New to Saga

[Ladycommonsense]

6 minutes ago, Scorpio41 said:

Totally agree. Book direct with Saga. If you use a travel agent Saga won’t take your calls as everything has to go through the travel agent.

 

Your holiday starts from when they pick you up from home. You can cruise without spending a penny onboard. All speciality restaurants, all drinks including premium brands are included in the price you pay. There are free trips at some ports, plus trips you can purchase.

 

Fabulous staff. 

Thank you for taking the time to post such a positive response. I’ve seen elsewhere that sometimes the drinks are included in the price of the Cruise. This isn’t necessity for as we do like a decent glass of Chardonnay. We are not wine snobs by any means and we don’t drink spirits. So our wine is rather important to us. Have you any idea what types of wine they have on board and I guess what the house wine is like? 

[Scorpio41]

10 minutes ago, Ladycommonsense said:

Thank you for taking the time to post such a positive response. I’ve seen elsewhere that sometimes the drinks are included in the price of the Cruise. This isn’t necessity for as we do like a decent glass of Chardonnay. We are not wine snobs by any means and we don’t drink spirits. So our wine is rather important to us. Have you any idea what types of wine they have on board and I guess what the house wine is like? 

Off the top of my head I can’t remember. They have more than one choice of white and red at meal times. Three of each I think. If you prefer a Chardonnay just ask. We never ordered a bottle from the wine list as the house wines were very nice.

 

The hydro pool, sauna and steam rooms are also free to use. (Last year you needed to book an hour slot.) Fabulous place to relax and unwind. Don’t tell too many people. 😉

[LondonLad60]

25 minutes ago, Ladycommonsense said:

Thank you for taking the time to post such a positive response. I’ve seen elsewhere that sometimes the drinks are included in the price of the Cruise. This isn’t necessity for as we do like a decent glass of Chardonnay. We are not wine snobs by any means and we don’t drink spirits. So our wine is rather important to us. Have you any idea what types of wine they have on board and I guess what the house wine is like? 

On a recent Saga cruise the house Chardonnay was (I think) Casillero Del Diablo, and my wife and I found it perfectly drinkable. I'm sure there is at least one Chardonnay on the premium wines list. At lunch and dinner times the wine waiters will bring around the house wines of the day - a red and a white from a selection of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz and Tempranillo for red and Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay Chenin Blanc and Pinot Grigio for white. Apologies if I've missed any. There are rose wines available as well. As Scorpio41 says above, if you don't fancy the wines of the day, just ask for what you would like.

[lincslady]

Just to say that the included wines are generally in the £6 to £8 category in supermarkets.  As it happens, they are generally of similar quality on the so-called luxury lines, in spite of being described as 'fine wines'.    The normal spirits are  bit generic, but I believe some cruises now include premium spirits.  However, I have had Tio  Pepe as the included dry sherry, and Campari is also included.

 

 

[twotravellersLondon]

These are a couple of snaps that we took of wine-lists on the SaGA Discovery last July.

 

 

 

[Ladycommonsense]

2 hours ago, Scorpio41 said:

Off the top of my head I can’t remember. They have more than one choice of white and red at meal times. Three of each I think. If you prefer a Chardonnay just ask. We never ordered a bottle from the wine list as the house wines were very nice.

 

The hydro pool, sauna and steam rooms are also free to use. (Last year you needed to book an hour slot.) Fabulous place to relax and unwind. Don’t tell too many people. 😉

Super!  Thank you again👍

[Ladycommonsense]

1 hour ago, LondonLad60 said:

On a recent Saga cruise the house Chardonnay was (I think) Casillero Del Diablo, and my wife and I found it perfectly drinkable. I'm sure there is at least one Chardonnay on the premium wines list. At lunch and dinner times the wine waiters will bring around the house wines of the day - a red and a white from a selection of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz and Tempranillo for red and Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay Chenin Blanc and Pinot Grigio for white. Apologies if I've missed any. There are rose wines available as well. As Scorpio41 says above, if you don't fancy the wines of the day, just ask for what you would like.

Again - thank you!! 

[Glenndale]

If you haven’t booked yet and have a friend who is a Britannia club member, they could recommend you and you will both get an extra 10% discount 🙂

[Scorpio41]

Don’t forget to to have lunch on the veranda. Fish and chips on newspaper, cooked to order and a cheeky glass of wine. Highly recommended.

[twotravellersLondon]

1 hour ago, Scorpio41 said:

Don’t forget to to have lunch on the veranda. Fish and chips on newspaper, cooked to order and a cheeky glass of wine. Highly recommended.

 

 Then slip back into the Living Room and collect some ice-cream to take out and finish the meal!

