P&O Cruises New Ship Iona’s Maiden Voyage

(6:35 p.m. BST) – P & O Cruises’ highly anticipated new flagship Iona finally set sail from Southampton on August 7, 2021.

The ship is on a seven day tour of the UK with 2,500 passengers (just below the government’s 50 percent limit), of whom a staggering 85 percent are P&O regulars.

There are no stops in the harbor, but yesterday we docked in front of the island, after which the ship was named and was spoiled with spectacular fireworks.

But what about after all the construction (the ship was supposed to be launched over a year ago)?

Stunning new spaces

At 185,000 GRT and 345m in length, Iona is undoubtedly huge, but once you get your bearings there is a lot to like. The focal point is the gorgeous Grand Atrium, which lets light in through three decks of floor-to-ceiling glass, the interiors of white marble and gleaming chrome, and a curved marble staircase in the middle for you to take a pose on.

The venues around the atrium are cheerful. There are a few old favorites, including an expanded glass house, wine bar, and tapas restaurant with Olly Smith-selected wines by the glass. The Keel and Cow, a new restaurant, one deck above, enjoys the same gorgeous view and offers steaks and burgers.

Much has been made of the SkyDome, an intricate glass dome that covers a two-deck pool area on Deck 16. The dome is the largest structure of its kind at sea, equipped for aerial photography and laser shows, while a movable cover turns the pool into a stage in the evenings. On cool days, this area is packed, albeit noisy, and I imagine once the ship is full it will turn into a bouncy nightlife scene, with DJ sets curated by ex-Blur bassist Alex James, laser shows, and dry ice .

The air shows are repeated three times a night and are certainly dramatic; it is like being in a large, glazed circus tent. They are all thematic. We saw “Rise,” a casual action about birds of paradise and pigeons, but the theme doesn’t matter – it’s the trapeze acts and the costumes that everyone wants to see.

Other new and impressive features include two infinity pools overlooking the cascading back decks and offering fantastic views. We are in the Hebrides at the moment, lying at the infinite edge of the pool and the view of the rocky islands that are scattered around the ship is simply breathtaking. Far below the pools, on deck 8, the Sunset Bar with a view of the wake is developing into the best place for sundowners with live music and a lot of hustle and bustle. A group of dolphins romping behind the ship provided an additional thrill yesterday.

There has been a lot of talk about Gary Barlow’s involvement with P&O and last night we went to the location he runs, the 710 Club. I loved it. Because Iona is so big, a lot of the lounges and bars feel pretty cavernous, but this dark, intimate little space has the feel of a proper jazz club with a great band playing acoustic covers of rock anthems and jazz classics last night. Somebody has to teach the bartenders not to rattle in the middle of a row of cocktail shakers, however.

Other P&O novelties include a four-screen boutique movie theater that seems popular and a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon, and the first gin distillery at sea that sits behind a wall glass in Anderson’s Bar and Marabelle, P & O’s. produces Signature Gin, which is available in all bars.

What about the cabins?

95 winter garden mini-suites are new to Iona and I am lucky to be in one. It is wonderful. Between the cabin and the balcony there is a glazed living room with a large sofa and ottoman and planters with green (artificial) and a potted orchid. When the ship is in the Norwegian fjords, these suites come into their own.

You can sit in the winter garden or in the garden, as our cabin steward affectionately calls it, and stay warm, but still enjoy the view, or open all the doors to let in the fresh air. These mini suites are located on decks 8 and 9 and my advice would be to go to deck 9 and look out onto the promenade deck. When you’re on Deck 8, the people strolling the boardwalk can look over the railing of your balcony. They don’t have the same connection to the sea either.

What are the new health protocols like?

One thing that becomes clear over the course of the big summer 2021 cruise comeback is that each line interprets health protocols differently. At P&O Cruises all adults must be double vaccinated (and children can travel from September 25th if they take a PCR test), but you still have to take an antigen test in port.

All Carnival brands share a large drive-through test center in Southampton, so we checked in with Regal Princess at the same time. It took two and a half hours from arrival at the port to embarkation, including an hour of waiting in a waiting parking lot. People arriving by train came through a walk-in test center at the Ocean Terminal in 30 minutes. So there is one lesson to be learned there: get there by train.

Social distancing abounds everywhere aboard, with around half of the chairs and tables at each venue bearing stickers indicating they are out of order. This means that late at night queues at popular spots like the Crow’s Nest Bar can annoy P&O regulars.

Wearing masks is required everywhere inside and passengers adhere to them; I haven’t seen anyone disobey the rules. Temperature measurement doesn’t seem to be a requirement, although there are hand sanitizer everywhere and I’ve noticed many crew members diligently cleaning touch sensitive areas like banisters. But life on board feels pretty normal for the most part.

One thing that strikes me as odd is that the nightly turndown service has been suspended. Our cabin steward says it’s “because of the logs”, but if the cabin can be cleaned in the morning, I don’t see any difference from cleaning in the evening either. I’ve always felt like the nightly turndown is one of the little luxuries of cruising, and I’m sorry it’s disappearing.

What do the passengers think?

The passenger profile on this maiden voyage is unusual in that there are around 85 percent repeaters, each with their own ideas about what a P&O ship should be. Post-cruises, President Paul Ludlow tells me, have a much larger percentage of new and P&O passengers. “The average age of bookings is lower than when the world was ‘normal’,” he says. “Before the pandemic, our average age was in our late 40s. Now it’s our mid-40s.”

Those younger passengers looking for the experience of a huge floating resort with live music everywhere, loads of entertainment and, for families, P & O’s usual high standard of kids’ clubs, will love Iona. Among the regulars there is the inevitable babble of “It wasn’t like that on Britannia” (which of course was the largest P&O ship ever built at the time).

Restaurant service is slow, the internet is hopeless (and being fixed, they say), and the My Holiday app, which you use to book dinner and entertainment, creates a lot of confusion. It’s much easier to book a restaurant over the phone. But it’s just getting started and the mood is good.

What’s next?

Iona will sail five more Staycation cruises in British waters after its maiden voyage, then cruising the Canary Islands in winter and the Norwegian fjords next summer. At the moment, however, we are enjoying the feeling of space that a half-full ship offers.