Spirit of Discovery changes - some silly some not so

[maesteggirl]

We disembarked  the Spirit of Discovery on Monday after 22 nights - our 5th cruise on this ship. We were also on this ship for 16 nights in February and noticed some changes have been made in that short time.

 

There were no newspapers/puzzles available in the Living Room or Reception - passengers having to collect them from the Library. I complained to the Guest Services Manager explaining how this was not good for people with mobility issues who come out of the dining room and sit in the living Room to read the papers!

She said it was a Head Office decision to free up the work in Reception. She obviously thought about this and in the afternoon I had a phone call saying they would now be made available in Reception which happened for the rest of the cruise.

 

On day 3 the breakfast buffet and lunch salad buffet were stopped in the Dining Room. This caused many complaints and led to poor service as the waiters had much more work to do getting orders which would normally be done by passengers. When questioned the Head Waiter said it was a Health and Safety issue as the Dining Room was a Muster Station. There must have been a lot of discussion re this as on Day 19 it was reinstated at breakfast but not lunch.

 

There was no Afternoon Tea trolley at 4:15 in the Living Room. We always enjoyed the scones on previous cruises. Again Head Office was blamed.

 

There were no wafers with the ice cream in the Restaurants. People complained and they eventually reappeared. How silly!!

 

There were problems with supplies in Le Club. The T Bones were replaced by pork chops after a few days and then the ribeye was replaced by fillet steak!

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise - wonderful staff, excellent food and generous drinks! We have 4 more booked so we just hope SAGA are not going the way of some other cruise lines by slowly withdrawing things hoping the passengers don't notice.

 

[david05]

I have been somewhat apprehensive that Saga might start withdrawing some things to save money and, like you, I hope Saga are not going down that route. Pre-covid I seem to recall the newspaper and puzzles were in the library but I can understand people finding it easier to collect from reception. I think the library was favoured as it was considered more convenient for those coming or going from their cabins. The lack of the afternoon tea trolley in the Living Room is particularly unwelcome. We are on Discovery in a couple of months so it will be interesting to see what is happening then.

[LondonLad60]

Does The Club restaurant still have balconies overlooking the Grand Dining Room? SoD went into dry dock in January after her Xmas/New Year cruise, and there was a rumour that The Club was going to have a full floor installed to make The Club.more like The Supper Club on SoA. Or was this just another cruise ship rumour?

[Denarius]

51 minutes ago, LondonLad60 said:

Does The Club restaurant still have balconies overlooking the Grand Dining Room? SoD went into dry dock in January after her Xmas/New Year cruise, and there was a rumour that The Club was going to have a full floor installed to make The Club.more like The Supper Club on SoA. Or was this just another cruise ship rumour?

The latter. I sailed on her in February and the hole in the Grand  Dining Room ceiling was still there.

[LondonLad60]

10 minutes ago, Denarius said:

The latter. I sailed on her in February and the hole in the Grand  Dining Room ceiling was still there.

Thanks Denarius.

[Windsurfboy]

No Afternoon tea in living room big disappointment. Nice place to meet new people. Presumably afternoon tea available in MDR which is more work. If only available in buffet very disappointing. 

 

Have you raised your dissatisfaction with head office, as it was their decision ?

Edited May 4, 2023 by Windsurfboy

[nosapphire]

All businesses are, or should be, constantly researching effective methods to reduce costs and overheads, and a cruise line is a business with a lot of costs, so it is very possible that it is a bit of "let's see if anyone notices/complains if we change/cut this.....".

(Supplies in The Club are more likely to be logistics -maybe a supply, storage or ordering failure - as it is unlikely that replacing T-bone steak with pork chops could be a "let's see if anyone notices.." scenario.)

When we were last on (2019) the main afternoon tea service was in the Britannia lounge, with a small self service selection in the grill, but can't remember a trolley in the Living Room.

 

 

 

 

[Windsurfboy]

I  take a opposite view all business should be constantly looking at how to improve customer experience. This leads to growth higher margins in the long run. 

 

 

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

I  take a opposite view all business should be constantly looking at how to improve customer experience. This leads to growth higher margins in the long run. 

 

 

I agree with you. Whilst cutbacks may work (for a time at least) at the lower end of the market where cruises may well be chosen on the basis of price, I am not convinced that the same is true at Saga's level. People sail with Saga (and Viking, Oceania, Azamara etc) because they want quality and are prepared to pay a fair price for it. The sector is not as price sensitive and people prefer cruises to be priced up to a standard rather than cut back to a price. Having recently jumped ship from P&O because of the relentless cutbacks of recent years I would not like to see Saga go the same way.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Denarius

[FatBoy20]

On SoD last month Afternoon Tea was available in MDR @ 4pm but no trolley in Living Room. Newspaper & Puzzles were in Library & Reception from 9am.

[nosapphire]

2 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

I  take a opposite view all business should be constantly looking at how to improve customer experience. This leads to growth higher margins in the long run. 

 

 

It's a very fine line, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

A business that wants to stay profitable will constantly look at what their customers and potential customers DO want, in order to keep business rolling in, and at the same time look at where costs can be cut in any areas that customers will not object to.

Bear in mind that the Saga group had (January 2023) an operating loss of £254 million, and debts of £892 million (information courtesy of Financial Times).

It seems logical that in order to maintain and improve the service their customers expect they have to look for areas where they can cut costs, however trivial.

At the same time, they are indeed trying to improve their offering - the cruise arm is extending the included transport to 300 miles for shared car, for example, and now include the same transport for river cruises.

