arlowood

If you are at all worried about noise, I would bite the bullet and relocate to a cabin on B or C deck so that you only have other cabin accommodation above and below you. We were caught out some time back when we booked a de luxe balcony on A deck on Arcadia (A111). This was directly below the Belvedere self-service restaurant. Unfortunately pre breakfast preparations started between 4 and 5am each day and on several occasions we were wakened by clattering and banging above as equipment was moved around. Didn't totally spoil the cruise but thereafter I vowed never to book a cabin close to any restaurant or other public space where noise might be an issue

Maybe they could take a leaf out of Saga's book - just an observation Our Cruise Price Promise Book early for the top savings – up to 35%. And should we ever drop the price in the future, you'll get the value of the difference back.

Just our experience when we called at Tresco in 2021 on Viking Venus ("Welcome Back" staycation cruise). Our tendering was contracted to several of the local ferry or fishing boats. Not sure if that is a hard and fast ruling due the the nature of the tides, currents, rocks and sand bars around the island that would make tendering difficult for those unfamiliar with the local waters. These boats were a bit less suitable for those with mobility issues and would be totally unsuitable for any wheelchair bound passengers. Also for the normal ship's tenders you are required to submit to a "step test" which involves stepping unaided across a notional gap delineated by two strips of tape on the floor. I think this would rule out any wheelchair bound passengers. FYI we also had a fair walk from the first landing jetty to reach the gardens. There were tractors with trailers available for those who had problems walking the distance. Also due to the the changing tide levels we had to walk to another harbour for the pick-up as the water level was too low at our original drop-off point. Trailer shuttles were available for that journey also.

As a rough indication, formal nights are organised to coincide with sea days on a cruise. This allows all involved a more relaxed time to prepare. It also eliminates the likelihood, during a port day, of people on a late returning excursion being stressed about getting ready on time. It is unlikely that you will ever encounter a formal night on the first or last day of your cruise. These observations are offered as a general "rule of thumb" but don't shoot the messenger if circumstances dictate otherwise

Yes - thanks for flagging up my schoolboy error. You're correct - the figure I quoted was per cabin per night rather than per person. So actually we're paying £215 pppn for our 12 night Baltic cruise. That is based on a 35% discount in a Standard Balcony cabin

Spotted the schoolboy error. The price I quoted (£430) was per cabin per night. So actually £215pppn. Essentially we're paying £2600 per person for a 12 night cruise in a standard balcony cabin I have cruised many times with P&O over the past 20 years or so and and have often had to fork out at least that for a De Luxe balcony but would then have the additional costs of transport to the port, WiFi package, drinks package, specialty dining, shore excursion etc.

Booked a 12 night Baltic cruise at the beginning of the month (courtesy of the Saga pre-registration scheme). Total cost in a standard twin comes in at £430pppn which obviously includes all the Saga "perks". Chauffer transfer, WiFi, drinks, speciality dining, included port excursions etc. However you need to book early when the new seasons are launched. Our price includes a 35% discount on the standard price. If you book later then that discount can drop progressively

Word on FB seems to suggest that the summer 2024 cruise schedules are available to book today if you phone up. Seems the online version will not be released until tomorrow or maybe Wednesday

Your follow on Norway cruise should have qualified for an extra 10% discount as a back-to-back sailing. Perhaps the 35% discount quoted on your invoice is really a 25% + that extra 10%. If not I'd query it with Saga.

If you miss out on the Viking excursion, it is very easy to book the train independently. FYI it is not exclusively a tourist train but a regular service to connect the fjords at Flam with the Oslo to Bergen main train service. This link will allow you to book directly online and there is a specific timetable that services June, July and August. https://www.norwaysbest.com/the-flam-railway/round-trip-with-the-flam-railway/ To allow you the best experience it could be worth reading through advice on the link belopw:- https://www.walkmyworld.com/posts/flam-railway EDIT:- beaten to it by LinnieRed and I echo her sentiments. Cheaper and just as good to book it yourself.

If you don't mind me asking, when did you pre-register. Just trying to get a handle on whether our call might come next week when we will be in Cyprus. FYI, we pre-registered in June 2022

HI L&C Thanks for your helpful input. I did reach out to Saga via their email pro-forma on the website. Despite saying that it could take them up to 24 hrs to respond, I had a reply within 2 hrs from a helpful young lady. She asked me to provide my advanced registration booking number, the dates of our holiday and details of a contact number while we are away. This information has now been noted against my booking number and will be taken into account if our call falls during the time we are away. People who registered in 2020 have posted that they have received their calls, so I'm guessing (and hoping) that the time taken to call all the 2020, 2021 and half of the 2022 contingent means that we will be home again before our turn comes.

Newbie question folks. Looking for some input from those experienced Saga cruisers who have dealt with the pre-registration process before. We enjoyed our first Saga ocean cruise last June on SoD and learned about the pre-registration process while on board. Signed up for the 2024 summer brochure and received the outline details by email yesterday. I know that we will now receive a call at some point to find out if we are interested in any of the itineraries on offer. However I'm not sure what the procedure is when that call materialises. Are we required to commit immediately to a chosen cruise (or cruises) and pay a deposit over the phone or will Saga note our choice and send a follow-up email with a link to make the deposit payment? My concerns arise from the fact that we are off to Cyprus on 5th March for 7 days and I'm worried that the call may come while we are there. Also not sure what contact details Saga will use. I'm fairly sure that I've given them my mobile number but they could also have my home number which clearly won't be answered if they call during the time we're in Cyprus. If I get their call on my mobile in Cyprus, I'm not sure I would be comfortable with disclosing bank details over the phone to complete any deposit payment. I would much rather do it back in the UK by bank transfer or over a more secure phone connection. It could all be a bit academic if we are well down the pecking order in terms of pre-registration priority. However any advice or comments would be welcome.

