New Iona details

[tartanexile81]

34 minutes ago, daiB said:

Our first cruise is on the 6th March, round to Barcelona.

Would be great to meet up with you for a drink Dai and put a face to the name. Think you met our lovely friends Barbara and Bill (scriv) previously 

[daiB]

15 minutes ago, tartanexile81 said:

Would be great to meet up with you for a drink Dai and put a face to the name. Think you met our lovely friends Barbara and Bill (scriv) previously 

We now meet them before each cruise. We will make arrangements nearer the cruise.

Edited August 7, 2019 by daiB

[tartanexile81]

6 minutes ago, daiB said:

We now meet them before each cruise. We will make arrangements nearer the cruise.

Think they dash up and down to Southampton 

[brian1]

9 hours ago, tartanexile81 said:

I'm sorry but I can't see that post.

 

I was referring to Ventura and Azura.You said that the Princess Grand class ships ... have dance floors in the Wheelhouse bar,the Explorers lounge and the large show bar at the back of the ship. and I said so does Azura and Ventura though they're not used for ballroom dancing (and to be fair I've not seen ballroom dancing on Princess either.)

 

Please forgive me if I'm having a senior moment 

Sorry,I misread your post.What threw me was that someone else said there were no other dance floors on the V and A other than the atrium.Perhaps they were inferring that they were not used.I don't know,I can't dance anyway,lol.

[dgs1956]

13 hours ago, stephen@stoneyard.co.uk said:

With no dance floor does that mean there will be no Strictly Come Dancing cruises on Iona. I thought they were money makers for P&O.

 

It does seem a shame there will be no ballroom on Iona. It can be used for so many activities and social events throughout the day and evening.  

 

Are they included a card room?  They will upset the Bridge players if not. 

 

Best wishes, Stephen. 

 

I don't know if there will be a card room but I doubt Bridge Players and Ballroom Dancers are the clientele that P&O are aiming at. I remember doing Bridge lessons on Azura on a Transatlantic. We really enjoyed it. I wonder if they still do lessons on any P&O ships.

[daiB]

5 minutes ago, dgs1956 said:

I don't know if there will be a card room but I doubt Bridge Players and Ballroom Dancers are the clientele that P&O are aiming at. I remember doing Bridge lessons on Azura on a Transatlantic. We really enjoyed it. I wonder if they still do lessons on any P&O ships.

Yes they do but needs to have 7+ sea days..

[dgs1956]

4 minutes ago, daiB said:

Yes they do but needs to have 7+ sea days..

I'm really pleased to hear that Dai. We did enjoy the lessons when we did them. 

I can understand that its not practical to do them on a cruise with only a few sea days.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

10 hours ago, dgs1956 said:

I don't know if there will be a card room but I doubt Bridge Players and Ballroom Dancers are the clientele that P&O are aiming at. I remember doing Bridge lessons on Azura on a Transatlantic. We really enjoyed it. I wonder if they still do lessons on any P&O ships.

 

You may be right. Then who fill the ship during school term times. 

 

Best wishes, Stephen.  

[Selbourne]

I agree with many others that P&O are not going after the ballroom dancing type of cruiser with Iona and, I would suggest, all future new ships. I would also go so far as to say that they actively want to move away from that sort of image of cruising in order to attract a new generation of clientele, so are unlikely to bow to pressure to reverse the decision. 

 

We consider ourselves to be ‘traditional cruisers’ having done our first P&O cruise ‘in the last century’ as a previous poster so amusingly put it and my wife is a Strictly Come Dancing addict, but we don’t dance ourselves and wouldn’t be remotely interested in watching others do so when on a cruise. On the basis that the average age of cruiser on ships like Iona and Britannia is / will be 10-15 years younger than us, the proportion of passengers who would be attracted to this sort of activity would be, I would suggest, negligible as a percentage of the number of passengers onboard.  To further underline this point, I have lost count of the number of older cruisers who have told us that they wouldn’t set foot on Britannia / Iona. You read the same sort of comments on this forum continuously. Although the passenger profile on the larger resort ships is very different (and, if I am being completely honest, is less to our liking as a result), we love the modern facilities and Select Dining Options that they offer and would be the sort of customers that would cruise on these ships in school term time. I doubt that we are alone, but there will be a heck of a lot of cabins to fill once Iona’s sister ship is launched, so I think there will be some cheap cruises in order to fill the ships, something that they always seem to be able to do. 

