Denarius Posted May 3, 2023 #101 Share Posted May 3, 2023 (edited) This short video might be of interest to those who have not sailed on SofD or SofA. https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/ocean/our-ships/spirit-of-adventure.aspx Edited May 3, 2023 by Denarius 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladycommonsense Posted May 3, 2023 Author #102 Share Posted May 3, 2023 17 hours ago, Denarius said: For those who might be interested, the standard single cabins are very similar but slightly shorter, with only one chair. The bed is the same, as is the bathroom. Great filming - thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jammy Bun Posted May 3, 2023 #103 Share Posted May 3, 2023 On 5/1/2023 at 12:15 PM, Bloodaxe said: Thank you, that should be fine for us, we have always liked the international people mix on our cruises, it will be a new experience with mostly British. Saga is VERY British. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLad60 Posted May 3, 2023 #104 Share Posted May 3, 2023 1 hour ago, Jammy Bun said: Saga is VERY British. Rule Britannia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Peterson Posted May 3, 2023 #105 Share Posted May 3, 2023 18 minutes ago, LondonLad60 said: Rule Britannia! That was a VERY long time ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Tothesunset Posted May 3, 2023 #106 Share Posted May 3, 2023 Weirdly, when booking Saga states the you must have a UK passport. You don't have to. At least not if, like me, you're Irish. (And, yes, I did ring them to make sure!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare twotravellersLondon Posted May 3, 2023 #107 Share Posted May 3, 2023 5 hours ago, Tothesunset said: Weirdly, when booking Saga states the you must have a UK passport. You don't have to. At least not if, like me, you're Irish. (And, yes, I did ring them to make sure!) That seems a little odd. We've booked six SAGA cruises in the last year. The conditions that we were given were... "I confirm that all passengers are UK residents and have a UK passport. If you are not a permanent resident in the UK or do not hold a passport, please call us." So if a prospective passenger isn't a UK resident or doesn't have a UK passport... they can simply book by telephone rather than online. Admittedly, inserting "UK" between hold" and "passport" might make it a little clearer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryL13 Posted May 4, 2023 #108 Share Posted May 4, 2023 5 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said: That seems a little odd. We've booked six SAGA cruises in the last year. The conditions that we were given were... "I confirm that all passengers are UK residents and have a UK passport. If you are not a permanent resident in the UK or do not hold a passport, please call us." So if a prospective passenger isn't a UK resident or doesn't have a UK passport... they can simply book by telephone rather than online. Admittedly, inserting "UK" between hold" and "passport" might make it a little clearer! I'm a US citizen living on the West Coast (a long way from British ports). I'm finally going on my first Saga cruises after 3 years of waiting. Always have dealt with Saga by phone (they call me). Never saw the bit about requiring a British passport. I just know I'm not eligible for the Saga insurance and have to get my own here in US. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Tothesunset Posted May 4, 2023 #109 Share Posted May 4, 2023 5 hours ago, GerryL13 said: I'm a US citizen living on the West Coast (a long way from British ports). I'm finally going on my first Saga cruises after 3 years of waiting. Always have dealt with Saga by phone (they call me). Never saw the bit about requiring a British passport. I just know I'm not eligible for the Saga insurance and have to get my own here in US. Clearly Saga do not require travellers to be a UK citizen but when you book online (as in the dummy booking below) in the UK this message appears: That just strikes me as odd. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosapphire Posted May 4, 2023 #110 Share Posted May 4, 2023 I'm guessing here ... but it may be that as Saga arrange all their cruises on the basis of all passengers being UK passport holders, they want to take the opportunity to talk to non-UK passport holders in case of any country on the planned itinerary needing extra paperwork. I have met numerous non-UK/non-EU passport holders on Saga cruises (including a lady who regularly flew to the UK, ostensibly to visit her sister but mainly to go on a Saga cruise), all nationalities are always very welcome on board. As Saga pride themselves on making life easy for their passengers by making as many of the "official" arrangements on their behalf as possible, they may have decided it is easier to discuss non-UK passports before a booking is made, rather than after. As I say, just guessing. