Quick recap of Iona cruise

[Ardennais]

Just a few comments about last week’s cruise on Iona to the Fjords.

We were a group of 8. 2 couples in 2 balcony cabins, and 2 couples in 2 inside cabins. Deck 9 forward. 

 

Embarkation

Very straightforward. The insides had 13:30 and the balconies had 14:45. Took about half an hour from arrival. Cases delivered quickly.

 

Cabins

Clean and modern. Great bathroom storage. Huge sofa in the balcony cabins. The cabins are definitely narrower on Iona. Lack of drawers is a pain. I asked for face cloths and 2 were provided every morning. Also asked for body lotion (I do take my own - this was for research purposes) and this was again provided. We don’t miss turndown, but we do miss having fresh towels after our evening shower. 
 

Food

Really good. Veg cooked much nicer than usual. Decent portion size. Less choice and more vegan options in MDR than pre-covid. Desserts are still the weakest link but we did have a few good chocolate ones. As a group of 8, we decided to walk-up to Coral around 8 and we were shown in straight away every time. The ‘youngsters’ had one late lunch in the Olive Grove and thought it was excellent. We had one late lunch in the Glass House - just walked up. This was also very good. I’ve already described our great experience on Celebration Night at the Chef’s Table. 
 

Some might be interested in the breakfast options in the MDR - in particular the opening hours. I remember Selbourne commenting on this earlier this year. We just walked up again and were just shown in. In fact, we didn’t use the app queue at all! 

 

1st sea day

 

Port days

 

Last sea day

 

 

 

[Ardennais]

Someone asked about films on Britannia recently, so I’ve taken photos of the films on Iona to give some idea of the offering. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw two films at 9:30 pm and there was plenty of room. 

[Ardennais]

We saw two Headliner shows - another one was cancelled due to injury. This time around, we went to the first show at 6:45 - no booking required. 
 

The weather was brilliant. 6 of the group went on the Loen Skylift and thought it was the best experience ever! They had pre-booked with Olden Adventure. I went on the excursion from Haugesund to the World War 2 museum - highly recommended. 
 

Iona felt less busy this time. Going during term time makes a huge difference in terms of service, availability of lifts etc. 
 

The 3 newbies in our group thought that this cruise provided excellent value for money and that bar prices were very reasonable. They thought that Iona had the wow factor and that there was ‘nothing not to like’!

 

Disembarkation was smooth. 2 couples self-disembarked around 8am. We were supposed to leave 9.45-9.55 but were shown to the queue at 9.15. Note the letter below - you can now self-disembark at a time that suits you! 

 

 

You can probably tell that we love Iona! Our next cruise is on Princess, but we would love to see Iona offering new itineraries. It’s also a shame that Bergen is off-limits. The newbies are now busy researching their next cruise! 

Edited May 6 by Ardennais

[Selbourne]

Delighted to hear that you had a great cruise and yes, those late breakfast times in the MDR are fantastic. I wish they’d do that on the other P&O ships (or at least some way towards it). 9am cut off on port days and 9.30am on sea days still seems to prevail on most ships, which we find a rush. 

 

Interesting that you ignored the app and just walked up and were seated immediately. Makes a mockery of the app!

[Ardennais]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Delighted to hear that you had a great cruise and yes, those late breakfast times in the MDR are fantastic. I wish they’d do that on the other P&O ships (or at least some way towards it). 9am cut off on port days and 9.30am on sea days still seems to prevail on most ships, which we find a rush. 

 

Interesting that you ignored the app and just walked up and were seated immediately. Makes a mockery of the app!

We decided to walk up on the first night, just to see how things would work for a group of 8. As we were shown in straight away, we stuck to that system and it worked each time! 

[AndyMichelle]

Excellent summary, thank you. 

We never fancied Iona, too big etc, but positive reviews like yours have made us look to give it a try. 

Andy 

[Angel57]

Thank you for the great review. Am now excited for my week on Iona!

