Communications

[Kohima]

As a gold Britannia Club member, let me make it clear I am not anti Saga.
Even when things have gone wrong, such as ship breakdowns, missed ports etc, I have enjoyed some great cruises in the past. Where the captain has been open and honest, usually with a good sense of humour and ably assisted by a resourceful cruise director, passengers have still had an enjoyable time. Where there were issues before or after a cruise, it was always easy to communicate with the Head Office call centre, despite the admin leaving room for improvement.

However Saga now seems to have lost its ability to deal with the unexpected, to communicate clearly with passengers and to manage their expectations. If information is freely and clearly given, especially where change and explanation is necessary, passengers will be understanding and rumour cannot flourish. Yes Covid and now war have thrown up many difficult challenges, but muddling through is not acceptable when people are paying the company a lot of money for a sub standard service. 
Saga, if you can’t provide an adequate telephone service right now, please use the website more nimbly to communicate clearly the answers to questions. Make clear exactly what can be expected in various Covid situations. Make sure the ships know what the Head Office is communicating and vice versa. Don’t say you have a good track and trace system which, when we were on SoA recently, completely ignored the crowding of passengers into small venues for long periods of time while awaiting excursions. Don’t advertise that we can cruise with confidence and peace of mind when the reality is different. 

[Harry Peterson]

Interesting.  Saga was very much going to be our next port of call after various cost cutting changes at P&O changed the nature of their cruises.

 

I’ve been following recent events with Saga though, and frankly I’m shocked at how badly it’s been handled. Dishonesty is unforgivable in my book, but it’s difficult to interpret Saga’s actions in any other way.

 

I expected better of Saga.

[twotravellersLondon]

2 hours ago, Kohima said:

However Saga now seems to have lost its ability to deal with the unexpected, to communicate clearly with passengers and to manage their expectations.

  

 

Quite astonishing! Our experience over the last few weeks has been totally the opposite..

 

We're in the process of finalising some arrangements for a cruise coming up soon, have booked future cruises amounting to 10/11 weeks for 2023 and we're also in the process of settling on a river cruise as well. Add to that the fact that we've had to do a bit of complex juggling with our SAGA travel insurance... and it's obvious that we have a considerable amount of recent personal experience.

 

So we've had numerous phone calls with SAGA representatives. The phone has been answered relatively promptly, in all cases the agents have been pleasant, helpful and immensely professional. (Better that some other lines that we've also dealt with over the same period where it's taken over a week to get a simple answer to a straight-forward question)

 

In these days the communications for virtually every cruise-line is different to what it was, they don't have the same level of staffing, many agents are still working from home, covid is still taking its toll and the sheer number of enquiries has immensely increased. 

 

After such a long pause, the very challenging and stressful time that most of us have gone through over that last couple of years its not surprising that our hopes are that things will be as they were in 2019 and that we hope to enjoy our perfect dream cruise. We are very happy that so many cruise-lines and ships have survived, that we find that cruise prices are still affordable and we're still able to cruise. It's a fact that many cruise-lines are currently carrying passengers at far less than cost price... sometime at hundreds of £s a day less than the cost of the cruise. 

 

We're pragmatic... we cruise to relax, to enjoy life on board and to be exhilarated by the places that we visit. We've done our own independent research... as well as looked at what folks have posted on various sites.  As a result... we're currently giving a couple of cruise-lines a miss for a few months. We're not saying which lines those are or giving our reasoning because in these times we don't want to spread sadness, negativity and angst that might just impact on cruise-personnel’s prospects, income and careers. 

 

We have travelled on three different SAGA ships in the past, we have followed the situation closely as cruising has resumed after the pause and we're read hundreds of postings.  

 

As a result we've come to a totally different view, we have been more impressed with SAGA than the lines that we have compared it with, are satisfied that it offers us the type of cruise that we want at a price we consider to be value-for-money and we have chosen to invest our time, money and expectation in the company.

 

Our feeling is that life's too short for angst... it's time to move on... and to enjoy what wonders that the world has to offer while we can. 

