Home Cruise Reviews Centre P&O Cruises Iona Iona to the Canaries
Iona to the Canaries
Ray Gledhill | February 5, 2023 | P&O Cruises | Iona
Sailed on 14/1/23 out of Southampton, and rough seas for the 3 days sailing to Madeira, with 6 meter waves and force 9 gales at its worst, but fine for the rest of the cruise.
Lanzarote was a poor destination, with nothing more than a promenade to walk along
Tenerife was ok, a great market, with the old town La Laguna to get the tram to for €1.50, but unfortunately it rained if you moved away from the coast.
Gran Canaria was the best of the canaries, with a good beach promenade on the other coast from the ship, and again for a €1.50 bus you can get to Vegueta / Triana for the old town and shopping area,well worth the visit
Madeira is beautiful, aerial tram €18 return good experience but not much up there. Town is bigger than expected again with a great market, and Xmas lights literally everywhere so shame we left the island before dark.
We love Cadiz having been twice before, and great to explore narrow streets in the morning and walk to coast in the afternoon.
LIsbon was new for us with an overnight stay, and became a new favourite, and a lot bigger than we had envisages, but still easily walkable. Best tip is to get the Via Viagem 24 hour travel pass from a metro station for €7, as you must ride the 28 tram and the furniculars, and is buy at 1pm on the first day it will cover your 2 days and evening requirements.
Iona itself is still relatively new so standards are good, and the MyHoliday app works better than it did 6 months ago, with limited queue times for meals. Need to book Olive Garden and 710 Club as soon as you board as booked up very quickly. Had Ben Shepard on board for the last day as trial run of his new game show Wavelength and did a Q&A session.
Overall very satisfied with cruise for what we paid, with only complaints that staff not overly friendly, but think that is to do with experienced staff transfers to Arvia, as Azura dropped off staff to our ship at one port. The selection of food in main dining has definitely declined to push you to paid for venues, and as always the daytime entertainment is just a series of sales events.
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