Xmas & New Year disappointment.

Item: Iona
Rating: 3.3
Author: royhel

Iona Cruise Review

royhel

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 7

Helpful Votes: 109

Overall rating:

3.3 out of 5

Christmas Spain Portugal Canary Islands

Sail date: December 17, 2022

Ship: Iona

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

Beautiful ship, just not enough crew. Not overly impressed with the food on offer in normal restaurants. Quite disappointed overall.

Embarkation

2 out of 5

Arrived at Southampton cruise terminal exactly on time and it took over90 minutes to get on board. Had to wait in queue outside for about 15 minutes!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Limited choice in all restaurants. Paid select fare and freedom dining but struggled to eat when we wanted other than going to self service. Booking with the my holiday App was diabolical! We could not book speciality restaurants prior to cruise due to supposedly IT problems on board. When we phoned several times in the fortnight before sailing we were told to keep trying and eventually told that we would have to wait until we boarded the ship. After receiving an email requesting our priorities for the formal evenings on Christmas Day & New Year’s Eve (we requested 6-00pm in one of the four main restaurants) we were given 5-00pm in the buffet restaurant. It was nowhere near what was expected and the Xmas meal was DIABOLICAL!!!! All in all an evening of great disappointment.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

N/A

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Theatre shows were quite good but most entertainment had to be reserved on the my holiday App. This didn’t always work and some had to be cancelled due to waiting for restaurant tables on the virtual queuing on the App.

Children's Programs

2 out of 5

N/A

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Some were excellent, others it seemed just weren’t so helpful and didn’t really want to be there. All in all there weren’t really enough crew and some were not really experienced.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Didn’t really like the outdoor pools. Liked the promenade deck.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Cabin was quite acceptable. It would have been better if the attendant had returned later to turn down and replenish towels.