[Windsurfboy]

I must say that Nigel Blanks the CEO has been very approachable  and very fast to respond. Far better than any other business chief I have dealt with. THE CEO IS THE ONE VERY BIG POSITIVE FOR SAGA COMMUNICATIONS 

 

On the other hand

 

Athough not directly effected so far , I found the communication of no independent excursions at ports very bad. I also noticed if you tried to book an April cruise online, you had to dig for this information, it should have popped up straight away, you should not be allowed to book without being told this

 

As for the Black sea cruise which we are booked on, I am amazed that they are still pretending it will go ahead. To still be selling it as a black sea cruise is worse than bad communications. 

 

The covid protocols , all have an "our judgement clause", so the actual protocols are really  a mystery. 

 

As for phone lines , they are no better or worse than many other cruise lines Cunard 1hr ,  or airlines BA over an hour.  Demand on phone lines must be completely ridiculous. 

 

 

[nosapphire]

As another Britannia Gold (had hoped to be Sapphire by now), I totally agree with Kohima.  Saga head office seem to be extremely disjointed; it may be my imagination, but it seems to have got worse since Euan Sutherland joined as group CEO.

The problem is not the staff that customers can speak to - as twotravellerslondon has commented, they still try as hard as ever to help, and are as friendly and pleasant to speak to as always.

But - they are only allowed to say what the senior management says.

I can still recall being told that there were "no changes" to the timing or schedule of the first SoA inaugural cruise; the telephone operator and I both knew perfectly well that the ship would not even complete the build in time to sail - but she had to forlornly keep telling me that it was "not changed". 

It was still on sale, too - right up until it was postponed because it was still in the shipyard.

I had hoped that with the original owner of Saga (Roger de Haan) returning to the board, (along with a large cash injection), the communication flow from head office to their staff, their ships, and their customers would improve - but it still seems to be an attitude of , "why do they need to know that?"

 

 

[Kohima]

I am delighted to hear that some people in some circumstances have had good experiences with some aspects of Saga communications recently. However many haven’t, both on and off shore.
As one example, being isolated in our cabin with no information or communication from anyone apart from room service waiters was unfortunate (although we were fully compliant with it). Subsequently finding out from other passengers that some had been isolated for 2 days, some for 3, some for 4 was inexplicable. One had a call from the captain, most, like us, heard nothing from anyone, not even to check on our welfare, which was disappointing to say the least. Some had tables outside the door where meals were left. Waiters brought ours into the cabin. Our steward continued to service the cabin. Quite what were the famous protocols, no one seemed sure, not even the crew. To say this was a muddle is an understatement. A later discussion with the Guest Services Director highlighted that arrangements for passengers sitting awaiting excursions were not subject to track and trace, nor were the overcrowded ‘complimentary’ boat excursions put on in Bergen. There was no logic or consistency at play. Did Head Office know any of this? What was the level of communication between the ship and shore.

Having discussed at home everything that has gone wrong for us on 2 recent cruises, both on and offshore, I am not inclined to gloss over it all with a “we are living in difficult times” excuse, nor am I interested in comparisons with other companies. We all know that times have changed and we are fortunate to be travelling at all. We know that many staff and crew are individually working very hard to give passengers the best cruise possible. They are being let down by internal and external communication issues, many of which when highlighted could be fixed.
I want to feel like a valued customer of a profitable company surviving into the future to give us all the experiences we know and love.

 

[twotravellersLondon]

2 hours ago, nosapphire said:

As another Britannia Gold (had hoped to be Sapphire by now), I totally agree with Kohima.  Saga head office seem to be extremely disjointed; it may be my imagination, but it seems to have got worse since Euan Sutherland joined as group CEO.

The problem is not the staff that customers can speak to - as twotravellerslondon has commented, they still try as hard as ever to help, and are as friendly and pleasant to speak to as always.

But - they are only allowed to say what the senior management says.

I can still recall being told that there were "no changes" to the timing or schedule of the first SoA inaugural cruise; the telephone operator and I both knew perfectly well that the ship would not even complete the build in time to sail - but she had to forlornly keep telling me that it was "not changed". 

