BestGuessed

My husband and I will be joining you all on this cruise tomorrow. Safe journeys to the port everyone, see you onboard 🥂😁!!

Thank you for this thread HH … I have been enjoying following your cruise experience as we will be boarding on 11th October. So sorry to hear that your husband has caught the dreaded lurgy. Wishing him a speedy recovery and keeping fingers firmly crossed that you manage to remain Covid free. Thank you for keeping us all updated.

Your question is a difficult one to answer Ann. I think probably Celebrity is our favourite cruise line particularly if we book a suite and have the pleasure of Luminae but we have enjoyed many cruises with them when we have eaten in their main riding room too. The quality of the food and everything on board just seems one notch up on the other lines. However, for us personally, the lack of places to dance is an issue. We don’t find “The Grand Foyer” has enough room as it is really only a stairwell and The Sky Lounge has a tiled floor which isn’t ideal. But those criticisms are personal to us and probably don’t affect the vast majority of people. Cunard is great and obviously has the lovely Queens Room for dancing but to date we have not sailed in Grills cabins. However that will change in just over a weeks time when we will board Queen Victoria and this time we have booked Princess Grill so once we have been on this cruise Cunard may well come out as favourite !! P&O and Princess we have enjoyed too and have future cruises booked with both but comparatively, to us, these lines don’t rate quite so highly. Royal Caribbean we found to be very family orientated and there were rather a lot of young children on board which, now we are older, we prefer to avoid. However the ships were lovely and we had no complaints. Marella, we found to be excellent value for money and we would sail with them again but the fact their ships don’t normally leave from Southampton is something that deters us. We don’t enjoy airport experiences and prefer not to fly if we are able to cruise from U.K. ports. Incidentally, we will be trying an Ambassador cruise next Spring and are hopeful that we will be impressed. The fact that they are departing from U.K. ports and the cruise we will be taking is leaving from Tilbury which is very close to home, is a big plus point for us. I have been following the blog that Norbert’s Niece is writing from Ambience at present and you might be interested to read her account of her previous cruise on Saga’s Spirit of Adventure. I followed that too before our own cruise on that ship. She writes a very informative blog and it’s well worth reading. …. So going back to your original question, from a personal perspective, every single cruise we have been on has had something that has been exceptionally good and memorable about it. We just love cruising and since we discovered it fourteen years ago, no other form of holiday has seemed as attractive or exciting!!

Hello wineoclock (great name !!) We are in our mid sixties and active, enjoying ballroom and Latin dancing which was well catered for in the Britannia Lounge. At times it was rather lonely on the floor as not many others were dancing but we would say most people were older than we are. I think, from the sailing we were on, the average age of passengers would be somewhere around the late seventies. Saga offer the door to door chauffeur service to the port and their own included insurance which makes the brand very appealing to the older generation. We too are big Celebrity fans, the only downside for us is the lack of space to dance. We love Cunard and have also enjoyed cruises with P&O, Royal Caribbean, Marella and Princess. Saga compared favourably with all of them and we will definitely cruise with them again in the future, but that for us, will probably be in around five years time. I hope this is helpful. BG

Thank you WestonOne for letting me know the library has reopened, that is great news. It’s seems things are gradually becoming more normal again. Does anyone know what the current situation is with regard to quarantine cabins and what happens to anybody unfortunate enough to have Covid symptoms… has the recent procedure changed at all?

Thank you Lanky Lad for reporting your findings on board …. Do you know if the library is open again please?

I agree, from our recent experience that most gentlemen wore dinner suits … probably around 80% and quite a few were wearing white jackets. There were some dark suits and very few who didn’t comply with the formal dress code.

Thank you Rojojacko, I am pleased that you enjoyed reading the review. We certainly weren’t disappointed and like you, we are seasoned cruisers. As Windsurfboy has said, everyone on board was very friendly. I am sure you will enjoy your cruise.

