Everything I Loved and Hated About P&O's IONA

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In this video we chat about Everything I Loved and Hated About P&O's IONA.

I am so excited to be bringing you all another vlog series! Hope you enjoy it xx

CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
1:05 - Freedom Dining
4:10 - Entertainment
5:50 - The retreat
7:45 - The Wifi
9:50 - The Toilets
11:33 - Service
12:23 - The Food
13:45 - Outdoor Space
15:04 - Indoor Seating
16:10 - The Cabins
17:45 - Outro

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[russ]

To add to my last comment; I never managed to get a table in the Indian restaurant and it disappeared from the 'app' after a couple of days.
I bought an Indian takeaway as soon as I got home 😂

[karensalter]

Really handy to know as we had been thinking about the Retreat. I think you balanced this vlog well. 20 days until we board and still looking forward to it 😉 x

[TravelwithUsLynnePaul]

I had the same ‘toilet door’ problem but only once, I had inadvertently used a disabled toilet and as far as I remember it was only in those where you needed to press the button to close the doors - obviously a very useful feature for disabled people as it allows the user to close the door to suit their individual access needs.

[kirstycox]

I love your vlogs
I’m going on my first cruise in September on the Disney wish
And although I’m soooo excited
I’m also so terrified about the unknown, I’ve not cruised so I have noooo idea what to expect so by watching you honest opinions on cruising is really helping
I know it’s not the same cruise ship or company but watching you on a cruise ship is so reassuring
Thank you for sharing danny xx

[MarinaAndJoeGo]

Thanks for another great and honest video Danny 😀 These are really valid points (both the good and bad) 😊

We agree 100% about the web page (it's not an app no matter what P&O say). Its connectivity is iffy half the time (like the WiFi) and the virtual queues can be really long.

The way we got around this on both our Iona cruises was by booking every meal for the entire cruise as soon as we got on board (so the only meal we queued for was the first meal upon embarkation). That way we had everything booked and didn't have to stress over the queue - we would question whether this is true "freedom" dining as we had to tie ourselves in to bookings to avoid the queues and potential disappointment.

We don't book ship WiFi packages as we've never found the coverage to be truly good on any line, so that didn't really impact on us (we can see why it would be a huge problem of you need it though!).

We also don't book the Retreat on P&O ships as we don't think they offer much more than the standard offer (especially as the public spaces on P&O's ships are so good).

We think Rise is aimed at young families so probably not for everyone. We enjoyed it, but massively preferred Triboo (another Sky Dome acrobatic performance).

We agree with all your positives as well, especially the food, service, and cabins ❤

We really loved this video - so helpful to anyone considering cruising on Iona ❤❤ Hope you have an amazing time in Florida 🤩

[MarkReynoldsRestorations]

I thought the freedom dining worked really well. Join the queue while you're getting ready, go down for a drink and then you get the notification that your table is ready. So much more flexible than a set time like on the other ships.

[DannyDalimore]

Overall I loved my time onboard P&O’s IONA. Just a few little Con’s but nothing is perfect. The pro’s definitely outweighed the negatives. Just watch them sliding doors 😂😂

[stefaniestoler]

Thank you so much for this review. So nice to hear your perspective.

[bec.]

I think it's good to hear all aspects of a holiday, it helps everyone I think 😁🇦🇺🙋‍♀️

[EvelineUK]

Thank you for this review, my husband and I are looking into booking for this coming June so am watching all the videos I can. ;)

[jilldifford]

Thanks for this, we’re due to sail soon on Iona, very helpful

[FraserAtSea]

I completely agree with your comments re: those automatic doors. I didn't find them on my P&O Ventura cruise, but they absolutely were there on Celebrity last summer - the doors took YEARS to close, and there would always be someone on the other side not realising you were in it, who would press it 'just in time' for the wait to start all over again, haha!

[StandardGoose]

We're doing this exact cruise next week. We've never been on P&O before - we've only ever don Disney cruises. Freedom dining sounds good on paper, so we'll have to wait and see.

[mick]

Freedom dining worked far better when you could go and queue and were seated when they opened the doors.

[stephenchappell]

What did you think of the metal balcony fronts? We were on the front in January in 9108, so on the opposite side to you and one down. They were ok if you were leaning on them but if you sat you couldn't see a thing. Apart from that we loved everything and cannot wait to go again.

[StandardGoose]

P&O's IT is really terrible. Their website for managing your booking has some terrible session management, and it constantly asks you to log back in whenever you move to a new page. It's like the developers don't know what a session is.

[jacksonbritton]

There’s 24 night cruise coming up on sky princess Around the Baltic and then up to Iceland you’ll probably enjoy that

[timkyte]

Freedom worked awesome for us on the same cruise to Norway .. if you were worried about eating go to open dining ?

[garysimmons]

I have to agree that the entertainment was dire. Rise was the most bizarre and pretty awful thing I have ever sat through..it was like watching a high school production. When we were on it only the inside hot tubs were working, all the 12 outside ones were freezing cold! The app is appalling, not just on Iona but on Ventura in May we waited 1.5 hours then went to the restaurant..and finally got sat down at 9.45, and had our food literally thrown at us! On Iona we went to eat every night at 9pm and got sat down immediately. The only toilet, doors I saw on Iona that had electric doors were the disabled ones, I never saw them in the loos with urinals, apart from the door into the toilet rooms..not the cubicles. Found the food was good, apart from every night had broccoli and green beans. Glad you had a good time.

[MatthewPlato]

Interesting. I too found the dining system needed improving, but usually could find a table at the restaurant we wanted, and we got bookings at all the shows and speciality restaurants and the food was top notch. I especially loved the outdoor space, particularly decks 16/17 which were deserted after 6pm or so on our Mediterranean cruise. Seems everyone likes going inside to prep for dinner cos I was able to swim and jacuzzi in pretty much any hot tub or pool I wanted, all by myself. We tended to do this, I would then come back to the cabin around 7 and be ready to dine around 7.30 or 8. The buffet is especially good for all day eating, open till 1am if I remember rightly. Re the entertainment, I did find it a little hit and miss but curious as to why you rated it so poorly. What exactly did your partner hope to find? I was satisfied with the cabaret and musical shows, the quizzes, the talks, game shows, live music and the trapeze acts, though I think the Skydome really isn't good for music, since the acoustics are pretty poor, and there's limited seating. Whilst on seating, I agree the ship has so much space. I would argue it must be impossible to be not find a quiet spot in or outside the ship- Anderson's bar was especially nice and relaxed, and outside deck 18 was always good, even managed a jog one day, till I realised how boring it was running 22 laps to do a 5k. I stopped after 7 😁 All in all I really enjoyed my time on the ship.