Ardennais

Here’s my take on G304. * Embarkation was smooth and speedy. * Cabin 11237. Nice decor. Great bathroom with a proper shower cubicle. Whopper of a sofa! Comfortable bed. Very narrow cabin, we missed having a proper bedside cabinet with drawers. Tight squeeze between the wardrobes and bed - really tight. * We loved having so many dining options. Fish and chips/fried chicken and fries in The Quays were delicious and some salad bowls also available. Never queued more than 3 minutes and plenty of seating there. Hot and tasty. * I had pre-booked the Olive Grove for 1 lunch and 2 dinners. We decided not to stay for one dinner as we were told at reception that they were having problems due to the app being down. Plenty of choice and everything tasted really good. * Horizon - went for our hot chocolate and couldn’t believe the long queues at 10.45pm! I have never seen the buffet so packed late at night before. On our long Ventura cruise, the same two dozen people were there every night having some cheese and crackers. This time, trays were piled with food! I suppose younger folk have more of an appetite. * Limelight Club Valentine’s day - Lee Mead was brilliant. The meal was also very nice. So glad I had pre-booked as I thought the MDRs might be busy on this formal evening. * Epicurean. Very slow service and to be honest, we weren’t that impressed with the whole experience. Glad to have tried it once, after reading so much about it here, but wouldn’t be in a rush to go again! Service was sooooo slow that we missed the 10.30 show in the theatre. I tried ti cancel at about 10pm but the app was down. * Coral Restaurant - our only visit to a MDR was breakfast on last morning. Very civilised and pleasant but very slow service again. * Ripples - lovely ice cream. Enjoyed a Knickerbocker Glory! * Coffee bar in atrium - we had two very dry and tasteless cakes there, so wouldn’t bother again, * Entertainment - Gareth Oliver in the Club House was brilliant. We walked out of the Kalon Rae show in the theatre after 10 mins - very poor singer. Watched 2 new (to us) Headliner Shows. Festival was so-so but Centre Stage was very good. Max the Busker was very good in the atrium. We were hoping to watch Mrs Harris on the sea day but the studio was already full half an hour before the start. * Sky Dome - the acrobatic shows and dancers were quite good and entertaining. It’s a good venue for that type of show. The trio of female singers not so good due to the poor acoustics there, and not really my type of band! It’s good to see this venue being used in the evenings and there was a good atmosphere there. * With a full ship and lots of children, we still found it easy to find somewhere to sit. The children all seemed to be having a good time and made for a good atmosphere, * We enjoyed watching the silent disco in the atrium on two evenings. Good fun trying to identify the songs. Come on Eileen was a good one, and it was fantastic to see teenagers doing the Hokey Cokey! * Plenty of lifts and all/most working. * Didn’t use the public toilets more than twice as we had been given a letter on embarkation about Noro on the previous cruise. They now have automatic doors and were very spacious and clean. In fact, the whole ship was sleek and airy. We loved the massive windows. * We initially had £100 OBC and were given another £100 a few months ago. The final bill was £225. We had paid for the speciality dining before boarding and also one excursion. * For such a huge ship, the port shuttles in Hamburg and Zeebrugge worked well for us, or we were possibly lucky! * Didn’t visit the shops onboard. They never have anything that I find interesting! Not so good ….. * £2.50 delivery for breakfast without hot drinks! * Could have done with fresh towels after showering in the evening. * Slow service in Epicurean and Olive Grove. * Nowhere near enough staff in the coffee bar which meant that the atrium looked a mess. Tables just weren’t cleared. * Not enough staff taking drinks orders in The Quays. We also waited a long time in the Crow’s Nest late at night and gave up completely one morning there! * Narrow cabin, no drawers and husband complaining about the lack of shaver points in the bathroom. Air-con was also very noisy. * App was down 13/14 Feb. * I now know for certain that I will NEVE EVER select a deck 8 conservatory mini-suite! I’m not tall but I could see inside the cabins. And they don’t even have a proper sea view! We would love to sail on Iona again, but not to the Fjords. We have 3 cruises booked - on Britannia, Arcadia (new to us) and Aurora.

My husband wasn’t wearing formal dress in the Epicurean (not formal night) and he wasn’t the only one. Most people were smart casual.

