retiredbrit

I believe you have to have saga insurance - their annual travel insurance doesn't cover this offer

Saga say

We would like to offer reassurance to all our existing and new guests cruising on our ships over the coming months, so we’ve introduced a Cruise Cancellation Promise. This means you can book in March, and you’ll be free to cancel your cruise up to 14 days before the departure date, with no cancellation fees or charges. The promise applies to all cruises sailing from June to December 2020, on both existing and new bookings where you’ve taken Saga’s included insurance policy. 

We made the mistake of booking a Northern lights cruise on Sagas new ship, a bad mistake - rampant norovirus - confined to our cabin, no entertainment and no idea how to deal with a common problem- we have booked a Mini suite on Aurora for 2021, at half the cost

Sagas shares on the slide ref just a couple of many similar articles in the press 

I agree Norovirus happens on many cruise ships (we have only been affected only once in nearly 50 cruises) but I believe that four outbreaks of NV, with at least 3 Deep cleans,  make this a rather special occurrence - not at all usual !!

On the last Norway cruise  there was a notice on our door that our cabin was due to be "Fogged"  It included a cleaning list with I think 39 Items showing what to do with everything in the cabin.

Then under "Fogging" it said Notify GPA leave cabin for  15 minutes. Then sanitise 200 ppm on hard surfaces and 1000 ppm for bathroom.  I don't know exactly what this means.

With the current concerns about Corona virus, and on Saga's inability to  control Norovirus I am not confident  they could handle the much more serious event. How does the saying go "once is an accident, twice is coincidence" - I cant remember the third - but what could the forth be?

Kent on Line (dated 6 March) says Saga is suffering a spate of cancellations, It says it has seen a "higher level of cancellations for departures in the near-term and more generally a lower level of bookings for departures further out".

Tour operations have also seen a rise in cancellations and people not booking - a trend which is being seen across the travel industry.

It says forward passenger bookings for 2020/21 were down around 20% versus the prior year, with a more significant impact in recent weeks.

Apologies for the missing ? on the heading.

We are still recovering from the lack of proper hygiene on Saga spirit of Discovery nearly a week after getting off.

We have fairly recently sailed on Aurora embarking at the end of a Norovirus attack.  We were very impressed with the careful way P&O sanitised tables / chairs and surfaces - in the Buffet, where we couldn't sit at a table until it had been properly cleaned.

We had to have a stand up row with officers on Sagas ship before they followed proper cleaning routines in the Grill and removed the mini jam pots from the table at breakfast.

Saga passengers are entitled to be upset the current cruise is the forth in a row to have norovirus on  board.  Most things are shut down, and many passengers confined to their cabin for several days (including us on our Northern lights cruise)

Question is Norovirus on Aurora at the moment??

My wife and I and many others were struck down with Norovirus on Sagas new ship Spirit of Discovery, Northern Lights sailed Feb 16 to March 2

Norovirus was running wild wild on board with the Captain blaming the passengers for bringing it on board, and also saying passengers were bringing it on board at the Norwegian ports.

We were confined to our cabin for a total of 5 days.  There were so many in a similar situation that room service was restricted to quarantined passengers only. A number of occurrences of public vomiting in the dining rooms occurred 

I see Aurora is doing (or has just completed) a similar itinerary.

We have seen the northern lights 4 years running with P&O at this time of year and never experienced anything like this

The Spirit is a beautiful ship but the level of real hygiene is very poor - passengers had to insist tables and chairs were properly sanitised

The last 3 cruises have had many cases of norovirus - most public activities cancelled, spa and pools closed - the library stripped of books, some of the bands were infected so little entertainment. The ship has engaged at least 2 freelance nurses who were workin day and night

The current 4th Saga cruise is on a Canaries round trip and has been cut short, so that's the forth cruise in a row affected by out of control norovirus.

The reason I have posted this - We have cancelled next years Northern Light Cruise on the new Spirit of Adventure (Saga) and lost our £1600 deposit rather than endure Saga again.  We have booked P&O Aurora no R102 Norway & Northern lights cruise sail 12 March 2021 in a mini suite at around half of Saga's price.

