7 Nights Northern European City Escape Cruise

Our first cruise and not the last

Great cabin, well stocked, cannot complain about anything. As for the dining this in my eyes were 2nd to nothing, the variety was out of this world. Entertainment was the only real let down, only booked to see two things one of which was cancelled, cinema didn't show any real exciting films (in my view) - Definitely make sure we're quicker in booking next year for the shows. Only thing that let them down was the spa, we only had the sauna, swim etc. No one told us anything about robes, towels etc or spin dryers on exit, in fact we never saw a member of crew from the receptionist until we came out and then we never saw anyone. There were plenty of swimming pools and jacuzzis dotted around the ship, as for the weather something that P&O cannot do anything about, it was unseasonably warm and calm seas. Looking forward to our next cruise to the Norwegian fjords next year - a slightly different itinerary.

Second P&O sailing and enjoyed it

Nice ship, similar to the Arvia. Hit the weather on the way to the canaries but captain sailed out of it as quickly as possible, missing La Coruna and going straight to Gran Canaria. All in all we enjoyed the trip, not many kids on board but they were taken care of by the staff and kept out of the way. We are 67 and 70 but consider ourselves with a younger outlook but the ship was full of people a lot older than us, but given the price of the cruise I'm not surprised. The app was a pain and I'm pretty technically minded, everything booked and confirmed before departure was cancelled when we got on board, the only thing still on there was a paid for meal. Staff couldn't have cared less. As we didn't embark till 3.30 everything was booked up. However, some openings did appear during the cruise and headliners put on extra shows. We did Epicurian, much better on the Arvia, staff were good and attentive. Have the prawn salad and the steak as it looked like the only decent thing although the cod and langustine was pretty good. Sindo was ok but nothing spicy for and indian restaurant. Managed to get a stint in the olive grove on the last day. We liked this on the Arvia, eveything included but on Iona you have to pay for some things. Staff overall were pretty good and attentive, bar staff were quick to get your attention and your order. Captain took us to La Coruna on the way back for Mother's day sun was shining and had a nice day out. Only issue was with the cabin safe, locked when we got on and took 3 days to get it opened by a line manager who was none to pleased and blamed us for locking it! We have booked again for September as it's our golden wedding, you can make the cruise what you will. We were on deck 8 and have booked it again as we liked the location, we did the quizes in Brodies , Drank wine and watched a film etc. Royal Caribbean is better but overpriced and don't sail much from Southampton. P&O are cheaper and you get what you pay for.

One of our top 3 cruises out of 40+ cruises!

