Sail away, sail away, sail away...accessibly!

 

On the 12th August we set sail on P&O’s Iona, cruising to the Norwegian Fjords. If you read our previous blog post, you may remember this was our long awaited first cruise experience. Having first booked it back in the autumn of 2019 and many changes later due to Covid, surgeries and lack of availability, we finally made it on board! So here we share our experience. Warning! it's a biggie...

Embarkation…

Onboard and eating lunch within 45 mins!

We were dropped off at the cruise terminal and it was nice and easy dropping our bags to the designated area for deck 10, where our cabin was located. Instead of following the masses, we were swiftly diverted to an accessible entrance and whisked off up in a lift to a dedicated accessible check in. We must’ve timed it right as after a quick check of our passports, we were directed through to security and we were quickly ascending the gangway up up enter the ship at deck 6. After a safety brief on deck 8, we grabbed our first bite to eat on board from The Quays, a quick serve, takeaway kind of set up of fish and chips, noddles and burgers. All in all, we were dropped off, checked in and sat down eating lunch onboard inside 45 minutes! Having also only travelled 35 minutes to Southampton, it was amazing to be starting our holiday so quickly without having the faff of travelling to an airport, waiting around and then having to actually fly somewhere and do the same the other end! 

Cabin...

Iona offer 35 FULLY accessible cabins (not nearly enough when there are 2614 cabins onboard!) these consist of 1 Suite, 4 Deluxe Balcony, 26 Balcony and 4 Outside cabins. Fully accessible cabins get booked up as soon as they are released, so we have learnt the hard way that you need to be quick to secure one!

We went for a Superior Deluxe Balcony cabin which was an amazing 362 sq. ft. It felt much more like we were in a spacious hotel room rather than a cabin and we really valued having a balcony, being able to get some fresh air and somewhere to sit and soak up the stunning views around us. Our balcony was just big enough for all 4 of us to sit out on to.

Our accessible cabin was entered via an automatic door, along with automatic doors to the wet room and balcony. We had one large double bed, a sofa bed and upper Pullman which our cabin steward set up each evening whilst we were out for dinner and put away again when he whilst we were eating breakfast each morning. We were never disturbed, it was as though our cabin was just magically serviced! Of course, we have our wonderful cabin steward and the housekeeping staff to thank really! We managed without a profiling bed and hoisting and took Miss S’s own shower chair. Had we wanted to, we could have hired all of this equipment through Mobility at Sea and it would have been directly delivered to our cabin. Definitely something to bear in mind for when Miss S is older. 

The wet room was nice and big and provided everything we needed, even plentiful The White Company toiletries too. Other features specific to accessible cabins included pull alarms in the wet room and both sides of the double bed and a pull down contraption in the wardrobe to enable a wheelchair user to hang up their clothes more easily. 

Our Superior Deluxe Balcony Cabin

Beds set up in the evenings

Large wet room 

Restaurants…

Much like an all inclusive resort, there was food available any time of the day. Aqua, Pearl, Opal and Coral were the four main a la carte restaurants, all had the same menu each day but the menu changed daily. On the celebration night we had a 7 course taster menu by Marco Pierre White which was offered in addition to the day's menu. Each night the menu had wine pairings also. We ate in each of the restaurants, Aqua being our favourite as it was a smaller and we got to know the waiters who were amazing with the kids! We sat at the same table in Aqua almost every morning as we were able to book our table if we booked to sit down at 7.45am. 

'Our' table in Aqua with our favourite waiters 

Horizon buffet restaurant - we weren’t as keen on the buffet restaurant as it tended to be busy whenever you went up there and personally, we found the food a bit more bland. We ate breakfast in there once to try it out and grabbed some lunch a few times as there was a selection of salads, breads etc as well as hot dishes which also changed each day. So the buffet restaurant definitely offered flexibility and could be a good option with fussier children!

You could grab counter service meals any time from The Quays which included fish and chips, some Asian dishes and burgers. There was also a Grab and Go option right by the pool where hot dogs and pizzas were on offer. 

There were many other dining options on board which were charged at a supplement. These included Indian, Mediterranean, fine dining, steak and Caribbean restaurants. Some of the bars served meals also. We ate in Sindhu, the Indian restaurant. Our food was incredible! Master S told us that his meal was the nicest food he had ever eaten and wants to recreate his meal at home. That may be a slightly tall order, but we are impressed by his ambition! 

There were a few ice-cream pallors dotted around the ship also and a cafe serving Costa coffee and cakes / pastries. These were chargeable.

