david05

37 minutes ago, Northern Miss said:

I am on SofA on the 6th August out of Southampton and on 'My Saga' it tells me I'm in a shared car and my pick up time is 9.00am.

I understand that MySaga showed a shared car for those over 75 miles unless you had paid for a private transfer (ie not shared) even when because of covid Saga were not providing shared cars. The Saga website currently states that the private service will be provided for cruises sailing until the end of July.

39 minutes ago, lincslady said:

I don't think so, he just takes you at whatever the expected speed is - with a coffee/loo break unless it is a short distance.  I have arrived sometimes at 12.30, sometimes not until 2 - obviously a lot depends on traffic etc.  Some  folk who live pretty close do not even get picked up until after lunchtime.

 

The caveat here is that I have not been on a Saga ship for about 4 years; others may chime in with more up to date facts.

It is still as you describe. Although as Wacktle says the driver may contact you and suggest/agree a change of time - this happened to us once. When travelling to Southampton we didn't usually get picked up until after lunch and arrive between 3pm and 4 pm.

35 minutes ago, Tothesunset said:

Well, the dogs have just gone to the kennels😢

 

Then a little while ago our driver for tomorrow rang to confirm the pick up at 08.35. Poor chap is coming from Gatwick - 150 miles away! Long day for the poor man. 

 

This got me to thinking: Is it good form to tip the driver? We thought, if he was good, £20 might be fair. Any thoughts? 

We have never got the impression that the driver expects a tip but why not if you have a good journey. Hope you have a wonderful cruise and looking forward to your reports.

2 hours ago, Tothesunset said:

2 days to go and the suitcases are 3/4 packed. Having watched a YouTube tour of a standard cabin it looks like storage space might be an issue. Is there room under the bed to put the unpacked suitcases? 

 

Looking ahead at the weather forecast it's quite possible that we might not get any rain while in Ireland. A week with no rain in Ireland? Has the world gone mad? 

 

Yes plenty of space under the bed for suitcases and we put the life jackets under the bed. You might be pleasantly surprised on quite how much you can fit into the drawers and shelves. We have had no problem with space for cruises of over a month. We usually take 2 suitcases and 2 largish bags, plus hand luggage.

12 hours ago, Ardennais said:

I wonder whether you went to the same hotel as we did in Ephesus following an excursion - a lovely terrace overlooking the sea, and it was a great lunch. 
 

I think it probably was - lovely view indeed.

Perhaps we have been lucky but we have had some lovely lunches on P&O excursions. Particularly memorable was a fabulous lunch following an excursion to Ephesus, another on a Greece island (can't remember which) and an excursion from Dubrovnik where we stopped at a small place with a fantastic view for a "snack" lunch where dish after dish of locally produced produce was supplied.

13 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

Yes everybody's was. But don't know if that's been dropped  along with masks etc.

According to Saga's website the pre-allocated dinning on the first night continues until at least the end of August. Of course there is some flexability eg you don't have to eat in a speciality restaurant if that food is not to your liking and we changed our allocated dinning time to one that suited us without any bother.

12 hours ago, alanandpam said:

Feel Saga have possibly the right idea with, as I understand it, banning independent excursions, which I am sure would put a lot of people off cruising. Anyway its over now and I don't think I will go cruising for a while

Saga did only allow passengers to go on organised excursions for longer than other lines but have allowed independent excursions for a few months now.

1 hour ago, Kohima said:

We usually take ginger biscuits on board as ginger is helpful to nibble if feeling queasy. They don’t seem to keep them onboard and since Covid don’t have the bowls of ginger available at the dining entrances.

You can, however, ask for the crystallised ginger pieces with the petit fours at dinner (we did on our recent cruise).

If you are at all worried you can take one Stugeron tablet just before you travel and then one each day for the first few days as a preventative measure. It usually works. 

13 hours ago, Denarius said:

Curious about your comments re choice of main courses at dinner in the MDR/Grill. I was on SofA in March and as I recall it there were as well as the choices you list, another meat dish called something like Chef's Recommendation plus another called Simple Fare, which was basically British comfort food like fish and chips. ie, 5 choices in addition to the vegetarian/vegan. There were also a couple of always available items like salmon and steak. Would be dissappointed of the amount of choice had been reduced.

Don't think there was a chef's recommendation but the simple fare and always available were on the menu. So usually a choice of around 8 mains, including veggie, for dinner. The steak always available did not often appear on the Grill menu, even when it was on the MDR menu, but I believe you could still ask for it.

11 hours ago, jh1809 said:

How long before the start of a cruise does one normally receive the final mailing with info on such things as what time the taxi will be picking you up, and one's ticket and luggage labels? My cruise is the SoD one to Iceland and Greenland departing Dover on 10th July, and I'm starting to get a little nervous that the mailing hasn't arrived yet.

If you booked direct with Saga your pickup time should also appear in MySaga, under UK Travel, perhaps a week or so before you get your letter.

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

I am surprised that there were not many choices in the buffet restaurant at lunchtime.  I have not yet, unfortunately, been able to go on one of the new ships, but on Sapphire I remember that as well as the  traditional hot dishes and puddings there were, which we enjoyed, lots of cold offerings including a lovely cheeseboard and fishy/cold meat/mixed different salads, and some healthy and not so healthy but delicious cold desserts.

 

More the sort of thing many of us enjoy as the lighter meal of the day.

These are all still available in the buffet, although personally I wasn't overly impressed with many of the cold deserts on offer which is why we often finished with cheese and biscuits. They also seemed to have run out of coleslaw towards the end of the cruise!