It was still on sale, too - right up until it was postponed because it was still in the shipyard.

I had hoped that with the original owner of Saga (Roger de Haan) returning to the board, (along with a large cash injection), the communication flow from head office to their staff, their ships, and their customers would improve - but it still seems to be an attitude of , "why do they need to know that?"

 

 

 

Like "NoSapphire", We were also booked on the inaugural cruise to St Petersburg and the Baltic aboard the Spirit of Adventure in 2020. We had registered in advance in November 2018 band we were some of the first passengers book. The ship was due to sail on the 10th of August  2020. SAGA contacted us on the 26th of June and again on 10th  of July 2020, eight and six weeks before the sail date and let us know what was happening. We opted for a refund and we received it within days. From our own experience; SAGA's communication and customer services at that time was quite excellent and even more so in the face of the global pandemic. 

 

We had np experience of being told that there would be "no changes to the timing or schedule of the first SoA inaugural cruise"... very probably because we didn't contact SAGA to ask for information. However June/July 2020 is a long time ago now and a lot of water has passed under the bridges of both the SAGA Spirit of Discovery and the SAGA Spirit of Adventure Spirit since then.... and the world has changed in ways we certainly never dreamt of.

 

The key fact is that, even before covid, in the majority of cases the fare did not cover the cost of the cruise and was only the onboard sales that pushed the business over the break-even line. Now... most cruise-lines and most ships are sailing at a loss. Some are losing £hundreds for every passenger that they carry, at least one has been losing £hundreds per passenger per day. (Figures can be easily found in Companies House!) 

 

Before covid, different companies were already adopting different strategic directions in order to make ends meet in the face of commercial challenges, the introduction of new environmental legislation and other factors. 

 

These changes were always going to alienate some cruisers. For instance: SAGA's move to balcony only, all-inclusive ships really upset some of our friends who have never forgiven he company because they feel that after being loyal customers that they have now been priced out of the market. On another cruise line, cutbacks on the quality of food, entertainment and staffing and that had a similar effect of upsetting and alienating friends who had been cruising with the company for years. One cruise-line that we've often travelled with have very seriously increased their prices... the cabin that we had in late 2019 is now almost twice the price for the same cruise... as a result we've been priced out. 

 

We're a little sad about that.... but life is just too short and too precious to waste on regrets and angst... we've just "compared the market" found what suits us best and we've moved on. We're not going to waste our time and energy cruise-line bashing.... in our opinion, it's pointless.

 

Like everyone else... we want to feel like a valued customers of a profitable company surviving into the future to give us all the experiences we know and love... having compared the field... we find that SAGA's is our best option. So now we're doing what most cruisers want to do... excitedly looking forward  to our next cruise, checking our wardrobes, researching the ports and hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst and, at the end of the day, we'll be grateful for small mercies.

 

On the basis of our recent experience, we've made our choice and paid our money to SAGA... which has now become our cruise-line of choice.
 

[Kohima]

Surely the point of communication is that it is two way. Constructive criticism should be welcomed and where possible acted upon. If issues are not addressed they continue to happen, service deteriorates and customers continue to complain, further clogging up the phone lines ….absolutely nothing to do with the pandemic. I still await communication promised after my February (largely constructive) feedback……………

Customers have the money. They need to feel valued and listened to. With some exceptions (!), they are largely reasonable people with a choice of where to spend their hard earned cash. Everyone understands the need to be flexible just now, but this needs to be accompanied by clear, prompt, consistent explanation of why things are happening. Sweeping things under the carpet never works in the long run.
 

[Vivaldi]

5 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said:

we've had numerous phone calls with SAGA representatives. The phone has been answered relatively promptly,

 

Well, having given up trying to get through to Saga a few days ago, we tried again today and after more than two hours holding the phone waiting for a response, have given up again. So we are a bit cross right now.

 

7 hours ago, Kohima said:

Saga, if you can’t provide an adequate telephone service right now, please use the website more nimbly to communicate clearly the answers to questions.

