david05

3 hours ago, Kohima said:

The system is now that passengers receive an email at 9am on the appointed day to say that excursions may be booked for that particular cruise. It’s easy to then book and pay online through Manage My Booking but reading through all the options can take some time!

Gone are the days when we received a lovely cruise book which acted as a permanent souvenir. 

Some passengers do receive an email but not all. We are registered for email but received no information about excursions available to book for our most recent 2 cruises. It all seems to be rather a lottery now.

25 minutes ago, FatBoy20 said:

The link is the same as Saga sent out & not all link to individual Cruises working.

Haven't looked at all of them but at least some of the links which didn't work earlier are working now, at least for me.

Not at all impressed with the faulty links or the cruises we have been able to look at. Think we might be moving our advance registration to 2026. Wish they would go back to providing a pdf advance brochure.

1 hour ago, maesteggirl said:

We are going on April 17th and received an email saying excursions were available to book on Feb 6th.

However we were sent an email by Cruise Guest Support for the same cruise detailing tendering instead of docking at Kefalonia which went into my junk mail. I don't check mine very often so it was just by chance I saw it!

This is very strange, we received the tendering information by post! I've just checked and email is shown as our preferred means of communication, so I've no idea why Saga is sending out information by differing forms of communication, or not at all in some instances!

I think you mean the Keffallonnia, not Malta and it just says "Conservative attire is required for the visit to the Monastery" and what that means in practice I have no idea but shorts may not be acceptable. I would suggest you ask at the shore excursion desk once you are on board.

1 hour ago, cruiserj1965 said:

Saga no longer send booklets, here is a link to find out when excursions went on sale. I believe everyone who has an email on their booking should receive an email notification to book.

https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/ocean/the-saga-cruise-experience/excursion-availability.aspx

If our experience is anything to go by then this list may have replaced the email! Don't remember seeing anything warning us to check the website for the date when excursions go on sale.

2 hours ago, Lady Meer said:

That's disappointing. When is your cruise?

Mid April so just under 9 weeks away.

In the past we have always received an email and/or a booklet in the post when the shore excursions opened for booking. However, this didn't happen for our next cruise and we only discovered they were available to book when I happened to check via "Manage my booking". They must have been available for a while as 2 were fully booked (annoyingly we might have quite liked one of those) and another 2 had less than 10 spaces left. Has anyone else had a similar experience? It may be that we have just been unlucky and the usual email didn't get sent to us or failed to get through for some reason (our email has not changed and I did check the spam box!).

It used to be the case that, with the exception of E deck cabins, if you pre-registered at anytime you would almost certainly get the 35% discount. However, it would seem that (because of the volume of pre-registrations now happening) if you make a late pre-registration, you can find that the discount for a number of cabin grades will have dropped by the time your turn comes around. This is when it can pay to check the cost of a higher grade cabin as eg a cabin on deck C may be less than one on deck D because of the different discounts available at that moment in time.

I wonder if you could pay it through the Saga World rep on board? They do take payments for cruise deposits or for pre-registration usually. However, on our last cruise people were apparently being told not to pay on board but pay on return and I don't know if there was a particular problem or if this is a change of practice. You could ring Saga and ask them if you would be able to pay on board. I have accessed my online bank account whilst on board without too much difficulty. 

Haven't used them but think you book for each port you would like to use one and then it's yours for that day. Wasn't particularly looking out for them but didn't see a lot of use. There seemed to be more put out from the ship than used on occasion so it is possible that they might allow a late decision to book one. Presumably they usually want a reasonable notice so that they know how many to charge up fully.

It might be worth mentioning that you can also ask for a glass of sparkling white wine as an alternative to the still wines.

12 minutes ago, beaujolais said:

We have just returned from the SoA Christmas cruise and the complimentary wines were the worst we have ever been offered on over 20 years of cruising apart from the dry rose'

The wines offered are all available at discount stores in the UK at under £6 a bottle, I checked online

We drank from the "to pay" offerings mainly after the first few night's

Wine can be a very personal choice. We were on the same cruise and we enjoyed the pinotage and shiraz (Banrock Station which is £8 in Tesco), as well as the chenin blanc (our go to wine when fancied something at lunchtime) and the sweet rose. We didn't try the merlot or tempranillo as we didn't like these on previous cruises but we know others enjoyed them - it's all a matter of taste but most people should find at least a couple of wines to enjoy.

There are usually at least 3 reds available. On our last cruise we had a choice of a pinotage (very popular they ran out of it a few days before the  end of the cruise), a merlot, a shiraz, and a tempranillo. There are also 2 rose - a sweet one and a dry one. As well as the whites already mentioned there was a very nice chenin blanc. As mentioned already you can ask for any of the wines, you don't have to stick to the wines of the day.

