Iona Missed Ports

[DamianG]

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?

 

 

[niltava42]

On G202 in January we missed Madeira due to adverse weather conditions

[cockneyjock]

There's only got to be a puff of wind, and the captain bottles it.

 

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, cockneyjock said:

There's only got to be a puff of wind, and the captain bottles it.

 

On first reading I thought this might be yet another P&O selling gimmick, wind in bottles on the tat stall in the Atrium?😉

[Purdey16]

I was on G204 & G205 we also missed Madeira due to high winds , but all in all I had a nice insurance claim when I returned home from both cruises, my claim was more than I paid out for my annual worldwide cover for two with ailments.

[purplesea]

On 5/31/2022 at 4:06 PM, niltava42 said:

On G202 in January we missed Madeira due to adverse weather conditions

We were on this cruise and did get to see Madeira  - from afar!

[DamianG]

8 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

I was on G204 & G205 we also missed Madeira due to high winds , but all in all I had a nice insurance claim when I returned home from both cruises, my claim was more than I paid out for my annual worldwide cover for two with ailments.

 

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.

Edited June 2, 2022 by DamianG

[devonuk]

On 5/31/2022 at 4:01 PM, DamianG said:

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?

 

 

Ironically on the way back north we did stop off at Lisbon on G205 to drop off a very poorly passenger 😳

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, DamianG said:

 

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.

We were on Aurora in Civitavechia during very strong winds which required 3 tugs as well as extra mooring lines, and that barely kept us from slipping our mooring. And she is nowhere near the size of Iona.

 

[DamianG]

As per another thread we can add G219 to the list of cruises where Iona has been affected by weather (departure delayed until today due to high winds in Southampton).

[newbie cruissy]

1 minute ago, DamianG said:

As per another thread we can add G219 to the list of cruises where Iona has been affected by weather (departure delayed until today due to high winds in Southampton).

Comments from customers on board, not calling at Stavanger. 

[jeanlyon]

On 6/2/2022 at 10:28 PM, terrierjohn said:

We were on Aurora in Civitavechia during very strong winds which required 3 tugs as well as extra mooring lines, and that barely kept us from slipping our mooring. And she is nowhere near the size of Iona.

 

I was on that one with you!

Edited June 19, 2022 by jeanlyon

[newbie cruissy]

News coming in from a local source that as well as having missed Stavanger today due to late departure, Iona will not be calling into Hellesylt either 🙁

[EmilyJay]

2 minutes ago, newbie cruissy said:

News coming in from a local source that as well as having missed Stavanger today due to late departure, Iona will not be calling into Hellesylt either 🙁

Oh no! How many ports has this specific cruise now had cancelled? I have family members onboard (they don't have internet so can't get updates) but I know how excited they were to explore this itinerary, as I'm sure everyone was. 

Totally understand weather problems and that can't be helped but gutted for everyone onboard at missing so many ports. 

[SarahHben]

My sister has just seen on a different social media site that Iona will be calling at Flam instead of Hellesylt this week, and Flam is supposed to be lovely. She hasn't seen anyone giving a reason for the change yet.

Edited June 20, 2022 by SarahHben

[Spike11]

44 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

My sister has just seen on a different social media site that Iona will be calling at Flam instead of Hellesylt this week, and Flam is supposed to be lovely. She hasn't seen anyone giving a reason for the change yet.

Interestingly, Iona has been deleted from the Hellesylt port cruise schedule for this week, but hasn’t been replaced by any other ship. Wonder if P&O will explain the reason for the change or whether it will be due to “operational reasons”!

[davecttr]

IMO Flam would be an attractive replacement. The port schedule shows one ship in port on Wednesday, Artania, and she is anchoring so there is room for Iona

[Snow Hill]

9 hours ago, Spike11 said:

Interestingly, Iona has been deleted from the Hellesylt port cruise schedule for this week, but hasn’t been replaced by any other ship. Wonder if P&O will explain the reason for the change or whether it will be due to “operational reasons”!

I understood that Flam now restricted the number of cruise ship passengers in port at any one time to 5000, Iona would normally exceed this so must be travelling at less than full capacity taking into account the number of passengers on the other ship docked.

 

 

[newbie cruissy]

2 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

I understood that Flam now restricted the number of cruise ship passengers in port at any one time to 5000, Iona would normally exceed this so must be travelling at less than full capacity taking into account the number of passengers on the other ship docked.

 

 

Think I read 4200 on board somewhere 

[gsmt47471015]

For once I would be happy if P and O did cancel a port on our July cruise, Flam would be a better option than Helesylt and make up for it been cancelled the last time we visited Norway, we await with baited breath🤨

[Cathygh]

On the TV programme The Cruise it said Scarlet Lady could not leave Miami if the winds were above 30mph. Perhaps it's the same with Iona? It was very windy here on Saturday with lots of trees down locally.

[BrianI]

On board Iona. The reason for the change to Flam is weather related. Extremely bad weather forecast for Helesylt.  
Brian