 

I completely agree with Kohima. Indeed, calling the telephone service inadequate at present would be being polite. I have to say that this doesn't exactly encourage us to book cruises in 2023 with Saga.

[nosapphire]

1 hour ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

 

Like "NoSapphire", We were also booked on the inaugural cruise to St Petersburg and the Baltic aboard the Spirit of Adventure in 2020. We had registered in advance in November 2018 band we were some of the first passengers book. The ship was due to sail on the 10th of August  2020. SAGA contacted us on the 26th of June and again on 10th  of July 2020, eight and six weeks before the sail date and let us know what was happening. We opted for a refund and we received it within days. From our own experience; SAGA's communication and customer services at that time was quite excellent and even more so in the face of the global pandemic. 

 

We had np experience of being told that there would be "no changes to the timing or schedule of the first SoA inaugural cruise"... very probably because we didn't contact SAGA to ask for information. However June/July 2020 is a long time ago now and a lot of water has passed under the bridges of both the SAGA Spirit of Discovery and the SAGA Spirit of Adventure Spirit since then.... and the world has changed in ways we certainly never dreamt of.

 

The key fact is that, even before covid, in the majority of cases the fare did not cover the cost of the cruise and was only the onboard sales that pushed the business over the break-even line. Now... most cruise-lines and most ships are sailing at a loss. Some are losing £hundreds for every passenger that they carry, at least one has been losing £hundreds per passenger per day. (Figures can be easily found in Companies House!) 

 

Before covid, different companies were already adopting different strategic directions in order to make ends meet in the face of commercial challenges, the introduction of new environmental legislation and other factors. 

 

These changes were always going to alienate some cruisers. For instance: SAGA's move to balcony only, all-inclusive ships really upset some of our friends who have never forgiven he company because they feel that after being loyal customers that they have now been priced out of the market. On another cruise line, cutbacks on the quality of food, entertainment and staffing and that had a similar effect of upsetting and alienating friends who had been cruising with the company for years. One cruise-line that we've often travelled with have very seriously increased their prices... the cabin that we had in late 2019 is now almost twice the price for the same cruise... as a result we've been priced out. 

 

We're a little sad about that.... but life is just too short and too precious to waste on regrets and angst... we've just "compared the market" found what suits us best and we've moved on. We're not going to waste our time and energy cruise-line bashing.... in our opinion, it's pointless.

 

Like everyone else... we want to feel like a valued customers of a profitable company surviving into the future to give us all the experiences we know and love... having compared the field... we find that SAGA's is our best option. So now we're doing what most cruisers want to do... excitedly looking forward  to our next cruise, checking our wardrobes, researching the ports and hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst and, at the end of the day, we'll be grateful for small mercies.

 

On the basis of our recent experience, we've made our choice and paid our money to SAGA... which has now become our cruise-line of choice.
 

 I have just rechecked my emails about the first inaugural, and you are quite correct - they DID write to say about the postponement.

Cruise was due to sail 21st August 2020.

Our final balance was due 23rd May 2020.

We contacted Saga prior to this to query if still going ahead, which is when we were told no changes.

So we paid balance 22nd. May 2020 (that or lose the deposit).

Our letter about the postponed date received 26th May 2020 (dated 22nd May), so careful timing on their part to make sure the balance was paid before confirmation of postponement.

We opted to roll the cruise over to the as-yet unknown revised date

As of 28th May, inaugural cruise still showing on their website for 21st August.

Queried it - received reply 30th May saying yes, it was delayed, they "think" they are in the process of updating the website to show the situation with the Spirit of Adventure.

Took a few months to do so......

Then - BEFORE we received the postponement letter - we received revised documentation to confirm we were fully paid for the cruise on 21st August 2020.

Hey - the insurance has been revised to exclude coronavirus. A covering letter dated 21st May 2020 stating  that if we took out the included travel insure prior to 3rd April (no year mentioned) we would not be covered for coronavirus.At all.

