Londoner51

1 hour ago, Glenndale said:

We were allowed to book one speciality restaurant on the first night. We chose to book Coast to Coast for the following night.

We then proceeded to the East to West dining room and managed to get a reservation for the first night. Apparently it is easier to book restaurants on the first and final nights, which proved to be the case with East to West.

We booked The Club by just chancing our arm and turning up.

When we were having cocktails in The Club lounge on the final night we saw couples turn up and just ask about availability and many were seated.

For us, the system of booking these restaurants still leaves much to be desired.  We were on Norway Rocks and were able to book only one restaurant at a time.  After queuing, we managed to book Coast to Coast for the first night but were told we couldn't book another until we'd eaten in the first one.  Therefore after eating in Coast to Coast we went and asked to book for the Club on the last night and we were told that we couldn't book, only be wait-listed.  We were added to the list and heard no more until we asked at reception and they assured us we would get a table on the last night, which we did get eventually.  We twice tried to get a table on the night at East to West but again were told it was full (fair enough) and we'd have to be wait-listed. It was all a bit frustrating.

I read a post on another site that people on the current 4 night cruise were able to book any, or all, of the three restaurants when they arrived at Dover, before embarking.  This also doesn't seem a good way of doing it as it favours the early arrivers and penalises those who arrive later only to find all the restaurants fully booked.  I don't have a solution, but I do think that Saga needs to have a good think about how the system should operate to be both fair and simple.

As an aside to this issue, which I'm sure is just another of the ship's minor teething problems, this was our first Saga cruise and we loved it.  We thought the food in the MDR and particularly in the Grill and Coast to Coast was very, very good as was the service in all three of these restaurants.

3 minutes ago, lincslady said:

The luggage is all ashore very early on, so if you can let Reception know (several days in advance, or even as you board) that you have your own transport you should be given a tag number which will enable you to get off whenever and find your luggage in that tag area.  Manhandling the heavy luggage ashore yourselves would be quite  a task, even for the fittest.  The gangway is quite long, and up and down hill, to attach the land side to the door on the ship side.

Thank you for this information, greatly appreciated.  I must admit we didn’t fancy self disembarkation but as we live close to Dover and volunteer for the National Trust at the lighthouse at Dover, it would be odd to be so close to home yet so far!

We’ve opted to park on the quayside, so can we opt to take our luggage ashore ourselves rather than wait on board for hours?  I really don’t fancy sitting around for ages at the end of a holiday.

14 minutes ago, cinnamon said:

Yes, I was surprised that the room service breakfast ends quite early, like the Grill and MDR. No lying in........not that you could have done so in SPB. Always an early start there for Russian Immigration. 

 

Also, no hot food, other than boiled eggs. 

To be fair, we very seldom have room service, unless we’re taken ill. 

I’m also a little surprised that they don’t offer hot food apart from a soft boiled egg (I’m assuming the hard boiled one is served cold!).  We’ve sometimes enjoyed breakfast in our cabin or on our balcony when we’ve had a scenic sail-in to a port.  Breakfast (scrambled eggs & bacon, as I recall) on our balcony on the Celebrity Eclipse as we sailed through the archipelago to Stockholm was one of the best cruise experiences ever.

29 minutes ago, kentchris said:

I’m not sure whether cinnamon posted this in her Live From thread, so for completeness in this one here’s the Room Service breakfast. It’s available from 07.00 in 15 minute time slots until 09.30-09.45: from our experience it arrives at the beginning of the slot, and at SPB our 07.00-07.15 breakfast arrived at about 06.55 local time (ouch!).

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much!

We’re sailing on the SoD on Thursday, our first Saga cruise.  Does Saga offer a room service breakfast, and if so is it just continental or do they offer cooked items too, please?  We sometimes enjoy having a quiet, leisurely breakfast in our cabin.

8 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

I think Saga will have to look again at their disembarkation procedure.  Coffee and tea was DIY for us.  Passengers are assigned a waiting area.  We were told The Britannia lounge which was packed out.  So we were told we could wait on the Lido deck.  Fortunately a nice day.  Someone came along periodically calling out the relevant assigned numbers.  We were number 21 the last number was 25.

