Denarius

The cheese trolley made a brief appearance when I sailed on SofD last Summer, then dissappeared again. It was absent on my SofD cruise in February of this year. Cheese was available from a cheese menu, changed daily. From memory about 8 were listed every evening. The pieces of cheese were small and were the same size whether you ordered one variety or several. On the subject of cutbacks, I noticed a few on my last cruise. Nothing major, just little things like toast no longer being served to table at breakfast in the grill, and fruit juice glasses not being topped up. But that is how P&O started .......

The 4:15 trolley was still operating on my SofD cruise in February and was very popular with those who had a craving for warm scones with jam and clotted cream but did not want to go to the formal afternoon tea in the MDR. Very much a retrograde step if it is truly no more. I could never however, see the point of having a buffet station as well as table service in the MDR at breakfast and lunch when there was a full buffet available in the Grill for those who preferred to serve themselves.

No coronation quiche?

On my final cruise on Azura last September formal dress was only required in the MDRs and Epicurian; smart casual was acceptable in the Horizon buffet, Beach House, Glass House and Sindu. The latter (pleasantly) surprised me as on earlier cruises it had been formal.

Logic says that all you really need is the final page which shows how many doses you have had and the details of the most recent one. But logic does not always rule where cruise companies are concerned .........

I agree with you. Whilst cutbacks may work (for a time at least) at the lower end of the market where cruises may well be chosen on the basis of price, I am not convinced that the same is true at Saga's level. People sail with Saga (and Viking, Oceania, Azamara etc) because they want quality and are prepared to pay a fair price for it. The sector is not as price sensitive and people prefer cruises to be priced up to a standard rather than cut back to a price. Having recently jumped ship from P&O because of the relentless cutbacks of recent years I would not like to see Saga go the same way.

Blue denim is fine as long as it is not "distressed".

The latter. I sailed on her in February and the hole in the Grand Dining Room ceiling was still there.

I think that most countries, in Europe at least, have come to the conclusion that Covid is not going to go away and is now a disease which we are now going to have to live with, like influenza. I am going to Germany next week on a river cruise and like the UK Germany has dropped all Covid restrictions. And there is no mention of it in my joining instructions other than general advice re good hygene. Saga is no doubt going with the flow, albeit at a slower pace than some.

This short video might be of interest to those who have not sailed on SofD or SofA. https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/ocean/our-ships/spirit-of-adventure.aspx

For those who might be interested, the standard single cabins are very similar but slightly shorter, with only one chair. The bed is the same, as is the bathroom.

On the printed deck plan cabins with "bath with shower over" are shown for Spirit of Adventure but not for Spirit of Discovery. Is the later an omission, or are there no bathrooms with this configuration on SofD?

To me smartly and formally are two separate concepts. It is quite easy to dress casually and appear smart. It is also quite easy to dress formally and appear scruffy. It is all about coordination and state of repair, cleanliness and presentation.

You can take as many cases as you want as long as each one weighs 23kg or less.

There is not a great deal to see in Civitavecchia in terms of formal sights, but it is a perfectly fine little port in which to spend a couple of hours. There is a market and sometimes additional market stalls in the promenade, plus the usual small shops, cafes and bars.

As long as no case exceeds 23kg, which is P&Os handling limit.

Depends on whether you are on a P&O charter or a scheduled flight. I have only flown to the Caribbean on P&O charters and the allowance was invariably 23kg unless you booked premium economy, in which case it was 28kg or 30kg depending on which airline provided the flight. Not sure if you can book extra baggage on the charter flights. If you fly scheduled it will depend on the airline.

Is it not a sign of the times that things which used to be provided as a matter of course become "extras" and are then withdrawn?

I very much agree. When I started cruising in the 1990s passengers did not expect to be entertained after dinner, they expected to socialise. And socialise they did, in the ballroom and in the bars. Nowadays they expect to be enterained and rarely socialise.

It is. When I started cruising in the early 1990s a typical cruise ship like P&Os Victoria or Cunards Vistafjord weighed around 25,000 GRT and carried 600 to 800 passengers. The 49,000 GRT 1,500 passenger Canberra - the Great White Whale - was hugh and the 70,000 GRT 1,800 passenger QE2 enormous; but both were smaller than the 76,000 GRT 1,900 passenger Aurora.

Visited both last Summer and did not take any local currency. Did not need it, everywhere I spent anything accepted payment by card.

Your washing; in mine, anyway.

This sort of thing happens when machines take over. The algorithm probably recognises that demand for single cabins is high so bumps up the price accordingly. But no one has programmed it to compare the price with that of single occupancy of a twin, which logically should cost more because of the increased space, so it doesn't. And the result is illogical pricing.

Agreed. Their competitors are the likes of Viking, Oceania and Azamara.

The wines in the Glass House were (originally?) chosen by Olly Smith, when it was a wine bar rather than a restaurant. The selling point was that the wines were different to those available elsewhere on the ship and that they were all available by the glass as well as by the bottle - hence Glass House.