We booked the cruise September 2018, and went through medical screening May 2019.

It took a LOT of emails and letters, each one we sent knocking back the woolly answers about "should" or "probably" be covered (who takes out insurance that only gives a "probably" cover?) before we received satisfactory confirmation about the cover still existed as per our original documentation.

Then we got another revised booking June 2020 for the revised inaugural 5th November 2020 - and lo-and-behold, our insurance again excluded coronavirus. So dug out all the May correspondence and went through it all again.

So, sorry, I'm still with Kohima communication - or, more specifically, accurate  communication with correct information, is no longer a strong point for Saga. Maybe it was always so, and I am just noticing it more.

 

 

 

[Kohima]

Admin has always been inefficient with Saga but the sorry tale above from Nosapphire goes some way to explaining why the Saga communication channels are continually clogged up. It’s because communication is not sufficiently clear and open in the first place, requiring people to make repeated contacts where one should have been sufficient. If only Saga would invest in a better, more rapidly updated website, including MySaga, pressure would ease on the phone lines.

However the problem is broader than that in our experience and also extends to a communication mismatch between the Head Office and the ships. How is it possible for an excursion, booked and paid for on MySaga is not known to exist by Tours and Travel on the ship? Guess what, the ship can’t deal with a refund……..another opportunity to hang on the phone line when we returned home!
Yet again I would stress that the amazing crew, who do provide a 5 star service on the ships, are being let down by the Head Office management.

[twotravellersLondon]

4 hours ago, Kohima said:

Surely the point of communication is that it is two way. Constructive criticism should be welcomed and where possible acted upon. If issues are not addressed they continue to happen, service deteriorates and customers continue to complain, further clogging up the phone lines

 

We certainly fully agree in principle with the comment about constructive criticism. 

 

At various times in the past 30 years, we have written in detail to a cruise line... almost as critical friends....  to make our feelings about particular aspects of a cruise clear. On these occasions we've almost invariable had constructive responses. On one occasion when we had issues with the food we were asked to contribute our suggestions over two-hour long interviews, our letter was sent to all Executive Chefs, Hotel Managers and Maître d'hôtel in the fleet. A fleet wide review was conducted. We were generously thanked for our time and trouble, and we understood that all of those others who had independently voiced their opinion to HQ were also compensated in different ways

.

However its very difficult for individual passengers to judge the overall ability of a company "to deal with the unexpected, to communicate clearly with passengers and to manage their expectations" because those expectations vary wildly and we're not privy to even a representative sample of the total feedback that the company will have received in various forms. On these boards, it's unusual to have more than 2 or 3 cabins per thousand comment on a cruise and the number of reviews are often less than that. Where a company uses one of the commercial review sites which aim to translate customer feedback into actionable insights... the feedback is typically far less than 5%. 

 

On one industry standard review site SAGA has 92% of respondents rating the company as "Excellent" compared to the closest competitors operating out of the UK ... they are rated between 10% and 44%. So should we trust those figures based on thousands of responses and believe that SAGA, as a whole, is doing a far better job than the rest of the industry... or should we believe the disparate comments on different forums and social media?

 

We also fully agree that the majority of cruisers are largely reasonable people with a choice of where to spend their hard-earned cash but as indicated there are "exceptions (!)" and it's very much the case that some of these, in the words of the CC Guidelines,  may be "prone to post messages on the boards that could be misleading, deceptive, or downright wrong." There are recent examples on some social "mediah" sites where unsupported rumour has flourished and caused a great distress to cruise passengers their friends and their relatives.

 

These days when so many people have different opinions... often hold them with such passion... and pursue them with so much energy and vigour... it's impossible to keep everyone happy all of the time.

 

We liken a choice of cruise-line to a choice of restaurant... we don't argue with the proprietor about the service, the food, the atmosphere or the price... but if we don't like it... we'll give it a miss and go somewhere that suits us better. It does make life so much pleasanter... and allows to enjoy cruising.

 

That.... as far as we're concerned... is the point of cruising.

