SoD September 25th 2022 Cruise Cancelled

[wowzz]

Just had a phone call from Saga. The above cruise has been cancelled due to lack of demand. We are really sad, as we were looking forward to the itinerary,  even without SPB.

The cruise is being replaced with a round Britain cruise followed by a 7 day fjords trip. We will be taking neither  !

[twotravellersLondon]

56 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Just had a phone call from Saga. The above cruise has been cancelled due to lack of demand. We are really sad, as we were looking forward to the itinerary,  even without SPB.

The cruise is being replaced with a round Britain cruise followed by a 7 day fjords trip. We will be taking neither  !

 

 It may be that some folk have been a bit put-off visiting the Eastern Baltic by the recent threats against Finland, Sweden and Poland.

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Just had a phone call from Saga. The above cruise has been cancelled due to lack of demand. We are really sad, as we were looking forward to the itinerary,  even without SPB.

The cruise is being replaced with a round Britain cruise followed by a 7 day fjords trip. We will be taking neither  !

 

Sorry to hear that.

 

What are you doing. Did they offer any incentive not just to take refund?

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Sorry to hear that.

 

What are you doing. Did they offer any incentive not just to take refund?

We could have done the replacement cruises for the same price - not sure if that is an incentive !

Other than that, no other no other inducement  - we took the money !

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

 It may be that some folk have been a bit put-off visiting the Eastern Baltic by the recent threats against Finland, Sweden and Poland.

They would have to be pretty geographically unaware if they were put off by that !

Surely there must be 800 people out there who would be happy to do the cruise ? 

[twotravellersLondon]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Surely there must be 800 people out there who would be happy to do the cruise ? 

 Obviously not.

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 Obviously not.

I didn't realise Saga custoners were so scared !

[LandC]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

We could have done the replacement cruises for the same price - not sure if that is an incentive !

Other than that, no other no other inducement  - we took the money !

Sorry to hear that wowzz, it’s very disappointing.
I’m surprised that Saga didn’t offer you an incentive such as a discount on the replacement cruises, or the option to move your payment to a later cruise with additional discount.  It seems very short sighted.  I doubt that many people who were booked on your cruise will be interested in the replacement cruises at that time of year.

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, LandC said:

Sorry to hear that wowzz, it’s very disappointing.
I’m surprised that Saga didn’t offer you an incentive such as a discount on the replacement cruises, or the option to move your payment to a later cruise with additional discount.  It seems very short sighted.  I doubt that many people who were booked on your cruise will be interested in the replacement cruises at that time of year.

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed as well. Given that the cruise is only 3 months away,  and had been booked for a long time (I'm celebrating a significant birthday) to be basically be given no incentive to book a future cruise with Saga is not a great way to inspire loyalty.

We also had a fcc  with Saga, from a covid cancelled cruise.  We have now taken the cash for that as well. Looks like we will never get to cruise with Saga, and to be frank, I don't think I care anymore. 

[Windsurfboy]

Wowzz again my comisserations , Cunard have had to reduce numbers on some cruises due to staff shortages. They have been cleverer,  even if you took a refund ,  they gave a small FCC , to tempt people back.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

Wowzz again my comisserations , Cunard have had to reduce numbers on some cruises due to staff shortages. They have been cleverer,  even if you took a refund ,  they gave a small FCC , to tempt people back.

Thanks. Although in my case, Saga just cancelled the whole cruise - I would imagine that those booked on it are all pretty disgruntled at present

[LondonLad60]

Sorry to read this wowzz. I wonder what Saga considers to be the lowest number of passengers for a cruise to be viable? My wife and I are on SoA's Scandinavian Capitals cruise (formerly known as An Exhibition of the Baltic) departing June 22nd. There are currently 152 suites/twin cabins available which equates to 304 passengers (assuming none of the cabins will be booked by solo travellers). 

 

Apologies for bringing politics into this, but what with Finland and Sweden having formally applied to join NATO (although Putin has now softened his rhetoric on this), and with Estonia looking nervously over its shoulder I wonder if this cruise will go ahead, especially if it will only be at roughly 70% capacity, although SoD sailed in March with 726 passengers. If it does go ahead, looking on the bright side it shouldn't be a problem getting a seat in the bars or booking the select restaurants.

[Windsurfboy]

2 hours ago, LondonLad60 said:

Sorry to read this wowzz. I wonder what Saga considers to be the lowest number of passengers for a cruise to be viable? My wife and I are on SoA's Scandinavian Capitals cruise (formerly known as An Exhibition of the Baltic) departing June 22nd. There are currently 152 suites/twin cabins available which equates to 304 passengers (assuming none of the cabins will be booked by solo travellers

 

On ex Black sea , eastern Mediterranean Oddyssey,  190 twin cabins/suites and 32 singles on sale until last weekend.  Still going ahead on Saturday  with less numbers than yours. Fingers crossed. 

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

On ex Black sea , eastern Mediterranean Oddyssey,  190 twin cabins/suites and 32 singles on sale until last weekend.  Still going ahead on Saturday  with less numbers than yours. Fingers crossed. 

So only just over 60% full !

Surely my cancelled cruise would have had at least similar occupancy levels. Guess I'll never know !

[Windsurfboy]

Just spent a few minutes browsing Saga's website.  It looks like all the changed cruises,  ie st Petersburg  and black sea, have low occupancy at least 100 empty cabins.  Black sea has the lowest occupancy.  People either very much wanted these ports , or took fright at Covid on board and used it as a way of getting refund.

 

Just shows how hard it is to sell a cruise a few months ahead. Most regular cruisers have got into habit if booking years in advance

[wowzz]

33 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

Just spent a few minutes browsing Saga's website.  It looks like all the changed cruises,  ie st Petersburg  and black sea, have low occupancy at least 100 empty cabins.  Black sea has the lowest occupancy.  People either very much wanted these ports , or took fright at Covid on board and used it as a way of getting refund.

 

Just shows how hard it is to sell a cruise a few months ahead. Most regular cruisers have got into habit if booking years in advance

Although the mainstream lines are now getting back to virtually full capacity (apart from cabins needed for quarantine )

I wonder if Saga passengers are more risk adverse due to the age profile,  and are voting with their feet. Some of the covid outbreaks on Saga ships earlier this year will not have helped confidence levels either. 

[Windsurfboy]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Although the mainstream lines are now getting back to virtually full capacity (apart from cabins needed for quarantine )

I wonder if Saga passengers are more risk adverse due to the age profile,  and are voting with their feet. Some of the covid outbreaks on Saga ships earlier this year will not have helped confidence levels either. 

 

Apart from these "changed intinerary " cruises ,  on most  other cruises only circa 30 empty cabins so over 90% occupancy 

[wowzz]

46 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Apart from these "changed intinerary " cruises ,  on most  other cruises only circa 30 empty cabins so over 90% occupancy 

OK - thanks. 

[silversurf]

4 of us are on a similar cruise in 2023, hope the global situation is better by then and we can still go. We have spent years trying to persuade our friends to go on a cruise and a few months ago they agreed.

[Host Sharon]

Maybe Saga were offering too many Baltic cruises to be able to fill a September one. I am booked on the Gulf of Bothnia in August. Hope that goes ahead. 103 empty cabins at present.

[Denarius]

2 hours ago, Host Sharon said:

Maybe Saga were offering too many Baltic cruises to be able to fill a September one. I am booked on the Gulf of Bothnia in August. Hope that goes ahead. 103 empty cabins at present.

So do I. But as the cruise never included St Petersburg (I booked it specifically because of that!) ceasing to go there will not be a factor.