NORWAY P&O IONA CRUISE - Travel Day/Embarkation Day!
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- čas přidán 25. 04. 2024
- #norway #cruisevlogs #familytravel
Welcome back to another travel series! This time we're taking our first ever cruise to Norway! Join us on our travel day/embarkation day and watch us set sail for the Norwegian Fjords on the P&O ship - IONA!
Carry on reading for our review!...
The night before embarkation we stayed in the Holiday Inn Southampton, which is one of the closest hotels to the Ocean Terminal where Iona was docked. We opened our curtains in the morning to find Iona sat waiting, this really was a great hotel just for the views! It really added to our excitement!
The hotel was in a great location, only a ten minute walk to the terminal or five minute drive, and was only 5 -10 minutes walk in the opposite direction for the shops, cinema and restaurants.
The hotel had a restaurant and bar serving Starbucks coffees and a large lounge area. The bedrooms were comfortable and ours was a very good size. The bathroom was spotless and the shower was decent.
Our first impressions of Iona, well what can I say, we were speechless and just wanted to look at her! The sheer size was unbelievable! Driving to the ocean terminal was straight forward, and finding the CPS car drop off point was very easy indeed. It's well signposted and there are plenty of people to ask if you're unsure. We dropped our cases off to the hard working crew outside the terminal where they put them on to a conveyor belt to be put on the ship.
Boarding Iona was a breeze, we ended up boarding an hour before our allocated time but I wouldn't suggest going any earlier as they have it very well organised, I would think going way before our time would cause big queues and is unnecessary really.
We went straight to our muster station for our passes to be scanned and then made our way to our room where our cases were waiting for us outside.
We were in our room about 20 minutes to half an hour after entering the terminal, it was very smooth and can't fault it.
Our room for the week was inside cabin 14247, toward the front of the ship (forward) and on deck 14. It was super quiet with accommodation decks above and below us and not many people walking past being so close to the front. We didn't feel much movement at all apart from a light sway which we actually really liked, we definitely had the best sleep that week!
We tried all sorts of food the first day as you will see in the video and we enjoyed it all, very tasty and the Quays are great! Spencer's favourite was the Katsu Curry which he had a good few times over the course of the week and Charlie loved the Southern Fried Chicken, he even rated it higher than KFC!
All the entertainment we saw was spectacular, the team work so hard and really put on some fantastic productions!
That's about all we have for our first day on Iona, if you have any questions at all please ask in the comments below, we'll be more than happy to try and answer them. If you have a cruise booked, let us know where you're going and if you have any tips you would like to share please be our guest! If it helps others out who are trying to find some info on cruising, Iona or Norway then share away! Happy to help, that's what our channel is for :)
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In the meantime, thank you so much for watching (and reading if you've got this far!) We hope to see you in our next one!
Much love
Nikki
Thank you for watching the first vlog of our Norway Cruise series! Don't forget to check out the description box of all of our videos as there will usually be a review written there that may include a few more details or links which might help you. 🙂
If you have any questions write it in the comments and we'll get straight back to you.
Much love!
~ Nikki 💕
I love watching your travel day vlogs…makes me so excited for my holidays this summer !! ✈️
Aw! Hi Elsie! 🙋♀️Yay!! Bet you can't wait! I love watching travel day vlogs too, they just make me want to book again though! Haha! 🤩
Great to see the port and boarding part, I’m off on Iona very soon and this helped to relieve some of the anxiety of the unknown!
Oh I'm glad it's helped a bit, I was also a bit nervous as I wasn't sure what to expect but it was honestly a breeze! If you have any questions before you go let me know, I'll happily talk you though things.
Everyone is so helpful and friendly there too so if you're not sure about something they'll happily guide you.
Have a great time!! 💕
Ooh, that tip about booking the restaurant before you boarded is a good one! Thanks!
No problem! I think I read it on one of the Facebook groups that if you get close enough you're able to log on, so long as you have your boarding card number.
We all really wanted to try Olive Grove and was worried with our later boarding time we wouldn't get the day we wanted so thought I'd give it a try.
I do think we would have been fine waiting until we'd boarded though, and you can usually turn up to the restaurant and collect a buzzer and wait in a bar until a table is ready. It's very well organised 👍🏻
I hope you enjoy your trip! We loved it! 😍
Just booked this for next summer, was wondering where to book a hotel as coming from northern Ireland so actually really helpful aswell. Can wait.
