Iona Thoughts

[Britboys]

40 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We haven’t considered them Wowzz TBH. We have to have a fully accessible balcony cabin or suite now, which does reduce choice considerably. We have stuck with P&O as, unlike some people, we actually like the ‘Britishness’! An Americanised experience wouldn’t be for us. 
 

As we still have reservations about the ‘post Covid’ cruise experience (with all cruise lines, not just P&O), our next cruise will probably be a 7 day Fjords cruise, which restricts our choice even further!

Might be worth trying a 7-nighter some time. I think Southampton departures are 'anglicised' to an extent and probably far fewer American/international pax on a 7 night itinerary.

[Britboys]

43 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

We were on the Iona maiden cruise, we enjoyed it.  We liked the Olive Grove restaurant and The Quays, but didn't enjoy The Glasshouse.  It was too 'open' and the food menu was nowhere near like the Britannia menu, we ate in there once but wouldn't rush back. On Britannia we are in there nearly every night either for a drink or a meal.  The Club House at the back of the ship is a superb venue, headliners theatre is also good.  We didn't manage to get in the 710 club there was always a big queue, and didn't get in the Limelight club as that was booked up all week, but we have seen La Voix before.

 

We have decided that Iona is not for us, but we are on there again with our family next August going to the Fjords.  The grandchildren will love it, so many things for them to do, we checked out the kids clubs while we were onboard and the staff in there were lovely.  Our favourite ship is Britannia which we are on again on Sunday.  

 

Next year is a big wedding anniversary so we are on Saga at Easter, looking forward to that.

It would be interesting to know if the Glasshouse menu is the same on both Iona and Britannia at the moment. Just thinking that it may be limited due to lower numbers on board or possible supply problems?

[Astrajet]

9 minutes ago, Britboys said:

We were on the Iona maiden cruise, we enjoyed it.  We liked the Olive Grove restaurant and The Quays, but didn't enjoy The Glasshouse.  It was too 'open' and the food menu was nowhere near like the Britannia menu, we ate in there once but wouldn't rush back. On Britannia we are in there nearly every night either for a drink or a meal.

That's disappointing to hear. We had two excellent meals in the Glasshouse on Britannia last month so we were really looking forward to repeating the experience on Iona next week. Never mind,  plenty of other restaurants to try - if we can get in 🤞!

[Britboys]

13 minutes ago, Astrajet said:

That's disappointing to hear. We had two excellent meals in the Glasshouse on Britannia last month so we were really looking forward to repeating the experience on Iona next week. Never mind,  plenty of other restaurants to try - if we can get in 🤞!

Not sure why the quote in your post was attributed to me. It was made by thornegirl. I've not been on Iona...

[thornegirl]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

It would be interesting to know if the Glasshouse menu is the same on both Iona and Britannia at the moment. Just thinking that it may be limited due to lower numbers on board or possible supply problems?

I think the menu on the glasshouse was a bit limited because there are so many other restaurants to choose from.  

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, thornegirl said:

I think the menu on the glasshouse was a bit limited because there are so many other restaurants to choose from.  

I have read somewhere that Iona's Glass House menu is completely new, and many old favourites have been dropped. No idea if it's their intention to adopt this menu fleetwide.

[zap99]

27 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I have read somewhere that Iona's Glass House menu is completely new, and many old favourites have been dropped. No idea if it's their intention to adopt this menu fleetwide.

The Glass house menu on Iona is ' inspired ' by Jose Pizzaro and is obviously a bit Spanish. We ate in Glass House twice on our 4 night Britannia staycation, but looking at the sample menu for Iona, may give it a miss on our forthcoming 7 night Iona. Shame really, but lots of other restaurants. The Italian seems to be getting good reviews.

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Britboys said:

Might be worth trying a 7-nighter some time. I think Southampton departures are 'anglicised' to an extent and probably far fewer American/international pax on a 7 night itinerary.

We quite enjoy the International guest mix on some cruise lines . Even the Americans can be quite interesting.🤣

[Astrajet]

2 hours ago, Britboys said:

Not sure why the quote in your post was attributed to me. It was made by thornegirl. I've not been on Iona...

My apologies. I copied Thornegirl's quote from your post when I should have copied it directly from her original post - sorry!

[Britboys]

43 minutes ago, Astrajet said:

My apologies. I copied Thornegirl's quote from your post when I should have copied it directly from her original post - sorry!

No problem neighbour...😀

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I have read somewhere that Iona's Glass House menu is completely new, and many old favourites have been dropped. No idea if it's their intention to adopt this menu fleetwide.

