goody1

You've picked a great Itinerary for your 1st Cruise. My Wife and I are also on this cruise which will be our 5th Baltic Cruise.

I work for the NHS and had my second Pfizer vaccine 2 weeks ago.

I was speaking to a GP I was working with and asked him if there were procedures in place to supply patients with proof of having had both vaccines as there was nothing concrete about" Vaccine Passports" being issued.

His reply was basically they don't have a clue how it's going to be administered.

It will interesting to find out from the first Cruisers what evidence Saga are accepting.

In any case, my Wife and I will not be cruising until rules about mask wearing are rescinded.

On 2/22/2021 at 4:55 PM, Windsurfboy said:

Hospitality opens May 17th , so good chance could cruise a month later.

 

Hospitality rule of six indoors, no masks mentioned

This is where it is confusing. We were sent the new brochure yesterday and it stated there would be additional conditions for Cruises in May and June. This included wearing face coverings. There was nothing mentioned for Cruises beyond June.

We're hoping to go to the Baltic in September, however if mask wearing is still compulsory then we'll leave it till next year.

12 hours ago, Glenndale said:

Hello goody1, I remember chatting to you and your wife while we were waiting to embark last September.

You had arrived bright and early 🙂

Did Saga offer you a flight?

Hi Glenndale, nice to hear from you again. Yes they did, however with weight restrictions regarding luggage, we drove down the day before and stayed at a Hotel in Canterbury that we've used before. 

We hope to go in Spirit of Adventure next summer to the Baltic, however with the current situation, who knows what will happen.

We live in Ayrshire and it's 1000 miles round trip by car for us.

Love the blog. My Wife and I are boarding on the 26 Sep for the Norway Rocks cruise. Being 58 and 57, we'll probably be the youngest on board lol.

On 8/6/2019 at 6:24 AM, hermioneb said:

We are on board now, on the fourth day of a two week cruise, Gourmet Spain.  I would agree with all that has been said by Janecamebridge. Ship, staff, food all wonderful.  I will write a full review on our return, but having too much fun to do so now! If anyone has any specific questions I will try and answer them over the next few days, but am trying not to look at my Ipad too often.

On 8/6/2019 at 6:24 AM, hermioneb said:

We are on board now, on the fourth day of a two week cruise, Gourmet Spain.  I would agree with all that has been said by Janecamebridge. Ship, staff, food all wonderful.  I will write a full review on our return, but having too much fun to do so now! If anyone has any specific questions I will try and answer them over the next few days, but am trying not to look at my Ipad too often.

Hi,

My Wife and I are on the Norway Rocks Itinerary on the 26 Sep. This will be our first Cruise with Saga although we have been cruising since 2001. I would be very grateful if you could give your thoughts on the entertainment provided in the Theatre.

Thanks.

Great pics. We are on her 1st March out of Mauritius for 2 weeks. Last on her in 2004, so will be interested to see any differences.

Really enjoyed the Review. My Wife and I board on the 25th Nov and are really looking forward to it. We were on its sister ship a couple of times (Celebrity Century) and are curious as to what changes have been made.

:cool: Looking forward to explore the Explorer:o

Enjoy your Cruise. We are on it on the 25th Nov so counting down the days. We were on it's sister ship (Celebrity Century) a few years ago and it is a lovely ship.

Finally, went into TUI in Glasgow this morning with my Wife and managed to book 9 out of the 12 stops. These were the original excursions that we'd chosen 3 months ago and of the remaining 3 stops, 2 of them (Antigua and Tortola) should be available shortly. We are now in a happier frame of mind, however it has been one heck of a kerfuffle.

Goody1 - let’s just hope the actual cruise is really good despite the rubbish pre cruise admin experience.

Scriv, I'm sure it will be. We've been on it's sister ship twice (Celebrity Century) and loved the ship then. Although it's only our 4th TUI Cruise we enjoyed the previous ones and expect that the entertainment will be good.

It's funny but in all our years of cruising, I never complain about anything just going with the flow and enjoying being away on a ship. However, this carry on with Customer Services over booking excursions would drive a Saint to swear lol.

All along with this excursions issue I have been able to log into cruiseexcursions.tui.co.uk with my booking ref and cruise details and have been able to view the excursions for my cruise with a guide price, but not able to book online. But I was able to book from this list with the store.

 

However these excursions have always been different from the ones listed on the main TUI website under Flight Extras. I think because the latter are excursions for if you are having a land based holiday where you get picked up from a hotel etc. rather than the specific shore excursions for cruises.

 

Have a look at the cruiseexcursions.tui.co.uk and compare it with the list you have been looking at. Wonder if they are the same?