Sleepingcat I agree that I should probably post my review on the CC Ship Review section but prior to our cruise I was asking people who were onboard to report back to us about what we could expect once it was our turn. With that in mind I wanted to provide our feedback for future cruisers who tend to observe the Saga threads. I also agree that the lack of books in the library is rather ludicrous 🤷🏼‍♀️ …. Even the paperback exchange isn’t available. Thank you David05 for informing me that slippers should have been present in the cabin on arrival, I did wonder about that !! There are a couple of other details that I forgot to mention in my review, one of which is The Veranda at the back of the ship which is beyond The Grill. This is a lovely outdoor space where lunches of freshly (cooked to order) fish and chips and scampi, burgers and other such items are served. If the weather is nice it’s a great place to sit with a drink and enjoy the view. We enjoyed lunch there everyday that the weather permitted. The quality of the food is incredibly good and we can highly recommend it. Other buffet items available from The Grill can be taken outside and if you order freshly cooked food from hot section there, they will bring it out to your table when it is ready. There are also the usual salad items together with a variety of other dishes all of excellent quality. Another thing I should have commented on is the water carafes that are refilled by the steward as required, with, I presume, filtered water. In view of the fact that on other lines bottled water is supplied with a charge, we appreciated this system. Saga have also excelled in delivering my husband’s suit carrier back to us today. We stupidly left it at Southampton on Tuesday, but a phone call when we arrived home put the wheels in motion and DHL delivered it back to us this morning less than 48 hours after disembarking. Added to that, Saga didn’t want us to reimburse them for the carriage. We feel that is very commendable. If anyone has any questions I can answer I am happy to do so. Enjoy your cruises everyone !!

We will be disembarking Spirit of Adventure tomorrow morning after experiencing our first Saga cruise so I thought I would write a review of how we personally, have found things on board. This is our personal opinion so please bear that in mind … other opinions may differ !! Our first impression was “Wow this is a lovely ship” … Of course it’s only a year since SoA was launched so she is still very new which is evident in everything from the public areas to the cabins. There is plenty of space and even though we are sailing at around 85% capacity the ship does not in any way feel crowded. We have a standard balcony cabin (all cabins have balconies on this ship) which is compact and comfortable enough although I think if we were on board for more than a fortnight we might consider a larger room. However the cabin is very well equipped with everything well planned. There are three British plug sockets at the dressing table, and one each side of the bed together with a USB point at each bedside. The bathroom is small but adequate and has a proper shower door and more than enough storage space for toiletries. Soap is provided in bottle dispensers together with shampoo and conditioner and a bar of soap is also provided. These are all of a high quality. A tip that helps with any storage issues is to put lesser used items in your cases under the bed as there is plenty of unused space there. The food on board has been mainly good although some of the MDR menus have not been quite to our taste and we have found them to be slightly limited compared to other cruise lines’ MDR menus. This could be down to the fact that there are three other restaurants where you can choose to dine which are fully inclusive. Khukuri House is the Nepalese restaurant which I would class as something along the lines of Indian flavours and is very good. Amalfi is the Italian restaurant and equally as good with a range of different styles of Italian food and presentation. The Supper Club is more traditional in its cuisine and we enjoyed chateaubriand there twice, each time it was excellent. The added appeal of The Supper Club is the live music that entertains throughout the meal. The entertainment on board this ship has been second to none. The exceptionally talented musicians have provided some wonderful sounds and whether you are someone who just wishes to find a quiet corner to listen, or someone who wants to get up and jiggle, jive, waltz or foxtrot, there is something somewhere for everyone. As dancers, we have enjoyed this aspect of the cruise immensely and the Britannia Lounge with its large dance floor has been a bonus for us. So a few other random observations which have enhanced our cruise experience in small ways : Very comfortable bed and chairs in the cabin. Large dressing table with well lit mirror. The air conditioning/heating controls work really well so we can keep the room at exactly the right temperature for us. The shower works well and the head is on a rod making it fully adjustable to any height. Soundproofing is better than we have experienced on other ships which has been very welcome. We have not heard any noise from other cabins, early morning toilets being flushed has not woken us on this cruise !! Corridor noise is sometimes discernible but hasn’t disturbed us at all. There is a very wide selection of TV channels and everything from daily menus, to your account expenses and the daily theatre show is available to see on your in room TV screen. Also radio stations are available. Other small touches are that we are having turndown service every night complete with the chocolate on pillow which I think I am right in saying seems to have dropped by the wayside on some other cruise lines now. All the conveniences in public areas have mini rolled towels rather than the pull out paper version. The standard of cleanliness is faultless and everything looks immaculate. Bathrobes are provided as standard but we asked for slippers which were promptly delivered. Facecloths are also supplied and changed after each use. The included wines are very good and we haven’t found the need to order the select wines and pay extra for them. The wifi has been a bit slow on the odd occasion but it is included in the price and overall it has been more than adequate. Other further observations: There are no dance hosts at present and no books available to borrow from the library, the “books” on display are in fact dummies. On this cruise the guests have chosen to dress mainly on the casual side and even on formal nights the majority haven’t been overdressed. There have been a few sparkles and some evening gowns and dinner jackets but in general, every evening has had a very relaxed look to it. That may please many people but we had somehow expected that in the evenings the attire worn would be more akin to onboard a Cunard ship. When we saw these two new Saga ships advertised as “Boutique” I wasn’t sure how to interpret the expression used, but over the past ten nights I have come to the conclusion that my own interpretation would be “Classy, contemporary, luxury”. So to conclude, we are very impressed indeed with our first Saga experience and we will be booking again.

