Further delays to sailing

[Host Sharon]

 

 

 

New date for SOA inaugural is July 26th

[Windsurfboy]

Thank you

[Denarius]

I was booked on the Corsica and Sardinia cruise on Spirit of Discovery which was originally due to depart on 6 May and was then rearranged for 2 June. This morning I received an email from Saga advising me of the further delays in recommencing cruising, Spirit of Discovery to recommence on 27 June and Spirit of Adventure on 26 July with a rearranged inaugural cruise. I understand from Saga's website that the latter is to have a new itinerary!

https://travel.saga.co.uk/travel-updates/coronavirus-cruise-passengers.aspx

As regards my own cruise, I remain completely in the dark as to whether it will be rescheduled or cancelled. My email merely says "I understand that you will have questions regarding what this means for you and also the itineraries that we will now be offering. Please do not worry, as my team will be contacting you over the coming weeks to discuss all of your options with you." This implies to me however, that the itineraries on offer this Summer may not in some cases those previously advertised, or am I reading too much into it? It would be interesting to know whether there has been any  similar communication with those booked on cruises due to sail after the new recommencement dates
 

[nosapphire]

25 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I was booked on the Corsica and Sardinia cruise on Spirit of Discovery which was originally due to depart on 6 May and was then rearranged for 2 June. This morning I received an email from Saga advising me of the further delays in recommencing cruising, Spirit of Discovery to recommence on 27 June and Spirit of Adventure on 26 July with a rearranged inaugural cruise. I understand from Saga's website that the latter is to have a new itinerary!

https://travel.saga.co.uk/travel-updates/coronavirus-cruise-passengers.aspx

As regards my own cruise, I remain completely in the dark as to whether it will be rescheduled or cancelled. My email merely says "I understand that you will have questions regarding what this means for you and also the itineraries that we will now be offering. Please do not worry, as my team will be contacting you over the coming weeks to discuss all of your options with you." This implies to me however, that the itineraries on offer this Summer may not in some cases those previously advertised, or am I reading too much into it? It would be interesting to know whether there has been any  similar communication with those booked on cruises due to sail after the new recommencement dates
 

I would think a revised itinerary. There is still going to be great difficulties for the cruise lines trying to guess which ports will be open to them. (I see that Guernsey has announced it will not be accepting any cruise ships in 2021).

 

 

 

[maesteggirl]

We are booked on the Discovery for the June 25th cruise for 18 nights so I would guess there will be considerable changes to itineraries. i just hope they don't match P&O and do 7 nights sightseeing trips around Britain!!!

[Denarius]

43 minutes ago, maesteggirl said:

We are booked on the Discovery for the June 25th cruise for 18 nights so I would guess there will be considerable changes to itineraries. i just hope they don't match P&O and do 7 nights sightseeing trips around Britain!!!

Just looked on the Saga website and the earliest cruises listed are on 2 August for Spirit of Discovery and on 10 August for Spirit of Advanture; the latter presumably follows the new inaugural cruise. Which leaves the obvious question; what will Spirit of Discovery be doing between 27 June and 2 August? As the 2 August cruise is the British isles one, the answer could well be as you fear! Watch this space.

[LandC]

You may well be right.  We were booked on SoD Romantic Ireland 17 - 25 June, which Saga cancelled today.  We would be willing to consider a similar cruise in July, so we will have to wait and see.  Please post here if you get any more information.

[ighten]

Suspect most until much later in the year will be UK based only  - with some scenic only

[Denarius]

18 minutes ago, ighten said:

Suspect most until much later in the year will be UK based only  - with some scenic only

I suspect that you my be right even though the cruises on Saga's website from August onwards appear to be those previously advertised. The problem imo is not whether the UK government will give the OK to cruising and amend or qualify the FCO advice (to advised not to cruise unless vaccinated?) but whether foreign ports will be prepared to accept cruise ships. In some ways a cruise around the British isles would be an attractive proposition if it visited intersting ports, and the Saga ships are small enough to tender effectively if necessary. But a "scenic" cruise to nowhere? No thank you.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Denarius

[Tom Magpie]

From my point of view a cruise anywhere on the 27th June would be a lot better than what I have been doing for the last year.

[Host Sharon]

The revised Inaugural for SoA is 15 nights round Britain with some interesting ports - Tilbury Newcastle, Newhaven, Dundee, Kirkwall, Ullapool, St Kilda, Greenock, Belfast, Douglas IOM, Holyhead, Bristol, Falmouth and Dover.

 

Currently it is followed by Greenland

[Windsurfboy]

Ports look fine except Tilbury , will walk to Falmouth to look at ship, 4 miles along coast path . Is this a Dover to Dover cruise 

[LandC]

The ship departs from Tilbury, where it’s currently docked.  I’m not sure if passengers will be able to do their own thing at ports, or will have to take ships tours. 

[Host Sharon]

Currently we have been told there are 4 included tours, but none are compulsory and we can DIY ashore.

