Iona maiden -encouraging news

[pete14]

An encouraging email dropped into my inbox this morning. It is clear that P&O expect the maiden cruise to take place as scheduled and some amazing acts are being lined up to make the cruise special. Maybe they have picked up on some of the negativity regarding the maiden and acted to allay peoples’ fears. More details about the cruise will be provided in a couple of weeks. 😊

[john watson]

 As long as the acts do not include;  Colin and his clever carpet laying skills in the Vista Lounge,  Peter and painting walls and railings on the Promenade Deck perfectly,  Tanya the ventriloquist shows you how to throw your voice and connect up a Tannoy system,  Elisha's elementary electrics for small cabins talk and the First Officer on how to try and mend a basic Sat Nav  unit, you will be fine.

 

Regards John

[pete14]

26 minutes ago, john watson said:

 As long as the acts do not include;  Colin and his clever carpet laying skills in the Vista Lounge,  Peter and painting walls and railings on the Promenade Deck perfectly,  Tanya the ventriloquist shows you how to throw your voice and connect up a Tannoy system,  Elisha's elementary electrics for small cabins talk and the First Officer on how to try and mend a basic Sat Nav  unit, you will be fine.

 

Regards John

As long as Bob and his bailing out water below decks doesn’t make an appearance, I could put up with the others. Oh, and as long as an elderly Jimmy James known for shuffling across the stage mumbling words to a tune is anywhere but on Iona.

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, john watson said:

 As long as the acts do not include;  Colin and his clever carpet laying skills in the Vista Lounge,  Peter and painting walls and railings on the Promenade Deck perfectly,  Tanya the ventriloquist shows you how to throw your voice and connect up a Tannoy system,  Elisha's elementary electrics for small cabins talk and the First Officer on how to try and mend a basic Sat Nav  unit, you will be fine.

 

Regards John

I know Colin the carpet fitter, he is dragging the job out in the hope of seeing Gary Barlow.. 

He won't be happy when he finds out he isn't on til July...😊

Andy 

[sddsddean]

5 hours ago, pete14 said:

As long as Bob and his bailing out water below decks doesn’t make an appearance, I could put up with the others. Oh, and as long as an elderly Jimmy James known for shuffling across the stage mumbling words to a tune is anywhere but on Iona.

In your cabin Pete, you've really got to hope Paul the plumber doesn't appear with his plunger!! (All this illiteration is making my brain hurt!😁)

 

Simon

[jeanlyon]

All that reminded me of Azura 😞

[Enjoyacruise]

Well...……..two weeks have gone by and the promised e mail hasn't arrived. Still waiting-perhaps tomorrow!

[pete14]

6 hours ago, Enjoyacruise said:

Well...……..two weeks have gone by and the promised e mail hasn't arrived. Still waiting-perhaps tomorrow!

Worth waiting for hopefully.

[SarahHben]

I’ve just seen on Twitter that some maiden voyage artists names have been released. The ones I can remember are Tony Hadley, Jason Donovan, Alexandra Burke & Gabrielle, plus others. 
I think there’s Alex James from Blur too, but that’s just from a photo and I haven’t got my glasses on!

Having been a teen in the 80’s I am quite jealous of those seeing  Tony Hadley & Jason Donovan 😊

Edited February 4, 2020 by SarahHben

[AndyMichelle]

26 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

I’ve just seen on Twitter that some maiden voyage artists names have been released. The ones I can remember are Tony Hadley, Jason Donovan, Alexandra Burke & Gabrielle, plus others. 
I think there’s Alex James from Blur too, but that’s just from a photo and I haven’t got my glasses on!

Having been a teen in the 80’s I am quite jealous of those seeing  Tony Hadley & Jason Donovan 😊

It's not Jason Donovan, it's the new food outlet doing late night kebabs... 

Jason's Donner Van... 😊

Andy 

[majortom10]

But very cleverly P&O have released names of "stars" who will be appearing on maiden voyage but they havent said if you will have to pay extra to see any of them in The Limelight Club.

[pete14]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

But very cleverly P&O have released names of "stars" who will be appearing on maiden voyage but they havent said if you will have to pay extra to see any of them in The Limelight Club.

Gabrielle, La Voix and Denise Van Outen are in the Limelight Club and presumably there is the standard charge. 
Tony Hadley is in the theatre (6 shows over 2 nights) with a ticket in cabins for each passenger, Jason Donovan and Alexandra Burke 3 shows in one night in the Sky Dome and Alex James a 45 minute DJ set in the Skydome plus a q and a in the theatre. All these are free of any extra charge (although of course the maiden voyage carried a premium over other cruises when booked).

I agree they are not all everybody’s cup of tea but I have to applaud P&O for trying to make this maiden more memorable than the Britannia one.

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, pete14 said:

Gabrielle, La Voix and Denise Van Outen are in the Limelight Club and presumably there is the standard charge. 
Tony Hadley is in the theatre (6 shows over 2 nights) with a ticket in cabins for each passenger, Jason Donovan and Alexandra Burke 3 shows in one night in the Sky Dome and Alex James a 45 minute DJ set in the Skydome plus a q and a in the theatre. All these are free of any extra charge (although of course the maiden voyage carried a premium over other cruises when booked).

