Saga Spirit of Discovery

[Windsurfboy]

12 minutes ago, Banjo an said:

Wherever you are off to Windsurfboy,  keep safe and enjoy.

 

Windsurfing in South Africa 😁

[Windsurfboy]

Success 

[LandC]

57 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

Success 

Have you had a response from ABTA?

[Windsurfboy]

No from Saga

[mrsbubs]

7 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

No from Saga

Any more info would be gratefully received.i

[Windsurfboy]

 

 

Not a huge sum.

[LandC]

14 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

 

Not a huge sum.

I’m pleased that you have had some success Windsurfboy.
I hope others who were on the same cruise will persevere with their complaints.  

[Spence55]

Well done Windsurfboy for persisting despite the company's Smugness And General Arrogance. 

[Mustang Sally 2]

November 8th 2023 onboard Saga Spirit of Discovery 30 night cruise Island hopping in the Caribbean. This cruise was our honeymoon.

Left Portsmpoth for the Azores but diverted to Lisbon. Spent 3 days dockside undergoing repairs. Missed 4  ports of call on the original itinerary. Returned to Portsmouth 1 day early and spent the day dockside in Portsmouth. Fobbed off when we complained and were told there would be no compensation/future cruise discount. Is anyone else as disappointed as we are with Saga's response?

[Spence55]

1 hour ago, Mustang Sally 2 said:

November 8th 2023 onboard Saga Spirit of Discovery 30 night cruise Island hopping in the Caribbean. This cruise was our honeymoon.

Left Portsmpoth for the Azores but diverted to Lisbon. Spent 3 days dockside undergoing repairs. Missed 4  ports of call on the original itinerary. Returned to Portsmouth 1 day early and spent the day dockside in Portsmouth. Fobbed off when we complained and were told there would be no compensation/future cruise discount. Is anyone else as disappointed as we are with Saga's response?

There’s no consistency in Saga’s response to these things. Prior to your cruise the SoA was held in Falmouth for three days or so to miss the storm that the SoD was unwisely sailed into. The SoA itinerary was completely altered, but all passengers were kept out of danger. Those on SoA had no claim as Saga acted responsibly, but were all given a 25% refund. That was probably a PR exercise given the bad publicity Saga was getting at the time. Personally I believe the company is not interested in individuals who have the temerity to complain. As long as they are getting good feedback from 80% or so of passengers, and bookings are healthy, legitimate complaints will be met with lofty disdain. Of course the first rule of Saga club is never criticise Saga. 

 

[LandC]

2 hours ago, Mustang Sally 2 said:

November 8th 2023 onboard Saga Spirit of Discovery 30 night cruise Island hopping in the Caribbean. This cruise was our honeymoon.

Left Portsmpoth for the Azores but diverted to Lisbon. Spent 3 days dockside undergoing repairs. Missed 4  ports of call on the original itinerary. Returned to Portsmouth 1 day early and spent the day dockside in Portsmouth. Fobbed off when we complained and were told there would be no compensation/future cruise discount. Is anyone else as disappointed as we are with Saga's response?

If you were on the same cruise as Windsurfboy (see his comments on this thread), then I think you should put your complaint in writing.  Saga should pay compensation for the missed ports as they were caused by technical problems with the ship.

[FannyLiz]

I was on that Caribbean cruise, my first ever cruise and I travelled solo after being recently widowed. I was much impressed by the service, food quality, accommodation, wifi, excursions and every other “ hotel” aspect of the ship. Yes it was expensive but I think I got value for money and really appreciated not having to pay for anything else at all onboard and having transport to and from the ship and insurance all taken care of.

 

What I did not find satisfactory was that we were kept in the dark for much of the time as to what was happening. I understand that even the Captain was not sure when we were going to leave Lisbon and we had several false alarms. What we were never told was why we were there in the first place and what exactly was being done while there.  Was it faulty hardware, software etc ? Similarly we were not told why we were missing Madeira and arriving early in Portsmouth. Clealy not the weather as we passed Spirit of Adventure going in the opposite direction and so heading into any storm we were apparently racing to miss. 
 