We were getting rather stir crazy near our allotted time when we realised that the number system was running about 30 minutes late.  The last number called was 19 but since we could see the long line of taxis waiting we decided to get off.  Our bags were there and so was our driver who had been waiting for one hour.   There was a long line of drivers some of whom had been waiting for over 2 hours. 

There is obviously a disconnect between the ship and shore.  

Unhappy passengers and unhappy taxi drivers. 

Oh dear.  It sounds rather grim, not an enjoyable way to end a happy holiday.  It does sound like Saga needs to do some re-thinking about disembarking this ship.  Expecting people to sit outside because of insufficient space inside whilst waiting is far from ideal.

A few years ago we sailed on P&O’s Britannia in her first season.  Disembarkation was a nightmare and we decided to never go back (we weren’t too keen on the ship either!).  I’m sure they’ve since resolved their problem but our first impression was so disappointing that we didn’t want to risk another bad experience.

Hope you’re having a good journey home!

27 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

I would say only around 25% in long evening gowns perhaps even less.  Many cocktail dresses but lots of separates too.

on other evenings many ladies wore a little sparkle but many men like my husband just in formal shirts with or without a tie.

we were expecting 2 formal nights but only had one.  

We are still onboard waiting to be released.  Our expected leaving time is 11.40.

Many thanks for this information.  I like to be appropriately dressed but not over-dressed.

11.40am sounds a rather late “release” time!  We’re used to disembarking by 9.30am latest on most cruises.  Are refreshments provided, i.e. coffee/tea?  11.40am is well past our usual coffee time 😀

A question about the dress code: on formal nights did ladies wear long dresses or cocktail dresses?  I’ve got plenty of both types, but it’d be good to know what to pack.

Cinnamon, I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog.  It’s been very informative and good to get such detailed information.

We’re joining the ship on 26 September for 7 nights to Norway - “Norway Rocks”, and look forward to it.  However, I’m concerned about how late we’re due to be picked up - 3pm.  In theory we only live 40 minutes from the port but it seems to be cutting it fine for a 5pm sailing, and very late for checking in and unpacking before we sail.  Still, I guess the ship will wait for us if we’re delayed as it’s their transport.

Your Information about the speciality restaurants has been invaluable.  You’re right, the reservation system does look like it needs to be improved.  We want to eat in all three of them but having to book each one separately and only one at a time and only after you’ve eaten in the first one seems a cumbersome system (unless they think that we’re all so old that we shan’t remember what we’ve booked!).

It’ll be our first time on Saga, so we’ll be seeing how it compares to the other cruise lines  we use: Cunard, P&O, Fred Olsen & Celebrity.

Thank you again for such great information.

Our cruise information booklet and luggage tags for our 26 September cruise arrived today.  Very impressed with the amount of information that Saga provides, especially the detail they go into for their excursions, plus confirmation that we book the specialty restaurants once on board.  It all bodes well for our first Saga cruise!

2 hours ago, Glenndale said:

We had included laundry on Saga in February, as due to the norovirus outbreak the free laundries were closed.

As to people being more sociable when alcoholic drinks are included I find that a little sad, especially as soft drinks are included. The cost for a G&T on Saga has been quoted as £2.90, hardly breaking the bank, when you consider the initial cost of the cruise.

If people need alcohol in order to be friendly then that is their problem, me, I'll talk to anyone and I don't need alcohol in order to socialise. 😀

 

 

We’re not big drinkers, usually a G&T before dinner, glass of wine with dinner and a drink after dinner.  We certainly don’t need alcohol to help us socialise and be friendly, however having seen that a G&T on Saga is just £2.90 we might push the boat out and have two G&Ts - amazing value.  We’ve just returned from a cruise on QM2 and two G&Ts cost us $26 including the 15% service charge levied on all drinks, including bottles of water.

We’re taking our first Saga cruise on 26 September on the Spirit of Discovery.  I suspect we’re going to become Saga converts.

