iona we had started getting concerned about it a good few days beforehand. Before I describe our disembarkation experience from Iona this morning, it’s worth mentioning that we have experienced a completely different and far better system of disembarkation than that used by P&O when we did our first Cunard cruise earlier this year on Queen Mary 2. Everyone is given a time slot and you have full use of the ship and your cabin until that time. This means that you don’t need to take your hand luggage to breakfast, so some people use the stairs and those who don’t can get more people to a lift without all the bags. There is no need to meet at an assembly point (again, less demand on lifts) and when your time comes you simply leave your cabin and leave the ship directly. It was chalk and cheese from the P&O method. No lift issues, no hanging around and less queues. From our perspective, hassle free. Anyway, back to our Iona experience this morning. One of our daughters and partner had decided that they were going to do early self disembarkation for the first time, which they said was hassle free and would do again. That’s not an option for us, so we had arranged that our other daughter and partner would come to our cabin at 8am (the time that cabins had to be vacated) and we would then attempt to head down for breakfast in the MDR. Although our cabins were by the midships lifts, we headed to the aft lifts as, whilst they are just as small, we have found them to be a little less busy. We were bracing ourselves for a very long wait but, to our utter amazement, the first lift to arrive had just enough space for us. However, an elderly couple had been ahead of us at the lift area so I obviously stood back to let them go first. They were both insistent that my wife and I should go first and in fact held the doors open to let us in. Although we had been extended this courtesy by a number of children and teenagers during the cruise, it was the first time that any adults had shown us an ounce of consideration at the lifts all cruise, so we were extremely grateful to them and hope that they didn’t have to wait too long afterwards. Our daughter and her partner had carried their bags down the stairs and could not believe their eyes when we arrived outside the MDR just before them. They have become accustomed this cruise to making themselves comfortable for prolonged periods whilst waiting for us to arrive, especially as we have often had to go in the ‘wrong’ direction first just to be able to get in a ruddy lift! We only queued for just over 5 minutes to get into the MDR, which I thought was very good for disembarkation morning, and a table for 4 was found very quickly. We didn’t have our usual waiters, but we knew that would be the case. Frankly we didn’t care. We were still in shock and just so relieved to have used the lifts for the very last time. One amusing thing was that they have obviously run out of brown sauce, as what was presented to me was so diluted it had the consistency of water 😂 Our daughter had been given a 9am slot to meet in Sindhu on deck 8, whereas we had been told to meet at the Limelight Club on deck 6 at 9.30am for assisted disembarkation. Our notification had said that if we were able to cope without assistance we could bypass going to the Limelight Club. I tend to always bypass assistance now, as so many people these days declare that they need it you can be hanging around for ages. As it was just after 9am by this stage, I told my daughter and her partner to “follow me” and we just walked straight along deck 6 from the MDR, did a pit stop in the loos en-route (had a bit of a wait, as the disabled loo was occupied by a woman who, when she exited, ran along the corridor - I’m not making that up) met the back of a short queue just before the atrium, and we were all off the ship within minutes. We all found our luggage in 5 minutes or so, had a bit of a slow crawl in a queue to get out the luggage hall (past the always deserted customs desks), walked the few hundred yards to the CPS car park, key picked up in no time at all, found and checked the car, loaded and out of the car park and on our way home all within 30 minutes of finishing breakfast. OK, admittedly we cheated a bit as we know how it all works, but in all honesty the whole disembarkation experience was absolutely fine. Still not as good as the Cunard system, but not problematic as we had predicted. If only we’d known that it would have been OK a few days earlier! Now that we are home, I will reflect on Iona and our experiences during this cruise and sleep on it overnight before making a final blog post tomorrow on our ‘final thoughts’. In the meantime, I will leave you with one of the funniest moments of the cruise. Our daughters partner noticed that there was a doorbell outside our cabin. Keep in mind that we were unaware of this doorbell and were therefore not expecting anyone to press it. The tranquility of our cabin was suddenly and violently disturbed one day with an alarm (certainly no simple ‘ding-dong’), flashing strobe lights in the ceiling and a loud buzzing noise as the bed started vibrating. This is all designed to alert those occupying an accessible cabin who may be blind or deaf that someone is at the door. If you don’t know this, and you are suddenly faced with a violent assault of all your senses, which seems far more alarming than the emergency short blasts played during the pre departure briefing, I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone has wondered if this is an abandon ship signal and started reaching for the life jackets 😂

Our first visit was in 2018. We went again in 2019 and have been twice this year. Yes, the P&O provided shuttle has been replaced with a private one that charges but I haven’t checked if it’s accessible as my wife has remained on the ship both times this year.