Because of the lack of information there were quite a lot of chinese whispers going round onboard and I still do not believe that our missed ports were weather-related. I have not made any claims against Saga as I had my month of being pampered and enjoyed that aspect rather than the rather cursory whiz round an island or town which is all that is possible on a cruise holiday and which I found more unsatisfying than I expected. I can sympathise with those who enjoy their brief time onshore and agree that a bottle of English sparkling wine is a rather meagre compensation.

 

 

[JMMKUK]

I'm so sorry you lost your partner. Saga are well versed in caring for solo travellers.

The information is presumably down to the captain. We have cruised with Saga captains that have been very open about problems. For example the missing lady on Saga Sapphire Dec 2015 & the inaugral SoA medivac July 2021. We were kept informed & they are our favourite captains but the older one retired. We hope Captain Kim will stay because he has taken om the spirit pf the captains of the old ships.

[seasickphil]

23 hours ago, JMMKUK said:

I'm so sorry you lost your partner. Saga are well versed in caring for solo travellers.

The information is presumably down to the captain. We have cruised with Saga captains that have been very open about problems. For example the missing lady on Saga Sapphire Dec 2015 & the inaugral SoA medivac July 2021. We were kept informed & they are our favourite captains but the older one retired. We hope Captain Kim will stay because he has taken om the spirit pf the captains of the old ships.

Have to agree Captain Kim Tanner is a breath of fresh air, he was Captain on our last cruise aboard SoA, he had to leave the ship early because both his parents were seriously ill, hope everything is ok with them both now.

[FannyLiz]

13 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

On our Carribean cruise Captain was rude, evasive and arrogant. 

That I do not agree with. I enjoyed his twice daily briefings on our position and met him three times when he was perfectly polite and welcoming. I strongly suspect he had orders from above to keep quiet about the faults on the ship and their repercussions and I do not think it sat comfortably with him. 

[JMMKUK]

14 hours ago, seasickphil said:

Have to agree Captain Kim Tanner is a breath of fresh air, he was Captain on our last cruise aboard SoA, he had to leave the ship early because both his parents were seriously ill, hope everything is ok with them both now.

Oh no. I hope they are both OK now. When he parked SoA in the middle of the Fastnet race he told us that they had both competed in it.

[Mustang Sally 2]

On 1/20/2024 at 12:16 PM, Windsurfboy said:

Success 

Hi there.  Is your comment relating to the cruise ending in Portsmouth on 7th November 2023 or the following cruise starting 7th November 2023 Island Hopping in the Caribbean?

[Windsurfboy]

11 minutes ago, Mustang Sally 2 said:

Hi there.  Is your comment relating to the cruise ending in Portsmouth on 7th November 2023 or the following cruise starting 7th November 2023 Island Hopping in the Caribbean?

 

Starting 7th Nov , Island hopping in Carribean 

[Mustang Sally 2]

5 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Starting 7th Nov , Island hopping in Carribean 

Did you complain to Saga and get the same smug reply we got. If so have you contacted ABTA as they (Saga) said.  I am in the process of writing to ABTA.  Any information would be gratefully received.  We are not in the habit of complaining but we felt very let down by this cruise

[Windsurfboy]

My eventual response was from Saga,

[Mustang Sally 2]

On 1/27/2024 at 5:23 PM, LandC said:

If you were on the same cruise as Windsurfboy (see his comments on this thread), then I think you should put your complaint in writing.  Saga should pay compensation for the missed ports as they were caused by technical problems with the ship.

We did put our complaint in writing and got a smug reply saying they would not pay compensation/ future cruise discount.  Also that that was the end and they would not reply further.  If we were dissatisfied to go to ABTA

[Kohima]

Sadly, JMMKUK, Captain Kim Tanner had to leave our SoA cruise in November to attend his mother’s funeral.

[JMMKUK]

Thanks for the update Kohima. That is very sad. Hopefully his father made a full recovery.

It must be very difficult for him. We stopped travelling for almost a decade when in-laws were unwell. Captain Kim's profession is travelling so he couldn't do that if he wanted to.

[Kohima]

When Captain Tanner announced why he would have to be leaving the ship at the next port, everyone was very sympathetic when realising how he had so professionally set aside his own problems while dealing with the demands of his job.

[JMMKUK]

Looks like she's arriving in Portsmouth early & missed a port again. Biscay was running over 7 so I guess this time they successfully out ran it.