[Eddie99]

Thank you for the review - I enjoyed reading it and I’m glad your group had a great time

 

@AndyMichelle - we were apprehensive about Iona but loved our time on her.  So many facilities!  Somehow she does a Tardis and is huge, yet accessible at the same time.  Embarkation, disembarkation, and getting off & back again in ports was smooth.  My only gripe concerning her size and payload is that she can easily “fill up” some of the smaller ports

 

[purplesea]

Thanks for your review, and glad to hear that you all had a good time.

I too enjoyed Iona, but as it was shortly after the pandemic, so she was only sailing half full and certain corridors were closed off for quarantine.  I would like to sail on her again though. Just wish she had a more varied itineries.

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

Thank you for the review - I enjoyed reading it and I’m glad your group had a great time

 

@AndyMichelle - we were apprehensive about Iona but loved our time on her.  So many facilities!  Somehow she does a Tardis and is huge, yet accessible at the same time.  Embarkation, disembarkation, and getting off & back again in ports was smooth.  My only gripe concerning her size and payload is that she can easily “fill up” some of the smaller ports

 

We were fortunate in that Iona was the only ship in port in the four destinations. Alesund, Stavanger and Haugesund can easily cope and as Olden is an ‘outdoor’ destination, it wasn’t a problem there either. 

We tended to ‘live’ on decks 6-9. Our cabins were on deck 9 and as we don’t  sunbathe or use the pools, we rarely ventured upstairs. The offerings in the Quays mean that we don’t visit the buffet very often. So we find Iona very accessible. 

[Gettingwarmer]

9 hours ago, Ardennais said:

 

Cabins

Clean and modern. Great bathroom storage. Huge sofa in the balcony cabins. The cabins are definitely narrower on Iona. Lack of drawers is a pain. I asked for face cloths and 2 were provided every morning. Also asked for body lotion (I do take my own - this was for research purposes) and this was again provided. We don’t miss turndown, but we do miss having fresh towels after our evening shower. 

Agree with this. We spend a lot of time in our cabin and they are very narrow. We had the larger cabin which is longer so you have a turn around space in the middle. The sofa is hard and the covering not nice. Lack of drawers and the ability to put small things out of sight annoying. 
Loved the windows in the atrium so you could see out but the size made it very noisy. 

[Eddie99]

Rather like us

Seaview cabin on deck 4.  The only times we ventured above 8 were to go to Beach House and Epicurean.

It was January though.  Maybe we would have explored the pool decks in hotter weather

We though 6, 7, and 8 had lots to offer

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

3 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Agree with this. We spend a lot of time in our cabin and they are very narrow. We had the larger cabin which is longer so you have a turn around space in the middle. The sofa is hard and the covering not nice. Lack of drawers and the ability to put small things out of sight annoying. 
Loved the windows in the atrium so you could see out but the size made it very noisy. 

We didn’t feel that the atrium was noisy this time as there were fewer children around, and the good weather meant that a lot of people were outside. 
 

The bed was next to the window this time and it was a real squeeze to get to the balcony! The sofa is indeed very hard. 

 

[yorkshirephil]

7 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Excellent summary, thank you. 

We never fancied Iona, too big etc, but positive reviews like yours have made us look to give it a try. 

Andy 

The big ship little ship mindset is easy to fall into, most of our early cruises were on ships of 1200 or less and we loved them. Once the facecloth and cruise forums started appearing we got the usual "don't like big ship" mentality. We then tried Indy and loved her and have cruised on several big girls since. Horses for courses. 

We will be on Iona for several weeks to the Caribbean next year and are really looking forward to giving her a try.

[Clodia]

I prefer small ships, Aurora being my P and O favourite,  but was surprised at how much I liked Iona. The smallest ship I've  been on is Silversea Silver Whisper,  at 295 pax. Gorgeous ship, but you do not want to be on her in a storm, and I'm a good sailor.

[MyriamS]

Lovely review, thank you. Makes me look forward to my Norwegian cruise on Iona in less than two months now. 

[Ardennais]

5 hours ago, MyriamS said:

Lovely review, thank you. Makes me look forward to my Norwegian cruise on Iona in less than two months now. 

Hope you have a great time. We were fortunate with the weather and sailing as a group of 8 made this cruise extra special.