I agree they are not all everybody’s cup of tea but I have to applaud P&O for trying to make this maiden more memorable than the Britannia one.

I wouldn't have expected to see Tony Hadley etc for free, so hats off to P&O. 

To me this is a far better line up than the naming ceremony. 

Andy 

[Selbourne]

We had the email today and I think it’s a pretty good line up. Tony Hadley is one of my favourite male singers (my absolute favourite was Freddy Mercury but no chance of seeing him, sadly). I last saw Tony Hadley live about 10 years ago and he could still belt them out perfectly then, so I suspect he’s still excellent. We would like to see all 3 acts in the Limelight Club but will probably miss one as 3 out of 9 nights in there would be too much. Apparently Jason Donovan is absolutely appalling live, so we will give him a miss, but Alexandra Burke has a very good voice so we will check her out as long as it doesn’t entail ludicrous queues. Given that I think that P&O’s ‘entertainment’ is stuck in a time warp and I am usually quite critical of it, this is a pleasant surprise. 

[SarahHben]

9 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We had the email today and I think it’s a pretty good line up. Tony Hadley is one of my favourite male singers (my absolute favourite was Freddy Mercury but no chance of seeing him, sadly). I last saw Tony Hadley live about 10 years ago and he could still belt them out perfectly then, so I suspect he’s still excellent. We would like to see all 3 acts in the Limelight Club but will probably miss one as 3 out of 9 nights in there would be too much. Apparently Jason Donovan is absolutely appalling live, so we will give him a miss, but Alexandra Burke has a very good voice so we will check her out as long as it doesn’t entail ludicrous queues. Given that I think that P&O’s ‘entertainment’ is stuck in a time warp and I am usually quite critical of it, this is a pleasant surprise. 

I’ve seen Jason Donovan live several times recently, in War of the Worlds and in Joseph, it’s true, he doesn’t have the best vocals live but he is a great entertainer and puts on a good show. 
My 16 year old self was in love with Tony Hadley 😂 It’s a good job I’m not on the maiden voyage, I’d be looking out for him everywhere.

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

I’ve seen Jason Donovan live several times recently, in War of the Worlds and in Joseph, it’s true, he doesn’t have the best vocals live but he is a great entertainer and puts on a good show. 
My 16 year old self was in love with Tony Hadley 😂 It’s a good job I’m not on the maiden voyage, I’d be looking out for him everywhere.

lol I’ve actually met him and had a chat with him and his (then) girlfriend. He is a really nice guy and very tall, yet his girlfriend was tiny! Through the Barricades is my favourite Spandau Ballet track. Hope he does that one. 

[zap99]

We have been told that Garry Barlow will be doing 2 Shows in the main theatre on our Iona cruise at the end of August. £25 each with all money going to kids charities. Seems a good idea and we will pay willingly. On our Britannia cruise we reluctantly paid £20 each to see Cheney Hawks in the Limelight club. What a surprisingly good performer he was.

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We have been told that Garry Barlow will be doing 2 Shows in the main theatre on our Iona cruise at the end of August. £25 each with all money going to kids charities. Seems a good idea and we will pay willingly. On our Britannia cruise we reluctantly paid £20 each to see Cheney Hawks in the Limelight club. What a surprisingly good performer he was.

Yes, he’s not on our cruise but I would certainly pay £25 a head to see him. He really is a fantastic talent and seems a genuinely nice guy too. 
 

The idea of giving the fee to charities is a good one, but I do wish that P&O wouldn’t pick such massive and already very well supported charities (some may say too well supported, given their levels of reserves). If they picked one or two very worthy but less well known charities they could make a huge and positive difference. Just a bug bear of mine as I have had a lot of involvement in the third sector and individuals and organisations tend to give the most to those organisations that have emotive causes but are usually very well supported already and struggle to spend all that they receive. 

[SarahHben]

14 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

lol I’ve actually met him and had a chat with him and his (then) girlfriend. He is a really nice guy and very tall, yet his girlfriend was tiny! Through the Barricades is my favourite Spandau Ballet track. Hope he does that one. 

Round and Round was my favourite. I hope he does Through the Barricades for you, enjoy it! I’m a little jealous

[zap99]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, he’s not on our cruise but I would certainly pay £25 a head to see him. He really is a fantastic talent and seems a genuinely nice guy too. 
 

The idea of giving the fee to charities is a good one, but I do wish that P&O wouldn’t pick such massive and already very well supported charities (some may say too well supported, given their levels of reserves). If they picked one or two very worthy but less well known charities they could make a huge and positive difference. Just a bug bear of mine as I have had a lot of involvement in the third sector and individuals and organisations tend to give the most to those organisations that have emotive causes but are usually very well supported already and struggle to spend all that they receive. 

Agreed

[Cruiserjules]

 Cruised many times with P&O, but this will be our maiden Maiden, and maiden Fjords visit, so now, with Tony Hadley on board looking forward to it even more.  We didn't get the email, hope they haven't forgotten us, our cabin still needs allocating!