[SarahHben]

My husband and I are 52 & 51 respectively and my parents are mid 70's and we are cruising on Iona in what I thought was term time next June, as it turns out it is the summer holiday for school children in Scotland  🙂

It is first time cruising for husband and me although not for my parents. Mum, Dad and I enjoy watching Strictly but none of us can ballroom dance, and wouldnt sit and watch other people ballroom dancing for more than a short period of time. 

 

We have just started holidaying without our three 'children' who are now in their 20's, two are still living with us at home and we are starting to spread our wings after supporting them through the University years, during which time we spent our holidays in French farmhouses and holidays in the UK. We have several friends in the same stage of their family lives who are trying cruising for the first time over the next few years and I'm sure there are plenty of people out there in similar circumstances.

 

A week on Iona may be the mass-market 'cheap' option for some, but for us it's a massive treat that we have saved up for, we couldn't have afforded to go on a longer cruise on one of the smaller ships, especially without knowing if cruising would actually suit us. I like lounging next to a pool with a book and am looking forward to the sea days, my husband on the other hand, hates sitting still and is a more looking forward to the port days 🙂 If we like it as much as I'm hoping we will, then we can try out different routes and ships in the future, for now I for one am very excited about my week onboard Iona.

Edited August 9, 2019 by SarahHben
missed a comma :-)

[pete14]

4 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

My husband and I are 52 & 51 respectively and my parents are mid 70's and we are cruising on Iona in what I thought was term time next June, as it turns out it is the summer holiday for school children in Scotland  🙂

It is first time cruising for husband and me although not for my parents. Mum, Dad and I enjoy watching Strictly but none of us can ballroom dance, and wouldnt sit and watch other people ballroom dancing for more than a short period of time. 

 

We have just started holidaying without our three 'children' who are now in their 20's, two are still living with us at home and we are starting to spread our wings after supporting them through the University years, during which time we spent our holidays in French farmhouses and holidays in the UK. We have several friends in the same stage of their family lives who are trying cruising for the first time over the next few years and I'm sure there are plenty of people out there in similar circumstances.

 

A week on Iona may be the mass-market 'cheap' option for some, but for us it's a massive treat that we have saved up for, we couldn't have afforded to go on a longer cruise on one of the smaller ships, especially without knowing if cruising would actually suit us. I like lounging next to a pool with a book and am looking forward to the sea days, my husband on the other hand, hates sitting still and is a more looking forward to the port days 🙂 If we like it as much as I'm hoping we will then we can try out different routes and ships in the future, for now I for one am very excited about my week onboard Iona.

 

We have done many cruises and just enjoy being on a ship, large or small. I am very much looking forward to boarding Iona in May next year. I am not a dancer and couldn’t sit through a single ‘episode’ of Strictly - in my view one of the most hyped up non events on TV. I do however defend the rights of people to dance if that is what they wish to do and suspect that there will be somewhere on Iona for people to dance. Maybe not as good as on other ships but even on ships with the best facilities, it is still a minority activity that P&O provide at some expense to themselves.

 

All ships provide different leisure activities to varying degrees, Iona may prioritise other activities over ballroom dancing. They may lose some clientele by doing so but may gain new cruisers by offering a different product that maybe is more attractive to the younger generations. 

 

If I don’t enjoy my Iona cruise, I will stick to other ships I enjoy more. 

[Britboys]

4 hours ago, SarahHben said:

My husband and I are 52 & 51 respectively and my parents are mid 70's and we are cruising on Iona in what I thought was term time next June, as it turns out it is the summer holiday for school children in Scotland  🙂

It is first time cruising for husband and me although not for my parents. Mum, Dad and I enjoy watching Strictly but none of us can ballroom dance, and wouldnt sit and watch other people ballroom dancing for more than a short period of time. 

