Norwegian Fjords with P&O on Iona

Fjords are stunning and Iona is a lovely ship but not for us. This was our first trip on Iona having cruised on 4 other P&O ships. Initially we were really impressed by the ship, layout, choice of bars and restaurants and shops. However, following our experience of using the freedom dining in the main restaurants and our drink / bar experience, we changed our mind. The additional ‘pay for’ restaurant experiences (Epicurean / Limelight / Beach House / Keel & Cow) were outstanding; couldn’t fault them, however, we had to pay a supplement for these restaurants. We used the Retreat for our week, again the service was faultless, but we had paid for it. Our experience of both the choice and quality of food in the freedom dining restaurants was disappointing. We have selected Freedom dining on some of our previous cruises but the scale of this on Iona meant there was no personal service and it left us not wanting to use the main restaurants. This was compounded when the MyHoliday site didn’t work when there was no signal in the Fjords. I quite liked using the app but there should be more info on it, such as The Horizon and up to date menus for mdr. Overall, the experience felt a bit like being in a shopping centre food hall. It also felt like the ship was understaffed in terms of waiting / bar staff. We really enjoyed our holiday and the Fjords are beautiful, but the excel ships are not for us.