My husband has wanted to go on a cruise for ages, and me being emetophobic, I always said no because of the fear of being sick. Your experience with the patches throughout this vlog series has won me over, and we've now booked for June. Can't wait. Thank you so much!
How did you get on please? Interested to know about your experience as my husband and I have suffered from sea sickness, albeit, on small boats, not cruise ships. My kids both suffer with car sickness too. Thinking this patch could be a possibility for us all.
@@vickymatthews1358 The patches were brilliant, would highly recommend. Started wearing them an hour before getting on board, and replaced them every few days. They stayed on in the shower no problem. We booked a mid-ship cabin which is always recommended to be least likely to have much trouble, but also never had any issues around the ship. As they are non-drowsy, and don't interact with medication, I had no issues with that either. We had gale force 8 one evening/night and never felt any motion sickness at all. On top of that, we enjoyed Iona and our Norwegian cruise so much, we're hoping to book again for next year. Hope this helps!
Fab vlog. I, like you find as much information as I can about the ship prior to boarding. We always book an inside cabin, a balcony cabin is almost twice as much, the money saved allows us to take a cruise twice a year, the cruising bug got us too. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your vlogs.
I could listen to you all day! You speak so well and so naturally. Thank you so much for your videos. I'm elbow deep in research mode at the minute. Our honeymoon cruise (with our 9 year old) to Egypt and Jerusalem just got changed beyond recognition (for obvious reasons). We are not a fan of the new itinerary and have actually visited 3 of the 4 ports before. So we are looking to see which cruises from the UK sail in and around our original date and this is the frontrunner! I am worried about all the cancelled port days which seem to be a common occurrence with this ship. But so far I am very impressed with your videos and will watch the rest of them before deciding what to do :)
Thank you so much for watching and sorry to hear about your cancelled cruise. Hope you get something else organised soon 🤞🏻 and have a great honeymoon when it comes 😍
We have booked to go on the Iona in June and it will be our first cruise and are looking forward to it , we are finding your information really useful and you have answered so many questions we had. thank you.
Hi we are on Iona September..Watch a lot of blogs..found your so helpful..you answered a lot of questions that I couldn't find answers for on other blogs.Thank you x
Hi excellent vlog, me and my wife were on the same sailing as you guys, overall we decided whilst driving back home that cruising is not for us, we had a conservatory suite on deck 9 which was beautiful, however with all our excursions and events being cancelled due to landslides and wether conditions and missing out on Stravanger, just left us disappointed as it was our first cruise too. Like you said thiers lots to do on the ship and you feel very looked after. 👍
You should give it another try, it sounds like you was very unlucky but Iona has had lots of teething issues this year sailing up the the Fjords, she's probably to big to be honest, as of today she is the 8th largest ship in the world. I would imagine she will be moved to a new itinerary if this persists and they will put one of the smaller ships in the fleet on that route. If you have the budget fly to Miami and do a 7 day carib cruise, there is nothing like it! amazing! Make sure you get on the Oasis Class! Don't be put off by the size!
Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Yes the weather was extremely disappointing and sorry to hear your excursions were cancelled. I bet your conservatory suite was lovely! We would definitely do another one but I can understand why you found this one disappointing at times. I’d like to try a slightly smaller ship next time however Iona was so magnificent I’m not sure how a smaller one would compare!
You must see being on the ship, with all that it offers (plus the views from aboard), is the holiday! If you embrace that and participate in as much as you can on ship, then you will have a totally different view, and maybe enjoy it.
Hey, New subscribers here. Romana you have such beautiful energy. This was a great vlog. We are hoping to go next year so im starting to take notes. super grateful to you, Thank you.
Aw thank you so much for your lovely comment and for watching and subscribing 😊 hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did and glad you found the vlog helpful!