 

We have just started holidaying without our three 'children' who are now in their 20's, two are still living with us at home and we are starting to spread our wings after supporting them through the University years, during which time we spent our holidays in French farmhouses and holidays in the UK. We have several friends in the same stage of their family lives who are trying cruising for the first time over the next few years and I'm sure there are plenty of people out there in similar circumstances.

 

A week on Iona may be the mass-market 'cheap' option for some, but for us it's a massive treat that we have saved up for, we couldn't have afforded to go on a longer cruise on one of the smaller ships, especially without knowing if cruising would actually suit us. I like lounging next to a pool with a book and am looking forward to the sea days, my husband on the other hand, hates sitting still and is a more looking forward to the port days 🙂 If we like it as much as I'm hoping we will, then we can try out different routes and ships in the future, for now I for one am very excited about my week onboard Iona.

Cruising has changed massively in recent years - and like everything else in life, some of us think those changes are great, some of us accept them nonchalantly and others of us choose to stick with what we have known for many years.  There is no right or wrong as it is down to personal taste.

My first P&O cruise was in 1997 aboard a ship that was 27,000 tons and carried around 800 passengers.  For me, a ship of 184,000 tons, carrying over 5000 pax is a ship way too far!  That however doesn't mean that lots of other people aren't going to have a fabulous time on a ship that big.

If you enjoy your first experience on a cruise, it will be very special - as many of us have found.  Relax and enjoy that experience when it comes around.

[Jennizor]

My comments are similar to Pete14.  We have been cruising since 2001. Most of the cruises were on the smaller ships but in recent years we have sailed on the larger ones. There was no reason for this other than itinerary. We enjoyed all the cruises for varying reasons. Our most recent cruise in June was on Arcadia, for the second time,  the first being before Ventura, Azura and Britannia.

 

I was really surprised how claustrophobic I found it initially. I missed the wonderful open spaces of the bigger ships, the array of places to sit on sea days, inside and out, the many different entertainment options at night. Don’t get me wrong, we had a great cruise on Arcadia but I am glad our next three cruises are on Britannia, Azura and Iona.

 

I know a lot of people will disagree with me but we are all different.  We are in our late sixties and love the mix of age groups, old and young.  Not having a ballroom doesn’t worry me but we had some lovely times watching the dancing in the Crystal Room on Britannia. (I was very envious of the dancers as I have two left feet!)

 

 ‘You pays your money and takes your choice’

[dgs1956]

13 hours ago, pete14 said:

 

I do however defend the rights of people to dance if that is what they wish to do and suspect that there will be somewhere on Iona for people to dance. Maybe not as good as on other ships but even on ships with the best facilities, it is still a minority activity that P&O provide at some expense to themselves.

 

There isn't !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[brian1]

It hasn't been built yet,so plenty of time to change things,maybe.Is there a nightclub on the Iona.

[pete14]

11 hours ago, dgs1956 said:

There isn't !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just find it rather sad that when a new ship is introduced to the fleet, there is more concern about what it doesn’t have rather than what it does have. Happened with Britannia, it’s now happening with Iona.

 

There may not be a purpose built dance floor, but if there is demand for dancing, they may use a more multi purpose space to provide the opportunity for the minority of cruisers who would like to take part. No cruise ship on this planet has everything everybody could want. If it did, people would complain it was too big!

[dgs1956]

12 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I just find it rather sad that when a new ship is introduced to the fleet, there is more concern about what it doesn’t have rather than what it does have. Happened with Britannia, it’s now happening with Iona.

 

There may not be a purpose built dance floor, but if there is demand for dancing, they may use a more multi purpose space to provide the opportunity for the minority of cruisers who would like to take part. No cruise ship on this planet has everything everybody could want. If it did, people would complain it was too big!

