arlowood

We're booked on the SoD for the above cruise due to depart Dover tomorrow (19th). Just had a call from Saga to advise some last minute changes to the cruise schedule. Due to a delay in leaving Cadiz, the SoD is now heading for Portsmouth rather than Dover and our taxi pick up has been put back by 3hrs to 1.30pm. With our projected journey time to Portsmouth from the East Midlands, that will mean boarding will be around 6pm I'm guessing We were also informed that the itinerary will now be run in reverse. ie from Portsmouth we will head to Heimaey or Reykjavik first rather than Orkney, then do the circumnavigation of Iceland in a clockwise direction ending at Seydisfjordur, then on to Orkney as the last stop before disembarkation at Dover. Full details of the revised itinerary will be provided when we board apparently. The Saga rep also indicated that they were planning to start using Portsmouth more regularly in the future. Not sure if that's because they have experienced issues at Dover recently due to the various travel disruption problems at the ferry terminal. Travelling in these times is always an adventure so we're just rolling with the punches.

I did seek out the norbert's niece blog and while I found some the early observations interesting and useful I didn't find much that directly spoke to the actual storage capacity in the cabin. I did note that she had brought a hanging shoe storage device because of the lack of adequate space elsewhere for shoe storage. The actual blog is 30 pages long and I only got up to page 10, I think. Maybe she covered storage at a later stage but I haven't had time top plough through the rest of it so far.

At least with our cancelled cruise on Arcadia we were offered a full refund plus a Future Cruise Credit to the value of 15% of total cost of the cancelled cruise. But the short notice given - (abt 4wks before departure) did rankle somewhat. I am fairly certain that our FCC balance will sit with P&O for a long time and will probably expire before we use it. We're only really interested in the adults only ships and I fear that they will not be around in the P&O fleet for too much longer.

Any chance of an informal book exchange being permitted? We were on 2 Viking cruises last year in the middle of the pandemic and they had a section in the Library where you could leave paperbacks you had read for others to pick up and read. Equally we could make use of that facility to expand our reading quota.

Yes - in the past I had no problems on P&O with packing my Swiss Army knife in my suitcase. However about 4 years ago I was summoned from the check-in area during boarding to explain the object found by a security scan of my suitcase. It was my Swiss Army knife. Thereafter I was advised to always take it in my hand luggage so that it could be examined to ensure that it met the criteria for the length of the largest blade when open. (I believe it must be less than 74mm). I've done that since then but occasionally met some over officious security staff who have made a fuss about it and called a supervisor and/or a member of the P&O on board team. Just hoping to avoid any major hassle if possible. - I know - the simple answer is to leave it at home - but I am loathe to do so as it has come in very handy on my travels in the past.

Have cruised for many years with P&O but their laissez faire attitude to customer service of late has driven me to look at other options Booked on SoD departing 19th June for the Icelandic Adventure cruise. I have a couple of questions that hopefully some of you regular Saga cruisers might be able to answer. We have a standard balcony cabin on B deck and I've been trying to assess how much storage there is in the cabin for clothes. With having to bringing along formal wear as well as normal smart casual, I'm not sure about how much hanging and drawer space is available. I've looked at a couple of YouTube video reviews and have picked up on the 6 drawers in the dressing table/desk unit and also the 2 small drawers in the bedside cabinets. Are there other drawers built into the wardrobe unit under the room safe? I thought I caught a glimpse of some in one video but not enough to be sure either way. Also are the beds high enough to allow you to store an open suitcase underneath to act as extra storage? I have red somewhere that the library is not currently stocked with books. Do Saga allow an informal book exchange system between passengers? We've experienced this on P&O and more recently on a couple of Viking cruises last year during the pandemic. Finally, a more trivial but still important (to me) question. Are you permitted to take penknives on board in your carry on or checked suitcases. I have a Swiss Army knife that I always take on holiday and have found it very useful on many occasions. The large blade when open is less than 70mm long. It has been accepted on P&O as long as it was carried in your hand luggage to allow the blade to be checked. Will Saga allow it on board or not?

