Iona March half-term. How busy?

[cruisingiscool]

Hi. This cruise has been booked for a while. It's a big birthday one and was a compromise on a Carribbean cruise because I can no longer fly. 

I have just realised the second week of the cruise (22nd onwards) will be school half term. I know parents take children out of school before the holidays because of lower prices.  It's all water under the bridge now, I can't cancel but how busy can I expect it to be ? Has anyone done the same sort of dates and have any experience? We have done Iona once before but not near school holidays so not sure what to expect.

[Leomins]

Our schools aren’t breaking up until Thursday March 28th so that might help.

[cruisingiscool]

8 minutes ago, Leomins said:

Our schools aren’t breaking up until Thursday March 28th so that might help.

Thanks for that info. That's a plus.

[Cathygh]

We sailed on Iona in the May half term last year. Yes it was busy but you might not see many children around as they love the kids clubs so much. I would go to the MDR for all your meals but that will be busy in the evenings especially if you like to eat early or you don't want to share. Perhaps someone who has been during  a more recent school holiday can advise about wait times for the MDR in the evening.

[cruisingiscool]

1 hour ago, Cathygh said:

We sailed on Iona in the May half term last year. Yes it was busy but you might not see many children around as they love the kids clubs so much. I would go to the MDR for all your meals but that will be busy in the evenings especially if you like to eat early or you don't want to share. Perhaps someone who has been during  a more recent school holiday can advise about wait times for the MDR in the evening.

Thanks for your advice. I expect the lounge bars etc will be very busy in the evenings  as well. I'll try to look on it as an adventure. 

[Angel57]

2 hours ago, cruisingiscool said:

Hi. This cruise has been booked for a while. It's a big birthday one and was a compromise on a Carribbean cruise because I can no longer fly. 

I have just realised the second week of the cruise (22nd onwards) will be school half term. I know parents take children out of school before the holidays because of lower prices.  It's all water under the bridge now, I can't cancel but how busy can I expect it to be ? Has anyone done the same sort of dates and have any experience? We have done Iona once before but not near school holidays so not sure what to expect.

It may be worth booking the Retreat for your 2 weeks as it’s adults only. I would have thought most kids will be in school, but…….

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, cruisingiscool said:

Hi. This cruise has been booked for a while. It's a big birthday one and was a compromise on a Carribbean cruise because I can no longer fly. 

I have just realised the second week of the cruise (22nd onwards) will be school half term. I know parents take children out of school before the holidays because of lower prices.  It's all water under the bridge now, I can't cancel but how busy can I expect it to be ? Has anyone done the same sort of dates and have any experience? We have done Iona once before but not near school holidays so not sure what to expect.

Mr Google says that most schools in the country break up on Thursday 28th March, so hopefully there will be very few school age children on our cruise.

[happy v]

28th in Durham and Newcastle too

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, cruisingiscool said:

Thanks for your advice. I expect the lounge bars etc will be very busy in the evenings  as well. I'll try to look on it as an adventure. 

You are welcome.Service was slow in the Emerald Bar and Andersons, a lot of pax meet there before dinner. I forgot to say the Infinity Pool at the back of the ship gets busy with kids, the others aren't as bad.

[cruisingiscool]

16 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Mr Google says that most schools in the country break up on Thursday 28th March, so hopefully there will be very few school age children on our cruise.

That's very positive. Thanks

[Smudgemum]

We are also on this cruise, and our schools break up on 28th March Essex, so I think we will be fine with the amount of children onboard 

Not long to go now ☀️ 😎 

[cruisingiscool]

41 minutes ago, Smudgemum said:

We are also on this cruise, and our schools break up on 28th March Essex, so I think we will be fine with the amount of children onboard 

Not long to go now ☀️ 😎 

Very excited! Looking forward to some sun !

[delgirl]

We are on this cruise also and were wondering the same thing. Schools around here in the midlands break up the 22nd march but I know a lot of schools in other areas are a week later. When we went on QM2 last yr at the end of school holidays grandson kept wanting to go in the kids club. So I would say it will probably be the same. Its not like royal caribbean where there are a lot of things for the kids to do without going in the kids club.

[EM35]

We do break up on the 22nd March so some authorities may be the same.

 

I was on Iona last week which was February half term for lots of places. As I work in a school I can only travel during the holidays so just accept it was busy but and there was certainly places to sit and relax away from the noise of children.

 

The place I found most problematic was the small soft play area in the Club House (I'm sure it wasn't there when I was on Iona in 2023). The children were very loud playing in there on occasion and it didn't effect some of the performances in there I felt. There seemed to be lots of teens congregating on the stairwells and the late night buffet, who could be loud at times. 

 

It was certainly busy and the often shows were showing as sold out but there always seemed to be seats available at the ones I went to. There were people standing at the Sky Dome performances. The Quays was always busy but seemed to deal with the queues well. The worst issue I had was spending 30 minutes getting back onboard in Bremenhaven but I suspect this was due to it being a last minute port change. 