P&O is one of the few cruise lines that provided Ballroom Dancing and also Dance lessons and so its no surprise that many people are asking if there is Ballroom Dancing on Iona. Nothing "sad" about that at all. In fact, I would go as far as to say that there are some who cruise on P&O because there is Ballroom Dancing and not providing it may result in them going elsewhere. 

[P-L-B]

1 hour ago, dgs1956 said:

P&O is one of the few cruise lines that provided Ballroom Dancing and also Dance lessons and so its no surprise that many people are asking if there is Ballroom Dancing on Iona. Nothing "sad" about that at all. In fact, I would go as far as to say that there are some who cruise on P&O because there is Ballroom Dancing and not providing it may result in them going elsewhere. 

I agree.

Although we enjoy cruising with P&O for many other reasons Ballroom Dancing does play a major part in our overall enjoyment.

Also, probably slightly controversial to my fellow ballroom dancers, provision is normally made to cater for Ballroom, Latin and also Sequence dancers and I personally have no problem with that. It's all about Dancing being an enjoyable experience for us all.😀

Edited August 10, 2019 by P-L-B

[dgs1956]

17 minutes ago, P-L-B said:

I agree.

Although we enjoy cruising with P&O for many other reasons Ballroom Dancing does play a major part in our overall enjoyment.

Also, probably slightly controversial to my fellow ballroom dancers, provision is normally made to cater for Ballroom, Latin and also Sequence dancers and I personally have no problem with that. It's all about Dancing being an enjoyable experience for us all.😀

We also do the Sequence Dancing. We tend to think of them as a bit of fun and better to join in than sit and watch.

 

 

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

What are passengers going to do all day on Iona. Comparing Iona to Oriana/Aurora she lacks a ballroom, library and card room.  She does have a theatre, cabaret lounge and cinema but that seems about it. With double the passengers I would expect double the facilities but it seems they have been reduced. Perhaps the plan is only to use her on port intensive cruises but getting anywhere warm from the UK involves a few sea days. 

 

We we will see.  

 

Best wishes, Stephen. 

[dgs1956]

1 hour ago, stephen@stoneyard.co.uk said:

What are passengers going to do all day on Iona. Comparing Iona to Oriana/Aurora she lacks a ballroom, library and card room.  She does have a theatre, cabaret lounge and cinema but that seems about it. With double the passengers I would expect double the facilities but it seems they have been reduced. Perhaps the plan is only to use her on port intensive cruises but getting anywhere warm from the UK involves a few sea days. 

 

We we will see.  

 

Best wishes, Stephen. 

Eat and drink mainly by the looks of it.

 

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

19 minutes ago, dgs1956 said:

Eat and drink mainly by the looks of it.

 

 

At extra cost I assume. Can you do that all day and evening. 

 

Best wishes, Stephen 

[dgs1956]

28 minutes ago, stephen@stoneyard.co.uk said:

 

At extra cost I assume. Can you do that all day and evening. 

 

Best wishes, Stephen 

HaHa I'm sure you're well aware that there are a lot of people on cruises that can eat and drink all day and still probably manage up to the buffet for a late night snack. Not me I'm afraid, I don't drink that much, although I can do on occasion, and if I put on more then 3 or 4 lbs on a 2 week cruise I would not be a happy man.

[Britboys]

35 minutes ago, stephen@stoneyard.co.uk said:

 

At extra cost I assume. Can you do that all day and evening. 

 

Best wishes, Stephen 

Indeed Stephen.  I think most of the modern, huge, megaships are designed to maximise the number of 'revenue centres' on board.  Hence Iona having as many - or possibly more - for-fee restaurants than free ones.  Iona will apparently have some sort of Library aboard but it will be in Anderson's, along with the Gin Distillery.  I guess it is just about impossible to provide any sort of meaningful library stock for upwards of 5000 pax anyway.  I bet there will be an opportunity to buy things in Iona's Library too 😁

[mcloaked]

There is clearly a range of opinions about Iona - but of course some of 'us' will book, or already have done, on the new ship, and others won't book until more is known about the facilities.  It will certainly be very interesting to hear passenger experience once the ship has sailed on its maiden voyage and beyond - and see what this forum gives in posts next year!