Hi Nooosey, thank you very much for your feedback. Really good to hear that you are having a great cruise with fabulous weather. I hope it continues for you next week and also for us for the couple of weeks after that !! We are really looking forward to boarding next Friday. Meanwhile if you have anything further that you can report back to us we are very grateful for all info. Thankyou again. 😊BG

Ahoy there sailors we hope you are having a wonderful cruise, that the weather is sunny and the seas are calm. If you have time to send an update to us with some feedback about the last week and how you are finding everything on board we would very much appreciate it. A couple of specific questions … Is track and trace still being implemented and are masks required on tenders and coaches please? We are now getting excited about boarding next week and would very much like to know what we can expect once we are sailing. Any comments will be very gratefully received !! Thank you in advance.

Tothesunset we will be on this cruise with you and it will be our first experience with Saga. Looking forward to it !!

Thank you David and Nooosey. It’s really good news for us about the dancing and we love to be able to dance to live music so we will enjoy the trio in the Britannia lounge very much. Also good news about the Bridge classes resuming … Do you know if books can be borrowed from the library yet and is the usual paperback exchange section open for use again? Sorry for the questions … any feedback whatsoever is very much appreciated!! Thank you for taking the time to respond.

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.

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.

Hi Nooosey, very pleased to hear that you are now on your way. Your holiday has begun !! Have a wonderful cruise 😎😄

Hi Nooosey I hope whether you have a shared journey or a private transfer tomorrow that the drive is smooth and uneventful and you arrive at the port cool, calm and ready to chill out with a glass of something cold and bubbly to toast your arrival. Enjoy your cruise, we will be thinking of you. 🥂Cheers !!

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? To Nooosey and others who will be embarking tomorrow, any feed back whilst you are onboard would be appreciated … my husband and I will be on the Melodies of Ireland cruise following yours and if you can possibly give us an insight into what we can expect when we get on board that would be very helpful. Thank you to everyone who takes time to post. To all of you about to sail, have a fabulous cruise …. Bon Voyage !! 🍾😎🥂

Thank you Nooosey that is very much appreciated 👍🏻😁

Thank you to everyone who is posting comments here. Nooosey please will you let us know what has or hasn’t changed when you are onboard in June … what date is your cruise? We will be on the 8th July Melodies of Ireland sailing and we will happily post updates regarding protocols when we are on board. What date are you sailing Denarius … Is yours the cruise following ours leaving Southampton on19th July? Anyone who can provide current information, please continue to keep this thread active as all contributions are very gratefully received !! Thank you

My husband and I will be cruising onboard Spirit of Adventure in July and I have been following this thread since Denarius very kindly started it over a month ago. It is quite a while since the last person posted, so please could anyone currently cruising on one of the Saga ships or who has recently returned from a Saga cruise give some feedback about the onboard protocols at the present time? From what I have been reading on other boards it seems that some cruise lines are now relaxing many of the restrictions but it appears that Saga have yet to adopt this stance so any accurate information about what is currently happening onboard would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.