 

Hope this is useful, and please ask if you have any other questions, but I am sure you will have a great time. 

[Denarius]

Confused by the references to half term. Friday 29 March 2024 is Good Friday and Sunday 31 Easter Sunday. So the school holiday will be full term not half term, marking the end of the Spring term, and will last 2 weeks.

[cruisingiscool]

Thank you for your input and advice. We were on Iona in June 2023 and there was no soft play areas in the club house then  but it was always very very full. I'm concerned about the lift situation and not being able to sit in lounges/bars because of the increased number of passengers. I am not able to walk for any distance , stairs are a no-no and I'll have to think carefully about after dinner entertainment venues such as Brodie's or the Lounge club. Hopefully it will be fine.

 

[cruisingiscool]

8 minutes ago, Denarius said:

Confused by the references to half term. Friday 29 March 2024 is Good Friday and Sunday 31 Easter Sunday. So the school holiday will be full term not half term, marking the end of the Spring term, and will last 2 weeks.

I have no children or grandchildren so have no idea about whether it's half term or full term. It  really doesn't matter to me.  Whichever it is I understood the answers to my question so I'm grateful for all the replies.

[EM35]

16 minutes ago, cruisingiscool said:

Thank you for your input and advice. We were on Iona in June 2023 and there was no soft play areas in the club house then  but it was always very very full. I'm concerned about the lift situation and not being able to sit in lounges/bars because of the increased number of passengers. I am not able to walk for any distance , stairs are a no-no and I'll have to think carefully about after dinner entertainment venues such as Brodie's or the Lounge club. Hopefully it will be fine.

 

Lifts were certainly seemed busy on boarding day and I tended to notice queues when events finished but as I generally use the stairs I don't know how long they took to disperse unfortunately. I didn't ever struggle to find a seat anywhere apart from the Club House. 

[doog442]

I think you mean Easter holidays - half term was last week I believe .From what I can see most are breaking up on 28th March for Easter so you should be fine within reason. 

 

It looks like Arvia's heading back for the school run 😉 

[July morning]

We live in Scotland and School holiday starts Thursday 28th March.

Have been on two cruises with grandson 4+5  (Oct half term)

and he just wanted to go to the kids club both times

[Harryjacobs]

13 hours ago, EM35 said:

We do break up on the 22nd March so some authorities may be the same.

 

I was on Iona last week which was February half term for lots of places. As I work in a school I can only travel during the holidays so just accept it was busy but and there was certainly places to sit and relax away from the noise of children.

 

The place I found most problematic was the small soft play area in the Club House (I'm sure it wasn't there when I was on Iona in 2023). The children were very loud playing in there on occasion and it didn't effect some of the performances in there I felt. There seemed to be lots of teens congregating on the stairwells and the late night buffet, who could be loud at times. 

 

It was certainly busy and the often shows were showing as sold out but there always seemed to be seats available at the ones I went to. There were people standing at the Sky Dome performances. The Quays was always busy but seemed to deal with the queues well. The worst issue I had was spending 30 minutes getting back onboard in Bremenhaven but I suspect this was due to it being a last minute port change. 

 

Hope this is useful, and please ask if you have any other questions, but I am sure you will have a great time. 

We were also on this cruise.  It was our 3rd Iona cruise and the 1st in school holidays.  Booked it by mistake as we always book our holidays while kids are supposed to be at school.

It was markedly noticible that there was more kids than my other 2 on Iona.  Kids running around the MDR during dinner playing with those funny twirly things that hang down whilst parents totally oblivious.  Teenagers chucking food at each other in the buffet, it really was a bunfight (ho ho)

Even had kids running around the tables in the Crows Nest late in the evening.

Last time I shall be on the family ship during school holidays, lesson reminded.

[sandancer]

That sounds like a total nightmare. However, we were on the NYE cruise and I think that was still school Christmas hols and we didn’t experience any of those things. I must say though that we didn’t eat in the MDR other than on NYE so may  have missed all that bad behavior. 

[Thejuggler]

Holiday in March is the Easter break which is 2 or 3 weeks depending on the area and the school.

 

Some areas have the Easter weekend in the middle of the holiday so will finish on 22nd.  Other areas have first two weeks of April regardless of when Easter falls,so will finish 28th.

 

In West Yorkshire we have five local Authorities, only one, Leeds finish on the 28th.  All the others finish on 22nd.

[Ardennais]

Easter holidays in Wales begin on Friday 22 March - end of Spring term, not half term. 
 

Iona is a family friendly ship and rightly caters for children. I love seeing children around, but what I find annoying is the reduced service when at full capacity. Even worse, the passengers on these school holiday cruises have paid more. 

[LadyL1]

On Iona, Feb half term this year, there were over 1500 under 18’s!