Semi-live P&O Iona: from Munich to Southampton to Norway and back!

[MyriamS]

Hello and welcome to this semi-live of P&O Iona Norway cruise! We didn't stump the cash for WiFi on board so I'll be posting the live whenever we are in port. 

 

Ep 1 - Will we make it onto the ship?

 

Since we live in Munich, all our cruises starts at least the day before with a flight (or, if we ever board from Hamburg, a long long train ride). We made it in the airport with about 2h to spare as usual. 

 

Then our flight was cancelled. 

 

We rushed to the Lufthansa service desk and changed to the next flight but, because it was fully booked, could only get standby seats.

 

What followed was almost four hour of the most nerve wracking wait of my life. 

 

Our new flight was delayed by an hour and a half (also due to the stormy weather). The one after that got cancelled. All of the next day's flights were full already. I already saw Iona sailing away tomorrow without us on board. 

 

Finally they started boarding people with a seat assignment. We waited and waited for our names to be called. Reader, we were the last two to be called. I was never happier to step foot on a airplane. 

 

My happiness was short-lived however as we were delayed further due to the weather. Lightning streaked the sky as I prayed to no one in particular we would be able to take off. 

 

After another hour, we were finally able to leave. The flight was actually quite smooth but we touched down in Heathrow at around 11pm, which meant we missed the last Elizabeth train to Reading.

 

We decided to stay in Reading the first night as it has a direct train to both Heathrow and Southampton. However it was so late and I was so tired I tried to call a couple of hotels in Heathrow. Only one picked up the phone and I was quoted a price of almost 400£ for one night (for comparison our base cruise for was 1300£ for the two of us for a week). I politely declined and called our hotel in Reading instead, which confirmed they would welcome us even in the middle of the night.

 

Meanwhile my partner was figuring out out to take the Megabus service to Reading departing at 20 min past midnight. A kind cleaning lady pointed out to the right direction but all tickets machine were broken so we had to hastily buys tickets online (45£ ain't cheap but nothing in the UK is).

 

Finally the bus arrived and left on time, and finally made it to Reading at 1am local time (2 am in Munich) and walk 5min to the Easyhotel. 

 

Easyhotel (and easyJet in general)!have a poor reputation but I was glad of the friendliness and promptness of the service. The room was of course tiny and had almost no amenities but it was perfectly fine for a night. The aircon was set very cool, which my partner loves, but I had to fiddle with the settings at 3am.

 

Because, yes, despite hoping to bed at 1.30am I was still awake two hours later. No matter how tired I am, if my mind is restless, I will not sleep. 

 

Eventually I dozed off and woke up at around 8am because the room was very light (the blockout curtains were not effective enough, a very common problem in European hotels). Easyhotel had upgraded us to a room with window, even though we had paid for and prefers a windowless bedroom (inside cabins all the way for us!). All in all I would still recommend this hotel at this price point (was about 80£/night booked in advance). 

 

So all in all I would rate the first day of our trip as -5/10. I travel a lot and this was the worst experience I've ever had. While Lufthansa doesn't control the weather, their customer service was woeful. No food and drinks were provided to passengers who waited for hours in the standby queue (against EU law). Unfortunately as we live in Germany we pretty much have to fly with them as they have the most options.

 

Also moral of the story: always fly in the day before your cruise. Even two days before if you can. The thought we would miss our entire cruise as we waited in the airport was horrific.

 

So that's the end of part 1, stay tuned for part 2 where we will make it from Reading to Southampton to the Ocean terminal in time, even if we have to hike the whole bloody way there! 

[royallondon]

Sounds like a horrendous day and well done to you for awarding it 5/10!

I wish you plain sailing from here on in and look forward to your updates. Have a great cruise.

 

Regards

[MyriamS]

It was actually minus five out of ten. Not even worthy of a 0 imho. 

[royallondon]

3 hours ago, MyriamS said:

It was actually minus five out of ten. Not even worthy of a 0 imho. 

My correction.

[Harryjacobs]

80 Euros for an easy hotel is a lot of money.  If you plan ahead you can get travelodge rooms for less than £40

[Ardennais]

I really hope your cruise makes up for the dreadful start! Sounds like something out of Race Across the World. 

[Eddie99]

As the song goes 🎶 Things Can Only Get Better 🤞

 

Hopefully you are at the terminal now, or possibly already boarded?  
Bon Voyage, have a great cruise, and thank you for doing a contemporaneous blog

[purplesea]

Hope the rest of your holiday is trouble free.

