P&O Iona. Sea Day and Bruges

This is Days 6 and 7 of our Iona Northern Europe Cruise. Sea day, then dock at Zeebrugge and our day in Bruges. CONCLUSIONS. We did almost the same cruise 1 year ago on MSC Euribia so it's interesting to do a direct comparison, with asides for our other cruise on Royal Caribbean's Spectrum of the Seas in between. SHIP - Euribia and Iona are about the same size. Euribia was newer and glitzier, with less outdoor space than Iona - but it seemed much better designed inside. Iona has just 1 big open space - the atrium whereas Euribia has an atrium plus the Galleria, a 2 storey street with the great ever changing illuminated arched ceiling. Iona has just 1 large multi storey venue, the theatre. Euribia has the theatre plus the huge Carousel Lounge at the back. Iona's version of the Carousel Lounge is The Club which is only 1 deck high so seems more claustrophobic. Euribia had excellent lift system where you entered your floor to call the lift and it told you which lift to wait for, making it more efficient. I found the layout of Iona confusing, lots of little corridors and few open areas. So Euribia Wins hands down for Ship (though we've also been on Spectrum of the Seas and that ship is even better than Euribia with a better rear venue and an extra 2 storey theatre, the Music Hall) FOOD - we did think food on board Euribia was a bit bland, Iona's dining room food was usually good, sometimes excellent. I'm not a great fan of cruise buffets, they never seem to be as good as buffets on land, but we've only done 3 cruises so perhaps we haven't had enough experience yet. So Iona wins the food competition (though again Spectrum of the Seas is another level up than Iona, food always excellent) STAFF - Euribia staff were uniformly welcoming and helpful - nothing was too much trouble. Iona staff were a bit more mixed - the vast majority were excellent, but some, especially in the restaurants we thought, were ever so slightly offhand - this could be because of the dinner booking system meaning you didn't sit at the same table each night so never got to know your servers. So, Euribia wins for staff (again Spectrum of the Seas was even better, the staff always superbly helpful) ITINERARY - Euribia stopped at 1 extra port, Le Havre, meaning a bit less time in the main ports. Iona had scheduled overnights in Rotterdam and Hamburg, but Hamburg was cut short due to strike. So Iona wins for itinerary with more time in interesting cities. (Spectrum of the Seas did not spend enough time in the Japanese ports, so I would say that itinerary was the poorest of the 3) Filmed February 27th and 28th 2025 Equipment used: Osmo Pocket 3, GoPro Hero 8 Black, Panasonic HC-VXF1 Editing software: Davinci Resolve Music Epidemic Sounds Music tracks: Free as Can Be - Magnus Ringblom Baby Idk - Rambutan.mp3 00:00 Sea intro 00:29 Deal or No Deal 01:34 The Pursuit 02:13 Dinner at Coral 02:32 Sky Dome Rock 03:39 Night on deck 04:09 New day Zeebrugge 04:37 Bus to Bruges 05:51 Bruges 07:46 Beer Wall 09:05 Bus back to ship 10:01 Leaving Zeebrugge 10:38 Last dinner 10:54 Paul Greenwood 11:02 Essence of 90's 11:31 Southampton