[Scorpio41]

3 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

 Then slip back into the Living Room and collect some ice-cream to take out and finish the meal!

Naughty but delicious. 😂

[Vivaldi]

On 2/8/2023 at 2:47 PM, twotravellersLondon said:

These are a couple of snaps that we took of wine-lists on the SaGA Discovery last July.

 

A quick off-topic comment, if I may: I'm very pleased to see that the prices of these wines are exactly the same as they were when we were on the SofD in September 2019. 

Is Saga still putting a bottle of Balfour Hush Heath sparkling wine in the cabins of Britannia Club members?

[LondonLad60]

7 minutes ago, Vivaldi said:

 

A quick off-topic comment, if I may: I'm very pleased to see that the prices of these wines are exactly the same as they were when we were on the SofD in September 2019. 

Is Saga still putting a bottle of Balfour Hush Heath sparkling wine in the cabins of Britannia Club members?

Yes.

[Scorpio41]

1 hour ago, Vivaldi said:

 

A quick off-topic comment, if I may: I'm very pleased to see that the prices of these wines are exactly the same as they were when we were on the SofD in September 2019. 

Is Saga still putting a bottle of Balfour Hush Heath sparkling wine in the cabins of Britannia Club members?

Yes.

 

I didn’t see LondonLad60 had already answered. ☺️

Edited February 9, 2023 by Scorpio41
Post above.

[Janet-]

We weren't so lucky in December.  It was a bottle  of sweet 7% vol Argentina wine in our cabin.They said they'd not got any Balfour. They did swop it for a bottle  of sauvignon blanc though.

[Ladycommonsense]

On 2/8/2023 at 5:00 PM, Glenndale said:

If you haven’t booked yet and have a friend who is a Britannia club member, they could recommend you and you will both get an extra 10% discount 🙂

Thank you for that little tip, as it happens one of our neighbours is on a Saga cruise now so I need to get into his good books🤗

[Ladycommonsense]

On 2/9/2023 at 10:19 AM, Scorpio41 said:

Don’t forget to to have lunch on the veranda. Fish and chips on newspaper, cooked to order and a cheeky glass of wine. Highly recommended.

Mmmmm lovely!! 

[Ladycommonsense]

On 2/9/2023 at 2:39 PM, Scorpio41 said:

Naughty but delicious. 😂

Naughty ….. but nice 🤭

[Mollag]

On 2/11/2023 at 6:15 PM, Ladycommonsense said:

Naughty ….. but nice 🤭

Sorry bit late to the thread but can only repeat the comments with regards to P&O, we’ve just done 35 nights over Xmas/New Year and to us it was what cruising should be unlike P&Os current offerings like most others once we’ve taken our already booked cruises with them we won’t be returning, SAGA for us now. 

[Tothesunset]

I don't know how to put this without sounding a bit snobbish but I'll give it a go. We sailed Saga for the first time last year because we were still concerned at the impact of Covid disruption on international travel. Previously we had sailed 7 nights Cunard Grill, 14 nights Seabourn and 201 nights Silversea, the latter two lines advertised as 6-star luxury lines. 

 

So? So we expected Saga to be a bit Darby and Joan meets Butlins. Isn't that an awful thing to say? I know, I know but bear with. Well, we thought Saga acquitted itself well against those other lines and we weren't in the least disappointed. An equivalent itinerary on Silversea, for example, would be around £150 pp per day more expensive but wouldn't include the wonderful home-port-home transport. So (yes, it's sometimes permissible to start a sentence with so. Again) we are on SoA again in May. 

 

To be honest, at first glance some of the Saga pricing seems a touch ambitious until you consider that everything is included. But there's a difference between price and value; I'd say Saga offers excellent value. 

 

(I noticed some previous posters were comparing Saga to cheaper lines so I've tried to approach that price point from the other direction. No animals were harmed in the making of this post.) 

[JoJo1947]

On 2/8/2023 at 1:53 PM, lincslady said:

Just to say that the included wines are generally in the £6 to £8 category in supermarkets.  As it happens, they are generally of similar quality on the so-called luxury lines, in spite of being described as 'fine wines'.    The normal spirits are  bit generic, but I believe some cruises now include premium spirits.  However, I have had Tio  Pepe as the included dry sherry, and Campari is also included.

 

 

All cruises since 1st Jan include premium spirits

[Windsurfboy]

On 2/16/2023 at 2:46 PM, Tothesunset said:

I don't know how to put this without sounding a bit snobbish but I'll give it a go. We sailed Saga for the first time last year because we were still concerned at the impact of Covid disruption on international travel. Previously we had sailed 7 nights Cunard Grill, 14 nights Seabourn and 201 nights Silversea, the latter two lines advertised as 6-star luxury lines. 

