Just returned today from Iona's trip to Hamburg, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge, and wanted to share my experience/see if some of these experiences are across the board.
Problems started right on arriving at the terminal on the coach. We were diverted to the QE2 terminal to wait for over 40 minutes before even being taken to board. When we arrived on board I received a text from a random number saying 'hi your bag is leaking looks like wine', no signature to say it was P&o so I thought it was spam. My husband opened the suitcase when it arrived (5 hours later) and cut his finger on shards of glass. A bottle of gin I had wrapped smashed in the suitcase and leaked everywhere, covering £200 of birthday presents I had bought for my husbands birthday onboard. I took it to reception and must admit some of the receptionists were incredibly rude and really struggled to understand English. They said we shouldn't have packed it in the suitcase but I had called customer service a few days before the cruise to ask where I carry the gin, and they said the suitcase not hand luggage. At risk of this being a long post, Iona took the suitcase and promised it back by Monday evening (husbands birthday was on the Tuesday) but we didn't receive it. Didn't get the suitcase until Thursday and I had to repeatedly go to reception to demand my husbands presents back.
In hamburg on Monday, the shuttle bus crashed and the driver (who could not speak a word of English) couldn't tell anyone what was going on. Another passenger had to use Google translate to communicate, but we were stuck on the side of the road for nearly 2 hours. Some of the passengers, including my 2 children under 6 were standing up because we were stationary for a long time, when the driver decided to drive off without warning any of us. Both my children went flying in to their seats. We all acknowledged a crash is completely out of P&O's control but as it is the main shuttle company they use, you would think they would ensure someone who could atleast speak a word of English is there incase situations happen. You would also think they would provide a number to passengers that they could easily get through to if issues arise. Passengers on the bus called many different numbers and all were constantly engaged.
Additional concerns - on Sunday night a high number of passengers (including me and my mum) were served completely raw chicken in the coral restaurant. They did give us a bottle of wine to compensate but took them until Friday to actually sort it out. Queues were massive for absolutely everything, most things were constantly booked and the only reason we could access some of them was because of reception management booking them for us to compensate for the issues we experienced. I stood on a shard of glass in the cabin despite stewards saying they had thoroughly cleaned it. The Chefs table was alright, but disappointing that for a celebration night they have that meal in a section of the horizon buffet restaurant. There seemed far too many passengers on board for what the staff could cope with. Long queues for drinks. Constantly long queues for reception, and every passenger we came across had many complaints. But the most disappointing part was the port days in Hamburg, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge. All were advertised as having great Christmas markets, but they had already finished in Rotterdam and Zeebrugge. Hamburg had 2 small ones that you could finish in 30 minutes, very expensive and you could barely move. However, 1 of them was beautifully decorated though and Hamburg as a whole had some incredible buildings to look at.
Talking to some other passengers it did appear that this is not always normal for Iona. Many said they came on earlier this year and had a fantastic time, but it appeared this specific trip was just disaster for everyone the whole week.
I will say though that the ship itself is incredible to look at and is very beautiful. The entertainment was fantastic - my children were particularly obsessed with the aladdin pantomime and deck the halls performance. Entertainment definitely made the cruise worth while for us. All other staff apart from reception were so polite and friendly.
All in all, it was an alright trip. The experience put my husband off cruising (he's a first timer), so are some of these things consistent across the board? My last cruise was ventura in 2014 and I had the most incredible time and want to take the family on to that one next. But if some of these issues are across most ships, then maybe I might have to avoid.