2 Nights Mini Break At Sea Cruise

Mediterranean Mystery Cruise

Having embarked on P&O Iona for a 12 night cruise taking in 5 ports & I was really looking forwards to visiting three of them, Gibraltar, Cadiz, & Lisbon; but alas mother nature had other ideas with regards to storms in the north Atlantic, turning our voyage into something of a Mediterranean Mystery Cruise. But despite these changes, the Crew were fantastic and the new ports we visited were interesting and enjoyable, the entertainments manager was able to secure different acts for us to enjoy, and the Captain was brilliant in keeping us informed of the changes to the itinerary. I can only say "Well Done P&O Iona" for a fantastic cruise and though I heard one or two grumblings from people I can only presume are never happy or satisfied, I myself can not wait to book my next cruise with you, and hope I have some awesome shipmate as I did on this cruise.

Fantastic staff shame about the walking dead

Second time on and loved it as it suited us .Embarkation and disemarkation a breeze was in balcony cabin .Slight bit of creaking otherwise very quite didn't even hear toilets flushing which is unusual .Just been on apex so was expecting to be disappointed with food but it had improved since last time on we enjoyed it .MDR service and food was fantastic especially compared to last time always found a seat in buffet and only found it a bit chaotic on 2 occasions .Food in buffet was very nice proper toasties now instead of the frozen tasteless aunt Bessie type they used to serve .They could do with having more than one choice of meat IE just the carvery on though for people that don't like curries etc although the wife thought the curried dishes were gorgeous .Couple of nights I fancied chips with my meal and they didn't have any which is unbelievable for a buffet had to go and get some from the dome snack bar .Did beach house and keel and cow which were very good as they were on previous cruise and wife enjoyed sindu .Didn't do shows as they were the same and thought they were dire .Also booked in retreat which we enjoyed so don't know what the sunbed situation was .There were a few children on and they were mostly lovely and well parented with the odd exception .The overall service we received was fantastic served rapidly in all restraints and all staff across the ship were great every single one of them polite helpful and smiley especially our room guy everton

Enjoyable family holiday

Embarkation We were assigned 12pm embarkation time, it seems everyone else was as well becuase there was a big queue to get into the terminal. Having said that, the queue moved quickly and were on the ship within 30-40 minutes. One member of our party received assistance boarding and this was well organised and easy. Cabin We had a balcony cabin which was fine but had narrow walkways when enter the cabin and around the bed, I kept banging my elbows. We were woken up a few times coming into port in the early hours by the cabin rattling. We were in cabin and it had a huge balcony, we thought this cabin would be great for a group if you booked the cabin next to it as well and opened the door between balconies you would have a huge private space to share. Dining We were a large group and were able to book a table for 6pm in the mdr for each night of the cruise. The food was great, we felt it was much better than we have experienced on Azura and Ventura on our last two cruises. The service was friendly and accommodating. We really enjoyed our meals here but unfortunately (perhaps due to our group size) it was top slow and taking up our whole evening one night we didn't leave until 9pm and we ended up going to the buffet or the Quays instead so that we could enjoy other things in the evening. We did notice smaller parties got through their meals much quicker. All the food we had was very nice, and there were plenty of options. I think there was something available from 6:30am until 1am so there was no risk of going hungry! Ports We enjoyed all the ports on this cruise (Le Harve, Bilbao, La Coruna, Chernourg) however there were delays and queues with the shuttle buses in Bilbao which caused some stress. We later heard this the first time a ship of Iona's size had docked so hopefully this will be handled better in future. This itinerary through the Bay of Biscay was great for wildlife, we saw many dolphins on both sea days and many migrating birds (both on and around the ship) on the return journey. Kids club The child in our party enjoyed going to the kids club, the session times were a little restrictive and being half term you had to be quick to book the slots. There was a £5 penalty for no shows which is a good way of making sure slots are not left unfilled. Ship We enjoyed the cruise and felt it was very well laid out. It was half term but the ship never felt too busy, we always found a seat, but sometimes did have to go to a few different places to find one. The staff were generally friendly and helpful. The bars got busy at times but nothing extreme. Accessibility One member of our party had limited mobility, we were not able to take a wheel chair due to the lack of an evacuation chair, this would have made the trip easier but we managed without one. It was sometimes difficult to get a lift because it was hard to see which one was arriving and the doors closed quite quickly so if you can't move very fast you are likely to miss it! There was a wherlchair available to assist getting on and off the ship in ports, but only for the gangway so it was still a challenge without a wherlchair. Overall we enjoyed the cruise a lot, it was great for a family group. We were worried about taking the cruise during school holidays that it might be too busy, but we didn't feel it was and we didn't encounter any issues. We felt the cruise was good value for money especially for the school holidays.