Iona Fjord’s - May 22
Iona Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 11
Helpful Votes: 222
Review summary
Fabulous ship. Our second cruise on her. Unfortunately we missed Olden and therefore most of the Fjord cruising due to weather. Other people have had similar problems on her. We didn’t let it spoil our holiday as we’d been to the Fjord’s before. We just enjoyed the ship instead but for first time cruisers it was bitterly disappointing.Embarkation
Some queuing. Very little mask wearing despite the requirement to do so in the terminal at the time. Our boarding time was 11:30 and we arrived around 11:10. Lots of people in the que with us had mid afternoon boarding times. Took around 45 minutes from arriving to on board.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
All good. MDR, buffet, specialty restaurants and the Quays. Can’t fault the food and my wife’s dairy intolerance not a problem anywhere.
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Fantastic. Plenty of choice. La Voix in the Limelight club was fantastic and well worth the extra charge. Excellent music all around the ship and live hospital radio from Ivan Brackenbury (Tom Binns). The arielists in the sky dome were very skilled but I’m still none the wiser what the plot of the show was about. Something to do with a spaceship I think. Overall the great thing about Iona entertainment is the ability to wander from venu to venu and always find something to grab a drink and enjoy.
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
On a previous cruise we stayed in a balcony, mid ship cabin on deck 15. This was a lesser grade of cabin due to its location but it’s really like a suite. Separate living and sleeping areas. 2 tvs. Huge L shaped balcony with 2 patio doors. It really felt special. The bathroom may be slightly smaller but overall really great cabin.
Ports of call
Too windy. We missed this port. Very disappointed as this was the port we were most looking forward to. We’d booked the cable car. This also meant that we missed out on Fjord cruising as well as the mouth of the estuary was too dangerous to enter given the conditions. It appears that Iona is a little prone to missing ports in bad weather presumably due to her size.
Thumbs Up
1
None of the tour’s really appealed so we opted for a walk. Not a great deal to see so we returned to ship and spent a lovely day relaxing on board.
We took the aquarium tour. It was very interesting for around 30 - 40 minutes but the tour stayed there for over 3 hours. It’s far too long and in retrospect we wish we’d just taken the ho ho bus. The town looked nice but we’d spent so much time in the aquarium we didn’t have time to explore.
Disembarkation
We self disembarked with our luggage. Quick and easy if you can manage it.
Traveler Photos
