Last weekend I got off the cruise ship Iona, having spent 14-days on a cruise down to the Canary Islands and back. This is my third cruise and the second one on Iona. The cruise was a bit of an experiment, which we’ll get into, and it also serves as a bit of a chance to sit back and review how I will approach cruising in the future.
Rewind two months ago
At the end of June, I was on Iona, cruising to the Norwegian Fjords. I enjoyed the cruise and loved the environment of the ship, but it didn’t leave me impressed enough that I immediately wanted to book the same cruise line and ship again. There wasn’t anything bad about it. It met my goals for the trip and then some, I just felt the entertainment and the food was okay.
I was hoping to be wowed a bit more in those areas.
I did want to do something else this year though, I just didn’t know whether it was something involving a plane, another cruise or going on a couple of 9-day jaunts in the van.
The price is right
What kept me looking at the cruises is I wanted to try and get somewhere that might promise some sun but I still wasn’t in a place where I wanted to go on a plane, deal with airports and whatever else. This makes cruising a logical choice.
So I kept an eye on cruises going to autumn and winter sun locations from UK ports.
I nearly found myself on a Princess cruise to the Canary Islands. I’d have been quite happy with that. It was a bit more than what I paid for the P&O Iona one, but it did include a bunch of stuff like the drinks package and internet, so it wasn’t directly comparable. It would have also been a medallion class ship which with the funky ‘find you anywhere’ technology which I’m keen to try out.
Sadly, the variables couldn’t align for that one.
Everything is right at the right price. I kept an eye on Iona cruises to the Canary Islands and one of them kept coming in at £1K exactly for two weeks and, since it’s a cruise, it bundles in all the food. They were also charging the same per person even if you went solo, it is pretty crazy. I mean £500 a week with every other expensive being completely optional isn’t bad for a 14-days of relaxation bliss. If you then throw in the £270 cruise credit it’s pretty nuts.
I waited. It sold out. I checked again some days later and it was back so I booked.
Setting some challenges
I like to have some challenges and differences whenever I travel. I’m not one to just do the same thing all the time. So I did set myself a number of challenges for this cruise.
Surviving fourteen days. I’m not joking. On any 14-day holiday, I’m usually getting into go-home mode somewhere between 10-14 days in. I’m not one of those people who never want to leave. I’ve only ever done 7-day cruises, which are obviously a good length as I never feel I’ve overstayed my welcome. I can’t say I’m 100% sure this will be the case with a cruise twice the length. So, it’s an experiment. It’s also a test as to whether I should do a transatlantic cruise or not as I think this will answer that question.
Try more food. The food wasn’t the focus of the last trip, but with fourteen days onboard I am going to try more of the options at more of the restaurants. I am going to be a bit more intentional with this part of the trip while it was a bit more functional during the Fjords trip. I’m interested in if it changes my view of the food on Iona which I thought was serviceable and average.
A ten-book target. Okay, it’s a target, not a rule, that is going to cause me to sit reading if I’d rather be doing something else. It’s a realistic target though as on the cruise to the Norwegian Fjords I got through five books in seven days so ten in fourteen doesn’t seem too unrealistic. We shall see. It depends on what I’m doing in port, how long and complicated the books are, etc. If I can even find ten to read! We shall see.
The book list: –
- Snowflake by Louise Nealon
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
- A Shock by Keith Ridgway
- Upgrade by Blake Crouch
- The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
- Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
- The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
- Survival of the Richest by Douglas Rushkoff
- How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
You can’t underestimate how excited I am just to get into this book list without a care in the world.
Not gain weight. A personal one. It’s not new. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has set themselves such a challenge. I want to at least come off the same weight as I’ve left but the real target is to have lost pounds. I’m going to weigh myself before I leave and then when I get back. I am going to set myself a challenge of getting in an average of 5 miles a day across the full days of the cruise (so the days I get on and off the ship).
Broadly, I am just looking for a break from things, some relaxation and a bit of time in the sun, but seeking out some of the challenges and differences is essential to the experience.
The challenge results
Did I survive fourteen days? Sort of. The specifics are quite different. I found the last two days a bit challenging, especially the last day. This probably was influenced by the bad weather on the last two days but such weather was always very likely. I also had a bit of a blip around day seven or so to the extent I actually binged watch Mare of Easttown until about 0100 in the morning (I also got Succession S1 done by spreading the episodes out across the cruise). I’d say I lasted ten days and I probably shouldn’t break that in the future unless I have a very rich and specific itinerary.
Was the food better? Yes, but I still think it’s bland. The buffet doesn’t offer many variations. Restaurants like the Olive Garden are just bland to terrible, I can’t even offer excuses for the pizza I had there. The main dining restaurants offer food that is nice to eat but it’s not really inspiring. It doesn’t offer meals of sufficient interest to keep me going through the experience. I couldn’t eat there for the majority of the cruise. The restaurants I did like were Sindhu, the Keel and Cow and The Beach House (primarily the steak on a stone) but it’s noticeable these are restaurants with a charge. The included food on Iona is banal and there is no defending it – the only exception is The Quays, which offers fantastic fish & chips, Asian bowls, and southern fried chicken just avoid the burgers.
Did I read ten books? Not even close and this surprised me. I got through five and then I lost momentum and could just not read anymore. It seems that when my mind is free of all concerns I can read ridiculously fast and consume books at an amazing rate but only for so long and then I burn out and my brain wants to do something else. The books I read are listed below: –
- Upgrade by Blake Crouch
- Survival of the Richest by Douglas Rushkoff
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
- Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
- How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The below thread has my quick take on each one: –
Did I lose weight? Okay, this was really challenging one. Before I get to whether I lost weight or not did I achieve 5 miles a day across all the full days on the cruise?
Despite achieving the 5 miles on average you can actually see the days I found challenging. As noted earlier I hit a bit of a cruising wall around day 7 and you can see a mileage drop on the 15th which will have been the day I binged TV and the last day by which point I just wanted to be on UK soil.
I can’t say if I lost weight as I didn’t take a good enough before and after sample, but I certainly feel better and tighter around the waste – so something good was going on.
Future of cruising
So, what’s the future of cruising? Well, this cruise has allowed me to understand how I am going to approach it in the future.
My first conclusion is I’m not going to become a serial cruiser for the sake of cruising. There is definitely a cruise culture and these people wrack up an immense amount of time on ships. Cruising is what they do. They book them years out in advance and often do the same cruises every year and meet the same people. It’s very much a culture and a fandom.
I’m never going to be part of that.
I suspect I will do more cruises in the future but they will be destination and ship specific. The cruise is really a means to an end. A good example would be an Alaska cruise. It’s very destination focused and I’m cruising because there is some advantage to experiencing the location that way.
And, Finally…
When it comes down to it this trip just has one simple goal. Disconnect. Relax. Open my mind. Just enjoy the sun. It’s the closest I’ll come to a beach holiday. The cruise delivered on all of that. It also allowed me to understand I’m not in the market for a transatlantic cruise and I should possibly keep my cruises to 10 days or less.
Cruising will continue to be an option in the future when the cost, ship and destinations make sense.