[mrsgoggins]

What a start, I was stressed just reading it!

 

I'll be reading along since we are on Iona's Fjords cruise as you get off.  Then we are driving to Germany for a week visiting some of our favourite haunts.  We have fallen out of love with flying and airports in general (although still do it occasionally) hence deciding on the tunnel and driving rather than our normal German airport and hire car mode of transportation.

 

Wishing you a stress-free, great cruise and an easy journey home next weekend 👍

[MyriamS]

4 hours ago, Harryjacobs said:

80 Euros for an easy hotel is a lot of money.  If you plan ahead you can get travelodge rooms for less than £40

We do plan ahead. We look for hotels months in advance, pick the best option with free cancellation and check again closer to the time for better deals. We couldn't find anything cheaper in Reading or London Heathrow on this particular date (which was a Friday so will never be as cheap as the middle of the week). 

 

Thanks for the warm wishes everyone! Anyway on to episode 2, the boarding process.

 

After getting little sleep last night, I started with my day with a 2£ cup of tea from Easyhotel. It was extremely bitter and acidic but I drank it anyway because beggars can't be choosers and I'll need all the caffeine I can to go through the day. 

 

We checked out and strolled through the Reading city centre to the museum. As we would have a late lunch, we stopped in the museum café for breakfast.

 

I love cream tea and the Pantry had a pretty good offer for 5.5£. Unfortunately the fruit scone was stale but the preserves, clotted cream and tea were all very good. I guess they bake them once a day so if you go in the afternoon, you might a fresh one. As it was, it was only a 7.5/10 but would have been a 10/10 with a fresh scone. 

 

 

We spent an hour or so visiting the Reading Museum, which gave us a taste of the town history and has a beautiful replica of the Bayeux tapestry. Always love the free public museum in the UK.

 

Another short walk brought us to the train station. So glad we purchased advance single with seat reservations as not only it's very expensive to travel on the day but the train was pretty packed. 

 

In Southampton, my boyfriend insisted we stop in a supermarket to buy crumpets (he's Finnish, he just really likes crumpets). Unfortunately their sell by date was too short but we still got some Cadbury bars and Paracetamol (a fifth of the price of Germany).

 

We then strolled through the city centre. I wasn't hungry enough for a full meal but we stopped at the dosa stand right by the Bargate for a quick snack. I love Indian food in the UK!

 

By then I was getting really tired, having had about four hours of sleep last night and been carrying my backpack all morning, so we decided to start heading for the ship. 

 

I know many consider it a cardinal sin to arrive earlier than their assigned boarding time. However, considering ours was 15:45 (a mere 45 min before final boarding!) we were never going to cut it that close. 

 

We arrived about an hour and a half early and were directed to one of many queues. We used our time productively by connecting to the ship's WiFi and booking the Olive Grove for a couple of lunches and the MDR every evening at 6pm.

 

The boarding process was quite confusing as they kept calling boarding groups out of order (calling for 15:15 and earlier then jumping back to 14:30 and earlier). Many people were early but many were late to their assigned boarding time too. Imho people are more likely to respect a time slot they chose so by P&O are actually making their boarding process slower and more chaotic by assigning time slots to people. 

 

They called our boarding group half an hour early but there was an even longer queue inside. In the end, we boarded the shop at about 4pm. You have to go through your muster station first before they let you go to your cabin but that only took a few minutes. 

 

So I would actually go against the grain and say that, if you're able to stand in line, you should arrive about 1h prior to your boarding time so you can make it to the front of your queue, hear when your group is called and board the ship on time. Do not even think to cut close to the final boarding time. 

 

Also print your boarding pass one-sided only. They need to stamp "ok to board" at the back. We didn't know this so the lady at the check-in counter had to reprint ours.

 

Next episode we actually discover our cabin and the ship.

[gsjnd]

23 minutes ago, MyriamS said:

We arrived about an hour and a half early and were directed to one of many queues. We used our time productively by connecting to the ship's WiFi and booking the Olive Grove for a couple of lunches and the MDR every evening at 6pm.

I thought you needed a six digit code from your cruise card to get logged in? 

[Angel57]

32 minutes ago, gsjnd said:

I thought you needed a six digit code from your cruise card to get logged in? 

It’s on your boarding pass…..😉 so you can book restaurants etc as soon as you are near enough to the ship.

[gsjnd]

3 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

It’s on your boarding pass…..😉 so you can book restaurants etc as soon as you are near enough to the ship.