Would you be allowed to email the document to the ship's email address? I'm sure if you ask at guest services they would be happy to provide you with the ship's address and receive the document on their account and print it off for you.

Like you we've sailed many times with P&O over the past 15 years but have become progressively irked by the drop in standards associated with a culture of "nickel and diming" on every small thing. We've sailed 3 times with Viking and have another cruise booked later this year (a carry over from the Covid cancellation phase). We'd love to continue into the future but the prospect of having to fly to join almost all their current itineraries means that we'll be skipping Viking after this next cruise. If they ever decide to introduce round trip sailing from the UK then we will be back in a heart beat but until then it will be Saga for our future needs. Did our first cruise on Discovery last year and were impressed. Unlike you we did not get the impression that we were crossing the River Styx and thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the experience. The main attraction is that once you have paid for your cruise then you can forget having to open your wallet again unless you decide to book a paid excursion. The included benefits are things that some other cruise lines use as revenue generators and for that we applaud Saga. I'm sure they're not perfect by any means but they'll do for us into the future.

We have sailed in a DV6 on Deck 3 and a DV1 on Deck 8. Both cabins are identical in size to the V1 and V2 cabins. We were very happy with both of our DV cabins - the only slight negative being the DV1 on Deck 8. It was quite close to the fog horn(signal) and we encountered a couple of foggy days and nights on our cruise and being relatively light sleepers we were disturbed by the signal during the night. Other than that I would be quite happy with a V1 or V2 cabin. The missing benefits over other cabin grades are a later access time for your cabin on embarkation day, later access to booking restaurants and excursions on MVJ and the snacks and drinks are not replenished daily in the mini fridge. The only caveat is that I would try to book my cabin as close to the mid-ships as possible.

We had 3060 on Viking Venus back in 2021. No problems with noise and easy access to the Atrium and guest facilities. Also easy to get to the main dining room and specialty restaurants. Would certainly recommend that location - low down and effectively as close to midships as you can get on Deck 3

The copy of the Viking letter I saw posted stated that the delay would be 24hrs not 48hrs ie the follow- on cruise would depart Monday 13th rather than Sunday 12th. Also to allow them to catch up time they would be cancelling the Amsterdam(Ijmuiden) port stop from that cruise. Passengers would receive $150 in their onboard accounts as compensation. That of course is dependent on Venus making good time from its current position off Trondheim.

Do they also have feather pillows and can you request them in the same way through MySaga

The Star is the oldest ship in the fleet and the Venus was new to the fleet in 2021. It is quite possible that the shortcomings of the different types have been noted and some level on consistency is now adopted on the newer ships. We were on both in 2021 but unfortunately it was only a short 8 day cruise on each occasion and we did not use the laundry facilities so I cannot comment on the differences, if any. We did note that the Star lacked the extra drawer unit inside the wardrobe, which was a bit inconvenient as we made good use of that on the Venus cruise.

There are water bus and vaporetto options to get from Chioggia to Venice. Details are in the link below. I think vaporetto line 11 goes from Chioggia to Lido(SME, Santa Maria Elisabetta) so you would have to change at Lido to get a vaporetto into the city of Venice https://www.invenicetoday.com/en/services/how-to-get-to/Chioggia-Venice.htm#.Y8-vt3bP2Uk

I think all ships have now adopted the app for booking tables in the dining rooms. It was certainly nin use on our Arcadia cruise last August/September. Unfortunately my experience with it was poor on Arcadia. I could not get any Wi-Fi reception in the cabin and often had to find a "hotspot" on the ship to ensure that I could open and use the app reliably. (BTW the best spot I found was the library). This made the app next to useless for table bookings as you had to keep the booking page "open" after you selected a time so that they could contact you once your table was free. For me this would have meant booking a time then staying in that location until our table was called. Not very convenient. I have heard that the older ships (Arcadia, Aurora) are prone to poor Wi-Fi reception due to the predominance of metal throughout the structure of the passenger areas. ( and also possibly the lack of booster hubs) We eventually just reverted to going down at a specific time and joining the non app booked queue. We never waited more than a few minutes.

Can be a bit of a lottery since the authorities banned the majority of cruise ships from docking at the cruise terminal close to Santa Chiara. A lot of ships now dock at either Fusina (which is effectively in the Marghera area across from Venice) or at Chioggia about 25km south of Venice. There are divided opinions from what I've read. Fusina is a busy commercial docking area and I gather that you cannot wander off the ship but have to be bussed to the port entrance. I'm guessing that there may be water taxis or vaparettos as well as land based transfer options Chioggia, although much further away is reputedly a pretty port with things to see and do there if you don't want to travel into Venice itself. Transfer times to Venice could be around 1 hour and there are water taxi and vaparetto options if you don't want to take a land transfer. The link below gives some water based transfer suggestions. https://www.invenicetoday.com/en/services/how-to-get-to/Chioggia-Venice.htm#.Y8vxw3bP2Uk I have heard that ships have been switched at short notice between these docking options so it can be difficult to plan ahead if you want to meet friends

@LandC Many thanks for the clarification. I will monitor things closely and hopefully avoid the pitfall of my pre-registration phone call clashing with our Cyprus holiday dates.

The key thing is, when your cruise ship visited in 2018 did you have do go through an immigration process when you landed and were your passports stamped with a Cuban entry stamp. If the answer to these questions is NO then there is no way for the US authorities to be alerted to your visit unless you tell them. However from all the previous posts by @Gettingwarmer it seems fairly evident that there was an initial confusion about the qualifying date for that Cuban exclusion clause. It seems quite clear that the operative date for visa vs ESTA requirement is the date Cuba was designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, namely 12/1/21