This was our third Christmas Markets cruise on Iona sailing from Southampton.
Day 1: 7th December 2024: Southampton
We has an early boarding time and arrived at the docks before 11 am. The queue for car parking was short this early in the day. Once through check-in we had to wait as the ship was not ready to receive new passengers.
After making our way to register at our muster station we went back down to the restaurant and enjoyed our lunch while we waited for the cabins to be ready.
Our cabin was on Deck 10, which was one deck below where we had travelled to the Canaries in October.
After unpacking, always fun on Iona due to the lack of drawers and cupboard space we sat and relaxed to wait for Iona to leave port. Then we had a message from the Captain that due to very high winds in the Channel, Iona would be remaining in Southampton until at least Sunday. Even more disappointing was that the first port of Hamburg was now cancelled.
We had dinner in the 6th floor restaurant. Unfortunately the evening performance in the theatre was “Digital”, a show that we had seen before. A quiet evening for us.
Day 2: 8th December 2024: Southampton
After a late breakfast we headed off into Southampton to walk into the city centre.
No transfer buses had been provided and we simply followed the crowd out of the docks and into the city. Outside the West Quays shopping centre there was a Christmas Market. We didn’t stay very long as by now the temperature was falling due to the chill wind.
Southampton’s Holyrood Church
We walked through the remains of the old city walls at Bargate on our way back to the docks. We stopped to look at a ruined church. This was Holyrood Church that had been destroyed in the blitz of 1940.
Further down High Street we passed graffiti high up on the walls of buildings
We took a short cut down Winkle Street.
Following fellow passengers back to dock we were surprised to see their shopping bag with packets of loo paper – maybe it was cheaper in Southampton? Who knows?
The Chef’s Table
We had booked the Chef’s Table as soon as we had access to the ship’s Intranet. The evening was a Black Tie evening and after our great experience in October we chose to eat upstairs in the re-configured buffet – the Chef’s Table. Unlike October we didn’t receive a free glass of wine…
The meal and the service was excellent.
The Privateers
The evening’s performance in the theatre was from The Privateers. We had booked to see them at their late performance at 10:30pm.
Their performance was a mix of folk music and sea shanties.
Back in our cabin we reflected on the day in Southampton. The programme for the day had remained as if the ship was at sea on its way to Hamburg. Our walk into Southampton meant that we had missed the talk from Param Sandhu. He is a leading photographer of wild tigers. Unlike other cruise lines P&O had made no effort to change the programme to reflect it was no longer a sea day.
Day 3: 9th December 2024: At Sea
Iona had slipped out of Southampton overnight.
Iona was now sailing down the English Channel towards the Atlantic away from our first port!
We braved the cold and wind and walked the promenade deck. Iona’s promenade deck has lots of windbreaks and in places is quite narrow. Passing passengers coming in the opposite direction is always a squeeze but definitely made much worse by deckchairs halving the deck space between windbreaks.
The highlight of the morning’s walk was a rainbow off the starboard side.
In the early afternoon we had lots of blue sky accompanied by choppy seas.
After lunch we went to the presentation on the “Life and works of L.S. Lowry” in the Limelight Club. This is a presentation that we have seen before but the Art Gallery team had refreshed the presentation and added new material.
It was still choppy looking down from our balcony.
Down the corridor from our room a couple of doors were decorated with magnetic tiles.
Day 4: 10th December 2024: At Sea
This sea day was scheduled to be the day after Hamburg as Iona transited to Rotterdam.
Iona had now turned and was making her way back up the Channel to Rotterdam.
After breakfast we explored the shops. Yesterday the shops had been very busy. Perhaps because this was a short cruise passengers had been allowed to pick up their duty free spirits and this had only added to crowds!
We were surprised to see that in the perfume store prices had been removed and then new labels had been added with higher prices. This box had not had the old price tag fully removed…
Afternoon
The 710 Club
The theme for this evening was was music from singer-songwriters. I joined the standby queue at 10 pm and we then sat in the Atrium to wait to see if we had made it into the show. At around 10:25 we were called. The seats had an obscure view but the performance was excellent.
After the club I watched from our balcony as Iona passed one of the offshore windmill farms.
The ship’s clocks were changed overnight to European time which was forward by one hour.
The next day we docked in Rotterdam by the Erasmus Bridge.
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