Drinks packages…

Personally, we were pleased we didn’t go for a drinks package after all, as we didn’t need it! P&O did us a favour making that last minute change, helping us to decide to just cancel the package we had bought.  We went with the view that we would all still have exactly what we wanted whilst onboard, as if we did still have it all included. Well, Mr S and I are not BIG drinkers but we probably still had at least a couple of alcoholic drinks a day, bottles of wine, cocktails, coffees, the kids' fruit juices and fizzy drinks and we didn't spend as much as our drinks package would have been on drinks. In fact, overall, we spent £20 more BUT that included Mr S's paddle boarding trip, extras such as sweets and ice creams AND gifts to bring home so we won't buy a drinks package in future either. Water was available at all meal times, as was juice at breakfast. Tea and coffee was available at breakfast and in certain other food service areas such as The Quays and the buffet restaurant. 

My favourite bar was Anderson's Bar and the library which was attached to the Salcombe Gin distillery - I can recommend the Lavender Bramble cocktail, it was delicious and was sampled a few times!! 

Dressed up for celebration night

Entertainment…

Waiting for 'Exciting Science'

Horizon ‘magazine’ (they call it magazine but it is only a few pages!) was delivered each evening and we all loved looking through all the activities scheduled for the next day. The title of this post is actually from this magazine. Each evening, there would be mention of ‘Sail Away’ singers, singing us out of the port we’d visited or in reference to a photographer being around to take photos. Cue me having the song by Enya stuck in my head and singing (/annoying) the rest of the family with it! Back to the activities on offer, this could be anything from morning stretch yoga sessions (which I really regretted not having  my gym kit with me to join in with)  to kids magic shows, pub quizzes, talks on various topics throughout the whole day. There was also information of different shows and singers each evening. We saw the Stavanger gospel choir whilst onboard, Gareth Gates was at the Limelight club which was an adults only set dinner with music accompaniment. The following week it was due to be Matt Cardle. We went to see the Take That The Greatest Day show one evening and a kids show 'Exciting Science' one morning, at the Headliners theatre. There was plenty of spaces for wheelchair users, which we sussed out the evening we saw The Greatest Day, so we nabbed the prime spot the next time! There was a cinema with a selection of movies each day also. We didn't try this out but there were a selection of movies on the TV in the cabin also.

Headliners Theatre

Kids clubs…

Master S was in Scubas for 9-12 years and Miss S in Surfers for 5-8 years. There was a Nursery and Splashers for younger children and Scene for teenagers. Our children have never really been to kids clubs so we didn’t know if they would be interested. Following a quick tour on our third day onboard, they instantly decided they wanted to go and requested to go for the final four days of the cruise! Master S spent most of his time playing air hockey by the sounds of it and Miss S did some arts and crafts, played with Lego and found a new game she likes on the PS4. Either myself or Mr S stayed with Miss S whilst she was in the kids club as they were unable to offer 1:1 support due to the numbers of children they have attend. Miss S has 1:1 support at school all day and therefore it wasn’t really an option to leave her without support, nor did we want to. This was something we were aware of before we joined the cruise.

Other facilities...

Driving range!

There were four main swimming  pools onboard as well as hot tubs and whirlpools dotted around deck 8 and
elsewhere. The pools were something that we thought we may use but we actually didn’t. There were a couple of issues with Miss S using the pools, one of them being the temperature, both inside and outside of the pool as her muscles stiffen when she’s cold. It wasn’t desperately cold on the cruise but it wasn’t really warm either so this is more likely something we will try out in warmer climes. 

Other facilities onboard included a spa, gym, art gallery, casino, several shops and cruise sales.  Right at the top of the ship was a football pitch and driving range! Master S tried out the driving range. 

Stops in port…

There was a gangway for each of the port stops which made each stop wheelchair accessible, something we hadn't been 100% sure of before sailing. 

First stop!

Stavanger - 

It was great to get a first glimpse of Norway in our stop in the town of Stavanger. The paths by the water were nice and accessible but going further in to the town, the cobbles became bit tricky for Miss S in her powerchair.  So we stopped for coffee by the water instead! It was a little pricey but we were aware that Norway generally is quite expensive to visit. 

Olden - 

We found one of the best things about cruising was waking up in the morning excited to see what it looked like outside, waking up in a brand new place. Wow! Olden was just stunning to wake up to, we had properly arrived in fjord land! Mr S went paddle boarding in the fjords, which is definitely something to remember and the kids and I kept an eye out for him from the ship. The kids weren’t overly keen to venture out in the afternoon, instead wanting to check out the kids club. I should have pushed a visit a little more but instead we soaked up our surroundings from the ship and our balcony! 