Thanks for that never noticed it was on there.

[Over&Over Faithfull...]

Has the ship been showing the Euros football?

[P&O SUE]

Interesting start, thanks for doing this. I will follow along.

[P&O SUE]

25 minutes ago, Over&Over Faithfull... said:

Has the ship been showing the Euros football?

They do normally on P&O. They did on Britannia last week and it was showing on the tv in the cabins on a channel called sport24 extra.

[Purdey16]

After a not so good start I hope the rest of your cruise runs smoothly, I will be following.

[MyriamS]

They do show the Euro. Not a football fan but I noticed on the daily program. 

 

On to episode 3: the sticky toffee pudding travesty 

 

We were a bit anxious about our assigned cabin 5559 as it's right underneath the cinema but we heard absolutely nothing from it. Kudos to P&O for properly soundproofing it! The only noise in the cabin was a very distant engine rumble but it was rather soothing in a white noise kind of way.

 

We're not the type of people to worry over much about rooms/cabins, as they are a place to sleep for us, but it did feel larger and nicer than our Explorer of the Seas cabin. It is a partially accessible cabin which might be why.

 

A bit weird, our cabin steward knocked on the door to introduce himself just as I was changing into my swimsuit. I told him I needed a minute and he opened the door anyway. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he didn't hear me.

 

After dropping off our stuff we went straight to the pool as it was very sunny and warm for Southampton. We went to one of the infinity pools and it must have been slightly heated as it felt pleasantly warm. Unfortunately we couldn't swim much as kids had already taken over the pool as their playground (we learnt later that the Beachcomber pool and bar is adult only, though my partner and I are pretty sure we saw children in there too). We tried one of the hot tubs as well then it was already time to change for dinner. 

 

For all review of the food going forward, I am French but I lived in the UK for a few years so I know what British classics ought to taste like and will judge P&O accordingly. Their pizza is bad? No big deal. Their fish and chips is bad? They're in trouble.

 

We had booked for 6pm and were seated promptly. We tried a couple of starters. The fried chicken croquettes were simple but good and served piping hot. The mushroom panna cotta was strange. The taste was good but it didn't really go well with the texture and temperature of panna cotta. My boyfriend who loves the taste of mushroom but hates their texture gobbled it up. 

 

 

 

For mains, we had the sirloin and while the meat was cooked perfectly to our liking, the sides were disappointing. The veggie were ok (just plain unseasoned veggies) but the chips... They were not crispy on the outside, not soft and fluffy on the outside. They were very basic frozen chips. We didn't eat them. Our other main was the curried lentils pie and this was very nice, not spicy but well spiced and flavourful. The spinach on the side was unseasoned though and served with a rather dense and dry slab of paneer (I had expected a creamy palak paneer and was disappointed).

 

Overall none of the food was terrible, everything was at the right temperature. Our waitress was clearly trying her best but I think the staff looked a bit overwhelmed. My second starter arrived after my main and I never got a refill of water. 

 

We were very disappointed by dessert though. My partner and I both picked sticky toffee pudding. We love it, it's our favourite British pudding. P&O got it so so wrong. It was basically sponge-like in texture, not rich or dense at all. Almost no toffee sauce. And it came with a "vanilla custard" that tasted like diluted rice pudding. The Royal Carribbean sticky toffee pudding was so much better I was embarrassed for P&O. How can they be beaten by an American cruise line on such  an iconic British pudding? 

 

After our sad puddings (we still ate the cake to avoid the waste but not the "custard"), we caught the latter half of the acrobatic show in the sky dome. Was quite impressive, especially the aerialist performing without any harnesses.

 

And that's all for that day as we were too tired to do anything else. Sorry the food picture seem not to be going through, will try again later.

[wetterthanwater]

P&O have a habit of calling a certain dish by a particular name and it tastes or looks nothing like how you expect it at home, in a land restaurant or heaven forbid the country it originated.

[MyriamS]

1 hour ago, wetterthanwater said:

P&O have a habit of calling a certain dish by a particular name and it tastes or looks nothing like how you expect it at home, in a land restaurant or heaven forbid the country it originated.

There's a Union Jack on the ship, I'm expecting them to know what sticky toffee free pudding is!  

 

On to the sea day and episode 4: the mystery swimming pool! 

 

After a very good night sleep, we woke up at 8.30 back in Central European time (we set our clock the day before in case the ship WiFi didn't do it for us). Perhaps because of the changing time zones or the fact that it was a Sunday and a sea day, it felt quite quiet when we arrived in the Quays. 

