Bloodaxe

Thanks for your replies, you have confirmed what I thought was the case.

If we enjoy the cruise we will book as soon has we return home, I realise we wiil probably not get the cheapest deal.

On Azamara we always paid a reduced deposit on-board along with other special offers.

Are there any benefits for booking a future cruise while on the ship?, our first Saga cruiser is in September and we are thinking of booking one for next year but not until we have some experience of the line.

3 hours ago, lincslady said:

I think you will find the included drinks are pretty much equal to those on the 'luxury' ships, like Regent and Seabourn nowadays.

They certainly seem to be much better than Azamara, the included wines and spirits are very poor and the pay for ones are more expensive than Saga.

5 hours ago, Davio40 said:

You would probably get that on the cheaper brands like TUI, Carnival, P&O, RC etc. but I doubt you'd get jogging bottoms and football shirts (and I have never seen it) on Azamara, Oceania and Silversea. 

Dress standards on Azamara have also fallen in recent years,  supposed to be smart casual but nothing like as smart as it once was in my opinion.

2 hours ago, Scorpio41 said:

They ask passengers at random for proof of covid vaccinations.
On our recent cruise we weren’t asked but spoke to others who were asked to show their covid passes. 

Not any more, email says that the requirement for proof has been dropped.

20 hours ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Hi.

One of the most thought provoking moments I’ve had on a cruise ship was sailing from Çanakkale to Istanbul when you sail through the Dardanelles past Gallipoli.

If you sail past in daylight your good camera will take in all the Anzac/Turkish monuments to that terrible part of WW1.

We had a CD who gave a running commentary,,,,with poems read out written bysome of those who perished bringing tears to the eyes.

 

Unfortunately most cruise ships pass during the night,,your ship I see leaves Istanbul at 22:00 so unless daylight comes early before you reach Çanakkale you will miss it.

There May be boat trips from Çanakkale to Gallipoli.

 

Did you know the current through the Dardanelles runs both ways,,,one on top of the other.

 

Love that itinerary.

 

We did a ships your to Gallipoli from Canakkale when on Azamara a few years ago, good tour but a bit rushed, would not try it unless through the ship, we were late back due to just missing a ferry but the Ship waited for us.

5 minutes ago, tgg said:

In the good old days of dinner with the captain, it was cocktails in Mosaic, followed by dinner in the main dining room. The wines being served with dinner were special. We still have photos of the group posed on the stairway between decks 4 and 5.

 

More recently, we were invited to the captain's quarters for cocktails before the dinner. It was a treat to see part of the ship we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Dinner conversation was interesting and lively and we met some great people. 

 

For us, it would never be too early or late for us to say yes to the captain's invitation to dinner. 

We have also experienced the above several times,

IMO the early years of Azamara were undoubtedly the best.

Heartfelt condolences, same thing happened.to us almost 4 years ago, life goes on but can never be the same.

On 6/20/2023 at 2:12 PM, Bloodaxe said:

Thank you that is reassuring, we had been regulars on Azamara  from  2008 until 2019, the Saga cruise in Sept will be our first since then.

It is a pity that Azamara never seem to cruise round trip UK or that would still be our first choice, Saga seems to be our best replacement.

 

Booking excursion, I believe we have to book even for the included ones.

Will we be notified when they are available book or will we have to keep checking in my Saga?.

3 hours ago, anniesh said:

Bloodaxe ,we are long time Azamara cruisers and have just returned from our first Saga cruise.

We found it to be excellent in all aspects.

 I cannot comment on the coffee but everything else was very good.

Thank you that is reassuring, we had been regulars on Azamara  from  2008 until 2019, the Saga cruise in Sept will be our first since then.

It is a pity that Azamara never seem to cruise round trip UK or that would still be our first choice, Saga seems to be our best replacement.

54 minutes ago, nosapphire said:

No problem with a debate about coffee, makes a change from debates about the wine (both the included and the pay-for) which had the same range of varying opinions as to the quality.

Hopefully, there will be enough things that Saga do right to make your cruise enjoyable.

It will be interesting to hear your opinions after the cruise (the cruise in general, not just the coffee....).

The cruise is not until September it will be our first time cruising from a UK port.

Booked mainly because we don't wish to fly anymore and it seemed that Saga will be our best option, hopefully that will prove to be the case

I did not intend to start a debate about different types of coffee machine I was just interested to find what to expect onboard.

It seems that I will be disappointed with the offerings after my previous cruise experience at a similar price range.

2 hours ago, kool kruiser said:

Rather disappointing to hear that Saga does not offer coffee made from a ''proper'' machine, just the push button type. Certainly, the luxury lines all have included excellent coff made as you would find in a coffee shop. I believe that even the mainstream lines also generally have this option, albeit at extra cost. Time for Saga to get real in this area !!

Exactly, should be available somewhere on the ships.at Saga prices.

Thanks for all the replies on Saga coffee, I now have a good idea what we will experience onboard.

Our favourite high street coffee is Nero which we also use at home in a cafetiere, never been keen on Costa.

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

For most passengers I doubt whether the quality of the coffee would be a make or break or even a significant factor in deciding whether or not to sail with Saga.