Yes P&O used to provide one Dai. It used to drop off right in front of the Cathedral which, as you will know, is about as far as it’s worth going ‘up the hill’. On our first visit we got the free shuttle bus from the ship to the Cathedral. Having then walked around the town we ended up down by the waterfront (where the bars and restaurants are). As getting back to the shuttle would have meant a climb back up through the town I decided to push my wife all the way back the ship over the bridge. In hindsight I should have retraced my steps back to the shuttle, because the very steep climb up from the waterfront to the bottom of the bridge was intense and then I still had the bridge to deal with 🥵

DAY 7 - Sea Day Thankfully my poor nights sleep at the start of the cruise are well in the past now and I didn’t wake until 7.40am, which is really late for me. The sound insulation between cabins seems to be pretty good on Iona. It may just be that we have been very lucky this time, having one of our daughters one side and another considerate family the other side. We’ve had a tiny amount of thumping around overhead, but not during the night and nothing like the racket we had from the adjacent cabin on Britannia. This has been a huge relief, especially as the people above us are incapable of using their balcony without crashing and banging around on it and re-arranging the balcony furniture every few minutes. I really am not exaggerating. I would dearly love to know what on earth they are doing. It must be exhausting for them never being able to sit still! The captains weather forecast was correct and the sea was flat calm all day during our transit south through the North Sea. We went to breakfast for the last time on our reserved table, as disembarkation day is apparently a free for all with no reservations or bookings via the app. Just in case we don’t catch them tomorrow, I made sure to thank our waiters and give them both a tip in recognition of the fact that they have made the start of each day a great pleasure for us. I forgot to mention earlier in this blog that the senior food and beverage manager who we know the best had been on Iona right up until last week and moved to Arvia on the day we boarded. Apparently he had been in the MDR just 15 minutes before we went in for the embarkation lunch, so we had literally just missed him. We were gutted as we haven’t seen him since before Covid, but hugely relieved to hear that he is still with P&O as we’ve know him for many years. As we had quite a bit planned for the afternoon and evening during our last day, we decide to sort out most of the packing during the morning. We skipped lunch as we had afternoon tea booked in Epicurean, which is a challenge to get through at the best of times 😂 Prior to afternoon tea (BTW, for those who are interested, there is no MDR afternoon tea any more, even on sea days, it’s the buffet or the extra cost Epicurean one) we went to the ‘Wavelength’ performance at 2pm in the theatre. This is a quiz featuring a virtual Ben Shephard, but was hosted by (I think) the Entertainment Manager. I generally find these folk to be cringeworthy, but this chap (didn’t catch his name but a very thick South Wales accent) was fantastic. He just has funny bones and his patter and interaction with the contestants as well as the audience was brilliant. He really made the show and was funnier than many people who are supposed to be comedians. Afternoon tea in Epicurean was enjoyed by everyone. All very quirky and tasty. We were so glad that we’d all skipped lunch. Afterwards my wife read on our balcony in the sunshine and I watched the film “A man called Otto” on the cabin TV. Other than a couple of minutes of the ladies World Cup final and a few brief glimpses of Sky News, that’s been the first time that I’ve watched the TV all week. Shame they still have the rubbish TVs on Ventura, as we have quite a few more sea days when we are on her in a few months time so would use the TV more then. I did a final few laps of the promenade deck before a pre dinner drink in the Crows Nest. Our final dinner was in Epicurean, which was extremely busy and quite noisy, not helped by there being a huge group of at least 16 people including some very lively kids. None the less it was a nice way to end our final day. After dinner we decided against the final Headliners show. My wife wanted to finish the book she had borrowed from the library and I went to the SkyDome to watch Triboo, which the girls had enjoyed the night before. Not really for me, but a talented group of performers and something different. Disembarkation tomorrow.