Maybe they will see what the feedback is. Not sure it would be a good idea to have different menus in same-branded restaurants...🤔

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Maybe they will see what the feedback is. Not sure it would be a good idea to have different menus in same-branded restaurants...🤔

We thought we may try it out one lunchtime and each pick the 3 dishes for 6.95. problem is we can't see 3 that take our fancy. I guess we will wait until we onboard, them I can wander around looking at folks meals. That's a better guide than the menu.

[BouncingWheel]

8 hours ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

We were recently on Regal and it's pretty British at the moment.  Probably a more diverse mix of cabin stewards, waiters etc than P&O; our cabin lady was from Mexico. But all the entertainment staff that we came across were British. It seems as though Carnival UK is running the show whilst they're operating from Southampton. Even the menus have more British style options. The only American aspect we noticed was that everything was in dollars. Other than that, it could easily have been a P&O ship (I have already come under fire for suggesting such a thing on a Princess forum 🤣).

We were also on Regal a few weeks back and although there were many British crew it still felt very American to us - different people will always have different opinions. I would go on Princess again but prefer the P&O style (which some Princess passengers people feel is rude/unhappy/miserable crew but I think is more reserved politeness).

 

I would say if you see a bargain and willing to try then go for it Selbourne.

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, zap99 said:

We quite enjoy the International guest mix on some cruise lines . Even the Americans can be quite interesting.🤣

To be honest we prefer the international mix to the 100% Brit nature of P&O.  

[terrierjohn]

29 minutes ago, wowzz said:

To be honest we prefer the international mix to the 100% Brit nature of P&O.  

Indeed, P&O prices and Princess passenger mix would be ideal.

[cruisenewbie1976]

41 minutes ago, BouncingWheel said:

We were also on Regal a few weeks back and although there were many British crew it still felt very American to us - different people will always have different opinions. I would go on Princess again but prefer the P&O style (which some Princess passengers people feel is rude/unhappy/miserable crew but I think is more reserved politeness).

 

I would say if you see a bargain and willing to try then go for it Selbourne.

Yeah, now you mention it, I was sick of saying hello to every single crew member that we walked past, by the end of the third day 🤣

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Indeed, P&O prices and Princess passenger mix would be ideal.

My next two cruises with Princess,  with a drinks package included,  are cheaper pn a pppd basis,  than my March 2022 cruise on Arcadia! 

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

My next two cruises with Princess,  with a drinks package included,  are cheaper pn a pppd basis,  than my March 2022 cruise on Arcadia! 

Any big ship price is likely to be better than Arcadia or Aurora.

[zap99]

9 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Yeah, now you mention it, I was sick of saying hello to every single crew member that we walked past, by the end of the third day 🤣

We have now had 2 Britannia staycation cruises. We thought ' what a friendly bunch of staff members '. As you say, although the hello's were genuine , they did get a bit samey after a while.🤣

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Any big ship price is likely to be better than Arcadia or Aurora.

Fair point. 

[Astrajet]

14 hours ago, Britboys said:

No problem neighbour...😀

Ah yes! Hello neighbour 😃!

[Adawn47]

10 hours ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Yeah, now you mention it, I was sick of saying hello to every single crew member that we walked past, by the end of the third day 🤣

The most annoying thing I found was the constant 'Hi Guys!!! 🙄

Avril

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

The most annoying thing I found was the constant 'Hi Guys!!! 🙄

Avril

If we are still talking RCI, then I never heard that once on Indy. There was nearly always a friendly interaction  but it was usually polite and respectful, something that would improve the P&O experience IMO.

[Adawn47]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

My next two cruises with Princess,  with a drinks package included,  are cheaper pn a pppd basis,  than my March 2022 cruise on Arcadia! 

I suppose it all boils down to what you personally want from your cruise.

We are comfortable on Aurora and Arcadia, they give us the style of cruising we enjoy. Maybe they are more expensive ppd, but to us, cheaper is not always better. We are happy to pay more for what we want.

Avril

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

I suppose it all boils down to what you personally want from your cruise.

We are comfortable on Aurora and Arcadia, they give us the style of cruising we enjoy. Maybe they are more expensive ppd, but to us, cheaper is not always better. We are happy to pay more for what we want.

Avril

You are so right Avril, it's a good job that we are not all alike.  For us now, because Pauline is in a wheelchair, we tend to spend quite a bit of time in our cabin as well as more time on board, so a more spacious modern cabin, and better accessible features all round, is far better for us, which is why we prefer the newer bigger ships.