We went on a similar cruise in July this year. The one thing which really irritated us was that we had to decide where to eat and when and booked everything (well) in advance. We didn't find that relaxing as we wanted to wait and see what we fancy nearer the time. As a result, we had to join the queue for dinner, be it in one of the 4 dining rooms or in a speciality restaurant, which took absolutely ages. The longest wait was 45 minutes. For some reason, Aqua was always full. It wasn't the best of experience and throughout the cruise, we wished it were the old fixed time dining. The 710 Club was fully booked for the whole week by 8 pm on embarkation day! Celebration Night at the Chef Table was very good though. I was glad we booked it in advance. But the queues, for the free drinks and getting to the table, were long. We love dressing up on cruises. We wore our kilts and coatees and got some very nice comments. We were by no means alone! I agree that the food in MDR and the Horizon Buffet, was rather hit and miss. Olive Grove and Cows & Keel were great, as was Epicurean. We liked the ship and loved the Norwegian fjords, but not so keen on how P&O orgnaised things. Perhaps now that we are back to sailing at capacity, which is wonderful, and in such an enormous ship, this is how things will pan out. Smaller ships may be a better option in future. 🤔 I look forward to finding out your thoughts of the rest of the cruise and the excursions.
That’s a shame that you didn’t have as great an experience as us. We didn’t have to wait long for any of the restaurants. Maybe we were lucky. 710 club we turned up 40 mins before it started and managed to get in despite not having a booking. Apparently they hold slots back so people can do this but we only knew by asking. As this was our first cruise experience we’d be interested to try a smaller one in future but we really loved Iona and all she had to offer. Thanks for watching and commenting 😊
Love your videos! I’m also gluten free so the food tips are especially helpful. Feel so bad for you with the weather, though! What time of year did you travel? I’m going at the end of June.
We travelled around mid July. Yeah weather was disappointing, however the ship is such a great place to cosy in to if it is horrible outside. Great gluten free options. I hope you get good weather. Thank you for your kind comments. Hugely appreciated.🙏
Romana and euan fantastic videos best ever and I watch alot if vlogs Been on iona three times did the same cruise to Norway as you My daughter and son in law are going on iona to Norway in May I have downloaded all you vids and forwarded them on will be so helpful to them Evans dad might give them to take me with them 😂 A big huge thank you to you both I have subscribed x
Uh oh....the cruise bug captures another 2 people 😄 Glad to hear you're enjoying your first cruise. Hardly surprising given a ship as amazing as Iona Hi fellow Edinburgh folk 👋 Southampton offers so many great opportunities to set sail from, but tricky to get to from up here. We did a Logan Air flight last year from Edinburgh direct to Southampton Airport. Just over an hour flight time and a bit pricey, but travelled down on the day, so saved on hotel accommodation overnight. Anyway, may be worth looking into. How was your train journey can we ask? And would you recommend it?
Yes we have the bug😂 fab. Just subscribed to you guys. Loads of cruise info. Excellent.👍 We did check flights out. But they were crazy expensive. My dad bought tickets in advance for the train. A bit cheaper but not by much. Change in London which is a pain. I think we would drive next time. Stay overnight few hours from Southampton. Then down the next morning. The Airbnb in Southampton was also expensive. So it’s figuring out the cheapest route and by which transport.😖
@romanaandewan we like to raise the point on our social media how cruise lines call at a number of scottish ports but don't board passengers from them. However,, with the new Greenock terminal, that might offer some opportunities.....we can only hope.
Now you can only take litre of Wine and Champagne and soft drinks and snacks, but no beer or spirits, but can order bottle of spirits for cabin from room service’ 10:26
Going on iona in august. Very nervous with the sea sickness issue. Can you please give some information on travelling on iona with kids what is allowed and not and how was the reaction of the staff towards kids We will be doing the iona cruise with a 16 month old
We didn’t travel with kids but we saw plenty of families on Iona. I would recommend joining the Facebook group ‘P&O Cruises for Families’. You’ll get lots of tips there and can ask questions. Enjoy your cruise when it comes and thanks for watching.
My mum is coming with us and is in a separate room. When we book tables for dinner can we book for all of us or does she have to book separately and request to sit with us?
@@clairemanning8131 no you don't, the ship wifi is free to connect to for internal on ship activity but if you want to get off the ship like for internet like facebook or youtube then you have to pay and that is activated once you have connected to the free wifi.
Great series of videos on the IONA. Thank you so much!
Glad you like them! Thank you for watching. Really appreciate it.😊🙏
Thanks for all the hard work and great video, possibley saved our family a lot of time , one of the best Iona videos!
