Jump to content

nosapphire

Members
  • Posts

    852
  • Joined

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

nosapphire's Achievements

Cool Cruiser

Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. I had a look to see what Saga say about wheelchairs/scooters. If you need one to move around the ship, then you have to book an accessible cabin. If you only need one when you go ashore, then the ship will store it for you. Space is limited for both situations, so fail to mention a wheelchair/scooter and you will probably be denied boarding. I did notice on our last cruise that there were some scooters being lined up by crew at the bottom of the gangway ready to be collected by their owners. I recently phoned to cancel a walking tour on an upcoming Saga cruise (no problem) but the way the telephone operator ran through a lot of reminders gave me the impression that Saga may now be having problems with people arriving with undeclared wheelchairs, or who need assistance but have not requested it.
  2. I met a rather upset passenger, aggrieved about a knock on her cabin door the first night, with a crew member telling her that the rollator had to be kept in the cabin, not in the cabin doorway. She said, "but it's not in anyone's way" and got the answer, "it will be if there's an emergency".
  3. You will most definitely be welcome, but you may have to book over the 'phone. I think this is partly because of the insurance (you will have to have your own) and partly because they need to check the passport requirement. I have met several Americans (and Canadians) on Saga ships, so a non-UK passport is not a problem. There has been a thread about this before, including the included transport from overnight hotel, but (annoyingly) I can't find it.
  4. nosapphire

    2025

    Please, no.๐Ÿ˜ฑ Saga is a much easier system for those of us with simple brains. Whenever I book, guarantee or cabin selection, the only variable will be the price and cabin - no need to start wondering what is or is not included in the particular fare I have paid. No need to calculate whether the select fare will be better than the saver fare, do I need to add on this package or that package, what will be better, OBC or included parking. The advance registration system is becoming too unwieldy, but any cruise line with any commercial sense will include an incentive to book early otherwise they run the risk of everybody deciding to wait until the last minute - which makes the book keeping a real headache.
  5. nosapphire

    2025

    Although - that is much the same even if they were on general sale from the outset. Look at the website. "Hmm, like the look of that cruise - may book that one." Go back the next day to book and the price has increased...Grrr. Also worth while remembering that Saga offer a 14 day cooling off period for their ocean cruises (starts from when you receive the documentation) during which time you can cancel for a full refund. (It does work; once changed my mind 4 days after booking, telephoned to cancel, and the money was back in my account a week later).
  6. nosapphire

    2025

    Pre registered 29 June 2023, just received the call. Only semi-interested in one cruise, but discount already down to 25% so did not book, getting refund. Just as well I mentioned that I already had 2 pre reg for 2026, as records showed only 1 on their system. Quoted b/ref and date and is now found. (Hope they update records with the correct date, not today's date.) (Wonder how Saga operators manage to continue to sound so upbeat and chirpy phone call after phone call?)
  7. nosapphire

    2025

    I suspect the ships sailing full has less to do with advance registration and more to do with the current aggressive promotions of late deals; more than once a week we receive post and emails with "new offers ending soon", "new lower prices", "offers end this Friday"(rarely saying the actual date, we get the "ending this Friday" each week). Open a weekend paper and a mini-brochure drops out "new lower fares". While I currently have 3 advance registrations, I have come to the conclusion that I will now only book early if it is: Either a cruise that I feel I cannot miss out on, Or if it is a cruise I rather like and can get at least 30% discount on the cheapest grade acceptable to me. Too annoying realising that some of the booked cruises are now cheaper (cabin guarantee) by nearly 1k per person than when I booked (not maximum discount).
  8. nosapphire

    2025

    I think it is certainly now time that Saga came up with a less laborious system than the advance- registration-wait-for-the-phone-call system. Apart from the phone costs and labour time for Saga, there is the aggravation of waiting for a phone call - and this time it seems to be taking a very long time to work through the list (must have been a lot of pre-registrations). (I preregistered late, end of June 2023, and am still waiting for "the call".)
  9. My local council send me weekly emails with links to various information. Each time I click on any link they have emailed me, I get a pop-up window suggesting I provide my email address so they can send me weekly updates...... Although I did get an email from another body asking me for my email address so they could send me emails.๐Ÿคจ
  10. nosapphire

