Jammy Bun

We had very similar experience in February - chose to dine in The Grill one night, but there were at least three tables hosted by officers, including one table nearby which had the Captain and AN Other officer. Service (to us and our companions) was abysmal, though to be honest the service throughout our cruise wasn't great.

Loved our cruises from (and to) Greenwich, but there's a lot of local opposition. If you get the chance to sail from there, grab it while you can. It's a really interesting sail away, especially if you have an onboard commentary like we did. Here's a view from the decks of the Cutty Sark

Same. Never tip during the cruise. And have never had bad service or felt we had to wait longer than anyone else.

Soot very much in evidence on our February SoA cruise. Never seen anything like it on any other cruise we’ve done.

Saga is VERY British.

We'll be boarding Jupiter on 2nd July. I'd be very glad not to have the Abba show again, but I'm guessing they'll 'retire' it after our cruise, which is almost entirely in Scandinavia! Homelands = Abba.

Thanks everyone. We're both in DV, so I'll get their booking numbers and do as you advise.

Bookings open up for us tomorrow and, whilst we’ve done several Viking cruises, we’ve never previously travelled with friends. Can we link our reservations to reserve a table for four? I know that once on board we’ll be able to change our booking if there’s availability, but as our friends are first-timers, I’d like to be able to give them some reassurance that we will be together!

Brilliant answers, thank you so much everyone.

We'll be in Copenhagen in July, on Viking Venus, and I'm wondering if anyone here knows whether Viking usually run a shuttle from the cruise terminal to the city centre? We've been before but are several years older now, with knee problems that make long walks uncomfortable. I remember walking alongside the water from the ship, past the Little Mermaid, but can't for the life of me remember the sort of distance we covered. Don't want to do an organised tour (too many ports in quick succession) but would like to get onto a boat to see the city from the water. Any suggestions are welcomed!

We've done several river and ocean cruises with Viking, and much prefer the oceans. Main reason is the space - there is always somewhere peaceful to sit and relax. We found the single lounge area on the river cruises got very crowded, especially for the pre-dinner briefings, and we didn't much care for having to share a table at every mealtime. Having said that, I would still do another Viking River cruise! I love Viking!

I was fairly interested in the new Barcelona round trip, despite having been to most of the ports several times before (mostly on cruises from UK). Had it been over the Christmas and New Year period, I would definitely have jumped at the chance. Gibraltar is OK the first time you go! Walk up to the Trafalgar Cemetery - there are some interesting grave stones there, though not many from the actual battle. We enjoyed walking across the airport runway too, but it was quite a few years ago... maybe they won't allow that now!

We gave up on P&O after a cruise on Aurora in 2015, and many years of cruising mainly on P&O. Aurora was always our favourite of that fleet. We then did two more Fred cruises (enjoyed their homely atmosphere), and a cheap NCL one, before discovering Viking in 2016. Since then, apart from our Saga cruise in February this year, we have stuck with Viking as, for us, it is a perfect fit. Elegant understated decor and casual dress codes, with lots of cosy quiet areas in which to relax. Saga just didn't compare IN MY OPINION. BUT - and I've said this before (and been flamed for it) if you've been happy with the P&O or Cunard way of doing things, then you will like Saga too. The only way you can be sure is to try it... but try Viking too😉 Good luck!

I can now answer my own question. On our February cruise there were mediocre ‘art’ classes (popular, but very basic and a not very knowledgable ‘tutor’). The craft classes were similarly uninspiring. My OH called them my occupational therapy classes. To take part, you just had to turn up half an hour before the session, at which point they took your name and cabin number and dished out any materials required. I didn’t bring home anything that I’d made, a first for me, as I’ve usually been pleased with art done on cruises (led by professional tutors like Peter Woolley and Easa Ali, among others). But I was given a box of art materials which I’ll pass on to someone in my craft group at home, so it wasn’t ALL bad. I’ve just checked Peter Woolley’s blog and see that he is on the list as an occasional Saga tutor, so if you’re lucky enough to be booked on with him, definitely take advantage of his skills! We won’t be travelling with Saga again, so I’ll miss out on that. http://www.peterwoolley.co.uk/blog/

Sara will know the up to date info - but 4 weeks ago, you were shown to your seat - no choice. Never got to know a waiter, and tbh they were pretty disinterested and overstretched on our cruise. Maybe we were unlucky, and it was a ‘bad’ cruise, but we’re not spending another £8000+ trying again!

I prefer to have the choice of using a buffet too. It was seated, served, when we were on in February. The same menu as the dining room. Actually a nicer area than the crowded noisy dining room though.

I’ve spent almost 12 weeks on several different Viking ships - never seen anything like the soot on SoA. We’d hoped Saga would be similar to Viking, but it’s nothing like… back to Viking this summer, and hoping to remain fit enough to travel with them for as long as we can.

Soot very much in evidence on our cruise last month. Even on our balcony, which was on C deck. The railings on the top deck looked like they’d never been cleaned - and we never saw anyone up there doing any maintenance work.

Totally agree. The Grill/buffet wasn't self-service when we were onboard - everything was put on your plate by staff, meaning queues and rarely getting exactly what you wanted. Strangely. towards the end of our two weeks we went to the dining room for breakfast, and discovered that you could serve yourself from the buffet in there. (We didn't realise there was a buffet in there, otherwise would have used it from Day One.)

We experienced this on our SoA cruise last month. Definitely not a consistently smiley happy crew - and several times we had to go to the bar to ask for service. They seemed understaffed, and we put it down to such a high percentage of passengers requiring additional help due to mobility issues. Never once got a wine refill in the 'buffet'. The waiters in there seemed to be tied up carrying plates for those who could not carry their own. (Fair enough, I appreciate that's a nice thing to do but the large number of extreme elderly and infirm meant it impacted our holiday). Memo to Saga - you need more crew!

Nowhere to put your iPad, no way of seeing where you are, constant anxiety about invading others’ space, impossible to snooze in an upright position. It was like travelling backwards on a train in a standard carriage, but without the benefit of having a table and being occasionally able to walk around. We did the journey down to Portsmouth in one of the Saga/Titan vehicles, which was bad enough, but never imagined that we’d be even more uncomfortable on the way back.

OK, I take your point. Will do so later today when I have more time.

We did fill in the questionnaire on the ship - and gave such poor ratings for many aspects that we got a phone call the day after we got home! Unfortunately my OH, who took the call, forgot to mention the abysmal journey home. You live and learn. 😏

OBC would be of no interest to us - unless they can transfer it to another cruise line. 😁 This was an experiment. We'd been tempted by the 'door to door' hype. Back to Viking in July.

We won't be using Saga again, so see little point in complaining. The cruise was not what we'd hoped for, in many respects, and the journey home was just the final nail in the coffin.