Summer 2024

[Host Sharon]

6 hours ago, tring said:

 

 

 

I read a report in the last few days of a couple who travelled a fair way to embark a Saga ship in a Saga included private transport.  They tested negative for covid, but their driver tested positive.  So they were refused boarding and put into a taxi to take them home again!  In covid times it is far better to keep to your own transport.

 

You can choose that option and get complimentary port parking.  Saga win for me on the new small ships and often, more intersting itineraries, although having said that, 2023 is very Canaries heavy.

[tring]

1 hour ago, Host Sharon said:

You can choose that option and get complimentary port parking.  Saga win for me on the new small ships and often, more intersting itineraries, although having said that, 2023 is very Canaries heavy.

 

But you can get a decent balcony cabin on the smaller P&O ships (which are not much larger) as well as free parking and no tips at less than half the £300pppn charged by Saga, so that is two cruises for the same price. 

 

Fred has ships of the same size ships as Saga (or smaller) and you can get cheaper cabins with him for way cheaper and his itineraries are better than the Saga ones I have seen overall.  Also, he sails from northern UK ports, whilst other cruise lines seem to think the whole population of the UK live near the south coast.  Those embarkation points are a major advantage to a very large number of people.

 

 

 

[P&O SUE]

I’m surprised Iona is sticking with the 7 nights to Norway all summer. She’s a large ship, you’d be struggling to go everywhere in one week. Shame they don’t do longer cruises in the summer.

[wowzz]

7 hours ago, tring said:

But you can get a decent balcony cabin on the smaller P&O ships (which are not much larger) as well as free parking and no tips at less than half the £300pppn charged by Saga, so that is two cruises for the same price. 

Not sure where you get £300 pppn from. Our forthcoming Saga 16 night cruise works out at £204pppn.

Given that the price includes drinks and speciality dining, in a larger cabin than a standard P&O balcony cabin, I would say that it is far better value than a P&O cruise costing £150 pppn.

[terrierjohn]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Not sure where you get £300 pppn from. Our forthcoming Saga 16 night cruise works out at £204pppn.

Given that the price includes drinks and speciality dining, in a larger cabin than a standard P&O balcony cabin, I would say that it is far better value than a P&O cruise costing £150 pppn.

Most of our recent cruise bookings on P&O work out at something like £100 - £150 pppn, granted these were booked on launch, but that would have to be our option on any cruise line, if we wanted to guarantee getting a specific accessible cabin. Which makes them far cheaper than any Saga offering.

[Bazrat]

9 hours ago, Host Sharon said:

You can choose that option and get complimentary port parking.  Saga win for me on the new small ships and often, more intersting itineraries, although having said that, 2023 is very Canaries heavy.

If you look at there itineraries there really no better than other cruise lines, we at this moment prefer the TA's and we mix it with the med for shorter break's, so saga really as nothing to offer us.

[wowzz]

10 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

If you look at there itineraries there really no better than other cruise lines, we at this moment prefer the TA's and we mix it with the med for shorter break's, so saga really as nothing to offer us.

Although they are well out of our price range, some of the long duration cruises to South America look really appealing.

[AuroraCruiser08]

This is a tread on P&O 2024 not a comparison to Saga! 

[wowzz]

14 minutes ago, AuroraCruiser08 said:

This is a tread on P&O 2024 not a comparison to Saga! 

One of the joys of this forum is the tread drifts. 

A post about check in times, for example, can lead to discussing the quality of PI breakfasts !

If every thread had to remain on topic, some of us would have nothing to write about !

[Host Sharon]

On 3/11/2022 at 12:31 AM, tring said:

 

But you can get a decent balcony cabin on the smaller P&O ships (which are not much larger) as well as free parking and no tips at less than half the £300pppn charged by Saga, so that is two cruises for the same price. 