 

There are four sections in the Quays for breakfast: 
- a pancake and waffle section with various toppings. We tried a waffle with Nutella and cream but were a bit disappointed that it wasn't crispy on the outside or particularly warm. I don't think it was made to order. They do serve very good American crispy bacon which we asked for on a separate plate to replace the British bacon we're not fond of. 
- a made to order egg station. We had poached eggs that were perfectly cooked. 
- a self-service full English breakfast section. Everything tasted as it ought to, sausage was nice and grilled.
- a self-service mini buffet with drinks, pastries, fruit etc to grab. We shared a little fruit bowl. 
Overall we liked our breakfast in the Quays. 

 

After breakfast we headed straight to the SkyDome pool but it was again very busy with young kids. The children were not badly behaved or anything, the pool is just too small. It is a nice pool though, a very pleasant temperature. The hot tubes were quieter so we spent a while there too.

 

After showering and changing we started our ship tour with decks 6-8. Some areas of the ship I liked like the pub Brodie's, the Ocean Studios cinema and Sindhu (not going there but it is a beautiful venue). I'm not sure about the atrium design though. As many people have said before, it's quite busy and noisy and people are walking everywhere so it can't be nice to have lunch in the Keel&Cow or the Glass House. I think a promenade style organisation with the venue away from the foot traffic might be better.

It was already noon so we headed to the Olive Grove for lunch. Do book ahead if you want to go on the first sea day as it was fully booked (the other days looked fine on the app). 

 

We were still not very hungry so we shared the mushrooms ravioli as a starter. You only get 6 raviolis so I do think it's more of a starter than a main. It tasted delicious. 

 

For mains we had the tuna and the lamb gyros. The tuna came with only 6 gnocchi (maybe they really like the number six?) and veggie sauteed in olive oil. Just needed a bit of extra salt (there are shakers on the table) but otherwise very good. The lamb in the gyros was very tasty but there was too little of it according to my partner. 

 

For us the small portions are not a problem at all as we like to order and try as many different things as possible. If you have a big appetite remember to order some extra courses or you might be disappointed.

 

For desserts, we had the lemon tart and torta gianduja. Despite its Italian name, the latter was an American style cake with buttercream. It was extremely dry and flavourless and I could only eat because it came with vanilla ice cream. The lemon tart was very good though, strong lemon flavour and it has a caramelised topping like a creme brulee. It came with yummy rose gelato. I'll order it again next time I visit the Olive Grove.

 

After lunch, we finished the ship tour. It's always nice to have a full wraparound promenade deck on a nice and sunny day and dotting it with hot tubs was a great idea. The balcony cabins right on the promenade deck do not appeal to me though. 

 

We did see one pool on the front of the ship just below the promenade deck that wasn't on the deck plans and didn't have any visible access to it. Does anyone know what it is? Is it a crew only pool? 

We then went to see the magician behind the scene talk, which was fun (he taught one of the kids in the audience a magic trick) and did pretty well at trivia in Brodie's (theme: capital cities). 

 

We had a couple of hours rest in our cabin then it was already time to change and head for the MDR for Celebration Night. My partner committed another cardinal sin by wearing his plain black walking shoes instead of fancy leather shoes (he just couldn't possibly fit both pairs in his carry on) but no one seemed to care. I saw older gentlemen also wearing plain comfortable shoes so I guess they are understanding in that aspect of the dress code. 

 

I was honestly quite shocked by the menu for Celebration Night. I wasn't exactly expecting lobster but pea soup, chicken Kiev and beetroot brownies do not scream Celebration to me. We were so uninspired by it that we ordered the exact same main and starter: the salmon ceviche and beef, both of which were tasty. 

 

Note that you have to ask for the amuse-bouche to receive it (at least we had to, hence why it is next to the main).

 

For dessert, my partner had the Tarte Tatin and I had the cherry hazelnut dacquoise. I also asked for the petit-fours (white chocolate truffles with a fruity filling).

 

Was the food good? Yes, definitely better than the first night in the MDR (and my glass of water was also kept topped up this time). Was it worth getting dressed up for that menu? No, so I would skip it if you don't actively enjoy dressing up or have limited luggage space. 

 

We got our free glass of fizz in the Crow's Nest where we asked another guest to take a picture of us in our formal clothes so we'd have a nice souvenir. I have to give a shout out to the other guests, everyone we interacted with was very polite and good-mannered. 