 

 

[Kohima]

It is not the Saga cruise itself which is the problem. Negative feedback on the general cruise experience or the crew is rare. Questionnaires don’t ask about the quality of communication so it’s hardly surprising that it doesn’t receive the poor rating it deserves. However what we heard about their problems from many other passengers on our recent cruise echoes what we are seeing online and our own experience. It is not ‘fake news’ and to ignore it is dangerous for Saga in the long term. We wanted to enjoy our cruises, we like many aspects of the Saga experience, we went with a flexible open mind but it was disappointing to see so many things go wrong which could have been avoided by better, more honest communication. When there is clearly Covid on the ship, why is it sensible for the Captain to stay deafeningly silent on the matter?  Was it acceptable for there to be no clear consistent treatment for those infected and their suspected contacts? We often found ourselves placating others with comments like “It’s not normally like this”. However you can’t defend the indefensible. And then there’s the problem of the Head Office!
It is good to see that the current captains onboard are reported to have been much more open in communicating with their passengers. Even if the news is bad, it’s better to know the truth. Maybe they are learning………
 

[nosapphire]

Ah, those questionnaires.

The one that is given by the ship itself after the first week is extremely useful - they do read it and they do act on it: 2 previous instances - commented that the flow on our shower on the Sapphire was variable - 2 hours after putting the questionnaire in, knock on door, plumber asking to look at shower, one hour later back again with new cartridge.  SoD commented that first night on board mattress very uncomfortable, checked and found it was upside down hence all the springs digging into me, so had to strip and remake the bed. Next day, head of housekeeping visited to full of apologies, apparently it had been made by a crew member rushing to go off on leave. So for the ship questionnaire, every one is read on board, discussed on board, , and when possible actioned on board.

The ones from head office (including those "how did Saga do?" emails) are phrased in such a way that you will be commenting on individuals, either the person you spoke to on the phone or the ship staff and crew.

You have to give ratings either good or bad - there is no "OK" or "Average".

It is human nature (I do it myself) not to want to mark down people who have been trying their best, so it is more likely that you will slant towards the "good" than the "bad".

 

 

[twotravellersLondon]

16 hours ago, Kohima said:

Questionnaires don’t ask about the quality of communication so it’s hardly surprising that it doesn’t receive the poor rating it deserves. However what we heard about their problems from many other passengers on our recent cruise echoes what we are seeing online and our own experience. It is not ‘fake news’

 

Questionnaires may not ask about the many things including the quality of communication but there are other far more salient indicators of overall customer satisfaction.

 

People putting their hard-earned cash down is one of them. We are booked on a SAGA cruise this summer... it has been booked up for months despite the fact that three other lines are offer a similar itinerary at the same time and all of these can offer budget cabins. We also booked a SAGA cruise for early next year as soon as it became available and it is already well past the break-even point despite another cruise-line offering a similar cruise at about the same price... and with budget cabins cheaper. £ Millions in booking probably says far more about customer satisfaction than posts by a tiny number of clients.

 

There are always going to be detractors about any business on forums and "social-media" but Interestingly on one major review site, thousands of reviewers each month... considerable more than are contributing to this board... are consistently giving SAGA by far the best ratings in the industry. "Communication" doesn’t seem to be a problem in the minds of those folks.

 

Different individuals who post comments may have very different ideas. A recent conversation on one of the other CC boards... had one cruiser regularly post reports...  often based on speculation gleaned from one "social-media" site... and another cruiser on the same ship commenting that he was enjoying his cruise and had read these posts in utter disbelief... and could not believe that he was on the same cruise. Different people can see the same situation very differently.

 

Information on any cruise-line can be a double-edged sword. On one ship (not Saga) high above the arctic circle, our Captain spent a missed port day giving us the most sensational cruise through "Ice-berg Alley". At the end, he commented that he had used an additional 50 tonnes of fuel. That evening the rumour mill was in full swing... according to one or two people... "we were running out of fuel, there was no-where to get any more, we would never reach our next port, we would be stranded. we would have no heating or lighting, there would be no water and we would be at the mercy of marauding ice-bergs!" It would have been terribly funny had it not created immense stress and anxiety among some of the passengers. A simple case of totally unnecessary angst created by thoughtless,  gossip, unsubstantiated rumour and ill-informed speculation. 

