Tothesunset

https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/ocean/the-saga-experience/britannia-club.aspx

Well, it's got us in the end. Yesterday OH had symptoms like a common cold. Positive Covid test. Today, the same for me. Spent the weekend at our son's wedding with 125 guests. Wonder how many of them are feeling similarly under the weather? Still, it's endemic now, I suppose. Just need to be grateful for the 3 doses of vaccine.

Reminds me of staying at Lizard Island in Queensland. I asked if it was safe to swim in the sea because we had been warned of the danger of saltwater crocodiles. The answer? "Don't worry, we almost never see them this far out"

I wanted to donate blood at the National Blood Donation Service but I gave up. They ask too many questions: "Whose is it?" "Where did you get it?" "Why is it in a bucket?"

Yes, but the mirror's not that far away.

Spoilsport.

Do you mean that or are they just empty words?

Poor lad. Being named after a cigarette.

Already has...

Don't you dare!

Seems that we are all far too polite to comment.

Entropy. The tendency of organisation to disintegrate gradually into disorder. Formal dress. The tendency of perfectly well understood requirements to gradually descend into a race to the bottom.

Completely and utterly nothing to do with any of the foregoing but: Well done England women's football team for winning the EUFA championship yesterday at Wembley. All you English should be rightly proud of your Lionesses.

Interesting comment. We have sailed Cunard only once on the QM2 from NY to Soton in Princess Grill. We came away feeling short-changed (I'm at it again with the VFM thing). Fantastic ship, right enough, and great food but hated the fixed table for all meals - what's all that about? Nice suite, too. Total scrum on disembarkation. It was fine but failed to hit the mark for us especially the nickel and diming for the things we take for granted on an all inclusive like SS, Seabourn or Saga. Isn't it great, though, that we are all privileged to at least have the choice? A lad from the Shankill whinging about Cunard? I think I need to get real sometimes!

They have but we would still be seriously disadvantaged as we always make our own travel arrangements. There are some good deals to be had from some specialist agents who effectively offer the door to door package at the port to port price and might be of interest to us in future. But, for now, we are grateful to be in a position to sail at all and will stick with Saga and its UK departures while the travel industry sorts itself out.

Hah Hah! We swapped our Focus ST Estate last Oct for a Skoda Superb estate. Need the space for 2 dogs. I could have paid 5k more for the equivalent VW Passat to gain the badge Kudos but you've maybe worked out that my VFM instinct wouldn't allow it.

Great question, very hard to answer! So what does SS offer that Saga doesn't? Mmmm. Yes, the itineraries are way more varied but that isn't too important to us although not having to suffer the ignominy of international air travel, especially right now, is a plus to Saga. Ditto the door to door transport. This isn't going too well in supporting my preference for SS, is it? OK then, the suites on SS are larger with more storage space, the staff to customer ratio is better as is the variety and quality of food. I would also prefer the variety of dining venues and encyclopaedic selection of drinks not to mention the better quality of the free pour wines. We really didn't like The Grill on SoA however Khukuri was excellent and the other venues very good. We like the international flavour of the SS clientele who, dare I say it, are slightly younger on average than the Saga sailors. In fact every feature of the SS hard product is a notch or two up from Saga - toiletries, napery, bedding; you get the drift. However, and this is the clincher, SS isn't twice as good for twice the price. Saga couldn't realistically offer the premium hard product at current prices. For those of us that don't have money to burn this matters. We also have some frequent floater benefits with SS such as free laundry, 5% extra discount, mini bar in suite stocked to our needs on arrival and intangibles such as being greeted by name by the crew. Yet all the foregoing doesn't alter the one clinching factor, even though it's not considered terribly British to admit it (from which, being Irish, I am mercifully excluded😉) and that is the VFM quotient. I've saved one factor to set apart as probably the defining factor in our assessment and that is, of course, the customer-facing crew. SS staff are, to my mind, the exemplar of personal service: unfailingly polite, obliging, intuitive and endlessly helpful. Saga crew are good, they really are, but, on the basis of only one cruise mind you, lack that edge. The willingness is there but the training isn't - yet. There's also a noticeable lack of mid-level supervision in dining venues - not once did we see a Maitre d' scanning the room nor chefs de rang directing their staff. It's not a big deal, of course it isn't, but it takes the shine off the dining experience. Please don't think I'm being over-critical. I think Saga was a great choice for us at the per diem price point. You don't buy a Ford and criticise it because it's not a Jaguar. I'm the sort who'd buy the Ford and enjoy it.