Very true, but it seems that it is a sign that standards have fallen.

2 hours ago, nosapphire said:

On the Discovery, we saw the mealtime coffee carafes being filled up from the machines.

On the Sapphire and the Pearl II, the machine coffee was (to our minds) much better (tasted like a richer blend with mainly Arabica beans) so the suspicion is that Saga are now using a cheaper blend of beans.

Likewise, on the Sapphire and Pearl, the mealtime coffee was filter cafetiere coffee, not from the machine -  (the breakfast coffee was excellent, but the after dinner coffee tasted like a single bean to a gallon of water, so we always skipped that and went to the machine later).

Now it is all the same - acceptable, but not as good.

 

That's not good at all, are they trying to kid people, carafe coffee should be freshly brewed.

Not getting good impressions before our first Saga cruise, pleased that it's only a short one to try them out.

2 hours ago, GerryL13 said:

I am not a coffee connoisseur, but I did find the coffee drinks (lattes, cappucinos) a bit bland. It appears that most of the coffee drinks, even those delivered by wait staff, come from push-button machines. That may not be true of coffee served from carafes at meals.

Thank you, that is what I suspected, looks like we will be disappointed,  I would have expected better at Saga prices.

, 

I have seen reports that the coffee is not great on Saga, is proper barrister style coffee available on the ships or is it straight out of machines.

We are used to a proper coffee shop on Azamara availed all day long, what are the venues like on Saga.

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Anyone else happen to have bought a life membership to Saga some considerable time ago when they were offering them?

 

The welcome letter (rather a long time ago) included this sentence:

 

"Your new membership card entitles you to receive twelve copies of Saga per year for life"

 

They're now sending out letters to life members telling them that if they want to continue to receive the Saga magazine they'll have to pay £29.95 a year for it - despite having already bought a lifetime subscription to it.  Basically, they've got themselves into a financial hole through mismanagement, and they're expecting their members to pay twice over to help them out!  

 

Anyone else in this position, and gearing up for a challenge?

 

 

 

 

+1

20 hours ago, Sleep7 said:

👋Hello stargazer618!

Thanks so much for reading my review and for your sweet compliments.🤗

We really had a fantastic time.. you are in for a genuine treat when you sail on the Pursuit.

The Pursuit and the Onward (as well as the Quest and the Journey) are all just about the same ships.. the cabins, the public spaces, the dining areas, the pool deck, etc.  All 4 ships started life as part of Renaissance Cruises and when they went out of business Azamara bought the Quest and the Journey.  Then later the Pursuit and now the Onward.  They were all redone to be identical.

There are small differences between the four ships but very minor so "what you see" in my review is "what you will get" on your upcoming cruise on the Pursuit.👌

Enjoy it all!!  Thanks again!

 

 

Not quite correct, after Renaissance went out of business in 2001 the 8 R Ships had various owners before Royal Caribbean bought the cruise line that owned Journey and Quest in 2007, they were to be part of Celebrity.

We booked our first Celebrity Journey cruise in early 2008 but by the time that we sailed Azamara had been created.

Pursuit and Onward were both Princess ships until Azamara bought them recently, the other 4 R Ships are all now owned by Oceana Cruises.

9 minutes ago, LondonLad60 said:

 

Thank you, that should be fine for us, we have always liked the international people mix on our cruises, it will be a new experience with mostly British.

Just booked our first Saga cruise after many cruises mainly with Celebrity and  Azamara

Our last Cruise was in June 2019 with Azamara in the Adriatic, not cruised since for family reasons.

Since we no longer wish to fly to join a cruise we decided that Saga may be a good fit for us, the huge ships have no interest for us at all.

What size are the bathrooms in the standard cabins and do the showers have doors,? on Azamara they are small and showers have clingy curtains which some people hate but we have always managed.

We did the Antarctic cruise a few years ago and agree that it is spectacular.

However we had better Whale sightings in Alaska and New Zealand.

The best ever was on a Whale watching trip off the coast of New England in the Spring, 

1 hour ago, pete14 said:

We are in an historic room overlooking the putting grass and croquet pitch with trees and fields all around. Very pleasant

I grew up not far from Thoresby, Clumber and Sherwood, this was long before it was a Hotel

Used to  cycle all around  that area, Thoresby had a large herd of Deer, they were often found on the the Cricket ground.

1 hour ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

 

 

We did that about 10 years ago, have also done several Miami Europe both East and West Crossings.

The on!y really bad weather was a New York to Rouen crossing on Journey which I believe was a one off.

It' was in April 2012 the repositioning cruise after the special cruise to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic 100 years before.

That was a real traditional crossing with no ports between, the last few days were very choppy.but we enjoyed it.

 

I have just remembered another cruise which goes to show how fickle the weather can be.

Our transatlantic was from Rome to Miami with a few ports in the Med before the crossing.

The weather in the Med was wild, particularly between Corsica and Sardinia.

Our last stop in the Med was Gibraltar and some people left the ship saying they could not face the Atlantic.

The crossing was fine so you just have to go with the flow has you never can tell what lies ahead.