Booking shows on Iona

[Sunshine453]

We are cruising on the Iona in two weeks. The theatre shows became available for booking yesterday…it seems they have all sold out now (I tick the passengers but when I go through to the basket it says now no unavailability). Does this mean we will unable to go to the shows or do they release more seats? Thanks

[Cloudyrain]

They will 99% of the time have space in the theatre to just walk in without a booking just before the show starts. However they open more bookings on board too, so you won’t have a problem.

 

In my experience it’s Limelight that’s a nightmare to book (although they occasionally have slots come up due to cancellations), and 710 gets booked up really quickly - but if you go about 15/20 minutes before it starts they will put you on a standby list and we got in fine that way.

[dollydaydreams]

9 hours ago, Sunshine453 said:

We are cruising on the Iona in two weeks. The theatre shows became available for booking yesterday…it seems they have all sold out now (I tick the passengers but when I go through to the basket it says now no unavailability). Does this mean we will unable to go to the shows or do they release more seats? Thanks

I have had the same problem today and wondered whether there was a problem with the booking website as I can't imagine that the shows are all sold out already! It allows you to select a time and go through the whole booking process before the 'no availability' message pops up - I would have thought that if they were fully booked then the times of the shows would all be greyed out, not allowing you to select them from the start.

[happy v]

6 minutes ago, dollydaydreams said:

I have had the same problem today and wondered whether there was a problem with the booking website as I can't imagine that the shows are all sold out already! It allows you to select a time and go through the whole booking process before the 'no availability' message pops up - I would have thought that if they were fully booked then the times of the shows would all be greyed out, not allowing you to select them from the start.

You are probably correct. I can't remember all the time slots for any show being fully booked when we were on. 

[ParisHilton]

I think people have wised up to how it works and been to book up as soon as they can.

I suspect there will be quite a few cancellations and noshows though.

[Sunshine453]

On 7/30/2023 at 7:31 PM, dollydaydreams said:

I have had the same problem today and wondered whether there was a problem with the booking website as I can't imagine that the shows are all sold out already! It allows you to select a time and go through the whole booking process before the 'no availability' message pops up - I would have thought that if they were fully booked then the times of the shows would all be greyed out, not allowing you to select them from the start.

My agent says they had a glitch. I managed to book by booking everyone in my party separately. Hope you managed to sort it too!

[Selbourne]

We cruise on Iona on 19th August, which is 2 weeks tomorrow. My understanding was that Speciality Restaurants would open for booking tomorrow (14 days prior to departure) and entertainment would open for booking today (1 day earlier). I have got up early this morning in order to book the shows for all 6 of our party and the booking facility doesn’t appear to have been enabled (assuming that it would be under the ‘Entertainment’ tab in the Cruise Personaliser). Can I expect it to suddenly pop up at some point during the day, or is it now likely to be tomorrow (I’d assumed that it would go ‘live’ from midnight)?

[Sunshine453]

Hi, I only tried 14 days before as I thought that was when shows came up (but that could definitely be wrong - perhaps had been up for a day already!) The entertainment wasn’t in the initial list on the main page (book dining/shore excursions and another one) but under the entertainment page a “book now” button was under the signature shows section. Hope that helps!

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, Sunshine453 said:

Hi, I only tried 14 days before as I thought that was when shows came up (but that could definitely be wrong - perhaps had been up for a day already!) The entertainment wasn’t in the initial list on the main page (book dining/shore excursions and another one) but under the entertainment page a “book now” button was under the signature shows section. Hope that helps!

Wow. I didn’t expect an immediate reply at this time of the morning but thank you. It sounds as though I am looking in the right place then (Entertainment tab) but there is no button under ‘Signature Performances’ yet.
 

I felt sure that I’d read that shows could be booked 1 day before speciality restaurants opened, and thought that had been the case when we were on Britannia recently, but maybe I misunderstood, or there’s yet another P&O IT glitch!

[ParisHilton]

Hi, do you see the same as below?

 

From there you can click through and book?

 

(It looks like one screenshot, but the shows with already booked are after you click the book now)

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by ParisHilton

[Son of Anarchy]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Wow. I didn’t expect an immediate reply at this time of the morning but thank you. It sounds as though I am looking in the right place then (Entertainment tab) but there is no button under ‘Signature Performances’ yet.
 

I felt sure that I’d read that shows could be booked 1 day before speciality restaurants opened, and thought that had been the case when we were on Britannia recently, but maybe I misunderstood, or there’s yet another P&O IT glitch!

Could be a glitch, could possibly be that apart from the Headliner shows, the acts themselves haven't been finalised.

 

On at least one of our post covid cruises not all the acts appeared for pre-booking on the scheduled date.  Gradually popped up over the two weeks.  One cruise, one of the acts was removed after a couple of days and replaced with someone else.  Not surprising, I googled him as I'd never heard of him.  Turned out that week he'd been found guilty of child sex offences.

[Selbourne]

13 minutes ago, ParisHilton said:

Hi, do you see the same as below?

 

From there you can click through and book?

 

(It looks like one screenshot, but the shows with already booked are after you click the book now)

 

Hi. Yes, I’m on that page but no ‘Book Now’ button is showing. Which departure date are you? It may be that our cruise isn’t bookable yet (as I say, I thought it was 15 days out they were bookable). Thanks. 