    2025

    Saga used to (in the days of proper mailed brochures) send them out about a week in advance to Britannia Club members so we could get first dibs with the best discounts. That always worked pretty well, as bookings then were made over the 'phone so the telephone operator could immediately see whether you were indeed a club member. Now so much is online, the same system would simply not work - does anyone really think that Saga would manage to get a website that could cope with allowing club members to book ahead of the mainstream? I agree that scrapping all advance registration, opening up full bookings to everybody at the same time, but keeping the discount system (to encourage people to book early) would be the logical thing to do. I doubt that this will happen, as pretty sure that all those advance registration payments are included by the bean counters when saying how well a particular season is selling. (I add, as a Gold Britannia Club member, I see no need for any routine booking discounts for Club members)
  11. nosapphire

    2025

    I agree, the advance registration system has bloated so much it is becoming unworkable. (Saga bean counters may like to keep it as those advance ยฃ90s make the books look good). However, do remember that for ocean cruises Saga booking conditions state that a contract comes into force 14 days after you receive the booking paperwork. This means that there is a 14 day cooling off period, so if you book in haste and then realise it is not what you wanted, you can cancel without penalty (and yes, they do issue a full refund of the deposit back to whatever method you paid with). ++++ Just think - back in the "old days" there was no pre-brochure. Nobody knew what the cruises were until the telephone call, when the operator listed each and every cruise, dates and itineraries. If you were one of the last calls, you could hear the poor operator frantically sucking throat pastilles to keep their voice working. Later they got round to issuing a piece of paper with dates and cruise titles - no itineraries, that still had to be read out over the phone (made it interesting when the title said Mediterranean and the itinerary was Canaries!). So, one day in the distant future they may also include prices. Or stop pushing pre-registration.
  12. nosapphire

    2025

    Thanks - same tip worked for me. Now I can see that there has been some cut-and-paste, but no proof reading. The last Med cruise (on the Adventure) blurb refers to Israel and Cyprus, neither of which are on this itinerary. All is revealed when reading that Alexandria is a new port of call for the Discovery... Blocks of text taken from the Discovery cruise this year that was originally including Israel. Mind you, no idea where the reference to Port Said came from...
  13. nosapphire

    2025

    June 2023 for me. So probably most of the best discounts will have gone, so probably not worth booking now - wait for special offers. Having said that, I recall once cruise when I pre-registered 4 years in advance - and still only got 25% discount on my selected cruise. Evidently it was very popular. For those of you who have spotted a cruise they really want - good luck, and may the maximum discounts be with you.๐Ÿ˜Š
  14. nosapphire

    2025

    As arlowood says, no prices are given until the phone call. Which probably won't happen until all the link glitches jave been solved. One of the reasons why it takes so long to work through the list, the operator has to look at your preferred cruise, your preferred cabin grade, and then tell you the price - then if you are interested, tell you which cabins are available at that price. As they are still inviting people to pre-register, it may be some time before the cruises go on general sale. Get too many people pre-registering surely means that only those who were first in the queue are likely to get the maximum discount on any popular cruise- which rather defeats the reason for pre-registry. I too am disappointed with the lack of USA/Canada offerings. The sole date this year was not possible for me, which makes the weekly "special reduction" emails even more annoying.
  15. nosapphire

    2025

    The last few months Saga have bombarded me with so many "special offers", "new discounts" and "offer ending soon" (including some cruises I have already booked at a higher (non 35%) price) that as nothing strikes me as a "can't miss this" (I was hoping for another Canadian cruise) I'll wait and see what comes up neare the sail date as special offers. There are two cruises that are of fair interest - but as we pre-registered late, unlikely to get the full 35% on the cheapest cabins, so may as well wait and see what happens when they reach the guarantee stage. Methinks Saga may be shooting themselves in the foot by offering so many late cheap deals.
ร—
ร—
  • Create New...