Iona Seacation 18-25 September 2021

The testing was all very well organised down at Mayflower terminal and our results came thru quite quickly. Inside the Ocean terminal felt like being in an airport. Our cabin was much bigger then on Britannia which was a lovely, not sure if cabins are a different category to Britannia’s but we had a sofa, 3 life jackets, so maybe a family sized cabin, and a bathroom you could swing a cat in,lols. Lots of storage and hanging space too. Iona is very luxurious, like a modern hotel, lots of use of light colours, windows everywhere in public spaces it seemed hence making it much lighter when inside. We loved the evening entertainment in the Skydome and the “Rise”’show on there included trapeze artists and was very colourful, a hilight for us. The Headliners shows were as good as always and we loved them to. We ate in all the MDR’a and the Olive Grove, The Quays & Horizon buffet and had afternoon tea in Aqua MDR on our last afternoon-delicious. The food was fabulous and we were treated to Lobster at the Celebration Night dinner. Easy to use the Onboard App so Holly said, as she did all our booking, including fitness classes “Fitsteps” (a mixture of dance & exercise designed by 2 of the Strictly dancers) & a Stretch class. I was disappointed that my favourite Pilates class was on only at 8am-far too early on a holiday for me, and Yoga early also!!! We used the gym which was very quiet but great views out of the windows at the sea like onboard Britannia tho this time on a much lower deck. The weather was wonderful and Captain Camby and crew certainly did an amazing job finding us calm seas and lots of hot sunny weather in the Bay of Biscay, as we ended up off the Spanish coast, so the sun beds got lots of use as did our balcony, tho sadly no one to wave too as we departed and arrived back in darkness! We did see baby Dolphins on our way home playing in the sea near the port side of our ship A central stairway certainly helped me not to get lost as often as I did on Britannia, hehe. Our one slight moan was that the swimming pools in the Skydome and the Infinity pool were both very cold-dipped my toe in and that was enough for me & Holly! Infact the whirlpools were always busy as think everyone else felt the same-pools hardly used, which was a shame! Our cabin was located in between & above 2 whirlpools on deck 8 port side which were rarely empty, and good that there are now lots more whirlpools onboard. The shopping onboard is very varied and lots of it, very enjoyable. CPS car parking is wonderful, so easy to use and so convenient for the ship. We loved it all and can’t wait to return onboard again. Hope this helps other guests who may have questions on Iona. Well done P&O for a fabulous cruise in very difficult times. Looking forward to our Baltic cruise next year, just hope my husband gets the cruise bug!