Beautiful view out to Olden 

Hellesylt - 

Hellesylt

Another wonderful sight to wake up to with a stunning waterfall as the backdrop to this tiny village with a population of just 200 or so people! It dawned on us as we sat sipping coffee beside the fjords in Hellesylt that we would probably have never had such an experience had we not been delivered there by our cruise ship. To access this tiny village and all the hurdles we would have needed to navigate…flights, adapted transport, winding fjord roads etc, it’s very unlikely we would have found ourselves there otherwise! It made us think just how special cruising is. 

Haugesund -

We were pleased to see that actually the shuttle buses between the port in Haugesund and the town, were wheelchair accessible! We hadn’t expected a shuttle bus to be an option for us and being up for  a little adventure and exploration, we decided we would still find our way to the town ourselves, much to grumbles of Master S! We found our way but drop kerbs are definitely something Haugesund could do with more of! It was quite tricky navigating Miss S’s powerchair at times. Across the bridge in to the town we found a main high street of shops! The kids loved the sweet shop and we stumbled across an amazing bakery. Being gluten free, I don’t often have a lot to choose from (if anything!) in bakeries. That was not the case here, I had a few options to choose from and the apple muffin I chose which was warmed and served with cream, was incredible and definitely worth the visit! 

Haugesund

Disembarkation…

So the time came when we sadly had to leave our cruise…a week wasn’t long enough, we all wanted to stay onboard but alas, all good things must come to an end! We were actually given our disembarkation time and instructions on the Thursday afternoon. Although we didn’t really want to think about leaving yet, it did give us time to be organised. We were able to leave our bags outside our cabin from 2pm the day before disembarkation, keeping just the essentials with us. This worked really well as we had minimal baggage left with us to take to breakfast the last morning and our bags were then ready and waiting once we arrived back in to the cruise terminal. 

We were given a disembarkation time of between 9.15-9.30am and had we wanted assistance in getting off the ship, a meeting place to receive this. We could manage ourselves so just joined the masses also disembarking at that time and started to make our way out. We were escorted to a lift which took us directly down to the baggage reclaim area. All was found quickly as bags were organised per deck and we made our way out to be picked by. Being picked up and getting out of the cruise terminal was the longest part of the process as it was just so busy! Even so, we were home in the space of 2 hours having left our table at breakfast, collected our luggage and driven 35 minutes home so in reality the wait to get out of the terminal couldn’t have been more than 45 minutes or so. 

So my top tips for cruising on Iona (and a reminder for myself for our next cruise 😆)…

* Take a reusable water bottle with you - water fill up points. For kids - the Robinson’s mini concentrated squash may be useful too. 

 * Don’t get a drink’s package unless you drink like a fish and plan to drink ALOT every day. Prices were reasonable and we had exactly what we wanted. 

* Booking restaurants, shows and excursions in advance. We booked to go to Sindhu (Indian restaurant) in advance for the night of our wedding anniversary. In hindsight, we wished we had booked to go to the Olive Grove mediterranean restaurant too as we couldn’t hook in to there at all once onboard. I booked spa treatments in advance too, I didn’t check availability whilst on board for this reason but they seemed to be pretty booked up. We booked to see The Greatest Day in advance also - for the main shows it’s probably worth booking on advance. We couldn’t book any wheelchair accessible excursions as they were already all full - P&O definitely need to offer more! So for accessible tours we’ll definitely check these out much earlier next time but Mr S did manage to book paddle boarding an hour and a half before we set off! 

* Use the My Holiday App when onboard! This allows you to track queues at restaurants and add yourself to a virtual queue. This was invaluable as we never had to wait long! You can also book shows, shore excursions, keep an eye on your account on the app. Definitely worth it and the only thing I used my phone for, aside from taking pictures. 

* Rain jackets and closed in shoes! it was warm enough in the fjords but a rain jacket and closed in shoes definitely came in handy when going ashore! 

Our  first cruise experience was a huge success! Cruising felt like a 'proper' holiday and what I mean by 'proper' is that we could embark, immediately start our holiday, allow others to wait on us hand and foot and really switch off. We all literally switched our phones off as far as airplane mode, didn't purchase a Wifi package (£12 a day I believe) as we wanted to take a break from every day life and resist the temptation of logging on or risk phone calls coming through, particularly from health services! Aside the already mentioned, it was also the ease of accessing everything onboard and knowing it was all accessible, which really allowed us, as parents/carers to relax! We loved it so much that whilst onboard we booked another cruise for 2025, cruising for 2 weeks (ensuring parking is included from the start this time round!!) We may well have booked again for next year but trying to find an accessible cabin a year out appears impossible.  We cannot wait for our next cruise though and have already had emails from P&O informing us our holiday is only 101 weeks away! So P&O, if you can just create some more accessible cabins, you may see us even more frequently! For now, we’ll see you in 101 weeks 😆