 

I've never paid more than £200 pppn. I have costed it out and, adding on transport to Southampton (£300 by hire car two ways), drinks (I like a cocktail and wine in the evenings), wifi (around £12 pp day on P&O), excursions etc etc, the final cost comes out about the same or more expensive on P&O. Fred are very expensive for what you get and their small, older ships are not disabled friendly. - eg. level access everywhere and automatic doors, including onto open decks. I agree I used to be all about inside cabin and as many cruises as possible but nowadays quality is taking over my thinking.

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, Host Sharon said:

agree I used to be all about inside cabin and as many cruises as possible but nowadays quality is taking over my thinking.

We are now the same. Have a cruise coming up with Princess in a Club class cabin.

[Bazrat]

31 minutes ago, wowzz said:

We are now the same. Have a cruise coming up with Princess in a Club class cabin.

Really the bottom line is how much are you prepared to spend, from our point of view the more the merrier we don't need expensive extras to have a good holiday, now I am going to watch the goal highlights of my team beating Watford again.

[Host Sharon]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Although they are well out of our price range, some of the long duration cruises to South America look really appealing.

Just booked that one. 🙂  My second attempt as I booked the Aurora one in 2018 but had to cancel on medical grounds.

[Son of Anarchy]

My dear old Mum was interested in doing a worldie with Saga a few years back.  I could see my inheritance disappearing before my eyes.

 

In the end she decided against it.  A couple of years later Mum had to go into a care home.  My inheritance is disappearing before my eyes....  

 

With the benefit of hindsight, I would rather Mum had spent her money on the worldie, at least she would have some wonderful memories for a while.

[tring]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Not sure where you get £300 pppn from. Our forthcoming Saga 16 night cruise works out at £204pppn.

Given that the price includes drinks and speciality dining, in a larger cabin than a standard P&O balcony cabin, I would say that it is far better value than a P&O cruise costing £150 pppn.

 

I looked at a number of cruises a while back and they were all just below £300pppn, some more than that and way above the £200pppn level, yes it was an approximation, so I could have said £290pppn as that was.probably the average price I saw.  If there loads of "included" things are not of any use though, it is still expensive even at the vastly reduced price you seen to have obtained. 

 

What was it like when you have travelled on their ships?  I would expect a very elderly, non adventurous, mentality on the ship if it encourages people who want those extras.  Would be interested in your comments on that though.

 

[tring]

1 hour ago, Host Sharon said:

I've never paid more than £200 pppn. I have costed it out and, adding on transport to Southampton (£300 by hire care two ways), drinks (I like a cocktail and wine in the evenings), wifi (around £12 pp day on P&O), excursions etc etc, the final cost comes out about the same or more expensive on P&O. Fred are very expensive for what you get and their small, older ships are not disabled friendly. - eg. level access everywhere and automatic doors, including onto open decks. I agree I used to be all about inside cabin and as many cruises as possible but nowadays quality is taking over my thinking.

 

We prefer quality of itineraries and would not cruise without that, except for one or two we have done after covid as seemed less of an issue that flying.

 

Wozz has also mentioned a price which is way, way below those showing on their website - you can see my reply to that, but certainly I saw nothing below about £265pppn and some were a fair bit above the £300pppn.

I can see if someone only lives two or three hours journey from Southampton, the transfers may be useful, but not for us and we often extend our holiday if we do travel that distance to Southampton (relatives and DH's school friends still down there.  We do not go on holiday to spend time on the net and have used ships where drinks are cheap anyway and we are not big drinkers.  Excursions not of interest, we are independently minded.

 

I accept you have your wishes, but perhaps consider that other people may have different ideas.  As I originally said it is a niche line for people who live in certain locations and want certain things on holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

[tring]

2 hours ago, AuroraCruiser08 said:

This is a tread on P&O 2024 not a comparison to Saga! 

 

Does seem a bit strange and seems to be a reluctance of people letting others take different views, which does not normally happen on CC.