 

On another cruise ship in the days that Norovirus was the problem, the Captain gave full details as part of his evening report. These details included if there had been any suspected cases, isolation, how the buffet would operate, the deep-cleaning schedule for that night and so on.  By the end of the first week it became almost impossible to hear the announcement because so many people showed their displeasure at receiving the information that they spoke over it. At the end of the second week some people were shouting over it. So sometimes... Captains are in a no-win situation.... dammed if they do and dammed if they don't

 

We want to enjoy our cruises. We want to watch out for dolphins, birds and whales, catch a glimpse of land, thrill at the opportunity of "closer-cruising", have interesting and exhilarating excursions, enjoy the food, entertainment and we want to feel that the whole experience is rather special. 

At home, we don't go to the cinema to see an Oscar winning film, the theatre to see a blockbuster musical or to dinner an award-winning restaurant so that we act the critic or expect the manager to to listen to our opinion as "feedback"... we go to enjoy the experience. We regard cruising in much the same way.

 

We like travelling on SAGA because, on the whole, the people we meet are sensible, well informed, convivial, companions with a mature wisdom and a respect for others who will engage in agreeably positive and pleasant conversation.

[nosapphire]

Your post originally mentioned the 90-odd percentage of satisfied customers, which is taken from Saga feedback - which is taken from their questionnaires. Hence my reply, pointing out that the way the questionnaires are phrased tilts the majority of people over to the "good" side; if there was an "average" field in the answers, then I strongly suspect that the percentage of good/very good  would not be so high.

 

As some of us have been saying, the real problem is not the cruise it is the confused, incomplete,missing or sometimes totally wrong information from Saga head office. (note - NOT the captain or crew - head office).

Example: The last two cruises the excursions booklets gave wrong descriptions, in one case even had the wrong port (right country, just the wrong port - which was information they had given to the local tour agent and office, which is why the drive from the ship to the tour was twice as long as it should have been. Booklet said 1.5 hours, actual drive was nearly 4 hours. We asked the tour guide how long it would have been from the other port - answer: 1,5 hours). Tours booked on board came up at different prices to the tour booklet (Saga do not charge different prices depending where you book - one of their good points). This was compounded by the fact that the tour staff on board were all new, and had not double checked the head office information - so did not realise it was wrong.

I think that most of us here can differentiate between people who are making fair comment about their personal experiences and their personal opinions, be it good or bad, and those who simply want to either spread malicous gossip or talk-up a line.
For what it is worth, everything I have posted (good and bad) is based on my experience; I have responded to other people's comments, but I have not used other people's comments or social media to relay as if they were my experiences. It seems odd that you reply in such a way as to imply that is what is being done, but I am sure you did not intend to give that impression.

I am also sure that you will enjoy your cruise.

[Kohima]

Like Nosappire, my concern about the deteriorating quality, ease and consistency of Saga’s communications is based not on hearsay but on recent personal experience, in my case on 2 cruises in the past 6 months as well as the past 16 years or so. Not mention my very poor experience of isolation on SoA. It is based on disappointment and frustration.It is also based on a desire to see shortcomings be resolved so that everyone has the excellent service they are led to expect. 

One solution for Saga would be to better use their website. There shouldn’t be situations where people have to email Nigel Blanks to obtain information which could be clearly set out on the website. The Covid protocols should be accurately displayed and updated. People shouldn’t need to be clogging up the phone lines to clarify trivial but important information which again could be on the website. However this needs to be fit for purpose. For instance our October cruise always showed us departing from the wrong port, our February cruise confused Kristiansund with Kristiansand and even showed it on the wrong place on the map. My Saga could also be used more accurately and efficiently which would leave the phone lines more available for those unable to use IT. Despite 3 calls and several emails I never managed to sort out an incorrect balance showing on my account. Gave up in the end! The onboard travel staff should not be left rolling their eyes when there is an information gap with Head Office as both we and Nosapphire experienced.

