Iona at full capacity. How cramped does it feel?

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Hi,

 

it’s half term & we’re doing our first ever P&O cruise on the Iona. 22nd-29th Oct. REALLY excited after so many covid and family health emergency cancellations. 

 

unsurprisingly it’s full. So I was wondering how cramped will it feel?

 

i’m told newer ships are better for being less cramped or at least feeling less cramped

we’ve been on RCI independence & navigator during school hols (pre covid)

it was very cramped, but still really enjoyed it & can’t wait to be back on the water 

 

Are P&O ships any less cramped? 
& are the newer ships actually better at coping with full capacity. Or is that just a selling point that is nonsense? 😂 

 

[degenerateftw]

You've booked now so it's do or die 😉 It's not very nice in my opinion. I get panicky and nervous in crowds, and I thought it was awful service wise. There were quite a few families onboad when we went (start of september). I would recommend lots of carry-able water bottles for the family as there's no table service. I was thirsty the entire cruise so yeah - pack those refillables. There's stations all around the ship. The most cramped part of the ship is the buffet - grab a table, then off to the queue you go... one by one....

 

Sorry - wish I could offer you better comments.

[Thejuggler]

If its sold out it does not necessarily mean it is full to capacity.

 

How cramped it feels is more down to ship design than number of passengers.  How much space per passenger when at capacity being one measure.
 

 Ventura and Azura are considered very poorly designed in terms of public spaces and passenger flow, so they feel cramped - space per passenger 31.  Celebrity Eclipse is larger, but we always found a quiet spot.  It has a space per passenger of 36.

Iona figure is 29.  Lots of cabins, not much public space.

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Thejuggler

[Selbourne]

It’s worth remembering that the often quoted 5,200 passengers is the ‘normal’ operating capacity, not allowing for additional cabin beds so, without any passenger restrictions, this number could be considerably more in school holidays. We are booked on Iona next August (not my choice, but one of our party is a school teacher) and I fear that the passenger numbers, including all the school kids, could be closer to 7,000 😱. Thankfully, we have a large balcony cabin, so if it feels too overcrowded we shall retire to our own private space!

[Ladyshopper23]

We were on Iona early in September. Told there was 5000 people on-board (no idea if this is actually correct or not).

The only place that felt really busy was the buffet. It was completely manic during breakfast, not a nice place to be at all.

Other than that though, we didn't really feel like it felt too busy round the ship.

[terrierjohn]

We are on Iona at present, not sure what the passenger numbers are,  but she certainly does not feel as crowded as Britannia did in June 

Iona has far more indoor seating around the 3 deck atrium that any of the other ships, and must have at least  double, maybe treble the number of outside spaces than any of the others, and the sunbeds are well spaced as well. Then there is the crows nest and Anderson's bar as well as Brodies, and the Club House.   

There are the usual pinch points as entertainment venues empty, but these soon disperse. For us Iona feels far less crowded than our one and only pre covid  cruise on Aurora.

Edited October 17, 2022 by terrierjohn

[Selbourne]

21 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

We are on Iona at present, not sure what the passenger numbers are,  but she certainly does not feel as crowded as Britannia did in June 

Iona has far more indoor seating around the 3 deck atrium that any of the other ships, and must have at least  double, maybe treble the number of outside spaces than any of the others, and the sunbeds are well spaced as well. Then there is the crows nest and Anderson's bar as well as Brodies, and the Club House.   

There are the usual pinch points as entertainment venues empty, but these soon disperse. For us Iona feels far less crowded than our one and only pre covid  cruise on Aurora.

That’s good to hear John, although all the family ships seem relatively quiet out of season with hardly any kids on board. The OP’s concern (as is mine) is what it will be like with possibly 30-40% more passengers on board than you have at present, with many of the 3rd and 4th berths occupied. The comparison with Britannia in June is interesting though, so maybe it won’t be as bad as I fear. Enjoy your cruise. What’s the MDR food like?

[Harryjacobs]

Went on Iona on a Covid staycation cruise and capacity was capped at 2500 pax.  To be honest even at half it felt busy and cramped especially the buffet at breakfast.  And it was dificult to get seats at most venues especially The Clubhouse and Brodies.  