Wow! What a fantastic cruise we had. We've been back home since a week ago and can't stop talking about how wonderful the cruise was. I will review this cruise under various sub headings so its easy to navigate to the topic you want to know more about. 1. EMBARKATION: We had booked parking with CPS parking which was included in our cruise select price. Highly recommend to select this option if you are able to drive to Southampton. We left home in Ickenham, Uxbridge at around 11am. Our check in time allocated to us by P&O was 3.15pm. Hence we thought we might drop our car and luggage and have a look around Southampton. We got to port around 12.30pm as there was no traffic whatsoever. We were guided to CPS drop off area and after a short wait, we were asked by an attendant to off load our luggage. He took some pictures of the car and after handing our keys to him, we headed to drop off our cases. There were attendants everywhere to guide us where to go. All baggage was collected in order of deck number your cabin was located in. Since we already had our luggage tags attached to our bags, we handed our bags to the porter and then proceeded to take pictures of the ship and walk to Southampton city centre. After taking some pictures, we noticed there were no queues to enter the cruise terminal so asked one of the attendants if we could check in although our boarding time was not until 3.15pm. We were asked to proceed inside the terminal which we did. Within 5 to 10mins we were checked in and were boarding the ship. One of the fastest Embarkation we've ever had in Southampton. 2. SHIP: the ship is beautiful inside and out. She is a large ship with so much to explore. Took us around 2 days to get used to the lay out. However we were finding places we hadn't been to until half way through the cruise. Decks 6, 7 & 8 are the hub of the ship whereby most of the restaurants, bars, theatre, other amenities like reception, shore excursion desk etc. are located. The atrium is beautiful with so much glass and light everywhere. You could be sitting in the atrium and have beautiful views of the outside. Lots of seating on all 3 levels. Around the atrium you will find Costa coffee, emerald bar, the glasshouse, keel and cow speciality gastro pub restaurant, some shops, Gary Barlow's 710 club etc. 3 of the 4 included restaurants are on deck 6 (Pearl, Aqua and Opal) and one on deck 7 (coral restaurant). The Quays (alternative to buffet) where you can order food from 3 counters (fish & chips, Asian kitchen and American burger & fries) during lunch and dinner is located on deck 8. Sindhu (the Indian speciality restaurant) is also located on deck 8 next to the Quays. Olive garden which is a Mediterranean restaurant is also located on deck 8. This is an included restaurant but some items on menu are chargeable. The massive headliners theatre is located on decks 6 and 7 forward. Also on deck 6 is the limelight club which is a paid dinner show venue but also hosts comedian shows, music etc later in evenings. The clubhouse is located on deck 8 of the aft and has various performers earlier in the evening and also serves as a late night disco area. During the day, various quizzes, talks etc. are held at the venue. The 4 screen complimentary cinema is located on deck 6 opposite the gin distillery bar. Brodies, the pub, is located on deck 7 and has casino on the side. Since Brits don't gamble much, the casino was much smaller than other cruiselines. Lots of trivias and pub games were held at Brodies during the day and evenings. Moving to the upper levels, deck 16 was the main buffet area with plenty of seating on both sides of the ship. In middle of the ship, skydome was located. This was a covered pool area during the day which turned into an entertainment area in the evenings. Also towards the back of the ship on deck 16 and 17 were the infinity pools and there was an adults only pool at the front of the ship. Many bars were located in the open decks which was perfect area to visit for a drink in the warm sunny days. Crows nest, another popular bar (which sometimes had a pianist playing in the evenings) was located on deck 17 towards the front of the ship with panoramic views. Epicurean, which is another speciality restaurant is located next to Crows nest. The rest of the decks had cabins, mostly balconies and inside cabins. They even had balcony cabins on deck 5. Outside cabins with windows were mainly on decks 4 and 5. The promenade deck was on deck 8 whereby you could walk all round the ship in 8mins or so. The jogging track was on deck 17. 3. CABIN; our cabin was a balcony cabin located on deck 14 towards the aft. It was a well appointed cabin with lots of storage and charging points including UK sockets and USB ports. The bathroom was lovely with a powerful shower with glass doors. There was a nice seating area next to the bed which faced the huge wide-screen interactive TV which showed many UK and international channels and lots of movies which were all complimentary. You could also.view your onboard account via the TV. The balcony was small but adequate with 2 reclining chairs and a stool. There was also a kettle in the room and biscuits which were replenished daily. There was a fridge and hair dryer too. Loved the cabin and our room attendant Jackie kept it spick and span. He also brought us wine glasses which he replaced daily together with other glasses and coffee mugs. There was a safe too for all the valuables. Room was serviced once daily in the mornings and Jackie was very efficient. Our cabin was quickly made up when we left for breakfast. On embarkation day, cabins were ready around 1pm and all the luggage was delivered by around 2pm so we could unpack. 4. FOOD: we really enjoyed all the food on the ship. We visited all the complimentary dining rooms on the ship for our evening meals. All had the same menu. Vegetarian food was excellent and so were the fish dishes. There was always a choice of 2 vegetarian dishes and plenty of vegetarian starters. Each and every meal we had was delicious. We also dined at Sindhu, the Indian restaurant, once. It was definitely the best meal we had on the high seas. From the excellent food to the service, we enjoyed it all. I just wish they had more vegetarian options for the mains as we would have liked to visit again. We dined at Olive Grove once for evening meal and had really good experience there too. Enjoyed the Mediterranean and Italian dishes there. We visited Limelight club once to see Mary Mac and had a brilliant dinner show experience. It cost £25 each but was well worth it. The whole evening lasted around 3hrs. We didn't dine at any other speciality restaurant but heard from others that Epicurean was an excellent place to dine too. For breakfast we mainly went to the main dining room. Very quick service and nicely presented food. I usually had smashed avocado on sourdough toast with a poached egg which I really enjoyed. We tried buffet a couple of times but was very busy and didn't enjoy the food there. For lunches we tried the buffet and taste 360 few times which was nice. However once again preferred the main dining room for lunch as they had an excellent choice of vegetarian dishes. Also service was very quick. We once went to the Quays which was good but always busy during lunch. On the whole, I would rate our dining experience one of the best we've had in a long time on a cruise ship especially because Iona menus catered very well for vegetarians unlike other cruiselines. 