The pandemic is no longer an excuse for poor service. We have just been dealing with another excellent travel company which is a breath of fresh air compared with Saga, so it can be done.

The comments on another thread by people directly affected by the Black Sea situation are a prime example of what I am highlighting. Yes the situation is uncertain and tricky but people have paid a premium price to go to the Black Sea. They may not all wish to go just anywhere at the last minute with the sweetener of premium drinks. Better communication would stop rumour and speculation which flourishes in the absence of the truth and thus is the cause of negative posts.

[twotravellersLondon]

We very much sympathise and emphasise with anyone feeling disappointment and frustrated with what was once their "cruise-line of choice". Sadly, we have similar feelings about one of SAGA's close competitors that we've travelled with a great many times over years. 

 

In the year or so immediately before the cruise-industry pause due to the global-pandemic, our personal experience included cruises with SAGA on the Pearl II, the Sapphire and the Spirit of Discovery as well as two-week and four-week cruises on another line and two weeks on third cruise line. Our most recent personal experience of SAGA has been in booking and subsequently making minor changes in our requirements due to personal circumstances of a number of cruises, amounting to sixteen weeks over the next year. Personally... we've not experienced any "communication" issues with SAGA and we have been very happy with their customer services. 

 

Before we decided on SAGA as our current "cruise-line-of-choice" we spent ages researching the present-day state of SAGA, the companies that we'd travelled with recently and any other alternatives. 

 

We've kept an closer eye on CC boards and we appreciate all those who have taken the time and trouble of posting their differing views and feelings... but we followed Cruise Critic's advice  that... "The fundamental concept is that you should NOT totally rely upon the information or opinions you read. Rather, you should use what you read here as starting points for doing independent research on cruise lines... Then judge for yourself the merits of the material that has been shared in our forum."

 

So we've looked in detail at Company Accounts, Director's Strategic Reports, the Trade Press and numerous review sites. We've talked with real-life friends that we trust and we've done a side-by-side comparison of current pricing and a very detailed comparative examination of proposed itineraries. Incidentally, we were also quite impressed to learn that SAGA was recently awarded the Which Recommended Ocean Cruise Provider and that the cruise-line recently won three WAVE awards including the highly prestigious Grand Prix. 

 

We were very feeling disappointment and frustrated about one of SAGA's close competitors... and yes communication with HQ and an out-of-date website was and continues to be an issue with that company... but we're not interested in taking the time and trouble to rake over the ashes or to worry about how we think that particular company has failed us. We're not going to tell them how they should run their business or to worry about how they might behave in the future... or regret missing out on an exceptionally high level of loyalty benefits. It's time for us to move on... we would much prefer to follow the advice of Noël Coward... "Grab every bit of happiness while you can!"

 

Saga is not perfect... we know of no cruise-line that is... but as far as we're concerned SAGA is a better choice for us at the moment as our main cruise-line.

 

 

 

[nosapphire]

As far as Saga's website is concerned, on reflection, it has always been extremely flaky (for cruises, tours and insurance) - over the years I have seen several posts suggesting that Saga employ some capable IT people to redesign their websites.

I can clearly recall a telephone conversation some years back that started off:

Me: I think your website has taken a dislike to me..

Saga op (cheerily): Don't worry - our website hates everyone.

One of their explanations for this is that Saga recognise that many of their customers do not like using the internet but prefer to talk to somebody, so have concentrated more on telephone assistance.  Which makes good sense to me.

Yes, I know that lately the delays in waiting for an answer can sometimes be very long (redundancies have not helped either) but (a) it is freephone number, and (b) with the occasional exception, Saga telephone staff are always delightful to talk to. And they do their best to help, do not rush you so they can get to the next customer, which, of course, if somebody has a lot of questions, will add to the delay in answering the next person.

All they really need is coherent management keeping the Saga staff informed - which is all to frequently where it falls down, as has been highlighted so often on this forum.