Our first cruise on Iona

We finally made it onto Iona after two Covid cancelled cruises for 2020 and 2021, so third time lucky. It was a nightmare getting our lateral flow tests uploaded to Prenetics the day before and if they hadn’t been so helpful, we wouldn’t have got our ‘fit to fly’ confirmation through in time! If we have to do it again in October when we will be on Arcadia we’re definitely going to somewhere that does it for you even if it costs more!

Check in was relatively pain free although our passports initially weren’t recognized and then when we actually got on the ship my husband’s photo was of somebody else! However, we were on and my goodness, what a huge ship Iona is. We found our muster station and because we had booked a conservatory mini suite we were offered a complementary lunch with champagne in the Pearl restaurant. It was a finger buffet plus a hot choice, very enjoyable, but the best thing was that we could see just how nice the restaurant was. Out of the four main restaurants Pearl is the largest and right in the stern with two-deck high windows if you can get seats right at the back by the window.

Then it was up to our ‘suite’. I say ‘suite’ because it was no wider than a normal balcony cabin, just somewhat longer with a seating area between two glass door – one to the balcony and the other to the bedroom where there was another sofa. I imagine it would be nice, but is it worth the money? I’m not sure and if I had been given one on Deck 8 and had people walking past as it’s the prom deck I would not have been happy. For those of you who have yet to book Iona I would definitely recommend avoiding deck 8. Having said that, the cabin was spotless, our stewardess was lovely and was quick to give us feather pillows as we found the standard pillows really firm as well as flannels which we like, are used to having, but are now only available on request. Turn-down has now been withdrawn and our stewardess had to spend 5 hours every evening cleaning the Skydome!

We ate in Pearl three nights, one night in the Limelight Club to see La Voix, who we only belatedly realized he/she was a very good drag act! We also ate in Sindhu, Epicurean, the Beach House and had one lunch in the Glass House. The food was of the standard usual for P&O, somewhat underwhelming, but perfectly adequate, except almost everything we had in the MDR was luke warm at best. In the other restaurants food was hot and we had an excellent meal in the Beach House which we consider is very good value.

The weather was good for embarkation and the next two days, but after that it was the usual rain, rain and rain. On our first sea day there were lots of people enjoying both the infinity pools and the whirlpool spas, I missed my chance as we were still exploring the ship, but I imagine that on a Med cruise rather than one going north the outside areas and bars would really come into their own. I swam once during the day at the SkyDome, but it was so full of young children (of course and why not), that it was impossible to swim, so the next day I went to swim before breakfast and that was lovely. I would have done it more if other things hadn’t intervened.

For me the highlight of the whole cruise was the Stavanger helicopter trip flying over Pulpit Rock. It had long been on my bucket list and I knew it would be weather dependent, but for once fate smiled and it was absolutely fabulous, not least as I was lucky enough to sit beside the pilot enjoying the best of the views – thank you to the other family as well as my husband, who very unselfishly offered the seat to me – possibly due to my age (mid 70’s).

Sadly the weather then turned with a bad storm in the night which resulted in the Captain and the Norwegian pilots deciding that it was too dangerous to enter the fjord to visit Olden. I think everyone was very disappointed as it is a beautiful fjord; I have seen it twice and twice it poured with rain, somewhat spoiling what would otherwise have been magnificent views.

The next day was Alesund, we hadn’t booked a tour so just walked round the town and got back on the ship just before the rain bucketed down. Our final destination was Haugesund, again the weather wasn’t great and we only briefly got off the ship, but other passengers who we spoke to who went into the town said there wasn’t much there.

Then it was a final sea day before arriving back in the UK. Again it was cold, (11C) with wind and rain, but we had to pack anyway and all too soon we were back in Southampton with a trouble free disembarkation.

My overall opinion of Iona was that there is lots to like, particularly if you like the really large ships. We still had reduced capacity of around 3.670 passengers against a full occupancy of 5.200; I have to say I would not have liked to sail on her full. At times, particularly in the Quays at lunch it was like the London Underground in rush hour, although the food in the Asian Fusion was really good and hot. The buffet was also very busy, but we did eat breakfast there on several mornings as the first time we had a breakfast in Pearl the service was excruciatingly slow. I got the feeling there was a shortage of staff and for the first time ever it was very clear that staff were unhappy.  Please everybody who reads this TIP!

I hope I haven’t gone on for too long and bored the pants of all who read this, but it’s my honest assessment of the cruise and I hope you have found it useful.

Happy cruising everyone, it’s really great to be back on a ship.