Arrival time at Southampton to embark

[ann141]

What time to people usually board and is your cabin immediately available? Do most people arrive in time to have lunch onboard?

[Glenndale]

Arrival time depends on pick up time from home. Saga try to stagger arrivals so that you are not waiting too long whilst LFT and PCR tests are being processed. When you embark your cabin will be ready and The Grill will be available for lunch.

[ann141]

17 hours ago, Glenndale said:

Arrival time depends on pick up time from home. Saga try to stagger arrivals so that you are not waiting too long whilst LFT and PCR tests are being processed. When you embark your cabin will be ready and The Grill will be available for lunch.

Thank You.What is the earliest time people board? Our pick up time is 8 55 and as it is under 4 hours to Southampton, I am hoping we can board shortly after arrival

[Glenndale]

The procedures regarding the LFT and PCR tests could take an hour and you may well need a comfort stop on the way down, probably at Sutton Scotney.

As I said, once the tests are completed you will be free to board and your room will be ready, but difficult to estimate how long it will take.

Don’t eat or drink when you are within 30 minutes of Southampton as this could affect your tests.

I don’t know what percentage of berths are being sold at the moment probably around 70% so that means approx 700 people will need to be tested, although some of the 700 may be staying on board from the previous cruise.

Do have all your covid documentation ready, it will help if you can print off the pdf and also screen capture details on your phone as well, in case of wi-fi failures.

 

 

[ann141]

5 minutes ago, Glenndale said:

The procedures regarding the LFT and PCR tests could take an hour and you may well need a comfort stop on the way down, probably at Sutton Scotney.

As I said, once the tests are completed you will be free to board and your room will be ready, but difficult to estimate how long it will take.

Don’t eat or drink when you are within 30 minutes of Southampton as this could affect your tests.

I don’t know what percentage of berths are being sold at the moment probably around 70% so that means approx 700 people will need to be tested, although some of the 700 may be staying on board from the previous cruise.

Do have all your covid documentation ready, it will help if you can print off the pdf and also screen capture details on your phone as well, in case of wi-fi failures.

 

 

Thank You.I thought only a LFT was needed to embark and that the PCR test was for arriving back in the UK.Do you know roughly the times people disembark from the ship and is it in any order e.g Deck number or furthest t travel etc?

[Kenmure]

Your driver shouldn’t eat or drink either. Our driver admitted to chewing gum and we had to wait for 30 mins before they would test us and the driver.

[ann141]

2 minutes ago, Kenmure said:

Your driver shouldn’t eat or drink either. Our driver admitted to chewing gum and we had to wait for 30 mins before they would test us and the driver.

Thank you

[Bags R Pakt]

Is anyone else disappointed with their pick up time?  

 

I've been given 3pm for a journey of an hour.  Adding on an hour for health tests and check in, this means an embarkation of 5pm at the earliest.  Too late for lunch, a rush for dinner, and little leeway for road traffic delays.

 

Is this the stress free VIP service Saga advertises?

[david05]

Local people often get a late pick up. We have just got back from a cruise. Our pick up was 3pm, although driver was 15 minutes early. Lucky with the journey and testing was a dream because hardly anyone else was there and we were on board by 4 pm. Grill was still open for lunch, we did however have a late evening departure so no rush for the mandatory drill procedures. Really good cruise and we felt much safer on board than at home!

[Harry Peterson]

I see reports on a certain other social media website that some people on Adventure were denied boarding yesterday because the driver tested positive - even though they themselves were negative.

 

I’m assuming this is an unusual occurrence?

 

 

[Reanna]

I  was denied boarding to Spirit of Adventure yesterday.  I tested negative but my driver had 2 positives.  He told me he had tested negative that morning.  To say I am devastated is an understatement.  I isolated from 21 December, missing out on Christmas and New Year with family.  Also tested myself that morning.  I do not know if any others had the same experience.

[ann141]

That must be so upsetting.I hope Saga will offer you a refund at the very least and that you stay covid free

[LandC]

On 1/6/2022 at 11:15 AM, Bags R Pakt said:

Is anyone else disappointed with their pick up time?  

 

I've been given 3pm for a journey of an hour.  Adding on an hour for health tests and check in, this means an embarkation of 5pm at the earliest.  Too late for lunch, a rush for dinner, and little leeway for road traffic delays.

 

Is this the stress free VIP service Saga advertises?

We live two and a half hours from the port, and were given 11.15 am pick up time.  Queuing at the port, testing and check in took one and a half hours. Our friends on the same cruise, who live about 5 miles from us, were picked up at 9.15 am.
It doesn’t make sense.

[Bags R Pakt]

Thanks for your reply LandC.  I agree that many of the pickup times don't make sense.

It's not a good start to the cruise, and first impressions do matter.

Saga needs to remember that there is a lot of competition in the cruise market nowadays.