 

We then headed to the theatre to see "Sky's the limit". I really liked the show: not only the entertainers were talented, they designed the set, props, costumes and choreography to fit the theme of travel and aviation instead of just doing another jukebox musical. 

 

That's it for today, tomorrow is Stavanger! 

[wetterthanwater]

I had the gyros dish last week on Iona. It wasn't like any gyros I've had in Greece, which is what I was expecting it to be like. It was extremely dry!

 

I also didn't get the amuse bouche, that explains why - to be honest, I think they should have offered it or explained that.

 

And yes that is a crew only deck/pool area.

[MyriamS]

Just a few pictures from celebration night...

 

 

 

[MyriamS]

On to episode 5: sunny Stavanger

 

Today my partner and I had different excursions. He absolutely wanted to do the Pulpit Rock hike, a full 7h excursion, while I didn't feel like walking so much on a relaxing holiday so I opted for a 3h cruise on Lysefjord instead. We were very lucky with the weather, sunny and 16-20°C all day. 

 

Uncharacteristically we booked through P&O for the excursions. For the Pulpit Rock hike, independent providers were not any cheaper than the cruise line. For my Lysefjord cruise, I could have saved about 35£ by going independent but the poor cancellation conditions put me off (no refund if the ship does not dock). P&O charges about 1.5-2 times the price of independent excursions which is not unreasonable compared to other cruise lines like Princess (3-5 times more).

 

We had breakfast in the buffet, where I had a light meal and my partner stuffed himself full (no food is provided during his hike). The buffet does not offer a great deal of choice (mostly full English breakfast with extra things like gammon steaks and kippers as well as cereal/porridge, pastries, yogurt and fruit) but what we had was good (except the pain au chocolat which was super dense and dry). Also the hand washing stations in the buffet are too few, only 4 at a time can wash hands for one entrance. 

 

The way excursions are on P&O is a bit different from Royal Carribbean. You don't get a meeting point written on your ticket. You are not escorted out of the ship. Instead you have to leave the ship yourself through a specific gangway (forward for us) then you are directed to the side and must your own excursion group. Mine was off to the side so it took me a minute to spot the sign the lady was holding. I confirmed with her that it was my excursion then went to stand in line.

 

Remember to be well on time for your excursion as my partner texted me his bus left 7 min ahead of schedule. We boarded on our own ferry 10 min ahead of schedule. They are operated by the same operator (Rodne) that you can book independently but we had our own boat just for the shorex group. Not many seats upstairs so I chose to stand the whole way to Lisefjord to get some good views. The weather was exceptionally sunny that day but I still should have taken one extra coat as the sea wind is always chilly. 

 

The boat made one stop where we could disembark, in a cafe where we had the included waffles with jam and quark and coffee/apple tea. I had mine on the rocky beach in front of the cafe. 

 

For the further stops we couldn't disembark but the boat stopped long enough to take pictures. We saw a cave, several waterfalls, mountain goats and of course the Pulpit Rock. The excursion was very good and the weather made it outstanding. Too bad we couldn't always hear the guide over the speakers.

 

I was back in time for lunch on the MDR. The service was much quicker and more attentive, probably because the staff had fewer people to attend to. The food remained inconsistent unfortunately, with both the worst starter (the artichokes wete both very salty and sour) and the best dessert (Chinese five spices chocolate cake, very soft and yummy) I had in the MDR so far.

 

Then I left the ship again for a walk in Gamle Stavanger to see the traditional wooden houses, which took only 15 min as it's right next to the ship. After that I enjoyed the Beachcomber pool, I wasn't the only one with that sunny weather, but at least since it's adult only it's a bit easier to swim.

 

After the pool I just chilled in the atrium listening to the Stavanger gospel group (very good) and waiting for my partner to return from his excursion. He also really enjoyed it but it took him the whole day so he couldn't see anything of Stavanger. 

 

We had another dinner in the MDR. We enjoyed our starters (lamb kofta and mushroom soup) but the mains were overcooked (beef brisket and miso glazed tuna). For dessert, I had the lemon and poppy seed cake with raspberry ripple ice cream - the waiter advised me to have ice cream because the cake was dry. My partner enjoyed the apple streusel with vanilla ice cream.

 

 

After dinner, we went to the Rise show in the SkyDome. I have to say I didn't get this one at all. The begining wasn't funny or impressive - maybe it got better afterwards but since it was standing room only we decided not to stick around to find out.

