Saga UK , normal cruising, but everyone has to be vaccinated, will Cunard follow

[Thaxted]

3 minutes ago, DM6045 said:

Apologies if that makes no sense my brain is working faster than my fingers tonight...

My brain is always working faster than my fingers, which I fear doesn't say much for either!

[beaveh]

I can see this I a wise move by Saga, boosting confidence amongst their customer base( and shareholders! ). They are a line for older UK passenger so it would be a good fit. I wonder where it leaves other cruise lines with a different demographic of passengers?

I’m 55 so I don't see me cruising anytime soon as I'm way down the vaccine list. Then there are other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean, who cater for family groups on their massive ships. They are even further away from getting the vaccine than me.

I'm uncertain about Saga’s approach. On one hand is good news that cruising may restart in a safer way, but on the other if that's the way things are going to go, it's very bad news for some of the other lines. 

Edited January 22, 2021 by beaveh

[Underwatr]

On 1/20/2021 at 6:36 PM, Lanky Lad said:

It will work for Saga as you have to be over 50.  But until everyone has been offered a vaccine it would be unfair to ban people for not having had it.

 

I'm only interested in a cruise experience that I believe will now require all passengers to have vaccination - limited to no restrictions on proximity to other passenger groups, shared tables with others not in my party, and independent excursions available in most or all ports. You know, the way it used to be. I'm not particularly concerned whether it's fair to others who may not have the vaccine for any reason.

 

I know that US cruises (at least) will be under restrictions until November 2021 at the minimum and I have decided not to book such a cruise. 

[schattenfell71]

On 1/21/2021 at 12:36 AM, Lanky Lad said:

It will work for Saga as you have to be over 50.  But until everyone has been offered a vaccine it would be unfair to ban people for not having had it.

 

That´s the main pont in my opinion. We have a very strictly plan here in Germany who gets the vaccine first and who is after the first group and so on. My wife is working in a hospital and I am working for the gouvernment so we both are in group 3, which means that if everything will doing well we would get our vaccine not before May. My daughters are 21 and 16 and they are even in a group yet. 

 

I have booked the Norway cruise beginning in July. So I would not even have the possibility to let us all get the vaccine due to the gouvernment orders.

 

Until it is not clear if you can infect other people or not if you get the complete vaccines (you get 2 vaccination doses here in Germany) it makes no sense for me.

[ace2542]

6 hours ago, Underwatr said:

I know that US cruises (at least) will be under restrictions until November 2021 at the minimum and I have decided not to book such a cruise

When do you think the CDC will announce the next set of restrictions or lack of restrictions past Nov 2021? Because our final payment date is August. And as I understand it we would not be able to board Anthem after having been on QM2.

[resistk]

On 1/21/2021 at 9:18 AM, majortom10 said:

Very risky to sail with staff not vaccinated because even though all guests will be vaccinated they can carry and spread Covid so staff could catch it and would spread amongst them very quickly. Could leave Saga open to legal cases in the future from staff.

 

Actually it makes no sense, if the crew is not vaccinated, they can test positive and the entire cruise cancelled.  Additionally, last I checked, UK is ground zero for the most deadly strain of COVID. I am sure they will be welcomed with open arms just a few months from now.

[ace2542]

8 hours ago, resistk said:

Actually it makes no sense

So perhaps this is an indication of how desperate they are to resume sailing and ergo of their financial position if this is desperation. Maybe they are at a stage now where unless they can keep the majority of customer money in their accounts as opposed to refunds/securing future bookings they may go the way of Cruise/Maritime.

[Victoria2]

We have no idea if the cruise lines will be buying in privately sourced vaccine for the staff or if the possible late Spring sailings, Cunard itineraries, is desperation or a desire to resume a skeleton schedule in preparation for semi normal operations.

 

Any talk of the biggies going the way of CMV is premature.

[Windsurfboy]

Saga is part of a big profitable group , so should be more resilient 

[ace2542]

32 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

Saga is part of a big profitable group , so should be more resilient 

And Azamara was part of Royal and they sold that off for what that statement is worth. I don't know if the sale was long planned or if they needed to get a boost of money into their organisation. I don't follow Azamara that closely. 

 

Big groups will not hesitate to sell or even cut away unprofitable aspects of their organisations, You know that.

Edited January 23, 2021 by ace2542

[ace2542]

49 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Any talk of the biggies going the way of CMV is premature

Saga is not big not in terms of cruising at least in terms of ocean cruising. They are probably the smallest of the lines left.

[Victoria2]

18 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Saga is not big not in terms of cruising at least in terms of ocean cruising. They are probably the smallest of the lines left.

They are under the umbrella of a large organisation and thus compared to CMV are a 'biggie'.

[nosapphire]

On 1/20/2021 at 10:29 PM, mcloaked said:

I would imagine that passengers will feel much more confident they are safe if everyone on board has been vaccinated - and presumably the crew will also have received full vaccination too?

No. Look beyond the headlines and it is only the paying passengers.

Crew and staff will be vaccinated "when possible" - so certainly the initial sailings will have a very high number of unvaccinated people on board.

It will not be normal cruising anyway - masks, social distancing, testing - all will still continue.