 

 

Skioncruises - it was explained to me along the way that there is a new website booking system being rolled out across the country bit by bit, thus explaining that some stores are geared up for it and some aren't.

 

 

This has been and still is so confusing.

Cruise excursions.tui.co.uk was the site we were trying to book the excursions from, however the site states they're not on sale yet. The list I was looking at was nowhere near as comprehensive. My Wife and I cruise every year and are starting to regret going back to TUI.

Not TUI but excursions from another company that follow most cruise lines itineraries recommended from my TA. Private excursions are quite expensive but like for like ones work out cheaper. They all use the same operators in the ports and no guarantee the ship wont sail without you if these are late back, but for half days I think there is very little or no risk.

 

https://www.cruisingexcursions.com/itinerary/marella-cruises/marella-discovery/22-11-2018/14/2

Thanks for that. Had a look at the available excursions and they look pretty good. May go down this route if TUI don't get their act together in the next fortnight.

Hello goody1.

 

We go on 8 November and I phoned Shore Excusions enquiries on 7 September and, as per their instructions, immediately phoned our local ta.

 

 

Told them I had phoned SE and they had directed me to ocal agent They knew what I was talking about, noted the excursions I wanted plus card details for payment and I had confirmation email with reference number within 10 minutes. I did not use ta for booking.

 

Where in Scotland are you?

Hi

Kilmarnock, although booked the cruise through TUI in Silverburn, Glasgow. I went onto the TUI site at Cannock and got an email back this morning with available excursions. They don't bear much resemblance to the excursions we viewed on the TUI main site for each of the 12 stops. Never in our 17 years of cruising have we come across such incompetence from a cruiseline.

Goody, have you phoned Cannock or Colchester? We booked ours over the phone with Cannock and do not live anywhere near Satffordshire.

I'll give them another 2 weeks then if necessary phone the Cannock Branch. Thanks.

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I don't think they are being economical with the truth, they really don't know. The new system seems to be rolling out across the stores bit by bit, so some can do it, some can't. We still can't book on line ourselves.. the official line is end of September, ie now. However, I could not wait with that uncertainty. Cannock and Colchester stores have been able to book our excursions for a November cruise, when others were unable to, so I suggest you ring them and see how you get on. We did ours over the phone and I live nowhere near either of these.

You're right, they do not know. My Wife and I went in to the Branch yesterday and were eventually told that it might be the end of the week before we can book the excursions. In any case I was assured (take that with a pinch of salt) that we can book before our cruise on the 25 Nov. We are experienced cruisers and have never known such ineptitude from a Customers Service Dept.

We are on the Explorer in November out of Barbados and cannot yet book any excursions. If it is a problem with their online booking system, then it would appear that our local TUI branch are being slightly economical with the truth. They stated that for the Caribbean they are changing their Suppliers responsible for the excursions and would be sorted first week in September. Needless to say we are still waiting. We always book our excursions in advance and this isn't good enough. Hope it's not a sign of things to come.

Thanks for that. We're on the Explorer in November and the Upgrade is a no brainer,

My Wife and I have cruised the Baltic 4 times, always in July and have never had any issues.

My Wife and I did a very similar Cruise on the same ship in 2014. We did not need any Visas for our trip nor for the stop in Busan. The only thing that we had to do was hand over our Passports to Reception a couple of days prior to our arrival in Busan.

Sounds ghastly - just like P&O. Personally I cruise to meet people of various nationalities not to be on a floating Little England!:eek:

You might find it ghastly as you so eloquently put it. I was just replying to the OPs Post.

We also Cruise to meet all different kinds of people and are on this Cruise because we liked the Itinerary.

I am sure that there will also be fellow Scots, Irish and Welsh onboard,

Hi, we are on the 13 Sep '18 Cruise out of Southampton on the Magnifica. This will be our 4th MSC Cruise and according to John Cooper on Vision Cruise there will be a British Cruise Director on board along with British Comedians and British beers.

Hi Goody --

Now, I have never pre-ordered a Beverage Package, but they do for sure link it to your card.

 

I just went through the process, up to the form you referred to, and I see what the "deal" is -- this is also the form for buying a gift (like, flowers or single bottles of champagne, etc) for yourself or others on a cruise. So just choose the first day and your stateroom, and all should be fine.

Thanks for that. I thought that would be the case, however it was the bit about delivery to the Stateroom that had me wondering.

Hi,

I have a query re the Drinks Packages. I am about to preorder the Elite Package for our forthcoming cruise on the Volendam in February.

On the order form, it asked where I wanted it delivered with the Stateroom being the only option. Does HAL operate these packages differently from the likes of Celebrity and MSC where the relevant package is annotated on your Cruise card?

Thanks.