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Prompted by jgw321 question re booking on board - just for fun I did a current price check on one of our future cruises. In Feb 2019 we are doing a Northern lights cruise from Southampton on P&O Aurora.

 

We booked a Mini Suite on deck B in September 2017, we didn't book on board while on an earlier cruise but via our agent

 

I checked today and all Mini Suites are sold out so I priced a deluxe balcony on B Deck - the deluxe balcony is £2400 total more expensive than the booked mini suite.

 

That's why we book as early as possible

 

Alan

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Please is anyone able to offer me some insight into how Saga's cabin grades work? I've looked into it as best I can but am learning very little. I know I could ring them and ask but they are a little bit pushy once they find someone who's got half an interest and I'm not really up for being hassled just yet.

Sorry if I've hijacked a thread about something else, it's the Discovery I've seen an interesting itinerary on.

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The Spirit of Discovery is being built so there are no "real" photos

 

Go to Saga's web https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/ocean/our-ships/spirit-of-discovery/cabin-grades.aspx which shows cabin descriptions, and deck plans. The pictures shown are obviously sales mock ups at this early stage but were good enough for us to book a Deluxe Balcony cabin on the Northern lights cruise in Feb 2020.

Hope this helps Alan

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The pictures shown are obviously sales mock ups at this early stage but were good enough for us to book

 

You are right, those pictures made the Spirit of Discovery look very enticing. I hope they paid the graphic design company well. They certainly seem to have found the best people for the job.

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  • 2 months later...

We have booked a cruise on Saga’s new ship Spirit of Discovery, due to launch summer 2019.

We have also pre-registered for cruises on Saga’s second new ship Spirit of Adventure, due to launch in 2020.

We are wondering when the cruises will go on sale. :rolleyes:

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Is there any benefit in waiting to book once on board, or are we better off booking it now?

 

The advice was book as early as possible if you want the best price. Saga offer a discount which reduces as the sail date gets nearer.

 

To clear up any doubt of the benefit of on board booking we asked the future sales consultant when on board and there is no financial advantage like other lines (reduced deposit, on board credit, extra price discount etc.) . What we found was that he was able to take all the information from your current booking across so that you didn't have to do all the form filling you normally do when you book online yourself. He also confirmed the advice given here, book as early as possible for the best price,

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Four of us booked on Norwegian Legends in August 2019. It is our first time with Saga.

We have just been told it will be all inclusive with "selected wines" at lunch & dinner. Does this mean we can only drink wine at meal times or, can you have glass instead of, say, a G & T in an evening?

Does All inclusive mean exactly that or, are there restrictions as to the time of day you can drink alcohol?

Any advice on this or, anything else about this cruise would be very welcome.

Thanks

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Does All inclusive mean exactly that or, are there restrictions as to the time of day you can drink alcohol?

 

I have only had one cruise so far with Saga and therefore am no expert. My understanding is that Saga always included free wines with lunch and dinner so the all inclusive upgrade doesn't add those but in the past if you had extra drinks during the day you would pay for these, now they will be included in the cruise price. It also includes soft drinks and standard beers and I think standard cocktails, premium drinks would be extra probably.

 

No restrictions on when and what you drink, you can even bring your own alcohol (wine or spirits) aboard which some lines forbid. The only restriction would be if you got drunk. I don't know how they would deal with it but I am sure they would. I have never seen drunken behaviour on any cruise, but it must happen occasionally.

 

Our last cruise was our first with Saga and we found it excellent and have booked again, so I hope you enjoy the cruise. I did a review of my cruise at http://click.email.cruisecritic.com/?qs=7de10af49767e61c18de8f6f3ec958544fa62a9866f47b0390f0ad67bda6d5e3deaf5b20ad11635f630628824bae29bf6cf98428be2f5fbb

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We have done several now on Saga Pearl - essentially at first because of no flying and a limo. from home to ship and back. However, we have been pleasantly surprised by how much we have enjoyed her. Admittedly, we are quite old, and there are few under 60 on her cruises.

 

All inclusive means that as well as the always included wine with lunch and dinner (always a choice, usually of two reds and two whites, and some rose) which is poured generously, you can have fairly generic drinks at any time the bars are open, which will be from at the latest 10.30 a.m. They include g and t, whisky, bloody marys, vodka and orange juice if you like it, and some beers. The spirits are basic brands, but OK for most people. If you want something exotic, like my favourite Negroni, you will pay probably £5 for a generous one. The brandy on its own is horrible, but might be all right with ginger ale! Anyone who likes a drink before lunch and a couple before before dinner will save about £200 on their bar bill for two.