When we were all chatting about our overall impressions of the cruise, those of us who had cruised many times with P&O before (4 of the 6) felt that the staff on Iona didn’t seem as happy and engagement with the passengers was less than we have been used to. There were some notable exceptions though. Our MDR waiters were absolutely brilliant. We just put this down to the fact that the ship was extremely busy and certain areas felt understaffed, but I’m sure that there are other factors at play as well.

Yes, managed to grab some free 4G signal passing the corner of Kent 😂 I never pay for WiFi so all usage is when we are within ports or near land. Yes the Limelight Manager definitely deserved credit for how well he handled the issue. Home now. Just unpacked and have the first load of washing in, so will post Day 7 Sea Day in a mo as it’s written. When I get chance I will write up disembarkation and final thoughts.

DAY 6 - Haugesund Another good nights sleep and we were already in Haugesund when I got up. Being midships we don’t get shaken out of bed by the thrusters as you sometimes do in forward or aft cabins when docking 😂 Another great breakfast in the MDR. Our regular waiters know the drinks orders off by heart now. I need to remember to take some tip money with me tomorrow, as apparently we can’t have the table on disembarkation morning. Haugesund has been a bit of a challenge for those with mobility issues since P&O stopped providing free shuttles. It’s about a 15 minute walk to the centre via a bridge (which is a bit steep when you are pushing a wheelchair) and the pavement is quite narrow if two wheelchair or scooter users meet! Thankfully, as with the last time we visited, my wife offered to stay on board and read, which took a lot of pressure off me and allowed me to wander into the town freely. As you disembark there’s a kiosk where you can get a free map with a suggested walking route that will occupy a couple of hours. It’s not the prettiest of places, especially after Stavanger and the fjords, but we’ve been to far worse places on cruises 😂 At 1pm we made our second lunchtime visit to the MDR. Using the app, we got called for our table within minutes. Obviously we didn’t have our usual breakfast table or waiters, but service and food were both excellent. Once seated a succession of families with screaming babies or toddlers appeared, one after the other. As the tables either side of us were empty, I held my breath until each was seated - mercifully none adjacent to us, as that would have really spoiled a very nice lunch! We then just chilled in the cabin and on the balcony until our departure just after 5pm. The Captain has promised calm seas on our way back to Southampton. I hope that he’s right as we have had nothing more than about force 2 so far, yet two of our party seem to have felt “quite a bit of movement at times” 🙄. I won’t tell them what it can be like on some cruises, or they will never make their second one 🤣 Pre dinner drinks in Anderson’s, as we remembered that none of us had used our sail away vouchers for a free glass of Champagne. It would be a shame to let those go to waste! On the way there we got in a lift as a family was vacating it and found another wheelchair user (a gentleman) and his wife (a fellow pusher like me). Having exchanged greetings the lady said to me “How are you finding it?”. I wasn’t entirely sure whether she meant the cruise, the ship or our experiences being in the same situation as them, so I asked and she replied “with the wheelchair”. I said that we quite liked the ship and the food was excellent but I flipped the question back and asked how are you finding it getting around with the wheelchair? “Dreadful” came the reply. I asked if they had been on other ships and the response was “lots, but none have been as problematic as this one with the wheelchair”. I must say that, whilst sorry to hear this, I was incredibly relieved to find that our experiences weren’t unique, as I have sometimes wondered. Whilst having a drink, I asked the daughter who has been on the most cruises if Iona was now her favourite ship. Her response was interesting. She said that she loves the cabin and the modern features of the ship, but felt that the staff didn’t seem as friendly or helpful as on the other ships. As an example, when we were on Britannia I discovered after a week or so that you could pretty much order any drink from any bar, not just what was on the menu. On Iona it’s menu items only. One daft thing that she had picked up on was that the Crows Nest has all the required ingredients for a Margarita, yet they refuse to serve one because it’s not on the drinks menu there! We have also noticed that, with a few notable exceptions, the staff don’t seem as happy in their work on this ship as they do on some others. I suspect the fact that the ship feels under staffed in some areas and is incredibly busy must make it very hard work for them Tonight’s dinner (and entertainment) was in the Limelight Club, featuring Matt Cardle (former X-Factor, as they always seem to be these days). Those who read my ‘live from’ on Britannia recently may recall that this was a great evening both from a food and entertainment perspective. Unfortunately, the experience on Iona was more mixed. We were one of the few larger groups (although only 6 of us) and were seated about as far from the stage as it was possible to be. In itself none of us were that worried about this, but unfortunately we also were at the tail end of the entire service procedure and furthermore our two waitresses were not terribly attentive and we felt very much like an afterthought. When our mains eventually arrived, 4 of us had ordered beef. 3 were very nice looking fillets - and mine was what was left - a poor looking scrag end that looked nothing like the others. When the waitress came around to ask if everything was OK, I mentioned that I was a bit disappointed with mine and she offered to change it. I said that would be OK if it could be done quickly, but otherwise I’d just stick with it. I wished I hadn’t said anything, as I waited and waited and waited and assumed that they had forgotten me, as everyone else had long finished their meal. I called the waitress over and said “please tell the chef that it’s taken far too long and not to worry. I’ll skip the main course so as not to keep the rest of my party waiting”. “No sir, it’s coming very soon”. OK I said, by the way do you have any horseradish? Yes sir. Great. Could I please have some when you bring the new meal? Another long wait ensued and eventually my meal arrived. Still not brilliant but far better than the fist attempt. The horseradish arrived as I swallowed the last mouthful 🙄. Meantime, one daughter had gone to the loo and commented that all other tables had completed dessert and had their tables cleared. As they were clearing our main course plates the lights went down and Matt Cardle started his act. We were then hurriedly served our deserts, which half of us had to eat with our backs to the performance. As the waitress cleared the dessert plates I asked if she would please let the restaurant manager know that I had been very disappointed with the whole experience. Shortly afterwards the manager appeared and I had a quiet word with him at the back of the venue. To his absolute credit he was mortified to hear about our experience and offered me a bottle of champagne, which I thanked him for offering but declined as we had all finished our booze for the evening and didn’t want any more. He then said that he would refund our entire drinks bill. I was quite shocked at that and felt that it was overly generous in relation to the problems, but he insisted. As we left I looked for him to thank him but he was already waiting for me in order to apologise once again. The customer complaints team at P&Os Head Office could take a leaf out of this chaps book. Rather than platitudes and making customers have a battle, only to eventually succumb to the absolute least that they feel that they can possibly get away with, he exceed the customer’s expectations and turned a bad experience into a positive one. I shook his hand, thanked him most sincerely and praised him for his excellent customer service skills. As for the entertainment, it was, shall we say, interesting! Matt Cardle is a great singer and performed some good covers, but all 6 of us said exactly the same thing. The amount of reverb (echo) was so comically over the top it really detracted from the performance. As many will know, reverb is often used by mediocre singers to enhance their voices and make them sound a lot better than they really are. Matt Cardle simply does not need this artificial enhancement as he has a super voice. His performance would have sounded far better without any of it. The other surprise was that the host, who was, shall we say, a bit ‘full on’ sang a few covers herself earlier whilst we were eating. We all cringed a bit when she said she was going to do this, but all ate humble pie as she was absolutely brilliant. We could have easily listened to her for much longer! As no tea or coffee was offered we went to Vistas for a nightcap. Sea day and our last full day of the cruise tomorrow.