[Selbourne]

14 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Could be a glitch, could possibly be that apart from the Headliner shows, the acts themselves haven't been finalised.

 

On at least one of our post covid cruises not all the acts appeared for pre-booking on the scheduled date.  Gradually popped up over the two weeks.  One cruise, one of the acts was removed after a couple of days and replaced with someone else.  Not surprising, I googled him as I'd never heard of him.  Turned out that week he'd been found guilty of child sex offences.

Yes, it could be that, although on our recent Britannia cruise a number of the shows changed dates whilst we were on board (and our bookings amended automatically on the My Holiday app - no notification though) and other acts were added that hadn’t been bookable before. 
 

My guess is that they will now be bookable from tomorrow which, by my understanding, is the same day that the speciality restaurants will be bookable, which is a pain as I’d hoped to get all the shows booked today and then book the restaurants around them tomorrow!

[ParisHilton]

18 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Hi. Yes, I’m on that page but no ‘Book Now’ button is showing. Which departure date are you? It may be that our cruise isn’t bookable yet (as I say, I thought it was 15 days out they were bookable). Thanks. 

We sail on the 12th, and I could book that stuff on the Saturday just gone.

Edited August 4, 2023 by ParisHilton

[Selbourne]

23 minutes ago, ParisHilton said:

We sail on the 12th, and I could book that stuff on the Saturday just gone.

Ah, OK. We are 19th so it looks like it’s tomorrow for us then. I knew that it was tomorrow for speciality dining, but thought it was today for shows. Out of interest, did you look to see if entertainment was bookable on the Friday for your cruise, or was Saturday the first day that you looked?

[ParisHilton]

I foolishly thought it would go 'live' at midnight on Saturday (ie just before Sunday), but I think it went live at the crossover from Friday to Saturday.

I'm fairly sure I would have looked , to no avail, on the Friday. But nothing appeared until Saturday.

 

I booked restaurants first, then round to shows.  

Excursions were pretty much all gone by end of Saturday, not that we were going to do them.

 

We did some later restaurant bookings on Sunday too.

So I'd recommend, excursions, shows then food. 

Obviously if shows are your thing, book those first !

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, ParisHilton said:

I foolishly thought it would go 'live' at midnight on Saturday (ie just before Sunday), but I think it went live at the crossover from Friday to Saturday.

I'm fairly sure I would have looked , to no avail, on the Friday. But nothing appeared until Saturday.

 

I booked restaurants first, then round to shows.  

Excursions were pretty much all gone by end of Saturday, not that we were going to do them.

 

We did some later restaurant bookings on Sunday too.

So I'd recommend, excursions, shows then food. 

Obviously if shows are your thing, book those first !

Thanks. That’s really helpful and will save me looking every hour today just incase it’s a glitch that gets resolved!
 

We don’t do excursions and our daughters have already booked the two that they want to do (they’ve been bookable for months). I can take or leave most of the shows, but I have offered to book for all 6 of us (under 3 booking numbers) - hence why I was keen to get that out of the way today as it will take me some time. The speciality restaurants are my personal priority, but I guess I will have to do that last now. I presume that I can book tables for 6 under my booking reference, even though that booking number only applies to 2 of the 6 people. Thank goodness it’s all so straightforward 😳🤔😂

[Megabear2]

They should go live overnight tonight. Not exactly midnight but not long after.  If they aren't there at around 12.15am then they'll click over some time overnight - as one of the insomniacs I frequently book things around 2.00am, it never fails!

 

Your restaurants should theoretically follow at midnight Saturday. 

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

They should go live overnight tonight. Not exactly midnight but not long after.  If they aren't there at around 12.15am then they'll click over some time overnight - as one of the insomniacs I frequently book things around 2.00am, it never fails!

 

Your restaurants should theoretically follow at midnight Saturday. 

So I wasn’t mad thinking that shows were bookable a day before restaurants, but I had assumed that restaurants were bookable from midnight tonight, as that will be 14 days before the cruise. So it looks like two nights where I shall be up way past my bedtime then? 🙄😴

[Megabear2]

6 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

So I wasn’t mad thinking that shows were bookable a day before restaurants, but I had assumed that restaurants were bookable from midnight tonight, as that will be 14 days before the cruise. So it looks like two nights where I shall be up way past my bedtime then? 🙄😴

You may get an email through the course of the day advising you entertainment bookings are open.  You won't get one for dining.

[Selbourne]

I stayed up late last night and literally at the stroke of midnight the speciality restaurants opened for booking for our cruise on Iona in 14 days time, but not the shows. Presumably they will open tonight? 

[Sunshine453]

I first checked at 12 noon 14 days before and shows were there by then! 

[Selbourne]

6 minutes ago, Sunshine453 said:

I first checked at 12 noon 14 days before and shows were there by then! 

Thanks. I’ll keep checking through the day then. Still not there at present. 

[ParisHilton]

Any joy?

 

We'll wave at you as we disembark!

[Selbourne]

Well my second midnight shift wasn’t as productive as my first. As the midnight hour struck Friday night the dining reservations were enabled instantly. I stayed up again last night on the assumption that shows would be enabled as day 13 of the countdown commenced (as @molecrochip had said that it was now 13 days) and nothing. Still nothing this morning. Very frustrating, especially as you can’t rely on an email as soon as they are released, given that there has still been no email about dining reservations being enabled yet many have sold out already!