 

The new ship should be really lovely, though for us rather too many passengers at almost 1,000.

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The new ship should be really lovely, though for us rather too many passengers at almost 1,000.

 

That was a useful post, thanks. We found on CMV Columbus with 1200 passengers it didn't seem any more crowded as there was more room to spread out. The big thing with the new ships is that they have been designed for the Saga clientel. I am looking forward to them. Mind you we are used to the 800 range whereas Saga Pearl is only 500. (We have yet to experience the Sapphire).

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Just heard directly from Saga that "all Inclusive" means that you can have any of the listed drinks, including wine, any time the bars are open.

Also confirmed that decaffeinated coffee was available at all times.

Hope this helps other people too.

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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.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Just heard directly from Saga that "all Inclusive" means that you can have any of the listed drinks, including wine, any time the bars are open.

Also confirmed that decaffeinated coffee was available at all times.

Hope this helps other people too.

Thank you for posting this, just discovered that our Northern Lights trip in February is also now all-inclusive.

Our TA had apparently been informed in June but had not bothered to pass this information on to us.

As to pre-registering for Spirit of Adventure - does anyone have a link?

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hi - I take it that you are sailing Feb 2019, we are booked on Spirit of Discovery Northern lights sailing 16 Feb 2020, I dont think they will make that all inclusive yet - if ever

We are sailing on a slightly shorter cruise in Feb 2019 on P&O.

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

Alan

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We cruised on Oriana to the Northern Lights in February 2016 (12 nights)

Had a great time and yes it was very cold.

The Saga cruise is 15 nights and visiting different ports.

We organised private tours in Tromso and Alta.

We’re looking forward to redoing the snowmobile trip and visit to the Ice Hotel.

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.

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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. Edited by jgw321
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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.

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We’ve just booked 5th September 2019 on Spirit of Discovery to Norway.

We’re experienced cruisers, having been on many lines, sizes and styles of ships. Our favourite line is Azamara but their prices for future cruises are getting beyond our budget.

These new build ships looks very enticing so it will be an interesting experiment, trying Saga for the first time.

 

I’ve been an avid member of Cruise Critic for many years, posting on lots of Roll Calls and making new ‘friends’ before boarding. I hope this is the place to post as there don’t seem to be any Saga cruise Roll Calls.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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We’ve just booked 5th September 2019 on Spirit of Discovery to Norway.

We’re experienced cruisers, having been on many lines, sizes and styles of ships. Our favourite line is Azamara but their prices for future cruises are getting beyond our budget.

These new build ships looks very enticing so it will be an interesting experiment, trying Saga for the first time.

 

I’ve been an avid member of Cruise Critic for many years, posting on lots of Roll Calls and making new ‘friends’ before boarding. I hope this is the place to post as there don’t seem to be any Saga cruise Roll Calls.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

 

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

 

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

Edited by Glenndale
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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.
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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.

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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.

 

 

 

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

Sorry, shouldn’t have generalised but I believe it is true that the older generation are less comfortable with technology.

For what it’s worth, I started in computing in the late 60’s programming in Assembler on a 16K Honeywell complete with flashing lights, card reader and whirring tape decks, the sort of machine much beloved by Sci Fi films of that era ;)

As to getting it’s own forum, as you say, unlikely to happen.

We cruise with many different cruise lines, mainly Oceania and Cunard these days, but really dislike the airports and flying, so at some point soon we will decide to sail exclusively from the UK. The new Saga ships are more or less the same size as Oceania’s Riviera and Marina, which we enjoy.

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Many thanks Glenndale for your help. I’ve used your link, couldn’t find an existing thread in the last 6 months so have started a Roll Call. I know there are one or two people on this thread who booked the same cruise as us many months ago so hopefully they’ll join some chat.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=56755707

 

I understand your comments about CC being very American but there are dozens of Brits on the Azamara threads.

Incidentally, I’m 66, and only used a computer at work for the last couple of years of my working life. However I learnt to use a laptop and now iPad and am very active on social media as are many people I know in their 70s and 80s.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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