I’m really pleased to see this Saga forum.  As some previous posters have already said, I don’t think many British people know about Cruise Critic and that’s a shame as it’s a wonderful place to get information about all sorts of cruise related topics, to arrange private tours and meet & mingles.

Having cruised 45+ times before, we’ve booked on our first ever Saga cruise on the Spirit of Discovery sailing on 26 September.  My sister and brother-in-law were lucky enough to be on the shakedown cruise and they said that it’s a beautiful ship.  We’re so looking forward to it.

However, I have a frustration with Saga.  We booked through a travel agent, which is how we usually book.  With all the other cruise lines we cruise with - Celebrity, Cunard, P&O - we can access our booking online and enter all our personal information (passport details, etc) and view and book excursions.  When I tried to do this for this cruise I couldn’t access our booking.  When I phoned Saga to ask why, I was told that online access was only for people who’d booked directly with Saga.  I had to provide all our personal information direct to our travel agent.  I find this to be a very odd way for them to operate.

As I can’t access our cruise online, I’m assuming that at some point we’ll be sent information about excursions prior to our cruise, or do we have to wait until we’re on board?  Experienced Saga cruisers, I’ll welcome the benefit of your experience.

I love the Penhaligons toiletries provided, plus they come in very cute shaped bottles (sad, I know).  I have very fine hair and find that the shampoo and conditioner work well for me.  The body lotion is a bit thin, so it’s worth taking your own favourite brand to supplement the ones in the cabin, or buy some on board to save luggage space - all the top brands of product are sold in the beauty shop and the spa. The fragrance is Penhaligons unisex Quercus, and I love the smell so much that, after our first Cunard cruise, I treated myself to their shampoo (£19 for 300ml) and body wash (£32 for 300ml); they aren’t cheap products.  I couldn’t detect any difference in the smell of the Cunard products and the products I bought from the Penhaligons shop.  We’re on QM2 in a couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to that lovely smell again!

On 4/29/2019 at 4:18 PM, gillyg said:

Hi we have changed our plans and are now looking to stay somewhere that offers parking and transfer to the docks. so with that in mind do your recommendations still stand or is there somewhere better/

We always drive down the day before our cruise and have stayed in a number of hotels, all centrally located for Southampton city centre, including the Mercure Dolphin, Holiday Inn, Novotel and Ibis.  We also like to stay at the Mercure in Winchester, which is just a 25 minute drive to the port and a really lovely place to stay.

For our upcoming 21 night cruise, our pre-cruise night is a Saturday and we’ve found the central Southampton and Winchester hotel prices to be much, much higher than usual, probably as there are several other large cruise ships in port with us the same day.  This time we’re staying at the Holiday Inn Express Southampton West at Adnac Park and we’ve booked the cruise parking package.    We’ve stayed at this hotel before.  It’s fairly basic, but more than adequate for a pre-cruise stay and absolutely fine if you just want to turn up in the evening, have a meal and then transfer to the port in the morning.  If you want to have a day out in Southampton you’d need to either drive into the city centre and park, or park at the Holiday Inn and get a bus or taxi into the centre.

The cruise parking deal is a little odd.  You park at the hotel for your overnight stay, then on cruise day you drive to an off-site car park.  We’ve been booked by the hotel into Penguin Parking, located in Marchwood.  Penguin will then take us to the ship and bring us back to our car on our return.  I think the cruise parking package works out a little cheaper than booking the hotel and parking separately.  We’ve parked in Marchwood before, with a different parking company.  It worked out well, and it’s cheaper than parking on the dockside.  The downside of not parking on the dockside, whether you get a taxi transfer or a shuttle bus transfer, is that the whole parking / car collection process takes longer so you need to weigh up the convenience of having your car parked just a short walk from the ship or saving money on the parking and taking a transfer.

Depending on when you’re cruising, to get a good deal it might be worth exploring accommodation a little further away from the port, e.g. Salisbury and Winchester, and then booking cruise parking with someone like Penguin Parking (there are several companies to choose from if you just Google “Southampton Cruise Parking”).  Good luck with finding what you’re after, and enjoy your cruise!

