jgw321

18 hours ago, lincslady said:

encouraging a younger crowd

 

I've been out of the loop for a while and am not up to date withe context.  Is this a new thrust that Saga have?  The age limit is 50+ (40+ if with a 50+), but perhaps compared with 70-90 this is a younger crowd.

My brochure does have deck plans for Spirit of Discovery so if anyone wants to know where anything is....then I will be happy to have a look for you.

 

Well done Lottie. The saga site also has one at https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/ocean/our-ships/spirit-of-discovery/decks.aspx

 

Presumably the other ship will be the same, I believe they are sisters.

Question or posts about Saga.

Please use this thread and not the one about separating Saga into its own forum (unless you want to comment on that).

 

We are trying to mend a split thread situation.

we all change over to just using the 'Saga' thread for future discussions and advice

 

Click this link.

Sorry if I've hijacked a thread about something else but (as stated) there s little to find on here re: Saga cruises.

 

What was wrong with Saga Cruises which was the better thread for this question?

I did put a fair bit of what I hope was helpful advice on the other Saga thread

 

This is what has caused the problem. It was bad enough that the OP started a new thread rather than a new topic, when there was already a thread. Perhaps he thought that it was off topic (separating the Saga forum rather than about Saga) and so it needed a new thread. What really went wrong was when new people tacked on off topic questions about Saga to the first thread they found, without looking at the original post and without bothering to see if there was a more appropriate thread. They should not have been answered, but redirected to the correct thread. Once a new conversation starts up you have split into two threads and it is near impossible to put this right.

 

Perhaps it should be combined with this, as it makes more sense to have just one Saga sub-forum on here.

This is not something we can do ourselves but needs to be requested from Laura. With all the activity going on with CC, this may or may not get action.

OP was probably requesting a separate Sub-forum

A pity a new thread was started when there was already a thread for Saga Cruises where this could have been posted. Now there are two threads which will exacerbate the problem. Ideally this thread should be closed with a pointer to the other thread so that we are all together in one place. It is not something we can do ourselves however, but would need to be requested from Laura.

Problem is, CruiseCritic appears to have not honored these requests, regardless of the popularity of the cruise line, and has not divulged the actual criteria that a cruise line must meet to be granted their own sub-forum. Inquiries to CruiseCritic about the criteria (by myself and others) have remained unanswered.

My theory used to be the (unstated) policy was American lines = own forum, and Non-American lines = lumped together in "all others", I based my observation on CMV which is a popular line with as much activity as some of the lines which do have their own forum. However I see action has happened.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=53394910&postcount=1. Perhaps we should all write to Laura. I can understand that some of the specialist lines will be too small to justify their own forum and there will always be a need for an "all other" for what's left over, but what would help is for the all other to be broken up into sub forums by cruise line, so that the roll calls all come together. It is finding if there is a roll call or not which is the most frustrating and difficult task. Search four or five pages where Seabourn, Pullmantur, Mein Schiff are all muddledup with what you are looking for and some threads quote the ship, some the line, some the date but not the year, some the cruise area. There is no consistency in how threads are titled (despite the request for this).

 

However Roll call policy and Cruise Line policy seems inconsistent as CMV are still in "All others" for roll calls where the problem is worst.

hardly any passengers write about their experiences

 

Gotcha. :) Presence, in terms of participating clientèle.

Roll Call threads

 

Sapphire, 27 Sept 2019, Stylish Scandinavia https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?p=56374122#post56374122

 

Sapphire, 21 February 2020, Aurora Explorer https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?p=56374208#post56374208

I have just started a roll call

 

What a good idea. As it is so hard to find roll calls in the melee of Other Cruise Lines, when you start a thread, post a link in here. At least this thread has Saga Cruises as its title so people are likely to look in here.

Is 50 considered old?

 

40 actually, providing you are traveling with a 50+.

People think Saga are expensive, they are if you compare the advertised price for the cruise across different lines. What you really need to compare is the final cost. On other lines the on board bill which you pay at the end could be as much as the initial payment before the cruise.

