P&O Cruises, Iona Review

Iona

A very pleasant cruise to Norway, the staff particularly the waiters and bar staff were highly efficient and very friendly and our room attendant was excellent and although we really didn't see him, our room was kept very clean and tidy. The wearing of face masks was advisory but not compulsory and there were times when it seemed prudent to wear masks, for example at breakfast and lunch during busy times, it seemed the best thing to do. Iona is the biggest ship we have travelled on and when full, would be too large for us, as it was probably less then half full and at times, in certain bar areas, it was extremely busy so cannot imagine how it would work if full. Once we got used to using the P & O app on the phone, booking an evening meal was quite easy and the only night we had a wait was formal night when there were 60 + people waiting for tables before us in every restaurant, so it was quite a wait, but other than that it worked well and if the alert went off before we were ready for the table, we found it easy to cancel our table and rejoin another queue. The food was good, but we couldn't really understand the reason for the different restaurants ie Coral, Pearl, Opal etc as they all served the same menu. Our room was a balcony room at the front of the ship on the 9th floor. The room itself seemed extremely small for two people and nowhere near as large as other rooms we have had previously. The room itself was well appointed just cramped. All in all, a good start to cruising again after Covid.