Just read it and I’m sure that I won’t be the only one who will find it fascinating. Sorry to hear that you have both contracted Covid. However expensive the cruise, it seems that viruses love cruise ships of all types!

I’ve not received anything from P&O yet, but have had the 10% off 2024 cruises email from Cunard. I’ve just checked our two 2024 Cunard cruises (both promoting the offer) and whilst the cruise prices are cheaper than we paid (though not by as much as 10%) the OBC is less, so overall the net cost isn’t much different. I don’t have as much built up knowledge of how Cunard do things as I do with P&O, but conscious that they are both part of Carnival UK I wonder if it may be similar? In which case, could there be the usual marketing kidology at play here, where prices go up and OBC goes up, then prices come down and OBC comes down. Net outlay (cruise price less OBC) = roughly the same? I know it’s a mugs game watching prices after having booked, and I’ve always resigned myself to the fact that in the past launch prices were always cheapest (no longer always the case) or that even if prices had dropped we probably would no longer be able to get an accessible balcony cabin (but we did manage to with our recent Britannia cruise, even though we booked after balance due date). Instead I now work to a maximum net price per night that I’m prepared to pay on a Select basis (which for P&O is far less than I used to pay) and then in the unlikely event that the price drops it’s never going to be by enough to worry about. I appreciate that not everyone can do that though and many cruises are booked for very specific / unique itineraries, so subsequent price drops can be infuriating.

