Medeba

Same here but I may succumb to one of the lovely ice creams in the afternoon 😁.

I booked a 2024 5 day cruise a couple of days ago (it still had a 35% discount on E deck cabins) and I took the opportunity to ask about when the summer 2025 cruises would be available for those who had pre-registered. I was told 'probably' January/February.

Looks like Bilbao has been added to SoA's itinerary. Not sure though where it fits into the revised itinerary - perhaps first stop?

Have just read on other social media about the Adventure's revised itinerary: Leaving Falmouth today (Saturday 4 November) A Coruna 6 (evng) & 7 November Vigo 8 November Leixoes (Porto) 9 November Lisbon 10 November (back on original itinerary) Portsmouth 13 November As FannyLiz says free shore excursions have been arranged from Falmouth (quite a feat given the circumstances). Someone also mentioned some form of compensation but had no details.

Yes I too got the email. The quote below is from that email which, given that it was sent out Thursday evening, only leaves two days for "more news"! 🤔 😂 Perhaps they were referring to news about ALL 2025 cruises 😁. Who knows! "Keep your eyes peeled for more news about our 20‌25 cruises later this week"

So sorry the end of your lovely cruise has you feeling like this 😢. Is it because the cruise has ended or the fact that you're cramped in a too small vehicle? If the latter, I think a word in Saga's ear beckons.

Many thanks for a great blog @NorbertsNiece. Safe journey home.

We too know a couple due to start their cruise next Tuesday so 🤞🏻there will be no delay!

My thanks to both @Glenndale and @Windsurfboy for the QG v Saga comments. I've found it all very informative.

I thought Saga had got on top of this problem.. Obviously not.

This really interests me as I've never cruised with Cunard. When you make your cost comparison with a deluxe room on Saga, does the overall cost of your Queen Anne cruise in Queen's Grill include all the 'extras' that Saga provide eg transport, gratuities, free drinks, insurance for the same length of cruise? If so, I think I may be looking at Cunard more closely!

Very enjoyable blog. I appreciate the time and effort in producing it. Thanks Linda.

I agree with Bloodaxe. We have done a few Azamara cruises, the last one being in September. We thought the Azamara Journey was looking very tired and in need of refurbishment. The Saga bathrooms in the standard cabins are far superior and the ship is much newer and shinier. We too miss the international mix of passengers on Saga though. We enjoy the entertainment more on Saga and there is a wider choice of alcohol included in the cruise fare. On our last Azamara cruise we thought that the crew didn't seem so happy and there were difficulties with some restaurant staff misunderstanding requests. Food quality and choice seems to have declined on Azamara but reading comments on CC that seems to be true of many cruise lines. The crew on the Saga ships seem much more attuned to the age of their clientele and go the extra mile to make sure the passengers are well looked after. So whilst we have enjoyed our Azamara cruises with their great itineraries, it looks like Saga will become our cruise line of choice in the future (although I don't rule out other lines). It's so much nicer not to have to fly to a cruise and be collected from and delivered back home.

Just shows you what I know about golf!🤣

I think you're right about the b2b passengers booking the chef's tables. There appeared to be quite a few chef's tables planned but by 2pm on embarkation day you could only go on a waiting list: we didn't.

You have to be quick to book the chef's table. On the recent Ireland Intensive cruise we went straight to the pool deck as soon as we boarded in Dublin at about 2pm and all the chef's tables were booked.

We have just returned from the Ireland Intensive cruise which followed yours. We agree with your comment about the condition of the ship, especially the furnishings. We also thought that the crew didn't appear as happy as the crew on the Journey last October. The senior officers were not very visible. We did have a problem sorting out our OBC (no OBC showing after a couple of days) and I'm glad I had our Azamara invoice on email, which customer relations asked me to send to them, to confirm that we were due the credit. I then had to get customer relations to deduct our previously booked excursions (out of OBC) as they initially gave us all of the $1000 credit. All good in the end. One thing I didn't know was that you can buy bottles of alcohol onboard which we did to use up some OBC. I expect we've never thought about this before as we've always had to fly home. Coming back to Southampton meant taking alcohol off the ship was not an issue (we only bought one bottle of gin!).

I cannot be 100% sure but I think the Perry Golfers on the Aug/Sept Intensive Ireland cruise went to Adare Manor from Foynes (even better than Portrush in Country Antrim). We met a couple of golfers and they said it was the best course on the whole trip (the other courses were also very good).

Here is the list of included drinks on our Discovery cruise in May. Hope it's helpful. Apologies for the fuzziness of the text! Here is the list of charged drinks

On our last cruise we sat next to a couple in the MDR who had booked a specific table pre cruise.

My husband was advised to cut out caffeine for medical reasons and it worked (and luckily without any withdrawal symptoms). Decaf coffee for him now and I have decaf tea to keep him company😊.

Hi Gerry. Thanks for posting these photos. I like to think I can just about see me on the upper aft deck waving at you 🤨😂

I'm SO glad I don't like coffee....🤣

On our 15 night SofD cruise in May we made one reservation for each of the speciality restaurants on the first day (we had a silver wedding anniversary and birthday to celebrate). After about a week we tried to book another but we weren't allowed to. We did manage to secure a reservation in East to West for the last night of the cruise about two days prior.

I don't see any margaritas. Too early🤔? (There's that "too" again). Lovely backdrop for lunch.