Ahh fab! Glad it's helped! Yes there's a couple in that area, I'm not sure what the one over the road is like (Leonardo Royal Hotel) or what their views are like from their rooms, but the Holiday Inn was perfect for us 👍🏻
It will soon come round! We booked about a year in advance too and felt ages away at the time but it crept up so quick!
We were on this cruise. Super week, great food. We preferred Horizon to The Quays.
Hi Neil, oh really! It's was a great week! We went to the Horizon, mainly late evenings and for breakfast a couple of times. Our eldest, loved the Katsu curry so went to The Quays quite often so he could have that. Lunch in the main dining rooms was nice too we thought.
Will you be going on a cruise again?
Yes, definitely, we are thinking of The Med. Did you go on any excursions? We went to the glacier and cable car, which was snowed off!
How did you manage in an inside cabin with 4 of you?
Yes we'd like to do the Spain and Portugal one or one of the fly cruises to the Med or Caribbean. I keep looking at them! 😄
I was a little apprehensive with the inside cabin before we went but it was absolutely fine. We coped with the space really well and didn't find it a problem. To be fair we didnt spend that much time in it. It definitley hasn't put us off having an inside again, plus it makes cruising more affordable and gives you extra pennies to spend on other things 😊
The balcony cabins did look lovely though!
Trip wise we did the petroleum museum in Stavanger, the cable car in Olden, but bought our tickets on the day and we did the aquarium in Alesund with P&O. We enjoyed them all. 😍
I bet the glacier was good! We would like to do that if we go again. Did you get a troll car up or walk all the way?
We walked to the glacier, 45 minutes each way. It was interesting to see how much it has receded over the last few years.
Love watching your video Iona is our favourite ship and next Saturday we’re doing our fourth trip on her to Norway. I’m just wondering can you tell me what the weather was like? Because when we went last year we went in late June and it was hot and sunny, but I don’t think early May will be the same, Can’t wait to see the rest of your videos. I hope you enjoyed the ship. She’s amazing.
Hi Paul, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Ohh that's exciting, I wish we was going again, we absolutely loved it! And Iona is perfect, I would be nervous trying another ship now as we liked Iona so much. 😄
The weather was like the UK really, a little cooler and wetter the further north we went. But the first sea day and Stavager was quite warm, Olden was a sunny day but we spent most of our day up the mountain in the snow, but wasn't overly cold. Alesund was very wet and windy and cold, we had a little snow and sleet at times. The wind stayed and unfortunately made us miss the last port but the sea days were fine just very windy! I'd recommend to pack for all weathers 🙈 Any more questions let me know, happy to help if I can 😊
Have a lovely time!! 🤩
@@seetheworldwiththekids yes you’re right she is such a lovely ship and perfect for everybody is a shame you missed the last port of call but to be honest, you didn’t miss much as it’s not much to do there so don’t be too downhearted. Thanks for the advice about the weather her sistership Avia is also amazing recently had two weeks in the Caribbean such a great price. Keep an eye out on P and o website they have great deals special for families sharing a cabin
Which week did you sail on? We returned on the Norway Iona cruise today:( from the April 20th to 27th.
Ohh that's so sad 😢, we were upset to be leaving! I hope you had a fab time 🙂 We were on the first cruise of the season G408. We sailed on the 6th of April and arrived back on the 13th. Feels like ages ago now.
@@seetheworldwiththekidsWe were on the cruise between you both, 13th til 20th! Had such a fab time. It goes so fast 😢
Hi Jade! Ahh well have been leaving with sad faces as you were getting on then! 😄 Glad you had an amazing time, it sure does, goes so fast. We all said we wasn't ready to get off and would have happily stayed on another week. 😍
How do you get your boarding card number before you get on
Hi Brenda, the number will be on your boarding passes which are issued a couple of weeks before your departure date. You can either print them or download them to a device so you will have your number on the day. To log on to MyHoliday app/webpage you need the last six digits of the number on your pass, it will be under the barcode.
I hope this helps, if you have any other questions let me know 🙂
Thank you so much this is very helpful as we have a very late boarding time
Very welcome, ah yes we had a pretty late one so glad I knew about this too. Have a great cruise! 🛳🤩