We are currently refuelling in Haugesund. I thought that we also refuelled in Stavanger but can’t be 100% sure.

I think that Geiranger uses an extendable floating walkway to avoid the need for berthing or tenders, and that P&O had asked for the measurements when building Iona and had been given incorrect info. I could be wrong about that. I often have troubled dreams 😂 Good call about the excursion to Geiranger. Not a lot to see in Hellesylt. We might have considered it but couldn’t establish if it was wheelchair accessible. Besides, there was a point of principle in not giving P&O more money for what we had already paid for. A more customer serviced company would have provided free transfers for those of us who booked back when the cruise was sold as going to Geiranger.

Can’t wait to hear all about your Saga cruise (good and bad) and how it compares to P&O. As you know, we would like to try them, but the price difference is enormous. I appreciate that virtually everything is included with Saga though. I do hope that you will feel able to do a review or at least outline the issues mentioned in your final paragraph. As you rightly say, different things can impact different people in very different ways.

Other cruise ships still seem to be making it to Geiranger. I tend to recall our P&O insider saying that there had been a ***** up with Iona being designed to an incorrect brief given by the port. I don’t think I imagined that, but will no doubt be corrected if that’s wrong.

My wife’s wheelchair is slightly smaller than average, yet we fill one third of the lifts on Iona. Lots of people have commented that the lifts seem far too small for the numbers using them.

The drummer and two guitarists are still the same, but the drummer leaves at the end of this cruise. The pianist is different (Fenmore) and he’s brilliant. We really enjoyed all 3 performances (two from the band and the one with Elly). It’s a great addition to the entertainment offer.

Update - just had second MDR lunch. Used the app. Called in minutes. Different table and waiters to usual but still first class food and service. Satay starter and chicken curry main both hot and excellent flavours. Reminded me of the MDR lunchtime curries of old. The rice pudding was cold - but was meant to be (our waitress had warned us when we ordered) 😂 Couldn’t fault any of it.

Olive Grove - It’s bookable via the app, but I’d advise booking at least the day before. On the day it’s usually showing as full. However, even though it shows as full, if you just turn up (as we have done and both our daughters have separately) they will usually either let you in or take a booking for say 30 minutes later. Obviously this is good, but makes a bit of a mockery as to why the app is showing as full 🤔. Unusually the restaurant manager is (I think) Australian and isn’t as accommodating as the Indian / Asian managers tend to be. In fact a bit of a jobsworth. We had a lunch booking yesterday (port day) for just the two of us and one of our daughters and her partner decided that they’d like to come to. The restaurant manager said that he couldn’t accommodate a table for 4. Fair enough. How about 2 adjacent tables of 2? Not possible. So in we go to find the restaurant half empty, yet we were seated away from each other. My daughter looked at me and looking around at all the empty tables did a ‘why?’ gesture 😂 In all honesty, it felt like a point was being made and I just couldn’t envisage the restaurant managers elsewhere doing that. Leaving that aside, the food was great and we’ve all agreed that it is the best lunch venue on the ship. MDR - In fairness, other than the loyalty lunch and breakfast every day, we’ve only had one lunch (about to be 2) and one dinner in the MDR and with all but the lunch we have had a reserved table. However, I have been keeping an eye on the app out of curiosity and my sense is that it works far better than it did on Britannia, with nothing like the number of ‘queue full’ messages. I haven’t overheard any complaints about wait times, whereas there were plenty on Britannia! One of our daughters and her partner dined in the MDR a second night without us at around 7.30pm. They used the app, got called quickly and reported that they had a great meal. Over breakfast today they repeated how impressed they were with the MDR and they are going again on the last night whilst we go to Epicurean again. As for all the reports about food not being hot, the only meal that I’ve had that wasn’t hot was in Keel & Cow. The MDR has been fine in that regard, as it was on Britannia.

I think this may also be a major factor David. I have seen far more people using the stairs on this ship than others, but I’ve put that down to the younger demographic and also I’ve noticed that a lot of passengers give up waiting for a lift that they can get in, so use the stairs as it’s quicker. However, with 16 floors accessed by lifts, you’d have to be super fit to use them all the time if going up. I know that I couldn’t 🥵