Thank you so much for watching. And for your lovely feedback.🙏😊 have a lovely time
Done this cruise twice, highly recommend
Looking forward to seeing the rest of the series before we go on thos cruise in September.
Thanks for watching. Hopefully you will love it as much as we did.😊🙏
My husband has wanted to go on a cruise for ages, and me being emetophobic, I always said no because of the fear of being sick. Your experience with the patches throughout this vlog series has won me over, and we've now booked for June. Can't wait. Thank you so much!
So glad we could help. The patches worked a treat. Have a wonderful time. You won’t regret it.😊🙏
@@romanaandewan Thank you!
How did you get on please? Interested to know about your experience as my husband and I have suffered from sea sickness, albeit, on small boats, not cruise ships. My kids both suffer with car sickness too. Thinking this patch could be a possibility for us all.
@@vickymatthews1358 The patches were brilliant, would highly recommend. Started wearing them an hour before getting on board, and replaced them every few days. They stayed on in the shower no problem. We booked a mid-ship cabin which is always recommended to be least likely to have much trouble, but also never had any issues around the ship. As they are non-drowsy, and don't interact with medication, I had no issues with that either. We had gale force 8 one evening/night and never felt any motion sickness at all. On top of that, we enjoyed Iona and our Norwegian cruise so much, we're hoping to book again for next year. Hope this helps!
We've just watched the first video. Great advice for our trip next year!
Thanks😊
Thanks for watching. Enjoy your cruise when it comes 😊
Fab vlog. I, like you find as much information as I can about the ship prior to boarding. We always book an inside cabin, a balcony cabin is almost twice as much, the money saved allows us to take a cruise twice a year, the cruising bug got us too. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your vlogs.
I’m a big planner and it certainly came in handy for this trip! And I agree I’d much rather spend the money on another holiday 😂
I could listen to you all day! You speak so well and so naturally. Thank you so much for your videos. I'm elbow deep in research mode at the minute. Our honeymoon cruise (with our 9 year old) to Egypt and Jerusalem just got changed beyond recognition (for obvious reasons). We are not a fan of the new itinerary and have actually visited 3 of the 4 ports before. So we are looking to see which cruises from the UK sail in and around our original date and this is the frontrunner! I am worried about all the cancelled port days which seem to be a common occurrence with this ship. But so far I am very impressed with your videos and will watch the rest of them before deciding what to do :)
Thank you so much for watching and sorry to hear about your cancelled cruise. Hope you get something else organised soon 🤞🏻 and have a great honeymoon when it comes 😍
This popped up on my suggested and I really enjoyed it, natural presenting style capturing the excitement of embarkation perfectly. Thanks for sharing
Thank you so much! We love making vlogs and especially enjoyed Iona!
We loved iona so much last year.. Were back on in September...Been on different cruise lines....Love getting on at Southampton.... Great vlog...xx
We loved it. Thank you for watching.😊🙏
I’m on a trip with P&O for the first time at the end of this month and found your observations and advice very helpful.
Thanks.
Thanks for watching and hope you have a great time!
V informative and clear. Like your easy relaxed style. Thank you for your help.
Thank you so much 😊
We have booked to go on the Iona in June and it will be our first cruise and are looking forward to it , we are finding your information really useful and you have answered so many questions we had. thank you.
Thank you so much for watching and we hope you have a brilliant cruise in June :)
Wonderful vlog. We have never cruised but considering it and doing lots of research. Really helpful, thanks x
Aw thank you for watching! We really enjoyed the cruise. It’s definitely worth trying at least once! x
Hi we are on Iona September..Watch a lot of blogs..found your so helpful..you answered a lot of questions that I couldn't find answers for on other blogs.Thank you x
Aw thank you that’s really great to hear :) have a brilliant cruise x
Hi excellent vlog, me and my wife were on the same sailing as you guys, overall we decided whilst driving back home that cruising is not for us, we had a conservatory suite on deck 9 which was beautiful, however with all our excursions and events being cancelled due to landslides and wether conditions and missing out on Stravanger, just left us disappointed as it was our first cruise too. Like you said thiers lots to do on the ship and you feel very looked after. 👍
You should give it another try, it sounds like you was very unlucky but Iona has had lots of teething issues this year sailing up the the Fjords, she's probably to big to be honest, as of today she is the 8th largest ship in the world. I would imagine she will be moved to a new itinerary if this persists and they will put one of the smaller ships in the fleet on that route.
