DamianG

For Palma (Mallorca) the ship docks a fair way from the centre (as others have advised) but we enjoyed the stroll down the marina. For the return walk we stopped off at Parc de Sa Feixina where they used to put on a fantastic barbecue.

In A Coruña the ships docks very close to the city centre!

Me too, I claimed for 3 of us for missing Le Havre. We were really looking forward to Hamburg but ended up with 2 nights in Zebrugge and 3 in Rotterdam. Both should have been a daytime call only so there wasn't much cruising in the end though we still made the most of it and enjoyed ourselves (mostly onboard). In his announcements The Captain was at great pains to advise that missing ports due to strong winds was nothing to do with Iona being a high sided vessel and would have affected any ship. I'm just finding that hard to believe that based on our previous cruises, and especially our experience of docking and departing from Toulon where the Mistral Wind was blowing a gale.

Reading about Iona missing Stavanger on Sarah's cruise and now Geiranger (for "operational reasons") has got me wondering just how many other ports it has missed as it seems to be a regular occurrence? Our April cruise G208 was scheduled for Hamburg (which was subsequently cancelled for "operational reasons") then we ended up missing the replacement port Le Havre due to adverse weather, leaving us stuck in Rotterdam for 3 days. I believe that G204 was completely rescheduled from Hamburg-Rotterdam-Bruges to La Coruna (but didn't dock due to the weather) Vigo and Lisbon? I also understand that Lisbon was cancelled on G205 and replaced by Gibraltar. Any others?

Thanks for your wonderful updates Sarah, you have a lovely writing style that brought your voyage to life for me and I'm sure many others (and it was never too long, wordy, or over detailed). I still enjoy getting up early and taking a few photos as well but I've never quite mastered the art of not disturbing the sleep of my spouse at the same time so if you've already cracked that well done! I'm also still fascinated by the whole docking and letting go of the lines procedures, even after many years of cruising. Thanks too for all your wonderful photos, clearly you know what you're doing in that regard and I think the quality of the shots reflects the fact that you've been using a DSLR camera. What a pro! It's such a shame that you weren't able to dock at Stavanger as I think that you'd have found plenty of things of interest there and certainly lots of photo opportunities. When our Iona itinerary kept getting changed due to high winds the captain went to great lengths (almost propaganda-like) to state that this was not a problem exclusive to high sided cruise ships but it feels to me that it's becoming more of a regular occurrence. Have a lovely sea day today and safe travels home tomorrow. Best Damian

At a Leeds Rhinos Rugby League Club dinner years ago we sat next to a lovely young man called Rob Burrow. Then the players rotated for the second course and we were sat next to another great young chap, Kevin Sinfield. Kevin stayed behind and chatted to us all long after a lot of the other players had left for the evening. Of course rugby league is a bit of a minority sport in the UK these days but now everyone knows these guys for the saddest of reasons.

The one that got away would be Springsteen at Leeds Arena when he asked them to open it ahead of schedule so that him and the E Street Band would be the first to perform there. I spent all morning on the phone when tickets were released to no avail, yet at the same time they were on offer via companies associated with Ticketmaster at 4 or more times the ticket price. I refused to pay but know folks who did and never regretted it so maybe I should have bitten the bullet.

Me too, quite near the front as well. Best concert ever.

For me, the Status Quo concerts of the last 15 years that I’ve been to have been far better than those I saw in the 1980’s. They’re just so much more professional and polished these days.Last saw them in 2019 when they played at our local park just a mile from where we live. Hopefully I’ll get to see them again sometime.

Good to know, we’ll have to look harder next time!

I mostly worked from home 2012-2018 when it was a real privilege and now I do the same when it is more common. I’ll be tired tonight and tomorrow but it’s still good to have these days out.

I’m on the train to London for a working day in the city and we’re just having a brief hold up outside the metropolis known as Stevenage. Looks like it’s going to be a lovely sunny day and despite my usual pre-travel anxiety I’m looking forward to catching up with my colleagues in the office. When I was laid off in 2018 I thought that I wouldn’t miss these long days and 400 mile round trips but I did and I remain grateful that I got a second chance with the only company I’ve ever worked for. Have a great day everyone & happy holidays to all setting sail soon.

Before we became parents we always shared tables and we have as many fond memories of our newly met travelling companions as we do of the cruises themselves. The number of lovely travelling companions we met far outweighs those that (shall we say) were difficult to get on with. As a quick example, on one Oriana cruise when we went to dinner on the first evening we were greeted by a lady who had taken it upon herself to organise the whole table so that we were seated lady-gentleman-lady etc. Then on the second evening she insisted that we all rotate. This may make her sound like an overbearing individual but it wasn’t the case at all, and we had a series of fabulous evenings where no-one ever excused themselves or left early (often we were amongst the last to leave the MDR). To top it all she arranged for us all to visit the Gary Rhodes restaurant to celebrate her birthday and insisted on paying for everything, including all the drinks. Such a generous and fun lady, ably supported by her partner who was an equally lovely person with a wonderful sense of humour. We still enjoy our cruises but these days we’re on the huge ships during school holidays and socialising with and getting to know other passengers is the one thing that we miss the most.

Hi all We have a B4 suite booked on Ventura for this summer but it's looking like we may need to transfer our booking to 2024. The only suites currently available for our preferred cruise are grades A1 (probably out of our price range), B2, B5 and BE. We think that B5 would be too noisy for us with Havana just below those cabins. Can anyone offer any opinions or experiences of the others please? Thanks in advance.