Unlike many companies, they have maintained the freephone telephone service not just for sales but also for after-sales help and advice - (simply maintaining a telephone service is more than many companies do).

 

 

[maesteggirl]

Yes there are still cakes and sandwiches available in the living room at 4p.m. but the trolley that came round at about 4:15 has stopped .This was on our last cruise which ended on Feb 16th and also on previous cruises. Many people were complaining about this as the warm scones were very popular. A fellow passenger has contacted Head Office regarding this and the buffet changes in the Dining Room.

[Denarius]

2 hours ago, maesteggirl said:

Yes there are still cakes and sandwiches available in the living room at 4p.m. but the trolley that came round at about 4:15 has stopped .This was on our last cruise which ended on Feb 16th and also on previous cruises. Many people were complaining about this as the warm scones were very popular. A fellow passenger has contacted Head Office regarding this and the buffet changes in the Dining Room.

The 4:15 trolley was still operating on my SofD cruise in February and was very popular with those who had a craving for warm scones with jam and clotted cream but did not want to go to the formal afternoon tea in the MDR. Very much a retrograde step if it is truly no more. I could never however, see the point of having a buffet station as well as table service in the MDR at breakfast and lunch when there was a full buffet available in the Grill for those who preferred to serve themselves.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Denarius

[GerryL13]

7 hours ago, nosapphire said:

Unlike many companies, they have maintained the freephone telephone service not just for sales but also for after-sales help and advice - (simply maintaining a telephone service is more than many companies do).

 

I especially appreciate the telephone service I get from Saga. I live on the US West Coast and do not have international calling on my landline or cell phone. When making or changing reservations, a Saga rep calls me. And they're pretty good about not calling in the middle of their day when I am still sleeping 🙂.

Don't know what I would do if Saga decided to stop offering this level of service, but I'm now booked through 2024.

[white_bear]

There were newspapers, puzzles, extra copies of Today and board games in the Library on Spirit of Discovery just now (we disembarked this morning).

I cannot comment on the afternoon tea offer - enough food with 'just' breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[maesteggirl]

I have just thought of something else missing on Discovery in April - the cheese trolley in the Dining room. Cheese now comes plated from a selection on the dessert menu.  I can't remember if there was a trolley in February so this could have happened a while ago.

[lincslady]

That is a shame; that cheese trolley was wonderful.

[Denarius]

58 minutes ago, maesteggirl said:

I have just thought of something else missing on Discovery in April - the cheese trolley in the Dining room. Cheese now comes plated from a selection on the dessert menu.  I can't remember if there was a trolley in February so this could have happened a while ago.

The cheese trolley made a brief appearance when I sailed on SofD last Summer, then dissappeared again. It was absent on my SofD cruise in February of this year. Cheese was available from a cheese menu, changed daily. From memory about 8 were listed every evening. The pieces of cheese were small and were the same size whether you ordered one variety or several.

On the subject of cutbacks, I noticed a few on my last cruise. Nothing major, just little things like toast no longer being served to table at breakfast in the grill, and fruit juice glasses not being topped up. But that is how P&O started .......

Edited May 8, 2023 by Denarius

[nosapphire]

46 minutes ago, maesteggirl said:

I have just thought of something else missing on Discovery in April - the cheese trolley in the Dining room. Cheese now comes plated from a selection on the dessert menu.  I can't remember if there was a trolley in February so this could have happened a while ago.

Now that seems a definite downgrade.

But....I wonder if it is because the cheese is popular and it took far too long to get the trolley round from table to table (I recall waiters anxiously trotting round the dining room looking for the trolley) so keeping the cheese static and plating up the request makes service easier and faster.

Shame though - looking at the trolley and saying a small piece of that and a bigger bit of that and - ooh - yes, must have some of that as well, and maybe a bit of that one too... was part of the enjoyment.

(Probably the reason why the trolley took so long, come to think of it).

We'll be on board later this year, and be interested to see if there is still the same excellent variety, just not via the trolley - in which case we'll assume is a time factor and happily tuck in to our selection.

Or - (hopefully not) - a just a choice of three bog-standard plated cheeses, in which case we'll be complaining like crazy.

 

[nosapphire]

ADDED.

On reflection, the cheese trolley at dinner was a recent addition for the Discovery.

If my memory serves (it doesn't always) ordering from the dessert menu and having it brought to you plated was the standard on the Sapphire, Pearl, Ruby and Rose.

Same with the breakfast toast patrol in the grill - cannot recall that on the old ships. Always had to go and order it.

 

[JoJo1947]

Last on Discovery Jan . The cheese trolley x 2 were parked up in the MDR as it is not possible to run them out between tables. On the Sapphire and Pearl they did come around as more space. 

[FatBoy20]

In MDR Cheese is ordered off the Dessert Menu on SoD but in "Coast to Coast" Cheese Trolley is used.

[jsforum]

Booked a Saga Cruise for June 2023. The excursions were sent to us on 27th April and are pretty much sold out now. I regret booking with Saga and we haven't even got on the ship. They are very expensive and the service to date has been poor

Edited May 8, 2023 by jsforum

[lincslady]

There used to be a trolley with a very good labelled choice at dinner on Pearl and Sapphire, although there were areas where there was not room to bring it round, and in the casual restaurant at lunchtime a platter of at least five to help yourself from.  All in good condition, unlike the chilly offerings on many US lines.

[JoJo1947]

I've got no complaints.