If you have the budget fly to Miami and do a 7 day carib cruise, there is nothing like it! amazing! Make sure you get on the Oasis Class! Don't be put off by the size!
Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Yes the weather was extremely disappointing and sorry to hear your excursions were cancelled. I bet your conservatory suite was lovely! We would definitely do another one but I can understand why you found this one disappointing at times. I’d like to try a slightly smaller ship next time however Iona was so magnificent I’m not sure how a smaller one would compare!
You must see being on the ship, with all that it offers (plus the views from aboard), is the holiday! If you embrace that and participate in as much as you can on ship, then you will have a totally different view, and maybe enjoy it.
Hey, New subscribers here. Romana you have such beautiful energy. This was a great vlog. We are hoping to go next year so im starting to take notes. super grateful to you, Thank you.
Aw thank you so much for your lovely comment and for watching and subscribing 😊 hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did and glad you found the vlog helpful!
We went on a similar cruise in July this year. The one thing which really irritated us was that we had to decide where to eat and when and booked everything (well) in advance. We didn't find that relaxing as we wanted to wait and see what we fancy nearer the time. As a result, we had to join the queue for dinner, be it in one of the 4 dining rooms or in a speciality restaurant, which took absolutely ages. The longest wait was 45 minutes. For some reason, Aqua was always full. It wasn't the best of experience and throughout the cruise, we wished it were the old fixed time dining. The 710 Club was fully booked for the whole week by 8 pm on embarkation day! Celebration Night at the Chef Table was very good though. I was glad we booked it in advance. But the queues, for the free drinks and getting to the table, were long.
We love dressing up on cruises. We wore our kilts and coatees and got some very nice comments. We were by no means alone!
I agree that the food in MDR and the Horizon Buffet, was rather hit and miss. Olive Grove and Cows & Keel were great, as was Epicurean.
We liked the ship and loved the Norwegian fjords, but not so keen on how P&O orgnaised things. Perhaps now that we are back to sailing at capacity, which is wonderful, and in such an enormous ship, this is how things will pan out. Smaller ships may be a better option in future. 🤔
I look forward to finding out your thoughts of the rest of the cruise and the excursions.
That’s a shame that you didn’t have as great an experience as us. We didn’t have to wait long for any of the restaurants. Maybe we were lucky. 710 club we turned up 40 mins before it started and managed to get in despite not having a booking. Apparently they hold slots back so people can do this but we only knew by asking.
As this was our first cruise experience we’d be interested to try a smaller one in future but we really loved Iona and all she had to offer.
Thanks for watching and commenting 😊
Love your videos! I’m also gluten free so the food tips are especially helpful. Feel so bad for you with the weather, though! What time of year did you travel? I’m going at the end of June.
We travelled around mid July. Yeah weather was disappointing, however the ship is such a great place to cosy in to if it is horrible outside. Great gluten free options. I hope you get good weather. Thank you for your kind comments. Hugely appreciated.🙏
thank you fantastic blog i enjoyed your cruise
Glad you enjoyed it😊🙏
Excellent
im going on this cruise tomorrow!
Happy Cruise Day!
Romana and euan fantastic videos best ever and I watch alot if vlogs
Been on iona three times did the same cruise to Norway as you
My daughter and son in law are going on iona to Norway in May
I have downloaded all you vids and forwarded them on will be so helpful to them
Evans dad might give them to take me with them 😂
A big huge thank you to you both I have subscribed x
Aw thank you what a lovely comment 😊 makes all the editing worthwhile! Hope your daughter and son in law have a great time. Thanks for subscribing x
On iona this sat 2nd doing fjords be interesting !! We usually do the Caribbean . Something different
Have a great time! We’d love to do the Caribbean one day!
Im.doing this in 62 day's, also heading down from Scotland, staying the night before in Southampton
Have a great time. You will love it.😊
Will I need a dressing gown?
