Hello all, I’m the big 50 next year ( not too much fuss please, I’m a shy soul ) ...I’m looking to go on my first cruise to the Fjords to celebrate, local travel agent looks to have a good deal for a 7 nights cruise in august 21, huge ship at 5200 passenger capacity, has anyone sailed on the Iona ? ..any feedback/experienced good or bad would be appreciated. Steve
Went on my first cruise in 2018 with P&O , never again , If you like being told what to do and when to do it , rude staff , food poisoning , Chav customers , and being rinsed you will love it .
You wouldn’t choose Premier Inn for you luxury Caribbean holiday so why choose a ferry operator for a cruise. We did Royal Caribbean around the med. lots to do, never any hassle, dress up or down depending on restaurant or bar. Stay on, get off. Your call.
Did the same, hated most if it. Why visit beautiful cities during the day and then return to the ship for dinner. I get the 'visit plenty of places' angle and it did result in a separate, far more enjoyable, trip to Lisbon with a lovely lady after I got divorced from the ex whom I did the cruise with... The cruise was her idea...
We enjoy it at the time and having an 11yr old it worked pretty well with day trips and still having food/drink ‘out’ every night. but, we’ve never done another
The thing to be wary of with P&O is that they operate a very vigorous customer loyalty scheme. This tends to make their ships full of "whenies" ("when I was on Azura, when I was on Oceania, when I was on Arcadia, when I was on Ventura") and a lot of their loyal customers look down their nose at anyone who has sailed with any other company. The ships themselves are very nice, but so are all cruise ships these days. From personal experience I much prefer Cunard and would highly recommend Queen Victoria. Cunard operate in a different way to P&O which I found much more pleasant. Cruising isn't for everybody - some love it, some hate it, but you'll never know if you don't try...
P&O Ferries and P&O Cruises are two completely different companies. The cruise line is part of the multi-national Carnival cruise corporation; the ferry company is a subsidiary of DP World...
With P&O as said you really need to keep away from the regulars as they can be a PITA. I shut them up by saying I have been at sea longer than the Captain. I take part in none of the entertainments and dodge the arranged tours. Cruising is a good way to see places you might want to go back at your leisure to explore more. Not sure of other companies but P&O stop you bringing more than 1 bottle of booze onto the ship for your own consumption, any brought in from abroad goes into the bond till you get off.
i took my mother On trip from Tromso to Bergen on Hurtigruten over Xmas a good few years back. That was enjoyable as a semi working ship going in to to some quite small stops but good scenery watching through some of the islands and channels/fjords. Fabulous Xmas eve seafood buffet. I’m not a cruising fan (ooh err) and never been in a cruise boat since nor do I plan to , but i did enjoy that.
If you look at the coverage of Cruise Ships & Covid, or Cruise Ships & Legionnaires disease, even Cruise ships & Norovirus, you will quickly form your own opinion.
And if you have worked in the maritime industry for four decades you will know that tabloid news tends to sensationalise these stories and blow them out of all proportion to sell newspapers. The physical systems and procedures in place on modern cruise ships mean that the chance of getting or spreading any infection is extremely small. You are more likely to pick up an infection on the aeroplane flying out to meet the ship than you are actually onboard...
A 5200 capacity cruise ship in tranquil Norweigan Fjords? Not going to be much enjoying the tranquility of the environment I suspect.
As an aside, one if the worst cruises I did was an 'adults only' trip. What a pack of snobby whinging moaning pig ignorant old b@strd people you would never want to meet again. I was on my final warning from my wife about my muttering comments. And I am an old tw@t. Never again.