Any information on conditions on Aurora please

regards Alan

SickSagaShip the letter the captain sent to passengers cutting short the cruise is shown on the Saga Spirit of Discovery F/b group 

A visit to the Saga Spirit of Discovery facebook group continues to show that some saga regulars continue to believe its the passengers bringing Norovirus on board and Saga are perfect, That is in spite of letters on it showing the current cruise is being cut short

On the Northern lights cruises we had an argument with officers in the buffet to get them to wash the table and chairs before the next person was allowed to sit down, and to remove the mini jam pots at breakfast. The officer said "that's a good idea I will raise it at the next meeting" he did both but why didn't he know to be doing it?

I didn't ever see handrails being washed, as it was a bit bumpy people were always holding them!

No matter how often we washed our hands and avoided handrails and walls as much as possible we both caught Norovirus and were confined to our cabin

On the strength of our bad experience we have via our agent cancelled next years Saga cruise and probably lost our deposit, and hoping to get sensible replies from Saga

I had not heard of that Guarantee but of course I had the rose tinted glasses on for the first few days until we realised that the ship was still contaminated

We endured the Norway cruise but early on we got our agent to cancel the same cruise on Spirit of Adventure sailing 2021.

We are expecting we may lose our deposit but will see what happens.

I hope the Canaries cruise is clean but I wouldn't bet on it

Alan

as a poster on FB said its a bit early to be sure.

I wouldn't wish our disgusting and degrading experience on anyone and feel sorry for anyone who may go through it.

A poster seemed to wonder if people were just sea sick  - I wish that had been all

Alan

maybe this would make Saga take it seriously and stop blaming the  passengers. We will consider it.

Many people have written to Saga or say they are going to so will already have written their reports 

Nice comment - about the drugs.

This image is the deep clean notice from our cabin door

the library - is just empty shelves, no books or games, the cafe (tea machine) was closed.

We felt it was a germ hothouse in the public rooms - very hot with no ventilation.  Supposedly the ship has had yet another deep clean, including Fogging, there was a schedule on our cabin door on disembarkation morning

There are people on the Saga F'Book (is that allowed on here?) who think we are exaggerating the conditions,

We paid just under £12000 for a deluxe twin, yes its all inclusive (we are moderate drinkers) and includes tips on a beautiful ship with excellent food. We have our own world wide annual travel insurance, and the shared transport took forever to get to Southampton

We have cancelled 2021 Saga cruise to see the lights again. We have booked the same itinerary but slightly shorter departing 12 March 2021 on P&O in a mini suite on Aurora at £7500 with £550 OBC and no tips, we are happy to lose our Saga deposit.

I am sure you are aware but there is a world of difference between Aurora and P&O's mega resort ships

can we get this information under Freedom of information Act? Number ill per day going back to pre Gibralter - I will try later today

Just arrived home a short time ago.  The noro virus has certainly left us washed out.

Now some praise for Saga, disembarkation was planned and carried out with precision.  We were probably called half an hour early.   When we got on shore luggage trolleys and porters were waiting, we were directed to our luggage   section, there were helpers to locate our cases (5 in our case)  as we went further all the drivers were waiting and someone called out our name and our driver came forward.  In no time after a quick visit to the loo, we were homeward bound. 

When we got home the driver carried our cases right indoors and got a good tip for his efforts

Now here is the strange bit - or is it, we were expecting a shared vehicle but  Some passengers were still in quarantine this morning, being told to stay there until their number was called.

We went to Southampton in a shared vehicle, but were the sole occupants on the journey home.  I imagine Saga though better of putting two confirmed noro virus sufferers with two relatively healthy ones in a vehicle.

Saga must have used hundreds of vehicles, Our driver came from London, the one going to Southampton was based about 5 miles away.

In spite of that I am glad we cancelled next years saga cruise.