For completeness it's only right that I should do a final report of the cruise that ended a week ago! Before I forget, though, I thought the disembarkation was handled superbly. We were told our "tag 27" disemb. time would be 10.05. And it was! In the car by 10.20 and home at 13.30 to 40 degrees and a LFT before reoccupying our in-law occupied home. We really enjoyed our cruise, met some lovely people, decided we're moving to Donegal and felt we had excellent value for money. Yes, l make no apologies for the VFM comment. It matters. The only people who think VFM doesn't matter are lottery winners and the aspiring middle class. Good things: 1. Embarkation and disembarkation along with the included travel to the port. Faultless. 2. Cleanliness. Perfect. 3. Space. We wondered if 840 passengers would make the ship feel crowded - they don't. It was a very pleasant surprise but given the extensive indoor and outdoor areas it shouldn't have been. 4. Food. We liked it. It's a personal thing so my opinion matters not at all really. 5. Cabin. Perfectly adequate and spotlessly maintained. Bad things: 1. Ummm... Lastly, there were Covid cases aboard with several passengers in isolation. I've no idea how many but the indicator was a little table placed outside the cabin door for the prisoners to receive their rations. The ship operates a tracking system but I don't know the details. We perceived that the number of little tables increased over the 11 days. I'd guess at 1 in 20 cabins by the end but that could be shockingly wide of the mark. Would we go again? Yes. Will we go again? Yes, next May to Norway. Is Saga our new favourite? No, it's not. Money being no object would see us back on Silversea but we just aren't happy to pay a per diem rate double that of Saga. VFM, you see. And this is now my very final paragraph today. The customer-facing crew are outstanding. Some were clearly still not fully trained yet their willingness to please was exemplary. Indeed, as the days passed the crew were getting slicker even as some of their number were being forced into isolation. Once they get the newbies up to speed I'm thinking that the level of service will be very hard to beat.

Life overtook us a little on return. Shan't bore you with the details. Another Saga cruise booked for next year. It's 90% as good as SS, which remains an option only if the price is right. Give me a couple of days and I'll do a summary.

Ireland? Typo?

Right then. Cheese. There's no trolley just now, rather a selection printed at the foot of the menu. Once selected the cheese arrives on a plate with grapes and walnuts. We had a supposed mature cheddar that had a similar taste and consistency as a car tyre. Not good. Stilton, Livarot and Brie are fine. Not exceptional but quite eatable. No problem with the bars. I don't think there is an outdoor one. Hang on, I think there's one by the Lido area. Need to check that out. As far as we are concerned we get what we want but our needs are fairly simple. No idea about the onboard photographer - sorry. Still enjoying the veranda grill at lunchtime. Supper Club was disappointing but only because we thought there would be some background live music. There wasn't. The food was excellent, probably the best yet except for Khukhuri, but it really is just another restaurant with no real USP. Today may be our first afternoon tea. They're billing it as a chocolate afternoon tea. Well, that's just too much of a come-on to ignore, isn't it?

This thread shows the difficulty of expressing an opinion that is critical of the line. Even to the point where someone suggested that if you don't like it go somewhere else - that's exactly what you said you were doing in the first post! So, and I hope others agree, I hope others won't be reluctant to state their opinions and that those that have had a different experience can state that without rancour. Sometimes you'd think SS walks on water.

The sentence: While I've visited County Donegal many times I'd never visited the town and found it charming. Should read: While I've visited County Donegal many times I'd never visited the town; I found it charming. Amazing what punctuation and syntax can do!

Isn't the Supper Club grand? We've just finished a delightful dinner the highlight of which was Chateaubriand. Lovely stuff. Donegal today and I have to say it's a great little town. While I've visited County Donegal many times I'd never visited the town and found it charming. I don't suppose the glass of Guinness at lunchtime influenced that impression at all. For the Smokers amongst us the only place where smoking is permitted is deck 13 portside aft. It's a popular area in the kindly weather we've been having but it can be fierce windy, so it can. (Just practising my Ulster idioms for tomorrow's visit to my home town of Belfast.) I've said this before but it deserves repeating: the cleanliness of the ship in general and the suite in particular is outstanding.

Of course you may. We have opted for cheese twice. The first time the cheeses were actually quite poor yet the second time the were really very good. So I'd say one time was worse than SS and the other time better. That helped! I would say that the selection on Saga is very good but leans towards British cheeses whereas the selection on SS is more international.