There is a huge range of entertainment on board Iona. It’s one of the most impressive things I found about the cruise – how they manage to create such a variety of experiences to cater to the tastes and interests of such a huge range of people, every day and night.
I don’t think it’s possible to experience everything Iona has to offer on a one week cruise. The variety of venues and performances is so huge.
Below is a description of just a small sample of the experiences, venues and entertainment on offer that interested us.
Every day a newsletter is delivered to your cabin with the full timetable of events for that day, which is really useful, but here’s some of what we got up to during our times on board….
Gym
I’m sure going to the gym and working out is the last thing on the minds of many cruise ship passengers, but as gym lovers we were keen to visit the gym when we had some spare time to do so.
It’s a very well-equipped gym with a wide range of equipment – lots of cardio machines and very modern, high quality weights machines.
Even serious weightlifters can get a decent workout in here, with reasonable weight dumbbells (up to 30kg) and barbell with a good selection of plates up to 20kgs.
They also run a selection of exercise classes and even fitness consultations in there.
The gym is as good, if not better, than many leisure-club style gyms you might be a member of on dry land.
710 Club
The 710 Club is a small, adults-only live music venue which has some kind of connection to Gary Barlow.
I believe he picks the music acts and sometimes is on board performing there himself – though not when we were there.
Before every performance at the 710 Club, a long queue formed at the entrance, with lots of people turned away each time.
It’s a popular venue – and, having gone in there three nights running, we can see why.
The band in there was incredibly good. The real peak of the live music acts on board, performing a wide variety of music in a unique style.
It’s well worth making the effort to try to get in – a great venue with very high quality live music.
Headliners Theatre
The main theatre on board is a huge auditorium as large as some theatres on land, with a theatre company performing a variety of different musical-style shows multiple times each night.
We saw two – one called Festival and the other called The Sky’s the Limit.
I had no expectations of being impressed at all, having never seen cruise ship entertainment before but, as with most things on this cruise, my expectations were totally wrong and both performances were very entertaining with really high quality performers.
On the last day we went back to the theatre to watch a behind-the-scenes talk with the performers which was also interesting.
Crows Nest Bar
Perhaps our favourite bar on the ship, which is not quite so obvious to find as many of the others, as it’s tucked away right at the top and front of the ship.
Its position gives you panoramic views over the Fjords from a great vantage point and, during port ‘sail aways’ (and at other times throughout the evening) a brilliant pianist plays and sings, creating a special atmosphere as you pass by dramatic waterfalls and the cliff faces of the Fjords all around you.
Comedian Mickey P Kerr
How funny can some cruise ship comedian you’ve never heard of really be? The answer is – very!
He has an entertaining act of funny stories, jokes and comedy songs, one which is in the early evening and family-friendly, and another adult’s only one late at night.
We saw both and both were great – even despite an unwelcome intervention by an audience member trying to disrupt the late night adult performance, which Mickey P handled brilliantly and somehow even managed to get laughs out of that.
Rise – Acrobatics
The dramatic ‘skydome’ is rigged up with acrobatic trapeze equipment, which is used to put on a show where acrobats swing through the sky in the middle of the ship.
This was the only performance that we found a bit underwhelming – maybe it was just because we didn’t get a great view of it as the skydome was so busy when we arrived.
But that said, it’s still clearly very popular.
Oasis Studios Cinema
The ship has its own decent-sized four screen cinema, showing films throughout the day and night.
There’s a good variety of modern and classic films showing, with different ones screened each day.
Sunrise Sail into Olden
We heard an announcement from the captain that the ship would arrive in the Olden Fjord around 4am, sailing through the most picturesque of the destinations on the cruise as the sun rose, arriving at the port at around 9am.
We’d heard several passengers say they would get up at 4am to see the arrival at the Fjord at sunrise, so we set our alarm and, when it went off, had a look out the balcony to see if it was worth getting up for.
The answer was definitely yes – the glowing pink sky behind the mountains and the serene calm of the Fjord at that time of the day was well worth the early start for.
We walked around various different viewing points of the decks, with only a small handful of other passengers up and about at that time – and seeing the beauty of the Fjord as the ship glided through at that quiet time of day, with the sun rising over the mountains was amazing.