 

It reminds me of the cheap flights; £10 to New York. Oh you want a seat, that'll be extra. Oh you've got luggage, that'll be extra. Oh you want refreshments, that'll be extra. Oh you want to use the toilet, that'll be extra. At least with Saga you know roughly what the cruise will cost you.

a reason why people with health issues choose to cruise Saga. I don't understand why. When I read the insurance information it seemed no different to any other policy

 

I have a Saga annual policy and we only got a £26 reduction. I think the reduction depends on the length of the cruise.

 

I too have seen people suggest that ill people choose Saga because of the insurance. Maybe that is just a belief rather than knowledge. I can imagine some people with health problems think that they can get away with not declaring issues, which they can providing nothing goes wrong. If you give an insurance company wriggle room, they will use it to avoid paying out. I have only done one Saga cruise but there were no more geriatric cruisers on it than on any other cruise we have done. In fact there no wheel chairs, just walkers and sticks.

 

Also most lines insist on you having insurannce, if not you have to buy their offering. The only difference I see is that Saga include it in the price with a rebate if not needed and others add it as an extra.

but why would you want to! they are there for my protection

I have no desire to get round the checks. My point was that the checks they were doing when I last traveled were "lip service" and not effectual.

We would rather not put up with the long drag at sea to get to anywhere interesting

We would rather have a relaxing sea journey than the drag at the airport, plus no luggage restrictions. Each to his own.

How did anyone manage to watch this video to the end?

 

I just turned the sound off. Once I heard that American sales pitch accent I reached for the volume control. The pictures were what I wanted anyway, together with the pause control so I had time to study them.

UK companies like Saga - as well as Noble Caledonia and Fred Olsen - have virtually no Internet presence

 

I don't understand what you mean. They all have web sites and they all provide Internet. Some Internet services are better than others but I have used them OK on Saga, Fred Oulsen and CMV. On the Saga Pearl Internet was not available in the cabins, you had to go to a public area, but we found it would work from the cabins in the quieter periods.

the older generation are less comfortable with technology.

 

There a certainly a lot who seem to take a pride in not understanding "all that techmology", but some of them are quite happy to use their mobile phones, even during presentations when they should be on mute at least, if not off altogether. I only switch my phone if I want to make a call. I don't walk about with earphones talking to myself.

 

late 60’s programming in Assembler on a 16K Honeywell complete with flashing lights, card reader and whirring tape decks

Ah the same era, I was just ahead of you but not by much. I started on Leo/II which was binary and only experts could program it. Then went on to 1401/7010 which was decimal and easy, everyone in systems could program it. Then ended up on S360/370 and the later ones which went back to binary and needed experts again. We lived through several years of problems while IBM learned how to write software properly. Then Microsoft came along and they still haven't learnt yet.

 

but really dislike the airports and flying, so at some point soon we will decide to sail exclusively from the UK

We haven't flown for many years, we like flying but won't put up with the pseudo security nonsense. I can think of several ways to get round some of their silly checks and refuse to pay £5 to replace the sealed bottle of water that they just confiscated. And getting to the airport three hours before the flight only to have it delayed another two hours. You'll find Saga chauffeur service so much more civilized. There is a security check at the port, but it is reasonable and far less hassle. The only downer is that it is such a long cruise to get to Antarctic we would get problems with the house insurance (premises empty for too long)

Unfortunately, possibly due to the age of many Saga cruisers their customer base is not necessarily ‘au fait’ with forums and the internet.

 

Hang on, I'm 80 and I started with valve computers in the 60s, but I know what you mean. I think there are three factors,

 

1. CC is more American than British, fewer Brits have found it yet.
   
2. Age of clients and technical competence.
   
3. The "other cruise lines" muddle.
   

We have often started threads for Fred Oulsen or CMV cruises to find no one else joined us, but the ship wasn't empty.

 

It would be nice if CC could give Saga it’s own forum, that might encourage more people to post :)

 

Don't think it'll happen. The phrase "not American" springs to mind.

it will be an interesting experiment, trying Saga for the first time.

 

We sailed on Pearl II last year as 1st time travellers (to Saga) and found them better than the Princess small ships (Ocean [now sold] and Pacific). I can't compare with Azamara as I haven't sailed but it could be close. Saga are not cheap compared to CMV but then CMV is very good values for money. Saga are not really expensive compared to other lines because so much is included which are extras with others. The chauffeur service is starting to be copied by other lines now.