I will try to post some photos in a couple of days when I work out how its done

retired brit

Had  breakfast, soon going to our designater area to wait our call.

every cabin door has a list of the deep clean procedure, including “fogging”

of course I have photographed it,!!!

at last tables in the grill bing sprayed before the next person uses it

why did it take an argument for then to start doing it

retired brit

Somebody just being taken off by helicopter, helicopter gone to re fuel, back in half an hour to complete

brilliant flying in difficult conditions

retired brit

Sorry to hear about your previous cruises, Saga are charging premium cruise line fares, but not offering premium cruise service.

we have now booked 2021 northern lights cruise on P&O Aurora, we have mini suite at about half the price of the deluxe balcony cabin we are currently in

retired brit

Hi nosaphire

you are spot on.

i hope you write to saga when you get home, we have our letter drafted and our agent is standing by.

We had booked this itinerary on spirit of adventure for February next year, on the strength of our experience on Discovery and the way the outbreak has been handled, we have cancelled Adventure and our agent will book another cruise line

retired brit

Middle of April should be enough time for management to get their act together and control this outbreak 

But I feel that until they stop blaming passengers and carry out a proper deep clean they will never control the outbreak.

Seniors have the hand washing routine drummed into them from an early age. I am sure the majority of passengers boarded virus free, as it hadn’t been properly cleaned, they picked up the virus on board.

The ship rocks more than I expected, but the food generally is the best we have had on getting on for 50 cruises (this is our first on Saga). Excellent range of wines including an excellent Australian Chiraz.  The troops on the ground are excellent especially Maureen and Mike in the grill

the cabin furnishings are good, we are in a deluxe twin on deck 10, which is 50% wider that a standard twin

The extra space was welcome when we were restricted to our cabin, would we come on a SAga ship again, I doubt it. I will expand on this later

retired brit

We missed the last port Kalvag, because the captain said we wouldn’t make southampton in time,   the  weather is a bit bumpy but not too rough.

before dinner we were doing 11 knots -not as fast as I would have thought possible.

just now we are not shown on the tv navigation page at all

i notice the chairs and tables on the balcony have been lashed down, we will undo them tomorrow as we spend a lot of time on our balcony

retired brit

A short update, there are a number of entertainers now sick, dance hosts stopped

in the last couple of days the cleaning in the self serve has improved, after prompting by passengers the tables are now washed between passengers sitting down, pots of jam at breakfast removed

as we have been confined and had plenty of time we have drafted our complaint letter for saga, I know noro virus is very common, our complaint is the way it is being handled, not that it’s there. Remember on the cruise before last the spirit was not allowed into Gibraltar. The captain seemed proud that there were 20 new cases a day,

Peoples  cruises are being ruined

retiredbrit

Yes noro virus still going and has not been handled well

the captan announced on the 27th that there were only 20 NEW  cases a day

we were both confined to cabin, sort of better but our digestive system is not right

been living on bread and potato a shame because the food is excellent

I will write a full review of this incident when I get home, this incident has not been handled well compared to other more experienced lines

i don’t think the seriousness of this has been grasped, we have been given a hardback coffee table book about the ship and a bottle of champers as a thank you for our understanding ... totally inappropriate in my opinion

more later retiredbrit

Kathcas was told

Pickup delayed for the 3rd time due to the fact the ship needs deep cleaning due to 50+ people wit Norovirus

To me if that figure is correct the sick people were probably already on board when S of D sailed on 12 Feb, probably crew.

Although Saga have said the number of passengers who have Norovirus -  in line with other cruise lines they don't publicise the numbers of Crew with it

There is still time for another delay notice😷.

Alan

Hi

re Spirit of Discovery due to sail Sunday 16 - Northern lights, I have just had another revised pick up time - its now 17.25

The email says - This is due to the fact that they have had an outbreak of Norovirus on board this ship and are having a specialist team on board tomorrow to conduct a deep clean. 

I suspect it's a continuation of the outbreak they had on the last cruise where there were 117 cases of norovirus among the passengers, no mention of how many crew succumbed.