As well as the room service menu you can also order anything off the MDR lunch and dinner menus during the restaurant opening hours which is a definite plus.

Here is a great report of a P&O Northern Lights cruise. No wheelchair but pictures which show what you can see (with a bit of luck as there is no guarantee of the lights) without going further than your balcony. 

1 hour ago, Denarius said:

As regards decor, it is a matter of personal taste; SofD is more resrained, SofA more vibrant.

I don't know if you or others think the SofD decor has improved. When we were on her earlier this year (the first time since covid) the Grill in particular looked much brighter, we seemed to remember to Grill being very dull pastel colours. The main restaurant also seemed brighter than we remembered. Agree though that the decor on SofA is more vibrant.

6 minutes ago, nosapphire said:

And those who just turn up and ask for assistance purely to get in front of the embarkation queue - let's hope they are indeed refused boarding.

We can always hope! Let's hope at least they get told to wait at the back of the queue and that they will be assessed, with a further delay, when they reach the front to see whether they are deemed to be capable of managing on board without assistance.

28 minutes ago, LandC said:

The ships have identical deck plans, but we prefer the decor and the speciality restaurants on Spirit of Discovery.  We have cruises booked on both ships, however, so it’s not a deal breaker for us.  Whatever you decide, I’m sure you will have an enjoyable cruise.

The deck plans are not quite identical and we have a preference for the Adventure because we prefer its speciality restaurants. We also have a preference for the Supper Club on Adventure because it does not have the open middle looking down on the main restaurant which is the case for The Club on Discovery. However, we are happy to sail on either ship.

22 minutes ago, laslomas said:

For example, a fit and healthy person books a cruise. Two weeks before the cruise they suffer a small injury that requires occasional use of a walking stick now and again, for a week or two. Presumably they then have to inform P&O to update their previous 'on board needs' statement to include the use of a walking stick. This person does not require any assistance from staff on board in the case of emergency but could be denied boarding as they declared occasional use of a walking stick. This would include loss of money paid for the cruise. I am sure the health insurance would not cover anything like this.

The government's guidance for carriers (including cruises) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-guidance-notes-relating-to-regulation-eu-no-1177-2010/guidance-for-carriers-tour-operators-and-travel-agents-on-the-carriage-of-disabled-passengers-and-others-with-reduced-mobility-guidance-note-2 states:

"Where a disabled person or a person with reduced mobility has a booking or a ticket for a sailing and, when making the booking or buying the ticket, had provided information about their specific requirements for accommodation or need to bring medical equipment for reasons related to their disability or mobility, and is nonetheless refused embarkation at the port, the ferry or cruise operator must:

• provide a full refund within 7 days and, if all safety requirements can be met, arrange free travel for the person back to their first point of departure
• arrange, similarly if all safety requirements can be met, for the person to be taken to their destination by a different route (or on a later sailing, if that suits the passenger) at no additional cost and under comparable conditions

The choice between the two options is for the passenger."

The same ought to apply if there has been a change of circumstances which have been declared prior to departure. It seems to me that as long as you have declared the use of a walking stick and a well-founded statement that you do not require assistance, then if P&O refuse to allow you to embark you will at least be entitled to a full refund. So in theory the only people to lose out should be those who have failed to declare the use of a walking stick (and presumably P&O consider require assistance). I accept, however, that if there is a change of circumstances which means that you do now require assistance and P&O decline in those circumstances to honour the booking (prior to departure) the issue is not so clear cut.

Southampton Valet Ltd, the subject of the article, was only incorporated in June 23 with just the one director and the company has applied for voluntary strike-off and dissolution. This has been suspended as an objection has been raised (no surprise there!). 

41 minutes ago, JMMKUK said:

Ask them to offer everyone the vintage tram & port tasting excursion as a freebie. It was very good when we went on it in April.

Glad to hear that this is a good excursion as we have booked it for when we are in Lisbon on our next cruise 😋

If this has been reported to the Marine Accident Investigation Branch then Saga may be constrained in what they can say until such time as a decision is made on whether to carry out a formal investigation.

Spirit of Discovery is registered in the UK (as is Adventure) and as such is regulated by the appropriate UK authorities. I would think that this occurrence would probably need to be reported to the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and they will decide whether or not to investigate. If they do decide to investigate this will become public knowledge (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marine-accident-investigation-branch-current-investigations/marine-accident-investigation-branch-current-investigations).

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Do you mean that the picture is staged, or that it couldn’t have been that bad because the fruit is still in the bowl?

Well the picture does look odd, maybe the person who took it had put some of the things back upright and the tissues back on the desk but, if not, then yes it does look a bit staged. That's not to minimise what happened but you can't necessarily believe everything you see.