Just checked and the update to 19th June confirms that each household will be allocated a private car so I'm expecting that they are keeping to that procedure for our upcoming departure. I've checked back to our original documentation (March 2021) and we were listed as having a "Shared Car". Our recent letter states Private Car so I don't think I am speculating hopefully.

Just an update that should hopefully clarify the situation. Received a letter from Saga today with our luggage labels and details of the documentation we need to bring with us (Passport, NHS Covid Pass , Insurance Policy information). This letter also included the Car Service information and there it is clearly stated that we will be travelling in a "Private Car" I interpret this to mean that we will not be sharing transport to the ship with other passengers. BTW, the return journey is also specified as a Private Car. Fingers crossed we will arrive safely and Covid free. Pick up time is 10.20 - 10.50am, so no scrabbling with early alarm calls. Suggests also that the sail away is likely to be late afternoon/early evening as our journey time from our home to Dover could be around 4hrs +

We're due to join the SoD in 2 weeks time for our "virgin" ocean cruise with Saga. Just looking for recent comments from folks who have experienced the taxi transfer service over the past few weeks. The latest advice from Saga dated 5th May 2022 still seems to indicate "Each household will receive a private car up to 250 miles each way and cars will be thoroughly cleaned prior to your collection" I seem to recall seeing some discussion about Saga reverting to shared mini-buses/SUV's for those travelling from outside the radius that qualifies for a private car (120 miles?). Don't know if this was just speculation or based on actual experience. We are planning to go into a mini self-imposed lockdown to try and minimise the risk of being bumped off the ship at embarkation if we test positive. Would be worrying if we found that we had to share our transport to the ship with one or more couples in close contact for over 3 hours.

Yes - just keep your fingers crossed that you don't get "bumped" from the Manhattan Terminal. A few years ago on Aurora, we were supposed to dock there but we got bumped and ended up docking at the Cunard Terminal over on the Brooklyn side of the East River. No shuttles provided and we were a ferry ride away from downtown Manhattan at Pier 11. Not very convenient for independent exploring as you were restricted by the ferry schedules (not all ferries called at the Cunard Terminal dock.)

Changed days then I fear. Our first cruise with P&O was on the Artemis back in 2007. (21 nights round the Med with a stop in Libya of all places). We did a follow-up repositioning cruise on her in 2009 I recall. P&O announced that they were selling Artemis and advertised a farewell cruise in 2011. I believe that sold out within 3 or 4 hours. We were lucky enough to bag a cabin on that cruise and had a great time. Some of the new owners (Phoenix Riesen) joined that cruise towards the end. Essentially planning how they were going to refit the ship. We were told on the quiet that everything was being scrapped by the new owners, so any P&O branded merchandise was almost being given away near the end of the cruise. I think we picked up 2 dressing gowns for £5 IIRC. If P&O are considering selling Arcadia or Aurora then they could turn it into an advantage by running cruises with a final "Farewell" cruise like they did with Artemis. I'm sure some would pay a premium to be on that final cruise.

Can't you request the vaccine status to be emailed to you as a pdf document. That option is certainly available on the "English" version of the NHS App. I always request an email copy so that I can print it off and carry it with me as a belt and braces exercise. You never know when technology will let you down - phone glitch, no signal, dropped and damaged phone, battery death. I also think that security/immigration staff prefer to see paper copies rather than squinting at small screens on phones. Just my opinion BTW so don't shoot the messenger

We did this cruise with Saga way back in 2012. As far as I can see the itinerary is more or less identical to the one we did. We sailed in November but a January sailing should also be fine. We had a wonderful time and can thoroughly recommend it if you are into your Egyptian history. It could be described as fairly demanding at some stages as we often had quite early starts in order to get through the various tours before the worst of the days heat. We actually skipped the Abu Simbel trip because it meant a very early start (3am or 4am I think) and by that time we were pretty tired from our previous travels. We did do the post trip extension in Luxor and that was great because it gave us time to relax and wind down a bit but also allowed us to do the hot air balloon trip over the Valley of the Kings. The Pyramisa Isis is also a great hotel (or it certainly was back then) set on an island in the Nile not far from the cataracts.