Oh dear. Not good then. Staffing levels are definitely inadequate. Previously, someone would clear the table as soon as you had finished. Passengers kept moving dirty crockery to free up some tables and so some of the tables were heaving with used stuff. We sat listening to the brilliant busker on deck 6 and I can confirm that some tables weren’t cleared at all during his stint.

I’m surprised that they said that it’s fully staffed. We thought they were very short staffed in some areas. I sat in the atrium for about 2 hours Thursday afternoon and some tables weren’t cleared at all during that time. It looked very messy!

I really dislike Gibraltar.

No. I have never used a deck sun bed on a cruise. Much prefer my own balcony and always in the shade.

I agree. Iona this last week didn’t really impact Hamburg or Rotterdam. They’re big, busy cities. The terminals aren’t geared towards casual shopping either - no newspapers or souvenirs for instance. I imagine it will be a very different experience in places like Olden.

Our boarding was 3pm on Iona last week - deck 11 balcony and Mediterranean level. Arrived 2.20 and in cabin before 3pm. They don’t call the letters anymore. Very straightforward. Got talking to a couple doing their first cruise and they had a boarding time of 1.30 so I don’t know how they do it.

It was very relaxed this morning! We entered at 8.05 and our cooked breakfast appeared at 8.50, minus the mushrooms which materialised about 5 minutes later! We weren’t due to disembark until 10.25 so we were quite happy to stay there until 9.30 - we were almost the last group to leave. Anyway, as we headed towards the theatre, we were told that we could disembark straight away which was good. We had a light breakfast delivered to our cabin every other morning. I don’t mind the £2.50 charge, but it’s annoying that they’ve stopped providing hot drinks,

The new-look safety drill is very easy, but I do wonder how people would cope in a real emergency. There were only 1900 Peninsular club members on Iona last week, out of 5200, so I took that to mean that over 3000 were either first time cruisers or P&O virgins. The old system meant that you had to concentrate. It’s rather worrying really!

We had breakfast in the Coral this morning - our one and only meal in a MDR. We actually remarked that there seemed to be a lot of tables for 2.

Thanks. Glad that things improved for you. I know that others in the past have been able to join the queue in their cabin which is great IF it works, but as we know, it didn’t work for at least two evenings this past week. I also think that if you want to catch the 10.30 show, then you need to be seated by 7.30 at the latest due to the slow service. This was our first post-covid P&O cruise and we found a marked difference in terms of service. I think it would have annoyed our children had they been with us, but we were just glad to get away after a pretty stressful winter!

No idea! Didn’t even see the infinity pool.

We loved the Olive Grove and would definitely try to pre-book if we were to sail on Iona again. Service was slow, but it was a very pleasant venue. However, when we turned up on Monday night, the lady on the desk said that there were long delays, something to do with the ordering process. Well the ‘app’ was down so we decided to skip it as we were rather hungry after walking 6 miles! Fish and chips from the Quays in less than 5 minutes!

One other top tip! The film studios seem to fill up really quickly on sea days. We wanted to see Mrs Harris last Tuesday at 1.30pm. We turned up at 1.00 and it was full. The other 3 studios were full too.

Just checked my booking confirmation e-mails. Limelight booked at 12.45am, Epicurean 12.56am, Olive Grove 1.08am.

I think it was about 12.20-12.30am when they suddenly started to open! I almost gave up but as I’m a night owl, I was still wide awake!

I had a hunch that the gala night might be problematic, even if the ‘app’ was working which is why I pre-booked the Limelight Club for the night. How did you get on with the beverage manager? We had dinner in the Epicurean last Sunday (12th). Booked for 7.30, service was so slow we missed the 10.30 show!

I agree. We thought it was just us to begin with and kept logging off and trying again! Luckily, I had pre-booked everything at home once booking opened and had a printed copy. I found myself recalling the lively discussion here a few weeks ago and the posters who claimed that the ‘app’ was brilliant etc etc. I wish!

I was ready to book at midnight, and saw that some time slots had sold out by the following morning!

Thank you very much. Very helpful.

We also love Aurora, and had a great cruise with the children when it was still a family ship. I like family friendly ships, nicer atmosphere.

Thanks. We’re not looking at a worldie - still working! Hoping to do another 35 nighter.

Does the £50pp deposit apply to all cruises? What about longer cruises, say 21+ nights?

What’s the dress code for the Epicurean on non-formal nights? Smart casual?