1 hour ago, old fool said:

Stay put -- Deck 5 mid ship is great --- in rough weather you will be VERY glad you did.

👍👍 We chose the cabin carefully in the first place for the reason you state, but then thought a glass fronted balcony might be nicer.  We’re staying put, we’re within a couple of decks up and down of all the main activities so we shouldn’t need to use the lifts too much.

1 hour ago, Underwatr said:

Yeah, definitely go forward on Deck 11. The deck plans do a good job of showing where 12 bumps out (where the Pavilion Pool starts). Basically, you'd do best not to book aft of 11056 Port side or 11079 on the starboard side - see below:

 

 

The on board booking office has been good at pointing out the overhang, but we generally like to be forward of the B lifts no matter what deck we're on so we probably lucked out the first time we'd booked on 11 by ourselves. 

I hadn’t noticed that when I was looking for where to book.  There are so many things to look out for.  We’ve learned to always aim to get a cabin on a deck which just has cabins above and below ever since we made the mistake on one ship of booking below the pool deck where they had deck parties into the early hours most nights.

34 minutes ago, BklynBoy8 said:

Hi Christine,

We had a friend that also had a shelter last year on 5 and thought it was different. They normally cruise on Disney Line.

It took them to awhile to get use to the enclosed portion and not getting that amount of sun inside the cabin itself.

 

Our first sailing on the QM2 was on Deck 11 (Cabin 11147) and we like it but learned there was a overhang towards the rear on the ship.

 

If you ever accept our invitation to return to the USA via TA and want to book a Deck 11 cabin, remember that from Elevator Bank A to B (Front half of the ship) the balcony is open to the Sun all day. Elevator Bank B to Deck D (Back half) has a overhang from Deck 12 from above. We learned that when we booked a cabin in the forward portion of the ship.

 

We too are on the Upgrade List but know Cunard is a hard line to get upgrades that often. But always hoping the Upgrade Fairy will pay a visit.

That’s really good information about deck 11, this is where this forum is so useful - we usually reckon it’s better to be towards the back rather than the front but obviously not on the QM2.

It will be odd to not have much sun in our cabin, but hopefully we’ll be able to make good use of our outdoor space and get away from the air conditioning as often as possible.

What an amazing upgrade BklynBoy8!  We’ve only been on Cunard four times, our June cruise will be our fifth, but we’ve been upgraded twice.  The last time was from a balcony to Princess Grill.  I now live in hope of amazing upgrades all the time!  However, for this cruise, from all the comments I’ve received, we’ve decided to stay put on deck 5.

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I agree. I love the sheltered balconies for a crossing. You can still go out on your balcony when it's too windy to be on the more open balcony.

Thank you, that’s something we hadn’t considered.

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I agree. I love the sheltered balconies for a crossing. You can still go out on your balcony when it's too windy to be on the more open balcony.

Thank you.  Having read all the very useful comments I think we’ll stay put.

4 hours ago, Ray66 said:

If I were you, I would stay put.  We like the sheltered balconies on deck 5.  The 21 nights is showing sold out now anyway.

Thank you.

22 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

I have one experience to report with a complimentary upgrade we received from a midship sheltered balcony on a QM2 crossing. It happens to have been very similar to what you have imagined. We were upgraded from a midship sheltered balcony on deck 4 (4098) to an aft glass fronted balcony on deck 11 (11129).

Thank you for your comment.  What was it like at the front of deck 11?  I’m imagining it could be quite windy and have quite a bit of movement in rough seas.

Advice needed, please.  We’re booked on the QM2 on 23 June for 21 nights - Southampton to New York, up to Halifax and back to New York (7 nights), then back to Southampton.  We’ve never done a TA before, so we’ve booked a mid-ship sheltered balcony on deck 5 - nice and low if we have heavy seas.  We’ve opted out of the automatic upgrade list.   I’m guessing that if we got an automatic upgrade to a glass fronted balcony we’d be front or aft on deck 11 (the ones on deck 8, with obstructed views, being lower grades than what we’ve booked).  So, the question is - should we go on the automatic upgrade list, or stay put?  Advice based on your experiences will be greatly appreciated.