Great food

The food on Iona was excellent overall and we had outstanding Indian waiters on our regular table. There are four dining rooms which serve the evening menu, on which there is a good choice, and two are smaller and more intimate than the others. We were in Opal every evening.
Our cruise was not quite as planned due to the weather which made embarkation less easy than usual and also prevented out landing on Madeira which compounded an earlier change in itinerary. An unscheduled early morning stop at Lisbon on the return leg, due to a medical emergency, made our return to Southampton six hours late.
Generally we found life on board expensive and quite penny pinching. Drinks were at top London prices and a Costa coffee was £2.50 every time. The shows were good overall but there was no ballroom dancing, no classical music, no sessions of bridge and little else to attract our particular tastes. We attended line dancing which was in a small space and taken by four different staff, only one of who was really proficient – the others tried hard and were enthusiastic.
The Crow’s nest was our favourite spot, even though the pianist was not as good as he thought he was, followed by Brodies Bar where there were good quizzes and live football and Anderson’s Library Bar.
The ship was huge and handled bad weather very well indeed. The captain Wesley Dunlop was quirky in his daily messages but quite entertaining.
We did not try speciality restaurants as the charges were excessive.
Masks had to be worn as we expected. Lifts tended to be overcrowded and there were congestion points even though the ship was far from full.
We did enjoy the cruise overall but would not rush back on board Iona.