 

[terrierjohn]

57 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s good to hear John, although all the family ships seem relatively quiet out of season with hardly any kids on board. The OP’s concern (as is mine) is what it will be like with possibly 30-40% more passengers on board than you have at present, with many of the 3rd and 4th berths occupied. The comparison with Britannia in June is interesting though, so maybe it won’t be as bad as I fear. Enjoy your cruise. What’s the MDR food like?

There are plenty of children on board at present, I understand it is half term in Scotland which is presumably why there are more children on board than normal.

[Angel57]

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

There are plenty of children on board at present, I understand it is half term in Scotland which is presumably why there are more children on board than normal.

Also some English schools have two weeks holiday for the October half term.

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I don’t think sun bed availability on deck will be an issue next week . I’m packing wet weather gear.

Edited October 17, 2022 by HalifaxYorksCruiser

[Red Leicester]

19 hours ago, degenerateftw said:

You've booked now so it's do or die 😉 It's not very nice in my opinion. I get panicky and nervous in crowds, and I thought it was awful service wise. There were quite a few families onboad when we went (start of september). I would recommend lots of carry-able water bottles for the family as there's no table service. I was thirsty the entire cruise so yeah - pack those refillables. There's stations all around the ship. The most cramped part of the ship is the buffet - grab a table, then off to the queue you go... one by one....

 

Sorry - wish I could offer you better comments.

The grabbing a table and then heading to the buffet one by one may well explain why the buffet is busy, this was spoken about in another thread about the Fjords.  Granted finding a table for four plus may be tricky if everyone bags a table before grabbing food but I reckon you'd be at the table longer going up one by one which adds to the problem.

 

Enjoy your cruise JG&Lcruisingnewbies, I wouldn't worry about the crowds too much.  If you go on thinking it will be bad then it probably will be.  If you go on in a positive "we got this" mindset then you'll love it.

[Fionboard]

2 hours ago, Harryjacobs said:

Went on Iona on a Covid staycation cruise and capacity was capped at 2500 pax.  To be honest even at half it felt busy and cramped especially the buffet at breakfast.  And it was dificult to get seats at most venues especially The Clubhouse and Brodies.  

 

Agree. I did staycation with ship half full and it felt very crowded particularly on open decks. Not keen on her so luckily I'll not find out what she is like when full! 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

On 10/16/2022 at 10:14 PM, degenerateftw said:

You've booked now so it's do or die 😉 It's not very nice in my opinion. I get panicky and nervous in crowds, and I thought it was awful service wise. There were quite a few families onboad when we went (start of september). I would recommend lots of carry-able water bottles for the family as there's no table service. I was thirsty the entire cruise so yeah - pack those refillables. There's stations all around the ship. The most cramped part of the ship is the buffet - grab a table, then off to the queue you go... one by one....

 

Sorry - wish I could offer you better comments.

 

 

Thanks for your reply

yep, def do or die 😆 I also get anxious in crowds. But on previous ships have always managed to find some quieter parts of the ship

I’ll be the one squirrelled away/ hiding in a entertainment venue when the entertainment isn’t on, 😂. Hopefully next to a window playing uno or reading

 

I’m just going to have to suck it up regarding buffet. And pick my times for food well

 

will definitely pack those refillable bottles, thanks for the advice

 

I know this will be packed out. I was thinking ‘can’t be any worse than the navigator at max capacity can it?!’ 🤞 🤞 

 

 

 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

5 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Agree. I did staycation with ship half full and it felt very crowded particularly on open decks. Not keen on her so luckily I'll not find out what she is like when full! 

I’m curious please- Were you not keen because of the crowds, or another reason?

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

8 hours ago, Red Leicester said:

Enjoy your cruise JG&Lcruisingnewbies, I wouldn't worry about the crowds too much.  If you go on thinking it will be bad then it probably will be.  If you go on in a positive "we got this" mindset then you'll love it.

Thank you 😊 

 

im sure we will enjoy it. I’ve loved all 3 of the cruises I’ve been on so far & am so excited to return to cruising post covid

luckily we have a balcony cabin so I can escape back to that if I need to as well

4 days to go! 😃 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

15 hours ago, Thejuggler said:

If its sold out it does not necessarily mean it is full to capacity.

 

How cramped it feels is more down to ship design than number of passengers.  How much space per passenger when at capacity being one measure.
 