 

I hope this is the place to post as there don’t seem to be any Saga cruise Roll Calls.

The Saga Roll calls are all muddled up in https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72 with several smaller cruise lines. CC could at least make it easier for us by subdividing that forum into sub forums for each line, so that you only need to sort through two pages looking for a particular cruise. If you haven't found a thread for your cruise by page three, start a new one. If CC have to keep merging duplicate threads they might wake up to the fact that they are the cause of the problem.

The 2 new ships look as if they will be strong contenders for our cruising £

I suspect many people are waiting to try Discovery and sales on the Sapphire are not doing so well hence the included drinks.

 

When we were on the Pearl we heard many people say the new ships were too big and they wouldn't be sailing on them. I think this is a great mistake on their part, they are not that big. Not like the blocks of flats that some lines run. The new ships look a good design and the extra passengers will enable Saga to make a profit without having to put the prices up too much, which they would have had to do with the old ships when the new emission regs come in.

 

We have been on Columbus with 1200 passengers and it doesn't seem crowded or impersonal, as the ship is bigger there is more room and so it is less congested. We are looking forward to them, but haven't got anything booked yet.

we are booked on Spirit of Discovery Northern lights sailing 16 Feb 2020

 

I thought we were on the same cruise, then realised that we are on the Sapphire 20 Feb 2020. (it seems a long way away as we have other cruises first). We were told we would get all inclusive for Stylish Scandanavia, Saga Sapphire, September 2019, but we haven't heard anything about the 2020 one

 

We have done this cruise several times and always seen the lights from the deck - people who did an excursion to see them came back very cold

We have done 3 or 4 Northern Lights trips, the best views we had were from Iceland. It is very annoying if you see them from the coach, but arrive at the dark site just as they are finishing (Tomso once), Alta (once). We had our best view from a ship on a Christmas cruise on the Black Watch, all the colours. The ship is OK for visual sightings but not so good for photography. you need less light pollution and a firm base for the tripod due to the need for a long exposure. On the Iceland tour they served hot chocolate and cakes so everyone went inside for those first but we had our priorities right, lights first. When the rest emerged 30 minutes later it had started to snow, so we all came back to the ship. There were a lot of disgruntled passengers, all that way and no lights, but we had our trophies in the camera.

Thanks Paul,

a pity really, the change in their video would be a big improvement. It is hard to understand why Renaisance had all their ships designed that way in the first place.

 

There are two shots of the forward lounge, one at 0:34 showing the forward facing seats and the other at 1:40 showing the entertainment area behind it which I find hard to work out. For anyone interested the video is at https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/pa-pacific-princess/?cid=dm_email_promo_internal_080818-onboardspend-smallship_campaign&mi_u=8556440714

 

Seems like a marketing con. Trades description act?

rot gut

 

I don't know the American market, or the Oceania wines, but I find most wines on cruises are OK, nothing special but drinkable. It is only when you factor in the price that they seem poor value for money. If you resign yourself to "restaurant prices", then they can seem nearly reasonable again. The Saga wines on our last cruise were all easy drinking wines and being "free" (in the cruise price) they went down well.

 

Back in the 70's in UK you could get cheap wine which you could describe as rot gut. You had to pay £6-7 a bottle to get anything decent. Then Tony Laithwaite started to explore and import better wines at a cheap price, brought in the Flying Winemakers, and wineries bought new stainless steel fermentation vessels and quality improved and prices went down, plus the supermarkets got knowlegable wine buyers and discovered Chile and Argentina etc, learning from Tony. You could get quality wine at £3 a bottle and no more rot gut. Then our government hiked the duty a couple of times and now the same £3 bottle costs £7.99.

 

As has been said, if you want something special and really to your taste, bring it on board (Oceania allow this), and pay the corkage. While drinking remember that although the corkage is an extra tax you have had to pay, you are saving multiples of this against the price you would have to pay if the ship stocked it. As Flatbush Flyer says "even if it's stocked, which it probably isn't".

Hope this helps other people too.

 

Yes, it should do, thanks. That puts it very clearly. I hadn't thought about wine other than at meal times, as that is only time I drink it apart from watching films at home, but some people take a glass of wine rather than a beer or a spirit in a bar.