Iona is the largest cruise ship which we have ever sailed on.
It will likely appeal to younger families and those who are more mobile as distances between locations within the ship are larger than on some of the other P&O Fleet.
Boarding Due to a medical evacuation on the previous cruise, our boarding on the first day was delayed by five hours.
This gave some of the less easily satisfied travellers something to complain about on the first day although we have sympathy for the family who’s holiday probably didn’t end as they had hoped.
Getting onboard complete with medical screening of all passengers did make for a less than relaxed start to our cruise.
Our Cabin We normally book our cruise holidays early in order to pick our preferred cabin position on the ship.
However, to celebrate recovery from an illness, and the fact that we had not cruised since before the pandemic, we made a late booking on Iona and opted for a Saver fare balcony cabin.
We were not disappointed, either with our cabin or the ship itself.
OK, there were a couple of little niggles like the doors of the wardrobe in our cabin opening too close to the bed, but we were on holiday so who cares.
Ship Excursions The weather on our cruise to Spain and Portugal was fairly cold and wet for March but we made the most of it, choosing several ship excursions as well as ‘doing or own thing’ in places we had visited previously.
We enjoy seeing new places and historical sites and our excursions to Santiago de Compostella from Vigo, St.
Michael’s Cave in Gibraltar, the world heritage city of Elche from Alicante and the Roman ruins in Tarragona were all well worth seeing on ship excursions.
Entertainment Onboard Of course there are always activities, shows and dining options which we prefer and those we avoid but Iona has so many choices that we were never short of things to do and places to eat.
The Headliners Theatre is one of our personal favourites and new shows have been introduced since we cruised with P&O last.
One in particular, ‘Digital’ focused on passengers in the 21st Century, having an empathy with the computer age.
This was probably not enjoyed or even understood by some of the senior passengers who also struggled with using the onboard ‘My Holiday’ website to book restaurants and shows etc.
I’m 70 and try to keep up to date so found the show very good although thought that a bit of work is required on the ‘My Holiday website to make it more reliable and user friendly.
Food – (Did You Wondered When I’d Get To That?) Meals in the main dinning rooms could usually be taken without the need to book.
The food in all the restaurants we used was very good with many options as well as the standard P&O staples.
We indulged ourselves in the Epicurean Restaurant on one occasion and the Limelight Club on another evening.
As previously stated, we all have our own preferences but the offerings in both locations are as described by P&O.
The company are obviously trying hard to keep their basic charges very competitive so it is understandable that, once onboard, passengers are encouraged to purchase meals at speciality restaurants at an additional cost.
However, we could have eaten very well without spending an additional penny above the basic cost of the cruise.
The Brilliant Hotel Staff The waiters, cabin stewards and other hotel staff on Iona were all welcoming, friendly and attentive at all times and always enjoyed chatting and joining in with some lighthearted banter.
I believe they enjoy a relaxed approach from passengers rather than the somewhat superior, starchy approach which some people seem to take.
We find that they react very positively when their service is respected.
Drinks Bar prices are what you’d expect in many decent hotels.
We enjoy a glass of wine with our evening meals and opted for the cheaper 12 bottle package which, with our Peninsular discount worked out at about £18.30 per bottle for decent quality wine.
House wine by the glass is also available.
We then bought drinks around the ship as and when required.
As we are not big drinkers, the full drinks package would have not been cost effective for us at about £1,100 for two for the 14 night cruise.
We couldn’t help feeling that those who purchased this package would be tied to places where drinks are available all the time in order to get value for money and so would miss out on time at the theatre, cinemas etc.
where food and drink were not permitted due to the requirement to wear face masks.
Onboard Safety Some of the activities and facilities available pre-pandemic are different at the moment (mentioned above) as P&O are trying very hard to keep passengers safe from the virus.
During our cruise all passengers were required to wear a facemark while moving around inside the ship although a few seemed to adopt the ‘chin hammock’ method! The same rules obviously didn’t apply to them! Face-masks were not required on outside decks.
For our part, we avoided the lifts wherever possible as it seemed to us they were the most likely pinch point where infections would spread.
Obviously some passengers are not fit enough to use the stairs, usually the most vulnerable ones which is a problem.
We heard some complaints that things like ballroom dancing and group craft sessions on sea days were not on the agenda although in our opinion, this is perfectly understandable under the circumstances.
Sadly times have changed.
Would We Cruise On Iona Again? Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our first post-pandemic cruise and are looking forward to our next one in June on Azura, carried forward from one of our cancelled ones during lockdown.
We have a few other cruises to catch up with as well but are booked to return to Iona in January 2024.