 

So? So we expected Saga to be a bit Darby and Joan meets Butlins. Isn't that an awful thing to say? I know, I know but bear with. Well, we thought Saga acquitted itself well against those other lines and we weren't in the least disappointed. An equivalent itinerary on Silversea, for example, would be around £150 pp per day more expensive but wouldn't include the wonderful home-port-home transport. So (yes, it's sometimes permissible to start a sentence with so. Again) we are on SoA again in May. 

 

To be honest, at first glance some of the Saga pricing seems a touch ambitious until you consider that everything is included. But there's a difference between price and value; I'd say Saga offers excellent value. 

 

(I noticed some previous posters were comparing Saga to cheaper lines so I've tried to approach that price point from the other direction. No animals were harmed in the making of this post.) 

 

It is hard to compare Saga with other lines.  Comparisons with very much cheaper lines, makes Saga look expensive. But you get what you pay for, and Saga is in a different league. 

 

The only line that is similiary priced are the "upper" Cunard cabins. A standard saga cabin costs the same as a Brittania Club. A saga suite similiar price  (may be a fraction more) than a Cunard Queens Grill. All I can say is Saga compares very favourably with Cunard QG. Food is just as good,you get more with Saga. General service around ship is as good if not better than say Grills terrace. Saga feels more friendly throughout whole ship

 

 

[Denarius]

On 2/5/2023 at 9:57 AM, Ladycommonsense said:

Husband and I have done upwards of 100 cruises in the last 30 years with P&O and sadly we are now coming to the end of our journey (no pun intended) with the company.  Hence we are looking at Saga Cruises for our future voyages.  We are in our 60s and 70s but this is not about age. This is about looking for better quality; passengers, service, general standards, food, all that type of thing. I would be extremely grateful if regular Saga cruisers would be kind enough to share the ‘ups and downs’ of Saga with me to enable us to make an informed decision as to our future. We currently do six or seven cruises a year.

I found myself in the same situation as you. I first sailed with P&O in 1997 after previously sailing with Cunard. I found them to my liking and they quickly became my first port of call; rougthly 2 out of 3 of my subsequent cruises have been with them, over 30 in total. But over the years I have seen their product deteriorate to such an extent that it no longer felt like the quality experience I used to enjoy. Last year I sailed for the first time with Saga (twice) and felt myself reminded of P&O as it used to be, when it was very much middle England at sea. I am well satisfied with Saga and have future cruises booked with them; I have none booked with P&O for the first time since that first cruise on Oriana.

My only real quible with Saga was the entertainment. Not that it bothers me much personally as I prefer to socialise rather than be entertained. And it is in the nature rather than the quality. On both cruises, there was a very strong emphasis on show tunes and classical music, to the detriment of mainstream pop and rock. And genres like blues, country and reggae were noticable by their absence. A little more musical variety would have been appreciated, we were after all the rock and roll generation.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Denarius

[twotravellersLondon]

1 hour ago, Denarius said:

I found myself in the same situation as you. I first sailed with P&O in 1997 after previously sailing with Cunard. I found them to my liking and they quickly became my first port of call; rougthly 2 out of 3 of my subsequent cruises have been with them, over 30 in total. But over the years I have seen their product deteriorate to such an extent that it no longer felt like the quality experience I used to enjoy. Last year I sailed for the first time with Saga (twice) and felt myself reminded of P&O as it used to be, when it was very much middle England at sea. I am well satisfied with Saga and have future cruises booked with them; I have none booked with P&O for the first time since that first cruise on Oriana.

My only real quible with Saga was the entertainment. Not that it bothers me much personally as I prefer to socialise rather than be entertained. And it is in the nature rather than the quality. On both cruises, there was a very strong emphasis on show tunes and classical music, to the detriment of mainstream pop and rock. And genres like blues, country and reggae were noticable by their absence. A little more musical variety would have been appreciated, we were after all the rock and roll generation.

 

 

Very much agree...

 

On a recent SAGA cruise were were entertained by The Four Harps, Ireland's newest male vocal harmony group...a fusion of Celtic classics with modern pop & folk. They were great and really lifted the entire entertainment offering... in the theatre and in the lounge. 

[Kohima]

On our recent SoA cruise there was a very marked improvement in the entertainment offered. An excellent Beatles look and soundalike tribute band performed in both the theatre and the Britannia Lounge, where they packed the dance floor. Several days later Ray Lewis (from the Drifters) was in great voice singing many of the best known Motown hits. Then we had comedian Roy Walker who was very well received. We also had interesting speakers, particularly theatre director Jamie Hayes. With the classical music, the production shows and the show band as well, there seemed to be something for everyone. Sadly no crew show though.