Iona Construction ?

[brian1]

2 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Ray Quinn in The Limelight Club.  I take it Gary didn't want to come out to play.

They've just robbed Zap and I of half of our material.Not happy.

[molecrochip]

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

The CLIA ruling applies to ocean cruises from US ports. P&O are not directly affected as they do not sail from the USA. But as a US owned company they may feel morally obliged to fall in line in respect of cruises from other ports. Watch this space!

There is no requirement for P&O to abide by this unless a cruise is due to visit a US port.

[Chrisdriving]

We moved our November 20 booking to a Dec 21 cruise on Iona now.

 

Been looking at some pictures of it on Marinetraffic, IMHO its an ugly looking bugger, looks like a barge with a block of flats on it.

 

A far cry from Oriana/Aurora style and not a good angle from any direction.

 

Sure its nice enough inside though.

Edited August 8, 2020 by Chrisdriving

[AndyMichelle]

20 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

We moved our November 20 booking to a Dec 21 cruise on Iona now.

 

Been looking at some pictures of it on Marinetraffic, IMHO its an ugly looking bugger, looks like a barge with a block of flats on it.

 

A far cry from Oriana/Aurora style and not a good angle from any direction.

 

Sure its nice enough inside though.

We could be on the same cruise Chris. 

I have reservations but it will be newish, clean and comfortable, so happy to have something to look forward to. 

I will send you over a socially distanced cocktail... 

Andy 

[Chrisdriving]

G139 Andy?

Edited August 8, 2020 by Chrisdriving

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Chrisdriving said:

...Sure its nice enough inside though.

Once P&O deign to release some photos you'll know. Thus far they have kept most of it a big secret...

[molecrochip]

6 hours ago, Britboys said:

Once P&O deign to release some photos you'll know. Thus far they have kept most of it a big secret...

P&O have done the release differently this time - but that was intentional to hit a different audience.

 

No mood boards or pictures but there was guide of the mock up cabin by Olly Smith.

 

The focus has been on the entertainment & activities rather than the fabric of the ship. Additionally, there’s a very intentional focus on Norway, the new adventurous excursions and local food influences. Not to mention the acts onboard and Gary Barlow!

 

There have been illustrations of most venues, pictures on Twitter of the sky dome, and articles on things like creating the perfect burger for Keel & Cow.

 

i sense you guys on here don’t feel that it’s worked well. I’m sure they will focus group such matters after she is launched.

Edited August 8, 2020 by molecrochip

[Britboys]

25 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

P&O have done the release differently this time - but that was intentional to hit a different audience.

 

No mood boards or pictures but there was guide of the mock up cabin by Olly Smith.

 

The focus has been on the entertainment & activities rather than the fabric of the ship. Additionally, there’s a very intentional focus on Norway, the new adventurous excursions and local food influences. Not to mention the acts onboard and Gary Barlow!

 

There have been illustrations of most venues, pictures on Twitter of the sky dome, and articles on things like creating the perfect burger for Keel & Cow.

 

i sense you guys on here don’t feel that it’s worked well. I’m sure they will focus group such matters after she is launched.

I guess those of us that have cruised for some years with P&O will be the ones that have noticed the absence of much information/publicity related to the ship's interior design. Perhaps the new, younger passenger demographic Iona is aimed at are less interested in such things?

I am just an interested bystander - interested in all things cruising but not interested in actually sailing on Iona.

[wowzz]

35 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

P&O have done the release differently this time - but that was intentional to hit a different audience.

 

No mood boards or pictures but there was guide of the mock up cabin by Olly Smith.

 

The focus has been on the entertainment & activities rather than the fabric of the ship. Additionally, there’s a very intentional focus on Norway, the new adventurous excursions and local food influences. Not to mention the acts onboard and Gary Barlow!

 

There have been illustrations of most venues, pictures on Twitter of the sky dome, and articles on things like creating the perfect burger for Keel & Cow.

 

i sense you guys on here don’t feel that it’s worked well. I’m sure they will focus group such matters after she is launched.

Actually, it doesn't really matter what us 40 or 50 posters on here think. For Iona to be a success,  P&O needs to attract a new generation of cruisers, who, to be honest, will be happy with a Premier Inn type cabin, as long as they will be entertained at night, and will happily partake of the overpriced excursions. Purely a question of "bums on seats"

It's not cruising as I know it, but it is the mass market future of cruising.

I'll just choose the smaller ships and pay extra for the privilege. 

The gamble that P&O is taking , is whether or not they can fill Iona and Iona 2  .  Can they find 10,000 people a week, 52 weeks of the year,  to fill these two ships? And if they can, will you be one of them? I know I won't. 