 

[Host Sharon]

22 minutes ago, tring said:

 

What was it like when you have travelled on their ships?  I would expect a very elderly, non adventurous, mentality on the ship if it encourages people who want those extras.  Would be interested in your comments on that though.

 

If you pre-register you get the biggest discounts, otherwise, I totally agree they are very high. I have only done two Saga cruises, one pre and one post Covid, but they could not have been further from your impression of elderly non-adventurous passengers. There were far fewer mobility aids on board that I see with P&O. Excursions include kayaking, cycling and hiking. Yes, they were older but in the main, well-travelled, interesting people. Of course other people have different ideas and want and wishes. That's what makes life interesting.

 

[wowzz]

51 minutes ago, tring said:

Wozz has also mentioned a price which is way, way below those showing on their website - you can see my reply to that, but certainly I saw nothing below about £265pppn and some were a fair bit above the £300pppn.

Book on release, so as to get 35% discount !

We would normally spend around £800 on drink and speciality dining with P&O during a two week cruise .  Obviously we won't spend that with Saga,  so we take that into account when looking at their prices. 

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, Host Sharon said:

Just booked that one. 🙂  My second attempt as I booked the Aurora one in 2018 but had to cancel on medical grounds.

Now you are making me really jealous !

[Amyracecar]

4 hours ago, wowzz said:

Not sure where you get £300 pppn from. Our forthcoming Saga 16 night cruise works out at £204pppn.

Given that the price includes drinks and speciality dining, in a larger cabin than a standard P&O balcony cabin, I would say that it is far better value than a P&O cruise costing £150 pppn.

 

For comparison I costed up my May Fjords cruise on Saga, going same time of year, 7 nights, 4 ports. Saga came out at £4398 for two people in their lowest grade balcony cabin. We're paying £2458 on P&O, and that's in a slightly higher grade balcony and with the select price so could have got it about £300-£400 cheaper. £315pn versus £176pn. I'm sure there are itineraries that are much cheaper and better times to book, but if you want something specific it's not coming out very competitive. (Even factoring in drinks, speciality restaurants, travel and excursions I doubt we'd spend an extra £2k over the week) 

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, Amyracecar said:

 

For comparison I costed up my May Fjords cruise on Saga, going same time of year, 7 nights, 4 ports. Saga came out at £4398 for two people in their lowest grade balcony cabin. We're paying £2458 on P&O, and that's in a slightly higher grade balcony and with the select price so could have got it about £300-£400 cheaper. £315pn versus £176pn. I'm sure there are itineraries that are much cheaper and better times to book, but if you want something specific it's not coming out very competitive. (Even factoring in drinks, speciality restaurants, travel and excursions I doubt we'd spend an extra £2k over the week) 

I agree that Saga is expensive if you do not book  at launch.

The cruise you are looking at is not offering any discount, meaning that the ship is fairly full. 

If you were in a position to have booked at launch, you would have got a discount of 35% bringing the cost down to around £2900. Still more expensive than P&O but the differential is much less.

[Gettingwarmer]

35 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Book on release, so as to get 35% discount !

We would normally spend around £800 on drink and speciality dining with P&O during a two week cruise .  Obviously we won't spend that with Saga,  so we take that into account when looking at their prices. 

Not sure about the drinks package on Saga. We like our branded spirits and not sure we would like the house spirits in the package. 

[wowzz]

28 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Not sure about the drinks package on Saga. We like our branded spirits and not sure we would like the house spirits in the package. 

Fair point. Not a spirits drinker so I can't comnent. We have been given the Premium Drinks package by Saga, to offset the loss of SPB in our Baltic cruise. Nice thought,  but of no relevance to me whatsoever ! 

[Bazrat]

26 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Fair point. Not a spirits drinker so I can't comnent. We have been given the Premium Drinks package by Saga, to offset the loss of SPB in our Baltic cruise. Nice thought,  but of no relevance to me whatsoever ! 

Pas it on to me I will sure make use of it