P&O Cruise’ ‘Iona’ was scheduled to be launched in July 2020, but due to COVID restrictions, this was pushed back to summer 2021. Weighing in at over 184,000 tonnes and running on LNG, she has capacity for 5,200 guests with 1,800 crew. At the time of her launch she was the largest P&O Cruises ship, as well as the largest to operate specifically for the British market. The second (and sister) Excellence Class ship ‘Arvia’ is due to be launched later in 2022.

New features on ‘Iona’ include infinity swimming pools, a gin distillery, the SkyDome (an entertainment venue, with retractable stage, topped by a 105 ton, 340 pane, 970 sq m glass roof), a 4 screen cinema, Gary Barlow as musical director of The 710 Club, 95 Conservatory mini suites (which have a glass enclosable conservatory area complete with ‘L’ shaped sofa, between the bedroom and balcony) and only ‘freedom’ (open seating) dining in the main dining rooms (ie. no set meal times).

As you can imagine, I was keen to experience all these new features:

Day 1 – Saturday (embarkation)  

Our 7 night cruise started with a frustrating 1 hour wait to offload our car at the Ocean Terminal with CPS. Thankfully cruise embarkation only took 20 minutes and our first view of the ship was via deck 5 and The Grand Atrium – 3 decks high, filled with sea views from the towering glass windows which project outwards, a polished white marble floor and spiral staircase with chrome bannisters.

A quick check in at our Muster Station and then onto our cabin.

The ship has 16 public decks with 6 entirely set aside for accommodation and offers the usual 4 main cabin types – inside, outside, balcony cabins and suites. Subdivisions into sizes and locations on the ship give multiple price points. For example there are 3 types of inside cabin (single, standard and large), 4 types of balconies (single, smaller, standard & deluxe) and 3 types of suite (Conservatory mini suite, family sea view suite (no balcony) and suite). Cabin sizes start at 101 sq ft (Single Inside) up to 530 sq ft for the largest suite.                                                                                                                              

Balcony cabins on deck 5 are actually sheltered balconies and those on deck 8 open out onto the Promenade deck, so lack some degree of privacy. I particularly like the concept of the sea view cabins which have a seating area in the window in many cases. Along with larger inside cabins, deluxe balcony cabins, Conservatory mini suites and the 2 Family sea view suites they offer the most flexible types of accommodation for families. All cabins on the ship sleep from 1- 4 people (with 3 berth cabins having a sofa bed and 4 berth cabins a sofa bed and Pullman style bed). ‘Iona’ does not have cabins for 5 or more occupants, but there are interconnecting cabins to accommodate family groups of between 5 and 8 people. We had an aft facing deluxe balcony (EE grade) cabin (9746) which was very roomy (approx. 200 sq ft) with a large trapezoid shaped balcony (approx. 40 sq ft) and our single friend a smaller balcony on deck 12. This was competitively priced for single occupancy and he enjoyed the additional space it offered over a Single Balcony cabin. Our balcony, despite being above The Club House (live evening music & night club) was quiet. The bathrooms have The White Company toiletries, but only shampoo and body wash – bring your own conditioner and body lotion.

Suites on ‘Iona’ are located on the corners of decks 9 to 15, offering large wraparound balconies with views over the front or rear of the ship. ‘Iona’ has two Family Sea View Suites which are on the Promenade Deck. These are a little smaller than the other forward suites and they do not have balconies. As well as the larger size, booking a suite comes with a whole host of perks including priority boarding, butler service and lots of fresh fruit, chocolates and canapes.

After unpacking, it was time for the Sail Away and a drink from the Panorama Bar on deck 18 to toast sailing out of Southampton with 4900 passengers on board. We had dinner on our first night in the Coral Restaurant – one of 4 main dining rooms (MDRs) on board. Coral is the largest, aft on deck 7, with Pearl, Opal and the (relatively small) Aqua Restaurants making up 3 sides of a square, aft on deck 6. The latter seemed to have more tables for 2 and 4 people, whereas the other restaurants have elliptical tables for 6 or more people, which take up less space than the traditional round tables. There are 4 tables for groups of 10 people. Different restaurants are open for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea (also served in The Epicurean (Eric Lanyard (one of P&O Cruises' Food Heroes) themed, it costs £17.95 pp) and Horizons, the buffet restaurant) but all four MDRs are available for dinner. The menu is the same at each. Guests are encouraged to use ‘My Holiday App’ to book restaurants and other events and whilst it works quite well for entertainment and specialty restaurants, on many occasions it seemed pointless for the MDRs as it was often quicker to just walk up and ask the Maitre’D for a table. Menus offer starters, soup and salad, main courses (at least 2 choices each of fish, meat and vegetarian), desserts and cheese for dinner. There is a daily Chef’s recommended menu and suggestions for wine pairings. Dishes like tomato soup, prawn cocktail, grilled salmon, chicken, sirloin steak and fresh fruit salad are always available. All menus indicate gluten free, low sugar, vegan and vegetarian items and guests are asked at the beginning of all waiter served meals if they have any allergies. I would suggest contacting the Maitre D at the beginning of a cruise if guests have additional or more complex dietary requirements. Choose Coral or Pearl for views of the ships’ wake as you sail along.

For post dinner entertainment we headed to Headliners Theatre and one of the ships company’s three shows tonight of ‘Festival’, a production choreographed and produced by Jonathan Wilkes (a friend of Robbie Williams). Based on attending a music festival it was imaginatively choreographed with ‘tight’ singing of a selection of popular songs, good costumes and special effects. Pleasantly surprised by this show, I was looking forward to ‘Centre Stage’ based on West End musical songs later on in the week. Opinion seemed to indicate this would be the better of the two shows, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to illness.