@@mcmurray007im no dressing gowns in standard cabins…only suits. You can purchase them on the ship or take your own.
Uh oh....the cruise bug captures another 2 people 😄 Glad to hear you're enjoying your first cruise. Hardly surprising given a ship as amazing as Iona
Hi fellow Edinburgh folk 👋 Southampton offers so many great opportunities to set sail from, but tricky to get to from up here. We did a Logan Air flight last year from Edinburgh direct to Southampton Airport. Just over an hour flight time and a bit pricey, but travelled down on the day, so saved on hotel accommodation overnight. Anyway, may be worth looking into.
How was your train journey can we ask? And would you recommend it?
Yes we have the bug😂
fab. Just subscribed to you guys. Loads of cruise info. Excellent.👍
We did check flights out. But they were crazy expensive.
My dad bought tickets in advance for the train. A bit cheaper but not by much. Change in London which is a pain. I think we would drive next time. Stay overnight few hours from Southampton. Then down the next morning. The Airbnb in Southampton was also expensive. So it’s figuring out the cheapest route and by which transport.😖
Also the train was packed!!!
@romanaandewan we like to raise the point on our social media how cruise lines call at a number of scottish ports but don't board passengers from them. However,, with the new Greenock terminal, that might offer some opportunities.....we can only hope.
@@BritsAbroadTravelCruise yes this is so true!! We didn’t know about the terminal at Greenock. We’ll keep an eye on it 👍🏻
Now you can only take litre of Wine and Champagne and soft drinks and snacks, but no beer or spirits, but can order bottle of spirits for cabin from room service’ 10:26
Thanks for adding this 👍🏻 We were aware that the rules had changed but not everyone will know this.
Going on iona in august. Very nervous with the sea sickness issue. Can you please give some information on travelling on iona with kids what is allowed and not and how was the reaction of the staff towards kids
We will be doing the iona cruise with a 16 month old
We didn’t travel with kids but we saw plenty of families on Iona. I would recommend joining the Facebook group ‘P&O Cruises for Families’. You’ll get lots of tips there and can ask questions. Enjoy your cruise when it comes and thanks for watching.
My mum is coming with us and is in a separate room. When we book tables for dinner can we book for all of us or does she have to book separately and request to sit with us?
Yes you can book for all of you. Have fun!
Do you have to book your time slot for free restaurants as well? Or only ones with extra charge?
No need to book for the buffet. You can just turn up. Olive Grove is free (with supplements for some dishes) and this needs to be booked.
My mother in law wants to know where your dress was from on celebration night ❤
It was actually F&F Tesco from a few years ago. I prefer to spend my money on holidays 🤣 but it was a good little find!
@@romanaandewan thank you.
Awww your father in law is such a sweetheart 🫶
@@iloveanimals1662 it’s his vlog debut 😂 we’ll pass on your nice comment! 😍
@@romanaandewan Tell him he's a natural! It's that wee Scottish accent!👌🏻🏴
Loved your video but I don’t see any option to subscribe to your channel for some very strange reason.I am hoping to do the same cruise next year 🙏
Thank you for watching. 😊
You might need to sign in or sign up to TH-cam in order to subscribe. It’s totally free.👍
Are the movies free to watch in the room?
Yes they are 👍🏻
You didn’t mention that when booking while you queue to get on the ship that you have to connect to the ship Wi-Fi first.
This is very true. Thanks for highlighting.
@@romanaandewan love your videos and can't wait for the next one.
Thank you!! 🥰
So to book things you need to be connected to the ship WiFi but don't you need to pay for WiFi?
@@clairemanning8131 no you don't, the ship wifi is free to connect to for internal on ship activity but if you want to get off the ship like for internet like facebook or youtube then you have to pay and that is activated once you have connected to the free wifi.
P&O treat their customers with contempt. See Maleth Aero Scandal.
Can you let me know about covid injections?
No covid policy with the cruises. They don’t check if you had the vaccine.
"you can go" 😢
I
Great as an audio. I got tired looking at your face for such a long time. Thank you anyway
Charming haha. It’s a lovely face but yes more variety on the visuals would be good :)
How rude,,,just turn off and don't comment