 Ventura and Azura are considered very poorly designed in terms of public spaces and passenger flow, so they feel cramped - space per passenger 31.  Celebrity Eclipse is larger, but we always found a quiet spot.  It has a space per passenger of 36.

Iona figure is 29.  Lots of cabins, not much public space.

 

Thanks for reply 😊 

 

how can you find out space per passenger please? I’ve not seen that before 🤔 

[Steer]

6 hours ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

Thanks for your reply

yep, def do or die 😆 I also get anxious in crowds. But on previous ships have always managed to find some quieter parts of the ship

I’ll be the one squirrelled away/ hiding in a entertainment venue when the entertainment isn’t on, 😂. Hopefully next to a window playing uno or reading

 

I’m just going to have to suck it up regarding buffet. And pick my times for food well

 

will definitely pack those refillable bottles, thanks for the advice

 

I know this will be packed out. I was thinking ‘can’t be any worse than the navigator at max capacity can it?!’ 🤞 🤞 

 

 

 

I'm pretty certain that you will be able to find plenty of quiet spaces. We certainly did in the summer. 

[wowzz]

6 hours ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

Thanks for reply 😊 

 

how can you find out space per passenger please? I’ve not seen that before 🤔 

Try this link

https://www.aboutluxurycruising.com/passenger-space-ratio/

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

16 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Try this link

https://www.aboutluxurycruising.com/passenger-space-ratio/

Brilliant, thank you!

[Red Ray]

18 hours ago, Harryjacobs said:

Went on Iona on a Covid staycation cruise and capacity was capped at 2500 pax.  To be honest even at half it felt busy and cramped especially the buffet at breakfast.  And it was dificult to get seats at most venues especially The Clubhouse and Brodies.  

 

Very surprised at this. There were 3200 on board when we cruised on her and it didn't feel overcrowded at all. Never had any difficulty finding a seat - agreed the buffet could get busy but we found that on Azura in March and there were only 500 on board!

[Lee117five0]

20 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

We are on Iona at present, not sure what the passenger numbers are,  but she certainly does not feel as crowded as Britannia did in June 

Iona has far more indoor seating around the 3 deck atrium that any of the other ships, and must have at least  double, maybe treble the number of outside spaces than any of the others, and the sunbeds are well spaced as well. Then there is the crows nest and Anderson's bar as well as Brodies, and the Club House.   

There are the usual pinch points as entertainment venues empty, but these soon disperse. For us Iona feels far less crowded than our one and only pre covid  cruise on Aurora.

Hi John,

 

Me and my partner are both off on our first holiday together (also our first ever cruise) on Iona on Saturday on the northern Europe cruise. We've heard reports of some of the restaurants being closed due to low staff numbers. Just wondering what your experience has been? We've tried contacting P&O and they're very cryptic and won't actually say if anything has shut.

 

Cheers,

Lee

[terrierjohn]

20 hours ago, Red Leicester said:

The grabbing a table and then heading to the buffet one by one may well explain why the buffet is busy, this was spoken about in another thread about the Fjords.  Granted finding a table for four plus may be tricky if everyone bags a table before grabbing food but I reckon you'd be at the table longer going up one by one which adds to the problem.

 

Enjoy your cruise JG&Lcruisingnewbies, I wouldn't worry about the crowds too much.  If you go on thinking it will be bad then it probably will be.  If you go on in a positive "we got this" mindset then you'll love it.

Even 4 on a table only needs 3 trips to the servery, one of 3 and then one of 1, so it hardly adds any delay, and we are finding the buffet busy, but never any issues finding a free table reasonably quickly. 

[Harryjacobs]

4 hours ago, Red Ray said:

Very surprised at this. There were 3200 on board when we cruised on her and it didn't feel overcrowded at all. Never had any difficulty finding a seat - agreed the buffet could get busy but we found that on Azura in March and there were only 500 on board!

How did you find getting a table at the entertainment venues?  Unless you are the sort to queue at the door long before opening times, getting a table was difficult I found.

[Red Ray]

16 hours ago, Harryjacobs said:

How did you find getting a table at the entertainment venues?  Unless you are the sort to queue at the door long before opening times, getting a table was difficult I found.

We tried the Limelight once but had to queue as it has limited capacity so didn't bother again. We never had any problems getting a seat anywhere else. She is a beautiful ship though I agree with a full complement of 5200 pax there may be overcrowding issues.