5. EVENING ENTERTAINMENT: Evening entertainment was excellent through out the ship. In fact there was so much going on everywhere. We really enjoyed all the production shows in the theatre. There were 4 big shows ( Festival, sky's the limit, Greatest days (featuring music by Take that) & our best show 'Digital'. All shows were performed 3 times each evening (6.45pm, 8.30pm or 10.30pm). We usually went for 6.45pm pre-dinner and sometimes to 10.30pm show. On other evenings they had excellent guest performers like piano vocalist King Jamsheed, comedy impressionist Jon Clegg, vocal groups Roxx & Iris, another vocal entertainer Benjamin Moss. Freddie Mercury's show was the one which was extremely packed in all 3 showings however we didnt find him to be that good. We missed the Dolly Parton Show but heard she was very good too. In the skydome, they had shows most evenings. They either had the house band Pulse playing there or they had the aerialist shows and on 3 nights they had the silent disco held there which was a big hit with all. We loved the aerialist shows like Spark, Triboo and Rise. We weren't very impressed with the Nicole Scherzinger show 'Schhh'. In the clubhouse they usually had one of the performers who had played in the theatre doing a second show like Iris or Freddie Mercury or a comedian or other activities like 'evening at the races'. Usually ended with a late night disco. All in all, I would give 10/10 for evening entertainment. 6. DAYTIME ACTIVITIES: there was a lot of activities during the daytime too like Trivias, games (outdoor and indoor), movies in theatre like Wicked and Gladiator 2, guest talk shows, shore excursion talk, Bingo, Deal or No deal and Wavelength game shows. There was so much going around the ship that no one could get bored on sea days. On sea days, we usually went for a morning movie on sea days after breakfast in one of the 4 cinemas, followed by a walk around the promenade. Then after a light lunch, we went to play progressive trivia with our trivia buddies. Thereafter we lazed around the pool area or watched a game show in theatre. At 4.30pm we went to our regular meet ups in Crows nest. Thereafter got ready and headed for a full evening of food and entertainment. 7. ITINERARY: the itinerary was very interesting too. After a day at sea we were supposed to dock in La Coruna followed by 2 further sea days before docking in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerterventura, Lanzarote and Madeira. After another day at sea, we were to visit Vigo followed by final 2 sea days before disembarking in Southampton. Due to a storm coming in, we missed La Coruna at the start hence started off with 4 sea days. All the canary islands ports and Madeira went as per schedule. La Coruna was later added after Vigo and had 1 sea day at the end instead of 2. All in all we visited all the ports in a slightly different order. We had great weather at all ports too. In Gran Canaria we went to Maspalomas via a ship tour where it was very warm and sunny. Spent a day by the beach and around the many bars in the area. In Tenerife, we did a ship tour to Puerto De la cruz and some gardens which was interesting. Once again, quite warm and sunny. In Fuerteventura, we did a Segway tour via the ship and really enjoyed that followed by an afternoon by the beautiful beach next to the ship. Once again a lovely sunny day. In Lanzarote, which was one of the hottest days we had, we walked around the city and beaches near the port area. In Madeira we did a ship tour to some villages in north and south of the island which was interesting and also very warm and sunny. In Vigo, it was slightly cooler but still very sunny. We did a ship tour to some castles and gardens with wine tasting. When we got back, we walked around the city whereby local celebrations were going on. Lastly in La Coruna we had another sunny day. We had tour to walled city of Lugo via the ship. When we got back, we walked around lovely La Coruna. All in all we were really lucky with the weather at all ports of call. Couple of sea days at the start were rough but we participated in lots of indoor activities but later on all the sea days were calm and sunny to enjoy outdoor pools and bars. 8. ONLINE BOOKING: P&O dont have an app like other cruiselines. All the dining and entertainment have to be booked via a web based portal. This was quite easy to use. You just add yourself to the waiting list of one of the complimentary restaurants around 20 to 30mins before you want to visit and once table was ready, you were noticed. The other option was to get a buzzer from the restaurant you wanted to visit and wait at one of the bars. If you were prepared to share a table, you were usually seated straight away. We normally booked via the app and found it quite straight forward. All the shows and speciality restaurants were booked before the sailing but you could book via the portal too during the cruise. Certain entertainment areas were very popular like 710 club and availability was limited. We managed to go there twice but thereafter it was usually fully booked. However we didn't mind as there were plenty of other venues like clubhouse pr skydome we could visit without a booking. Ideally it would be nice if P&O had an app but web based portal worked fine with my android phone. 9. DISEMBARKATION: we decided to carry our own luggage. Hence we had early breakfast, took our luggage to deck 6 and were off the ship before 7am. Collected our car from car park which was located across the cruise terminal and were home by 9am. Fastest disembarkation ever. If one couldn't carry their luggage, they could leave the cases outside their cabins from 2pm onwards the previous day until you retire to bed. In that case, you were called out to disembark at various times on the last day. However we prefer carrying our own luggage the easiest way to get off the ship in Southampton All in all, we had a superb cruise and highly recommend Iona for a stress free cruise. The Captain (Martin Allen) and his team were excellent and gave us regular updates each day about weather, sea conditions, changes in itinerary etc. Communication through out the cruise was excellent. Service by all personnel working on the ship was excellent and couldn't fault anything.