[Roger88]

On 3/5/2021 at 5:06 PM, LandC said:

You may well be right.  We were booked on SoD Romantic Ireland 17 - 25 June, which Saga cancelled today.  We would be willing to consider a similar cruise in July, so we will have to wait and see.  Please post here if you get any more information.

I am pretty sure that this particular cruise will not get cancelled or anything. I really wish you guys to make it and have a wonderful cruise. Have a great day!! 

[Windsurfboy]

Presumably  people with cancelled cruises are being given first choice, any idea when these go on general sale

[Glenndale]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

Presumably  people with cancelled cruises are being given first choice, any idea when these go on general sale

Yes, those already booked will get first dibs, so probably the discounts will be down to 20% off or even lower when they go on open sale.

When our 29 night North American cruise was cancelled we eventually decided to take the replacements as a b2b because we could get the full 35% discount and at this point we just needed a holiday, so fingers crossed our September / October cruises get to sail. 🤞

[ighten]

Looks like its sold out as soon as the announcement hit twitter this morning  🙂 I suspect this will happen no matter who the company is  such is demand and the reduced capacity so I suggest you keep your trigger finger ready to pounce as soon as the new routes are announced from anyone..

Edited March 9, 2021 by ighten

[tring]

On 3/8/2021 at 9:21 AM, Host Sharon said:

Currently we have been told there are 4 included tours, but none are compulsory and we can DIY ashore.

We tendered on to St.Kilda from Swan's Minerva a  number of years ago.  The only resident was the warden, so should be no need for a ship's tour.  The bad news is that you will not have more than a 50%  chance to of being able to land because of sea conditions. 

 

Will still be a brilliant experience though, as you should see the sheer cliffs full of birds from the ship, so take the binoculars to get a close up view of the birds.  We will need to look into Saga if they offer that quality of port.  I just popped into this board to pick up info.

[tring]

7 hours ago, tring said:

We tendered on to St.Kilda from Swan's Minerva a  number of years ago.  The only resident was the warden, so should be no need for a ship's tour.  The bad news is that you will not have more than a 50%  chance to of being able to land because of sea conditions. 

 

Will still be a brilliant experience though, as you should see the sheer cliffs full of birds from the ship, so take the binoculars to get a close up view of the birds.  We will need to look into Saga if they offer that quality of port.  I just popped into this board to pick up info.

 

Just remembered, it was not tender, which would not at the time been possible, but a zodiac transfer.  Can they be used by Saga? I suppose a small pier may have been constructed or perhaps it is scenic cruising only. 

[Host Sharon]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

Just remembered, it was not tender, which would not at the time been possible, but a zodiac transfer.  Can they be used by Saga? I suppose a small pier may have been constructed or perhaps it is scenic cruising only. 

May well be  scenic cruising. No further details  have been released yet.

 

[tring]

22 minutes ago, Host Sharon said:

May well be  scenic cruising. No further details  have been released yet.

 

It is an amazing place for scenic cruising though, so still a great place to have on the itinerary.  Worth going to Google to hopefully find info. about the people who lived there.  I was able to buy a book about it when we visited as there was a small shop.  We must have had a talk about it as well, since it was a Swan Hellenic cruise and there was a great wildlife chap on the ship from Guernsey who had been a couple of times before.

 

They also put stamps in our passports:-

 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by tring

[LandC]

We had a call from Saga regarding our cancelled cruise 17th - 25th June.  We have booked an 8 night cruise on Spirit of Discovery, calling at Orkney, Shetland, Stornoway, Scrabster.  Also scenic Norwegian fjord cruising (no port stops in Norway).  This cruise is available to book on 3rd July and 25th July.  There is also a 14 night round UK cruise from 11th to 25th July.

 

I didn’t get any information on what cruises are available on Spirit of Adventure after the inaugural cruise which departs on 26th July.  Perhaps the Greenland cruise will still go ahead?

 

 

[maesteggirl]

We had a phonecall yesterday regarding our cancelled June 25th cruise. We have booked the 14nights around Britain cruising from Tilbury on July 11th to Falmouth, Holyhead, Belfast, Greenock, Ullapool, Kirkwall, Newhaven, Newcastle then return to Tilbury. We have never cruised with Saga before having done 40+ cruises mainly with P&O and Cunard so we are really looking forward to this.!

There are included sightseeing tours and freedom to explore on your own if you don't want a Saga excursion. At the moment the vaccination card given with the batch number of the vaccine is the proof we were told is required. We are having our second jab next week so we are getting excited now!!

[LandC]

That’s great!  We haven’t sailed with P&O or Cunard so can’t compare, but we have sailed with Fred. Olsen and Azamara, which we enjoyed.  I’m sure you will enjoy Saga. We had our first cruise on Spirit of Discovery in 2019 and loved it.  

Saga have undertaken to contact everyone with cancelled cruises by 28th March, so presumably the cruises will go on general sale after that date.