 

[Britboys]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

Actually, it doesn't really matter what us 40 or 50 posters on here think. For Iona to be a success,  P&O needs to attract a new generation of cruisers, who, to be honest, will be happy with a Premier Inn type cabin, as long as they will be entertained at night, and will happily partake of the overpriced excursions. Purely a question of "bums on seats"

It's not cruising as I know it, but it is the mass market future of cruising.

I'll just choose the smaller ships and pay extra for the privilege. 

The gamble that P&O is taking , is whether or not they can fill Iona and Iona 2  .  Can they find 10,000 people a week, 52 weeks of the year,  to fill these two ships? And if they can, will you be one of them? I know I won't. 

 

I'm with you Wowzz and will also only be on the smaller ships. From what we have seen on other threads however, it seems they won't need to sail at 100% capacity to make a profit. Perhaps if they are close to full during school holidays and about 60% the rest of the time, they will make an acceptable profit?

[AndyMichelle]

15 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I'm with you Wowzz and will also only be on the smaller ships. From what we have seen on other threads however, it seems they won't need to sail at 100% capacity to make a profit. Perhaps if they are close to full during school holidays and about 60% the rest of the time, they will make an acceptable profit?

Although we do tend to enjoy the smaller ships, we have to be realistic. 

We could have 30+ years of cruising left and would never justify paying stupidly high premiums for the smaller ship experience, so feel we have no choice than to give the big 'beauties'a go. 

We will try Iona and embrace the differences and see how we get on. 

Andy 

[Dermotsgirl]

I was looking forward to trying Iona next March.

 

The price for the balcony cabin we have booked was very low, so we were intending to embrace the all the dining options, and not bother too much with the MDR.

 

In the current climate, they can’t really trumpet Iona too much, as no one knows when she’s going to sail, and it would rile up even more those people who are still waiting for their refunds from March. 

[ann141]

We too will probably try Iona as it tends to be the Itinerary that is the main reason we book a cruise. At the moment we are considering a cruise on Iona in February to the Canaries including Fuertuventura which is somewhere we have not visited.We may book a back to back as the previous 7 night cruise calls at Hamburg and Rotterdam which again are 2 places which will be new to us.If we book we will wait until January to see how things are.I'm not very hopeful but its nice to have the possibility of a warm weather cruise to look forward to in the winter months 

[Britboys]

31 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Although we do tend to enjoy the smaller ships, we have to be realistic. 

We could have 30+ years of cruising left and would never justify paying stupidly high premiums for the smaller ship experience, so feel we have no choice than to give the big 'beauties'a go. 

We will try Iona and embrace the differences and see how we get on. 

Andy 

I can understand that Andy. For me, I have tried Azura twice and that convinced me that she (and therefore Ventura) are not for me. I will try Britannia at some point but not for more than a week, as although her interiors look (to me) much better than her two smaller sisters, I have very significant doubts that I would enjoy the overall cruising experience on her. As for Iona, I am afraid that there is absolutely nothing about her that appeals - zilch.

I am hopeful that as I normally opt for an inside cabin outside of peak summer on my P&O cruises, I will be able to continue affording Aurora and Arcadia. Once they have gone, I don't expect to continue being a P&O customer.

[Chrisdriving]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

I'm with you Wowzz and will also only be on the smaller ships. From what we have seen on other threads however, it seems they won't need to sail at 100% capacity to make a profit. Perhaps if they are close to full during school holidays and about 60% the rest of the time, they will make an acceptable profit?

Would be nice as we prefer the smaller ships but maybe Iona at only 60% capacity would be nice.

Its not the ship size that concerns us but the sheer number of PAX onboard.

Edited August 9, 2020 by Chrisdriving

[AndyMichelle]

19 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I can understand that Andy. For me, I have tried Azura twice and that convinced me that she (and therefore Ventura) are not for me. I will try Britannia at some point but not for more than a week, as although her interiors look (to me) much better than her two smaller sisters, I have very significant doubts that I would enjoy the overall cruising experience on her. As for Iona, I am afraid that there is absolutely nothing about her that appeals - zilch.

I am hopeful that as I normally opt for an inside cabin outside of peak summer on my P&O cruises, I will be able to continue affording Aurora and Arcadia. Once they have gone, I don't expect to continue being a P&O customer.

I have to say that the experience on Britannia was far better than Azura/Ventura, we always manage to find a quiet spot despite the numbers. 

We went on a talk about Iona whilst on Oceana and it totally put us off, enough to cancel our booked cruise, but we have since mellowed and are now going to give it a go. 

We will just have to wait and see. 