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by nosapphire
added

[oskidunker]

Has anyone sailed on Saga? If Cunard cancels my two cruises in Oct or Nov, I would probably go with Saga or whoever is cruising, There ocean voyages seem nice on new ships. Not sure how the food is or if they have fixed dining, which is important to me.

 

I looked at a river cruise on Nov 1, 15 day which is interesting but no mention of which ship or what the ship would look like  Any help on this is appreciated  .I would hope Cunard goes with a vacination requirement so at least they can collect some money 

[Windsurfboy]

3 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Has anyone sailed on Saga? If Cunard cancels my two cruises in Oct or Nov, I would probably go with Saga or whoever is cruising, There ocean voyages seem nice on new ships. Not sure how the food is or if they have fixed dining, which is important to me.

 

I looked at a river cruise on Nov 1, 15 day which is interesting but no mention of which ship or what the ship would look like  Any help on this is appreciated  .I would hope Cunard goes with a vacination requirement so at least they can collect some money 

 

They have a limited fixed dining (allocated seat) for those who want it (circa 200) , but these are allocated  in order of time you book. Rest is open seating, but with more seating than passengers rare to wait, unless you insist on table for 2.

 

As for quality  see Solent Richards  blog.

[bluemarble]

2 hours ago, oskidunker said:

I looked at a river cruise on Nov 1, 15 day which is interesting but no mention of which ship or what the ship would look like  Any help on this is appreciated.

 

We haven't sailed with Saga, but I can tell you the ship for their November 1 river cruise is indicated to be Spirit of the Rhine. Here's a link to information about that ship from their website.

https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/our-ships/spirit-of-the-rhine.aspx

[oskidunker]

43 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

 

We haven't sailed with Saga, but I can tell you the ship for their November 1 river cruise is indicated to be Spirit of the Rhine. Here's a link to information about that ship from their website.

https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/our-ships/spirit-of-the-rhine.aspx

Thanks for the link. The ship doesn't look like one I would want to sail on. Dining room looks very crowded and hard to tell what rooms look like as there is writing over half the  photos.furniture looks uncomfortable and the menu not to my liking.also no theater or show room.   The itinerary looks great. Hard to go from a cruise ship to this but I may try a river cruise at some point .

Edited January 23, 2021 by oskidunker

[canoncruiser]

There was discussion (earlier?) about using the WHO yellow inoculation cards to record COVID shots. I had my first shot today and in addition to giving me a regulation card with the details of the vaccination , the nurse who vaccinated me happily  wrote the necessary information on my yellow card. I get my 2nd shot next month so I’ll be ready to go if QM2 sails in August-whoo hoo😂😂😂

[Windsurfboy]

7 hours ago, canoncruiser said:

There was discussion (earlier?) about using the WHO yellow inoculation cards to record COVID shots. I had my first shot today and in addition to giving me a regulation card with the details of the vaccination , the nurse who vaccinated me happily  wrote the necessary information on my yellow card. I get my 2nd shot next month so I’ll be ready to go if QM2 sails in August-whoo hoo😂😂😂

 

Has anyone in UK tried to get vaccination recorded on the vaccination form we get for yellow fever etc. Seems a good idea. My feeling is they may be too busy in mass vaccination centre to do this. 

[Adammara]

9 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Has anyone in UK tried to get vaccination recorded on the vaccination form we get for yellow fever etc. Seems a good idea. My feeling is they may be too busy in mass vaccination centre to do this. 

At my vaccination centre on Friday they were vaccinating 4 people at a time, then had to join a queue to get my card, which also had the time I was allowed to leave on it, it was really busy, not sure that they would be able to help.

[Underwatr]

On 1/22/2021 at 7:18 AM, ace2542 said:

When do you think the CDC will announce the next set of restrictions or lack of restrictions past Nov 2021? Because our final payment date is August. And as I understand it we would not be able to board Anthem after having been on QM2.

I plan to play it safe. Without expectation that it will be business as usual I'll cancel ahead of final payment. Maybe spend a week in St. Thomas in January instead, I don't know.

[Elephant1151]

I completed a survey from Cunard yesterday regarding future cruising, Covid and vaccinations. So I am sure they are testing past passengers views. I would be happy to cruise again once vaccinated as long as all passengers (except those medically exempt) and the crew were vaccinated. Life has to go on at some stage, this is not about taking any risks but living life with certain restrictions onboard and on ship excursions.

[ace2542]

3 hours ago, Elephant1151 said:

(except those medically exempt)

How would prove a person was medically exempt? When a doctors note can be forged very easily and would be impossible to check on? There is no way in hell check in staff at Southampton/any port will ever get to speak to a GP about a passenger.

[Elephant1151]

The same way people exempt from Yellow Fever get a form from their doctor. Onboard QV last year around South America we had to show our Yellow Fever vaccination record  at check in at Southampton and again onboard when they took a photocopy. They were very diligent at check in.

[LittleFish1976]

11 hours ago, ace2542 said:

How would prove a person was medically exempt? When a doctors note can be forged very easily and would be impossible to check on? There is no way in hell check in staff at Southampton/any port will ever get to speak to a GP about a passenger.

Electronic health passports are expected to be used. Surely there's no reason why the information of a medical exemption couldn't be included in that document.