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodaxe Posted June 14, 2023 #111 Share Posted June 14, 2023 I have seen reports that the coffee is not great on Saga, is proper barrister style coffee available on the ships or is it straight out of machines. We are used to a proper coffee shop on Azamara availed all day long, what are the venues like on Saga. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryL13 Posted June 14, 2023 #112 Share Posted June 14, 2023 10 hours ago, Bloodaxe said: I have seen reports that the coffee is not great on Saga, is proper barrister style coffee available on the ships or is it straight out of machines. We are used to a proper coffee shop on Azamara availed all day long, what are the venues like on Saga. I am not a coffee connoisseur, but I did find the coffee drinks (lattes, cappucinos) a bit bland. It appears that most of the coffee drinks, even those delivered by wait staff, come from push-button machines. That may not be true of coffee served from carafes at meals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodaxe Posted June 14, 2023 #113 Share Posted June 14, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, GerryL13 said: I am not a coffee connoisseur, but I did find the coffee drinks (lattes, cappucinos) a bit bland. It appears that most of the coffee drinks, even those delivered by wait staff, come from push-button machines. That may not be true of coffee served from carafes at meals. Thank you, that is what I suspected, looks like we will be disappointed, I would have expected better at Saga prices. , Edited June 14, 2023 by Bloodaxe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJo1947 Posted June 15, 2023 #114 Share Posted June 15, 2023 On 3/10/2023 at 12:18 AM, Host Sharon said: Also note, as from April 1, any cruises booked through an agent won't count towards the Britannia Loyality Club. There are some Agents Saga have association with that will honour Britannia club nights 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosapphire Posted June 15, 2023 #115 Share Posted June 15, 2023 16 hours ago, GerryL13 said: I am not a coffee connoisseur, but I did find the coffee drinks (lattes, cappucinos) a bit bland. It appears that most of the coffee drinks, even those delivered by wait staff, come from push-button machines. That may not be true of coffee served from carafes at meals. On the Discovery, we saw the mealtime coffee carafes being filled up from the machines. On the Sapphire and the Pearl II, the machine coffee was (to our minds) much better (tasted like a richer blend with mainly Arabica beans) so the suspicion is that Saga are now using a cheaper blend of beans. Likewise, on the Sapphire and Pearl, the mealtime coffee was filter cafetiere coffee, not from the machine - (the breakfast coffee was excellent, but the after dinner coffee tasted like a single bean to a gallon of water, so we always skipped that and went to the machine later). Now it is all the same - acceptable, but not as good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodaxe Posted June 15, 2023 #116 Share Posted June 15, 2023 2 hours ago, nosapphire said: On the Discovery, we saw the mealtime coffee carafes being filled up from the machines. On the Sapphire and the Pearl II, the machine coffee was (to our minds) much better (tasted like a richer blend with mainly Arabica beans) so the suspicion is that Saga are now using a cheaper blend of beans. Likewise, on the Sapphire and Pearl, the mealtime coffee was filter cafetiere coffee, not from the machine - (the breakfast coffee was excellent, but the after dinner coffee tasted like a single bean to a gallon of water, so we always skipped that and went to the machine later). Now it is all the same - acceptable, but not as good. That's not good at all, are they trying to kid people, carafe coffee should be freshly brewed. Not getting good impressions before our first Saga cruise, pleased that it's only a short one to try them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Peterson Posted June 15, 2023 #117 Share Posted June 15, 2023 1 hour ago, Bloodaxe said: That's not good at all, are they trying to kid people, carafe coffee should be freshly brewed. Not getting good impressions before our first Saga cruise, pleased that it's only a short one to try them out. Saga are heavily in debt and trying hard to cut their costs. What's been happening on P&O may well already be showing up in Saga cuts (for example having to share the transport from home to port). Very recently they've reneagued on all the Life Memberships people bought some time back for a relatively sizeable upfront payment. The commitment was to provide life members - for that upfront payment - with the Saga Magazine for life. They've unceremoniously dumped that commitment recently and now want £29.95 per annum for what was included already in the life membership. If they can treat their elderly life members like that, they're capable of anything, and although I was planning to switch to Saga they won't now be getting my money. And neither will any of their other products. Saga can't be trusted now to keep its contracts - and the only reason they've given is that they can't afford it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kohima Posted June 15, 2023 #118 Share Posted June 15, 2023 Factual correction: shared transport was always the norm over 75 miles. A temporary change (for safety reasons) from shared to private transport was made during the pandemic. Transport has merely reverted to the pre pandemic situation. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denarius Posted June 15, 2023 #119 Share Posted June 15, 2023 For most passengers I doubt whether the quality of the coffee would be a make or break or even a significant factor in deciding whether or not to sail with Saga. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denarius Posted June 15, 2023 #120 Share Posted June 15, 2023 1 hour ago, Kohima said: Factual correction: shared transport was always the norm over 75 miles. A temporary change (for safety reasons) from shared to private transport was made during the pandemic. Transport has merely reverted to the pre pandemic situation. Correct. On my 3 Saga cruises (all post pandemic) I have always been offered and booked shared transport, but on the first two occasions this was upgraded to private for health & safety reasons at no extra cost. On the most recent occasion I got shared transport as booked and paid for, as Saga returned to normality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosapphire Posted June 15, 2023 #121 Share Posted June 15, 2023 1 hour ago, Denarius said: For most passengers I doubt whether the quality of the coffee would be a make or break or even a significant factor in deciding whether or not to sail with Saga. There is no such thing as a perfect cruise line, it just depends what things that people consider important. Saga was always - traditionally - a low-key, extremely comfortable line with excellent service and very good food. Until the new ships came out, Saga adverts were always rather understated, so most people generally found that they received a much better quality experience than they expected. The comfort is still there (actually, much better - anyone remember the eccentric plumbing on the Saga Rose? Or the way the "automatic" doors on the Sapphire had to be manually forced open and closed?) but at the same time the current advertising with so much emphasis on "premium" and "luxury" has given people much higher expectations - so when some things aren't quite as premium as stated, it gets noticed. Still, we've had librarygate (a lack of books will still annoy me) so now we can have coffeegate. 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodaxe Posted June 15, 2023 #122 Share Posted June 15, 2023 3 hours ago, Denarius said: For most passengers I doubt whether the quality of the coffee would be a make or break or even a significant factor in deciding whether or not to sail with Saga. Very true, but it seems that it is a sign that standards have fallen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kohima Posted June 15, 2023 #123 Share Posted June 15, 2023 Lack of high quality coffee is not a sign that standards have fallen. In fact the coffee is much as it always has been. In my experience, over many years, the Saga ships have never had particularly good coffee. Now that people are becoming more used to fancy machines both at home and elsewhere they are noticing the Saga difference. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lincslady Posted June 16, 2023 #124 Share Posted June 16, 2023 The 'machine' coffee on the old ships - Pearl and Sapphire - which you normally made for yourself was pretty good. If that has changed, they must be using different and less good coffee. It is to some extent reliant on individual taste of course; my favourite is what I make for breakfast every morning at home - Taylors Rich Italian, in a cafetiere and fairly strong. I had a coffee at a Costa last week, and it was weedy and poor - but some people like it. A pity if Saga have changed theirs - if enough people mention it they might have a rethink. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wacktle Posted June 16, 2023 #125 Share Posted June 16, 2023 (edited) 38 minutes ago, lincslady said: I had a coffee at a Costa last week, and it was weedy and poor - but some people like it. The coffee from Saga's machines is OK. I do agree with you about Taylors coffee. and I use their coffee bags too, if I want one large mug. I've found Costa was ok, but don't use it that often. I do however wonder how much Starbuck's barista training is to produce such vile brown liquid. Edited June 16, 2023 by Wacktle addition 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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