Spirit of Discovery - when will cruises start again?

[white_bear]

I see that Spirit of Discovery cruises are now suspended until 1 June 2020.

[nosapphire]

I imagine that it will keep rolling back a few weeks at a time.

Even when the UK lockdown eases off, there is still the problem of which countries/ports will accept a cruise ship, what will be open, and whether the FCO advice has changed.

They also have to get their crews back - Discovery is currently laid up Tilbury with a skeleton crew (anyone seen the captain's blog from 10th April with the ship all lit up for the NHS?)

I would not be at all surprised to find that the whole of 2020 is a no-go for the majority of cruise lines.

Lets hope that when it restarts we can get insurance.

[Glenndale]

Our SoD Baltic cruise is due to depart on the 2nd June, we have no expectation that it will sail.

There are no posted excursions with 46 days to go.

 

[annieuk]

We transferred our Spirit of Discovery cruise that was supposed to have been over Easter to May next year.  This was all done on the telephone several weeks ago. Since then we've received no confirmation either by email or post.  Is this because of the general situation do people think?  Don't want to bother Saga unnecessarily.  

[nosapphire]

Have you tried the My Saga log in (or Manage My Booking?) to see if anything is shown?

If several weeks ago, and nothing showing anywhere, then I would be inclined to send an email to ask for confirmation - make sure to include your booking reference.

Normally the booking confirmation gets created immediately (in our case, we always got duplicates) but these are not normal times, and their computer system is probably struggling more than usual (the customer facing side of their computer system was not very good at the best of times).

 

[Glenndale]

We had a phone call from Saga yesterday telling us the Baltic cruise was off.

We have the choice of booking a future cruise with an extra 15% of the cost of our Baltic or transferring the money to our November SoA cruise.

We decided to leave the money with them and come to our decision later.

[LandC]

That’s interesting Glenndale.  So they didn’t offer you a refund?

 

We have a September SoA cruise booked, which is unlikely to go ahead, not least because the launch of the ship has been delayed.  I hope Saga will advise us soon of the  

options available to us.

 

 

[Glenndale]

Sorry my omission, yes, we could have had a refund.

The choices I originally indicated were the ones we decided to consider.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Glenndale

[annieuk]

I phoned Saga eventually after the Manage My Booking said we had no cruises booked and got through very quickly.  Yes it was all done, got given the booking number - which I think my husband had been given and forgotten about it!  Anyway, now able to access it online and also as we took Saga Insurance with the booking that's been approved too.  I didn't go into the whole Covid 19 business, time to worry about that when/if cruising starts again.  Ours was a transferred booking rather than a new one.

[lincslady]

I have only just got round to reading the Captain' blog from Discovery.  I was very pleased to read that not only are the ships safely in Tilbury, and that staff on the ship have been doing such sterling work for the community, but especially that the Filipino crew have been able to get home.

 

Sadly the same does not apply to crew from other lines; well done Saga.  it does feel like a company with some moral compass  as compared with some of the other lines.

[nosapphire]

On 5/15/2020 at 12:19 PM, lincslady said:

I have only just got round to reading the Captain' blog from Discovery.  I was very pleased to read that not only are the ships safely in Tilbury, and that staff on the ship have been doing such sterling work for the community, but especially that the Filipino crew have been able to get home.

 

Sadly the same does not apply to crew from other lines; well done Saga.  it does feel like a company with some moral compass  as compared with some of the other lines.

I very much doubt that Saga's moral compass is so much greater than the many other lines which also managed to repatriate their crew before borders closed.

Yes, there are a lot of crew still stranded on ships around the world, much of the reason for this is because their home countries closed their borders, not because the lines could not be bothered to get them back. 

Some lines sailed/are sailing their ships via or to countries they never intended to go to solely to either get flights for their crew, or to actually sail the crew home because they cannot get flights.

 

[lincslady]

A new blog in from he Staff Captain of discovery,  still in Tilbury of course, but good to hear from her.

 

It was good to read that Saga did, unlike some other lines, manage to get the majority of the crew home quite a while ago.  Let's hope they all want to come back when things improve.

[nosapphire]

Saga were lucky. Crew that are stranded now are mainly because borders are closed and even their own ports won't let them in. Although I also like to think that Saga are one of the reputable employers that treat their crew well. I hope so, anyway.

Not sure how well it worked for the crew when they got back, as the Philippines were apparently quarantining everyone and local residents were objecting to them being returned.

I doubt that many crew actually want to work on a cruise ship - any cruise ship. It is just that in many cases it is the only viable employment for them. Pretty sure that if they could get work at home we would be cleaning our own cabins.

[LandC]

I understand that P&O have paused their cruises until October 15.  I wonder if Saga will follow suit?