Andy 

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

I'm with you Wowzz and will also only be on the smaller ships. From what we have seen on other threads however, it seems they won't need to sail at 100% capacity to make a profit. Perhaps if they are close to full during school holidays and about 60% the rest of the time, they will make an acceptable profit?

60% may cover the overheads of that particular cruise, but wouldn't be enough to generate an adequate profit and sufficient return on capital. 

[AndyMichelle]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

60% may cover the overheads of that particular cruise, but wouldn't be enough to generate an adequate profit and sufficient return on capital. 

At the moment, they would happily take a massive loss to get the ball rolling again. 

I just hope this virus has not made cruising unworkable in the long term. 

Andy 

[Dermotsgirl]

8 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

At the moment, they would happily take a massive loss to get the ball rolling again. 

I just hope this virus has not made cruising unworkable in the long term. 

Andy 

It’s certainly challenging to get cruising going again in a way that’ll be an enjoyable holiday and not a stressful ordeal with the added jeopardy of what’ll happen if there’s an outbreak on board. By the law of averages there’ll be an outbreak sooner or later.

 

I feel sorry for the cruiselines. They must be in utter turmoil. 
 

In spite of having three cruises booked, I’m moving to the mindset that I won’t be cruising again for a long time 

[molecrochip]

On 8/8/2020 at 5:37 PM, Britboys said:

Once P&O deign to release some photos you'll know. Thus far they have kept most of it a big secret...

Also to add... the pictures look epic. 

 

There is a strict embargo on pictures of the inside spaces appearing in public. Both official and crew photographs. Normally by now, an official photographer will have been onboard - due to covid, this has not happened. Once she is delivered this month and P&O are in charge of who boards the ship, I'm sure that they will release some official images.

[zap99]

22 hours ago, Britboys said:

I can understand that Andy. For me, I have tried Azura twice and that convinced me that she (and therefore Ventura) are not for me. I will try Britannia at some point but not for more than a week, as although her interiors look (to me) much better than her two smaller sisters, I have very significant doubts that I would enjoy the overall cruising experience on her. As for Iona, I am afraid that there is absolutely nothing about her that appeals - zilch.

I am hopeful that as I normally opt for an inside cabin outside of peak summer on my P&O cruises, I will be able to continue affording Aurora and Arcadia. Once they have gone, I don't expect to continue being a P&O customer.

We like small ships, medium ships and large ships. We cancelled our Iona cruise for this August and moved to next and have celebrity booked for Alaska in June. If we book a new ( to us ) ship and don't enjoy it, we won't book again, but at least would have given it a go. Will look at the Canaries on Iona in the New year after seeing some reports. Never say never ( Gary may sing that one)😁

 

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We like small ships, medium ships and large ships. We cancelled our Iona cruise for this August and moved to next and have celebrity booked for Alaska in June. If we book a new ( to us ) ship and don't enjoy it, we won't book again, but at least would have given it a go. Will look at the Canaries on Iona in the New year after seeing some reports. Never say never ( Gary may sing that one)😁

 

I did Alaska last July. Undoubtedly the most fabulous trip I have been lucky enough to do so far!

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Britboys said:

I did Alaska last July. Undoubtedly the most fabulous trip I have been lucky enough to do so far!

We did our once in a lifetime Alaska cruise/Rocky Mountaineer/Rockies tour 2 years ago and have booked it all again for next year😁

[Adawn47]

On 8/9/2020 at 12:37 AM, wowzz said:

Actually, it doesn't really matter what us 40 or 50 posters on here think. For Iona to be a success,  P&O needs to attract a new generation of cruisers, who, to be honest, will be happy with a Premier Inn type cabin, as long as they will be entertained at night, and will happily partake of the overpriced excursions. Purely a question of "bums on seats"

It's not cruising as I know it, but it is the mass market future of cruising.

I'll just choose the smaller ships and pay extra for the privilege. 

The gamble that P&O is taking , is whether or not they can fill Iona and Iona 2  .  Can they find 10,000 people a week, 52 weeks of the year,  to fill these two ships? And if they can, will you be one of them? I know I won't. 

 

Well said. I couldn't agree with you more. (I hope you're keeping count) 😉

Avril 

[terrierjohn]

50 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We did our once in a lifetime Alaska cruise/Rocky Mountaineer/Rockies tour 2 years ago and have booked it all again for next year😁

We did Alaska on Island Princess 15 or 16 years ago, and whilst we enjoyed the cruise and the short stay in 2 Princess lodges, it was overshadowed by the 7 days Rockies tour we had done prior to the cruise. If I was to mark them out of 10, the Rockies would get 10 and Alaska 7.