This cruise on Iona was down to the Canary Islands calling at ports down the Iberian Peninsular that always seem to crop up in our travels.
Day 1: Saturday 8th November 2025: Southampton
For once we had an easy journey down to Southampton. We arrived in plenty of time for our early boarding time at the terminal. So it seemed had lost of other passengers. The queue for dropping off our car stretched right out of the “shed”. Once we had the car we crossed to the terminal and dropped off our suitcases and were faced with enormous queues.
Boarding had yet to start and it seems lots of passengers had arrived early.
Once we were onboard we went to the Coral restaurant for lunch while we waited for our cabin to be ready. We had a long wait but that was OK as we enjoyed the company on our table and of course the lunch.
Then it was time to unpack and work out where we could put our clothes in the limited space available. This trip we had brought packing cubes to help us keep everything together on the shelves.
The USB socket on one of the bedside units was not working and the leads that i had brought for our USB-C iPhones also didn’t work. A phone call to Reception would at least fix one of the issues.
First evening on Iona
After our earlier trips on Iona we had learnt that a good place to wait for the evening meal was in the bar of the Keel and Cow. Then when it was time we could join the electronic scramble trying to get a booking for dinner in the Coral restaurant.
This being the first evening the bar area was packed and also as usual there was only one drinks waiter. The evenitable queue at the bar was ten or eleven deep when I joined. I am undecided if P&O do this deliberately to drive everyone to other bars on later evenings or that the ship’s officers just don’t take notice of previous cruises!
We joined a table for six and had an enjoyable meal and chats.
We gave all the offered entertainment a miss and retired to our cabin to read and have an early evening.
Day 2: Sunday 9th November 2025: At sea
We had a very disturbed night. In addition to hearing the wind and rain the barriers separating out balcony from our neighbours rattled all night. I tried to add to the papers already jammed into the catches.
We ate upstairs in the Horizon and then walked around the very busy shops. Downstairs we went to the Clarendon gallery to see the art on on display.
We had called reception and the broken lamp unit was completed replaced and an attempt was made to stop the rattling outside.
Afternoon
On our walk outside we were walking into strong winds and lots of rain.We had a late lunch in the Olive Grove at around 2:15pm.
The first talk of the cruise from the art gallery manager was about historic art thefts. This version of the talk was very good,
These were the catches and all the paper jammed in!
Later in the afternoon the sky began to clear.
After a now more relaxed Keel and Cow bar we went for dinner in the Coral restaurant. After a quick visit casino qwe we stopped at one of the bars to some extended people watching.
After 11 the barriers were now making even more noise than before. An engineer arrived and examined the problem then came back with correctly sized heads on his screwdrivers AND tighten everything up – FIXED!
Day 3: Monday 10th November: At sea
Looking out the sky looked much better except of course for “red sky” in the morning!
We had an early announcement morning announcement that Iona had made a port call overnight to A coruna for an ill passenger. Iona would now be running a little faster to make up time.The sky may have cleared but it was still windy and bouncy when we were upstairs for our buffet breakfast.
The art talk later in the morning was all about L.S. Lowry and again an very enjoyable version of the Clarendon talk.
From our balcony we were seeing more passing ships than the day before.
One of the ships was Saga’s Spirit of Adventure.
Afternoon
For a change we went to the Quays for lunch. Sadly the meal I picked turned out to be uncooked and tasting disgusting. SO bad that I took it to one of the ship’s officers wandering around. No more visits this trip here to eat.
At 2pm we went to hear the guest lecturer (no names) talk about police protection officers. Not great as we not only didn’t learn very much but were subjected opinions about some of the protected folks – not for us. Not often have we attended such a poor talk.
Evening
This evening was a Celebration Evening when we were all encouraged to dress formally for the evening meal. At the Keel and Cow we sat and watched the our fellow guests walk past in all their finery. The innovation for these nights is the option to eat at “the Captain’s Table”. This has to be booked and takes place in a sectioned of portion of the Horizon buffet upstairs. The meal is the same as that offered in the other restaurants but is served in a much more intimate environment.
A great experience !
Dean Richardson as Freddie Mercury
We had booked the second performance of Dean in the theatre.
A thoroughly enjoyable show!
Day 4: Tuesday 11th November: At sea
This was our relaxing day before we started to visit ports…
What a difference it makes with settled weather and no rattling from the barriers on the balcony.
After breakfast in the Horizon buffet we relaxed and went for a late lunch in the Pearl restaurant.
Art talk on Philip Gray
This was another excellent talk. The talks from Clarendon on the ships may have similar titles but the individual art managers each adjust and improve for their own talks.
Philip Gray’s progress from an Irish Navy “frogman” to a renowned artist who paints in the most extraordinary places as well producing some gorgeous landscapes was indeed spell binding. Other times I have seen this artist’s work in a presentation I have left not very inspired but not this time!
In his seascapes/landscapes look for the human figures somewhere on the canvas…
After the talk we paid an extended visit to the gallery and looked closely at the crayon work of Fabian Perez.
Time for more relaxing!
Unlike the previous evenings on Iona we would have had lots of choices for entertainment: country music in The Sky Dome with Angie Grace Brown, comedy vocals with K-Lo in the theatre or the Limelight Club with Mary Mac. We had booked the Limelight Club as soon as we boarded for a number of shows. We haven’t been in there since our first cruise on Iona. For this cruise it was £31.35 per person for the dinner show.
Mary Mac in the Limelight Club
After booking the next task when going to the Limelight Club is to time your entry into the queue to try and get a table with a view. We joined the queue at 6:30pm.
The warm up…
The main meal and desserts.
The performance…
The 710 Club
Off the atrium is the 710 Club. This is another bookable venue and for some particular reason P&O allows guests to book many many shows rather than limiting how many can be booked in advance. This means that other guests have to queue for the remaining (say) 20% seats BUT have to accept poor seats.
We decided to try after our enjoyable early evening at the Limelight. We joined the queue for remaining seats but as on our earlier visits we were crushed onto a settee with lousy views and frankly we were b’uncomfortable.
The band were as usual very good and played rock favourites. BUT until P&O allow a more fair process for booking I think we’ll not be attending again especially as I had a dreadful neck ache from straining around the folks next to us to see. These folks spent the whole time on their phones which was extremely distracting having the bright phones shining back at my face.
Sadly one to avoid..
Our first port was Lanzarote the next day.
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