Iona fjords

[Smilesonfaces]

Originally Posted by daffodil92

I’m on Iona in the May half term - slightly different ports to OP but can I join in this thread? 😃
Which restaurants were included in the price of your cruise please? I’m finding it confusing to know what is and isn’t free.
Also, if you take your own wine on board do they charge a corkage fee if you only drink it in your room?
Do they do anything like wine tasting classes onboard? ( I’m not an alcoholic - honest! &#128514

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Most of the restaurants are included. There really isn’t any need to go to the extra charge restaurants. The included restaurants were all lovely and more than enough. The main dining rooms whilst not having massive choice served lovely food with attentive service.

Epicurean and Sindhu are extra. We only ate there because they did a half price deal on the first 2 nights. This isn’t advertised, go on to your app whilst waiting in the terminal to see if the offer is there and book.

Quayside- takeaway type food and all included. Hook, line and vinegar does really good proper fish and chips. Fusion- Asian
type food and the American diner serving burgers, fried chicken etc and an American style breakfast. There was a pool bar serving pizza, the grab and go bar served sandwiches, salads etc but wasn’t open on our cruise. These were included.

Olive Grove was one of our favourites. We only managed to get lunchtime bookings because it is popular. Most of the menu is included, there are just a few extra charge items.

One of the main dining rooms does an included afternoon tea. The Epicurean one is £17.50 each.

Vista sells Costa coffees and is extra

We did think the buffet was fairly poor but wasn’t sure if this was just because of covid. We had all our breakfasts served in one of the main dining rooms.

Keel and Cow served Gastropub type food and was extra. The food looked good but we didn’t go in.

There was an ice cream parlour which was extra.
There were a few other extra charge places but we didn’t go in them.

We took onboard a 70cl bottle of gin, a 70cl bottle of wine and 2 small bottles of champagne. A teeny bit over allowance but it wasn’t checked. I also took 2 x 8 small cans of fever tree tonic. These were for the cabin only. Ask the steward to bring you glasses and a bucket and ice each day. You can probably take wine to the restaurants and pay a corkage fee but the prices were ok in the restaurants so I can’t see it being worth doing.

Not sure about wine tasting. We went on a staycation and activities were restricted.

[Ariel85]

Originally Posted by daffodil92

I’m on Iona in the May half term - slightly different ports to OP but can I join in this thread? 😃
Which restaurants were included in the price of your cruise please? I’m finding it confusing to know what is and isn’t free.
Also, if you take your own wine on board do they charge a corkage fee if you only drink it in your room?
Do they do anything like wine tasting classes onboard? ( I’m not an alcoholic - honest! &#128514

See more...

Included:
The are 4 main dining rooms (Pearl, Coral, Aqua and Opal). All open for dinner, 1 is always open for lunch and 1/2 open for breakfast too. Aqua I think it is serves an afternoon tea that is included too.

Horizon buffet

Olive Grove - vast majority of food is included and delicious. Would really recommend but does get booked up.

Taste 360 I think it is called - quick serve pizza, burgers etc

The Quays - 3 different stations serving fish and chips, Asian and American. Really good food and less manic than the buffet.

Extra
Sindhu- Indian. Really nice!

Keel and Cow - steakhouse. I’m not a fan of steak so can’t really comment but hubby said it was good.

Glasshouse - tapas style dishes and lots of wine choices. Enjoyed this one!

Epicurean - fine dining. Have not tried here as we had a 2 year old in tow!

Beach house - Caribbean/Mexican? Hanging steaks, fajitas etc. Surchargeof £7.50pp I think.

Any alcohol/soft drinks bought on board are for consumption in your cabin only. You can’t pay a corkage fee in the restaurants. There are water machines dotted around the ship so take a refillable bottle. You can take 1 litre of alcohol on board each although it wasn’t checked in October (I mistakenly bought too much!). Soft drinks are unlimited though.

Don’t think they did wine tastings but Anderson’s bar and the Crows nest do gin/rum flights and Glasshouse does wine flights.

[daffodil92]

Wow! Thank you both for your brilliant replies - that is SO helpful! 😃
Really looking forward to it. It sounds amazing!

[anna68]

Thanks this is great information

[Loopylooloo]

We loved the norwegian fjords cruises. Especially passing so many beautiful waterfalls.

Take some layers of clothing as weather can be varied. Try to eat and drink on the ship as much as possible as it is super expensive on land.
In Olden we went to Briksdal Glacier, and although not much glacier to see we loved the walk in the park surrounding it, it was so pretty and our tour included a fantastic cake buffet at the bottom afterwards!

Have a wonderful time.

[daffodil92]

Can anyone share any experiences and recommendations for Stravenger , Geiranger and Haugesund please? We’re keen to do things independently where possible.

[Dinglebert]

In Olden we got off the ship and took one of the local trolly buses on a roundabout path. Quite enjoyed it.

[Bartswife]

We are on Iona in May14th. In olden we are doing the trip to the glacier. alesund we are walking upto the viewpoint. Haugesund we are taking a trip to Skudeneshavn. stavanger a cruise and visit to pulpit rock. We have never been before and as the trips are mostly just four hours or so leaves us time to take a look around the ports. This will be our 4th cruise but first on Iona. Not sure if I’m allowed to mention other sites but a well known social media site is full of photos of the ship, cabins and tips etc. other than that look on your personaliser for trip details and go from there.

[BevS97]

Originally Posted by daffodil92

Can anyone share any experiences and recommendations for Stravenger , Geiranger and Haugesund please? We’re keen to do things independently where possible.

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Stavanger. We loved walking around the town. No need to book anything.

[Leanne1977]

We are doing the Fjords on Iona in May too. We go on 21st May. We did Iona in October to the Canaries and thoroughly enjoyed it so looking forward to it again. Shes a beautiful ship. 😍