 

That's it for today, tomorrow will be Olden! 

 

 

[Palaceman]

You said; "The way excursions are on P&O is a bit different from Royal Carribbean. You don't get a meeting point written on your ticket. You are not escorted out of the ship. Instead you have to leave the ship yourself through a specific gangway (forward for us) then you are directed to the side and must your own excursion group. Mine was off to the side so it took me a minute to spot the sign the lady was holding. I confirmed with her that it was my excursion then went to stand in line." 

May I pont out that full instructions regarding when and where to meet for the excursions are stated in the Horizon newspaper for each day and port and that once ashore you need to report to a member of the excursion team who will direct you to the right coach. Reference to the Horizon newspaper is also confirmed during the announcement given by a member of the bridge team when all the arrival formalities have been completed.

Once everyone is accounted for the coaches may leave early as it is pointless just waiting around.

[MyriamS]

14 hours ago, Palaceman said:

You said; "The way excursions are on P&O is a bit different from Royal Carribbean. You don't get a meeting point written on your ticket. You are not escorted out of the ship. Instead you have to leave the ship yourself through a specific gangway (forward for us) then you are directed to the side and must your own excursion group. Mine was off to the side so it took me a minute to spot the sign the lady was holding. I confirmed with her that it was my excursion then went to stand in line." 

May I pont out that full instructions regarding when and where to meet for the excursions are stated in the Horizon newspaper for each day and port and that once ashore you need to report to a member of the excursion team who will direct you to the right coach. Reference to the Horizon newspaper is also confirmed during the announcement given by a member of the bridge team when all the arrival formalities have been completed.

Once everyone is accounted for the coaches may leave early as it is pointless just waiting around.

The instructions in the Horizon magazine boiled down to "leave the ship yourself, don't be late". We never got any bus number on the screens. Mind you, we didn't get lost. There were always member of the crew on the shore to direct people to the right bus or the right line for the ferry, you just need to ask them for directions. 

 

I was pointing out the difference because I feel that for P&O you need to be proactive to get to your excursion while on RCI you are escorted everywhere so you would need to try very very hard it to miss your excursion. Not a problem for us, but might be for some people. 

 

On to episode 6, Olden! Today we had breakfast in the MDR. I joined the virtual queue at around ten to eight and we were called immediately. We tried egg Benedict, avocado on toast, pancakes and bagel with smoked salmon. The eggs Benedict were very good, definitely better than on Royal Carribbean (P&O's revenge, I guess) so I would order them again.

 

 

Our plan for today was to take the public bus 115 to Briskdal Glacier as it is orders of magnitude cheaper than tour operators or P&O. It only runs once a day though. 

 

Finding the bus stop was easy at it's right by the ship. A sizeable crowd was also waiting for the bus so I was afraid not everyone would have a seat. However, when the bus arrived about 5 min late, it was quite large and everyone got in. You can buy tickets directly from the driver with cash or card (44NOK per person per way).

 

The drive to Briksdal takes 30-40 min and is extremely scenic. Once you're dropped off in the parking lot, you can take the troll cars or walk up to the glacier, which takes about 50 min. The path is very easy, suitable for all ages and the views are spectacular. It was also very warm and sunny that day very lucky for us.

 

 

The same bus picked us up from the parking lot at 13:30. All in all the public bus was very reliable and for only 8€ total per person, an absolute steal. Definitely recommend it.

 

We were back on the ship at 2pm and very hungry so went straight to the Quays. The fish and chips were excellent and the sin city burger and fried chicken were pretty good as well. Not convinced by the katsu chicken curry though, the breading gets soggy almost immediately.

 

After lunch, the ship was still quiet so this was our chance to try one of the infinity hot tubs on deck 8. We managed to find an empty one and enjoyed it for a while before going for the complimentary afternoon tea which on Iona is unfortunately only in the buffet. I was positively surprised by the cakes - which were all normal cakes and not the bland mousse-like desserts they generally serve. The scones were pretty decent too. 

 

We relaxed in our cabin until dinner in the MDR. For starters, we had the calamari and goat cheese roulade, both of which were good. For main, my partner had fish and chips again (good) and I tried the steak and kidney pie, which was good except it was a ramekin with a pastry lid, not a real pie. For dessert, we had the chocolate marquise which was dangerous... dangerously good. It was like eating a giant chocolate truffle, entirely ill-advised so of course I did it.

 

We watched some of the sailaway from Olden, then it was time to rest!