I don't think so. The choice seemed pretty much as usual with regard to main courses. The one disappointment was in the lunchtime hot pudding - not much variety over the cruise and usually a sponge pudding. The occasional very nice rice pudding to break the monotony and once a jam roly poly which was hard, dry and lacking a reasonable amount of jam - one of the very few food disappointments as generally the food was excellent.

Whilst we are the opposite as we prefer the speciality restaurants on Adventure, although overall we have a preference for sailing on Discovery! At the end of the day we are happy on either ship and it's the itinerary which decides which one we sail on. Our experience is that the seafood restaurant is very popular and, on a shorter cruise, it pays to book early if you want to ensure you get to try it.

Did you try the Grill for lunch? We used it all the time whether we wanted a full lunch (not often!) or a snack.  Do so agree with your comments about Amalfi - the change in menu made such a difference. We dined in Kukhuri about 6 times and is our favourite speciality restaurant - it was lovely to eat outside on a couple of occasions. We also ate outside on the Veranda some evenings which made a nice change.

The included excursions can be mixed. On this occasion we only did 2 included excursions. The Panoramic Athens was much better than we expected with plenty of time to stroll around at the bottom of the Acropolis. The included excursion to Troy was one of the best excursions we have ever done - paid or unpaid - a detailed tour of the site and a visit to the fantastic museum.

43 minutes ago, BestGuessed said:

Hi David,  really pleased to hear that you had a lovely cruise and thank you for your update.    
It’s good to know that protocols are gradually easing on board to eventually fall in line with what is happening on land at home. 👍🏻
My husband and I enjoy dancing, do you if this was affected by any restrictions that you were aware of and was the entertainment generally good?  
This will be our first cruise with Saga and we are keen to know what we should expect.   Thank you for taking the time to post. 
 

Dancing early evening and later in the evening in the Britannia lounge and masks were not required (although were needed for the morning line dancing), not many dancing though. The resident trio in the lounge were excellent and we were often in the lounge just to listen to them before going to dinner (ok we may have had a drink or two as well 🍸). Overall the entertainment was pretty good, though it does depend on what you like. The crew show towards the end of the cruise was one of the best we have ever seen with some excellent singers in particular.

5 hours ago, BestGuessed said:

Thank you for your feedback David.  That sounds very encouraging and we are starting to get excited about our cruise now …. hope you had a lovely holiday.

Yes it was a lovely cruise with mainly very good weather which always helps 😎 and the staff were brilliant.

Apart from less mask wearing the big advantage of the new protocols may be that close contacts no longer need to self isolate, just be tested regularly and only isolate if testing positive. On the cruise just finished, the only close contacts to a positive case who themselves subsequently tested positive that I know of were spouses who opted to remain together is isolation. That is not to say that there weren't any unrelated close contacts who subsequently tested positive during their self isolation but I didn't hear of any.

23 hours ago, BestGuessed said:

I hope everyone who will be returning to Southampton tomorrow has had a wonderful cruise and if anyone can find time to post comments about their onboard experience and how the current protocols are working we would be very grateful.  
Did anything change from the 19th June or are the restrictions on SoA only being eased for those boarding from tomorrow? 

Protocols seemed to work pretty well on cruise just finished with low number of covid cases. Didn't seem to be any real change before leaving the ship, except the removal of most of the keep left signs on the stairs and corridors, so those embarking now should see a significant difference from what we experienced regarding protocols. Hope all goes well for them.

We have had no problem with storage space when on board for over a month. There is plenty of room under the bed to store suitcases, shoes and life jackets and there is a reasonable no of drawers and shelves. We do use their laundry service for some of our clothes but not, as mentioned above, for anything delicate. The charges are reasonable if you don't qualify for free laundry.

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

I'm just trying to think of any time in the last 40 years of travelling around the world when I thought "oh, how I wish I had a pen knife !"

 

When trying to undo the cap on the plastic water bottle provided by Saga when you go ashore!

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

When I sailed on SofA in late March there was a pack of face masks in my cabin, together with a pocket sized bottle of hand sanitiser (there was a larger bottle on the cabin table) and a pair of surgical gloves (purpose of which uncertain!) I was a single passenger, I assume that a couple got more. If you wanted more face masks, they were available free of charge at reception.

Face masks etc are still provided but the larger bottle of sanitiser is no longer in the cabin but was never really needed.

Line dancing fans may also wish to know that masks are still required for line dancing on SoA (no masks needed for ballroom dancing). Sadly another passenger has recently tested positive for covid and even more sadly a few passengers deemed to be close contacts are also self-isolating.

Yes to all! Buried on the Saga website is the following

"The shopping experience aboard Spirit of Discovery is as unique as the ship itself. Take advantage of tax-free purchases on selected cruises including clothes, bespoke fine jewellery and watches, and the services of a private jeweller offering unique hand-crafted pieces. There are also perfect gifts for every occasion, and personalised pieces exclusive to Spirit of Discovery. You’ll also find a range of the latest fragrances, cosmetics and skincare from some of the world’s most renowned high-end brands. Or if you’ve forgotten an essential item, you’ll also find a wide range of everyday products, toiletries, drinks and snacks in our smaller port shop by the entrance."

There is also a small range of duty free spirits etc available to purchase and collect towards the end of the cruise.

No consolation but I don't think the sea was as bad as it sometimes has been. We met another couple who were badly affected the first day but were fine the next day after an injection from the doctor. I would hope Saga would let you change without any penalty, or even refund your money when you explain why.