[Windsurfboy]

On 1/6/2022 at 2:49 PM, Reanna said:

I  was denied boarding to Spirit of Adventure yesterday.  I tested negative but my driver had 2 positives.  He told me he had tested negative that morning.  To say I am devastated is an understatement.  I isolated from 21 December, missing out on Christmas and New Year with family.  Also tested myself that morning.  I do not know if any others had the same experience.

 

On 1/6/2022 at 2:54 PM, ann141 said:

That must be so upsetting.I hope Saga will offer you a refund at the very least and that you stay covid free

I agree very disappointing. However as the driver is effectively a  Saga employee who Saga have a responsibility for ,in the same way Saga have responsibility to ensure cars are safe. Then as you were denied a cruise because of a Saga  employee,  then if you want you must be be entitled to a full refund and possibly some compensation.  If it was yourselves that tested positive would be different. 

[NorbertsNiece]

I have a pickup time of 0705!! Coming from Teesside.  I will be beyond miffed if my driver proves positive after such a drive and I'm refused boarding!! We're in a Covid hotspot now and I've locked myself down until the 20th.

[sleepingcat]

On 1/8/2022 at 9:14 AM, NorbertsNiece said:

I have a pickup time of 0705!! Coming from Teesside.  I will be beyond miffed if my driver proves positive after such a drive and I'm refused boarding!! We're in a Covid hotspot now and I've locked myself down until the 20th.

oh ! it had not even occurred to me that driver could pose the problem.  beyond miffed would not even cover it.  agree, we are now in isolation until 20th to try to ensure we can board.  see you soon N Neice.

[Windsurfboy]

I am contemplating driving myself , if infection rates stay high. At moment nearly 1 in 10 have it .Hopefully will drop very quickly and a tested driver will pose minimal risk

[FatBoy20]

Saga give free Port Car Parking as an alternative to Taxi.

[CeaJay]

We decided to cancel our taxi for next week and Saga kindly let us change to the free parking option.  We hadn’t thought about the taxi driver having to be tested.

 

We only live around two hours from Southampton so not a big inconvenience for us.

[Holidayfun141]

I sent an email to Saga saying we were worried reading about Saga drivers being tested positive , they assured me all drivers have to test before they pick anyone up, 

And that they do random tests on their drivers. It still is very worrying if it continues to get reported like Reanna, poor lady I hope she was compensated , but again so sad. We are also considering driving ourselves .

[ann141]

42 minutes ago, Holidayfun141 said:

I sent an email to Saga saying we were worried reading about Saga drivers being tested positive , they assured me all drivers have to test before they pick anyone up, 

And that they do random tests on their drivers. It still is very worrying if it continues to get reported like Reanna, poor lady I hope she was compensated , but again so sad. We are also considering driving ourselves .

I think it's possible that the taxi driver may have done a negative test before he picked the lady up but that his PCR test at the terminal was positive.He may not have self tested- we don't know.However lateral flow tests are not totally reliable so may have shown negative but positive at port.I feel sorry for the lady in question but as covid cases are going down I am hoping that it is less likely to happen again.I shall ask our driver if he has done a test ( hope he will phone the night before so I can ask him then)

[CeaJay]

I read in the news that it is possible to return a positive PCR result if you have had Covid in the last 90 days.  So that is a bit worrying. You might be someone who has had Covid 3 months ago but have been asymptomatic.

 

Does anyone know why SAGA do both the LFT and the PCR test?  Do they only process the PCR test if the LFT shows a positive result?

[Sekhmet]

1 hour ago, CeaJay said:

Does anyone know why SAGA do both the LFT and the PCR test?  Do they only process the PCR test if the LFT shows a positive result?

On our October cruise to France, Spain and Portugal, we were told the LFT test at the port is to get clearance to board, much like the other ports/cruiselines, but the PCR sample was a requirement to call in the French ports.  The cruise had a sea day before the first French port (Brest), so presumably time for the PCR tests to be done (in the UK) and the results relayed to the ship so that Saga could show the French authorities we were all negative.

However, this was three months ago, and we all know by now how rapidly the rules change, don't we?

[ann141]

1 hour ago, CeaJay said:

I read in the news that it is possible to return a positive PCR result if you have had Covid in the last 90 days.  So that is a bit worrying. You might be someone who has had Covid 3 months ago but have been asymptomatic.

 

Does anyone know why SAGA do both the LFT and the PCR test?  Do they only process the PCR test if the LFT shows a positive result?

I think it's unlikely that if you have had covid in the past year and you  have been doing negative lateral flow tests since then, that you would then test positive with a PCR test..I suppose if you only had covid recently then testing positive is possible.I presume Saga do both tests as an extra precaution.We were on a Princess cruise in October when the French authorities said you had to have a PCR test.We called at Marseille and the captain told the authorities he wasn't prepared to do the tests for everyone but they still let us in!