Average Age of Cruisers

[JoJo1947]

10 hours ago, Tothesunset said:

As one woman who considered herself not a racist said at dinner one night:

 

"I don't have a problem with black people at all. But would you want your daughter to marry one?" 

 

I suppose it's inevitable that among 900 older people there will be some that can't see their own prejudices. Just ignore them. 

By today's standards not just old! 

[Windsurfboy]

Sorry but to even indirectly infer that because  what one one person said Saga is full of racist bigots is completely wrong. 

[nosapphire]

Going back to the OP.

Just looked back at my notes, and we were mid-50s still full employment when we took our first Saga cruise (Saga Rose, Baltic). Waiting to embark at Dover, we did wonder if we had made a terrible mistake when we saw so many passengers using port wheelchair assistance, walking aids, etc - we thought we had signed up for a floating care home.

As it turned out, we had a wonderful time - we were possibly the youngest on board (Captain gently asked us, during the welcome-aboard party, "do you feel very,very young?") but we can  honestly say that age really did not matter. We had some fascinating (and some very energetic) travelling companions - many of whom had been in the Diplomatic service and based in St.Petersburg during their career, and were eager to see how much things had changed.

Some of the bodies may have been failing, but the minds (and the wits) were as sharp as ever.

Conversation flowed, laughter was evident, and friendships were made.

You will not feel out of place.

[janecambridge]

We did a winter canaries. Also this year and an Iceland/ Greenland cruise a few weeks ago.The passengers on the last cruise were older ( in our eyes) than the canaries cruise.You will get odd upsetting comments anywhere you go in life be it a racist comment on public transport,ageist remark in a shop or anti ‘autistic child’,remark.

On both this years cruises I never heard any racist comments,but I did avoid starting a leading conversation.I just like to laugh and enjoy making others happy.

I can say that to us it was disgusting to see people laying  asleep in Britannia lounge on sofas  with their bare feet on small cushions.

Also the smokers section is in the wrong place,

I agree the music is too old and I got sick of ABBA on the last cruise.

We did have problems with our cabin,to the point where without help we would have cancelled next years cruise but that’s another topic.

 

 

[Glenndale]

2 hours ago, janecambridge said:

 

I can say that to us it was disgusting to see people laying  asleep in Britannia lounge on sofas  with their bare feet on small cushions.

 

 

 

Couldn't agree more, not just Britannia lounge but Living room too. Not always asleep but lounging. Yuck

[Windsurfboy]

2 hours ago, janecambridge said:

 

I can say that to us it was disgusting to see people laying  asleep in Britannia lounge on sofas  with their bare feet on small cushions 

 

 

 

12 minutes ago, Glenndale said:

Couldn't agree more, not just Britannia lounge but Living room too. Not always asleep but lounging. Yuck

 

Either I must walk around  with eyes shut,  or we've been on different ships, this is not something I've noticed. 

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

 

Either I must walk around  with eyes shut,  or we've been on different ships, this is not something I've noticed. 

Me neither.

[Tothesunset]

24 minutes ago, Denarius said:

Me neither.

Nor me. But then I was asleep on a sofa in the lounge at the time. 

[Medeba]

5 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

 

Either I must walk around  with eyes shut,  or we've been on different ships, this is not something I've noticed. 

Did see some feet up on sofas in the Britannia Lounge on the recent Greenland & Iceland cruise. First time I’ve seen that on a Saga cruise.

[Kohima]

We have definitely seen people stretched out sleeping on sofas in the living room. Also in the library. Once even snoring!! 

 

[Truro001]

Having read recent posts with great interest we have come to the conclusion that there must be two cruise companies operating under the Saga banner. We  have never witnessed fellow passengers stretched out on the sofas with their bare feet resting on pillows on any of our Saga ocean cruises. Neither have we ever heard a single racist comment or at any time felt uncomfortable during conversations with our fellow passengers. We have always found the passengers on the Saga cruise line we use to be  friendly, sociable and extremely interesting. We definitely prefer our Saga cruise company to the one described in some other posts. Mind you, having read recent comments about late minute deals and guarantee cabins  it would appear that the “other Saga” might be offering better deals than “our Saga”. Some posts have suggested that cabins booked with maximum discount at release are being undercut by these late minute deals. It is our understanding that a guarantee cabin simply guarantees the allocation of a cabin commensurate with the cabin grade selected. For example, if  selecting a Standard Cabin the guarantee cabin  could easily be on E deck. When considering whether these guarantee cabins and last minute offers are a good deal relative to the price at release the bench mark must surely be a Standard cabin on E deck with a maximum 35% discount. To date, on “our Saga” we have never yet seen any deal that betters this price. Of course if one had booked a standard cabin on perhaps Decks A, B or C with a 35% discount it is not surprising that a guarantee cabin might  undercut that price although of course you are not guaranteed a cabin on that same deck.  You could be lucky, and in our experience many are, but if opting for a guarantee cabin with  “our Saga” you have to accept the fact that you could be allocated a cabin on E deck. Overall, we still much prefer “our Saga” to the “other Saga”. Nonetheless, we would be very interested to hear how we go about securing one of these amazing deals with the “other Saga”.

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, Truro001 said:

Having read recent posts with great interest we have come to the conclusion that there must be two cruise companies operating under the Saga banner. We  have never witnessed fellow passengers stretched out on the sofas with their bare feet resting on pillows on any of our Saga ocean cruises. Neither have we ever heard a single racist comment or at any time felt uncomfortable during conversations with our fellow passengers. We have always found the passengers on the Saga cruise line we use to be  friendly, sociable and extremely interesting. We definitely prefer our Saga cruise company to the one described in some other posts. Mind you, having read recent comments about late minute deals and guarantee cabins  it would appear that the “other Saga” might be offering better deals than “our Saga”. Some posts have suggested that cabins booked with maximum discount at release are being undercut by these late minute deals. It is our understanding that a guarantee cabin simply guarantees the allocation of a cabin commensurate with the cabin grade selected. For example, if  selecting a Standard Cabin the guarantee cabin  could easily be on E deck. When considering whether these guarantee cabins and last minute offers are a good deal relative to the price at release the bench mark must surely be a Standard cabin on E deck with a maximum 35% discount. To date, on “our Saga” we have never yet seen any deal that betters this price. Of course if one had booked a standard cabin on perhaps Decks A, B or C with a 35% discount it is not surprising that a guarantee cabin might  undercut that price although of course you are not guaranteed a cabin on that same deck.  You could be lucky, and in our experience many are, but if opting for a guarantee cabin with  “our Saga” you have to accept the fact that you could be allocated a cabin on E deck. Overall, we still much prefer “our Saga” to the “other Saga”. Nonetheless, we would be very interested to hear how we go about securing one of these amazing deals with the “other Saga”.

 

I completely agree  with you that I have never witnessed the bad behaviour mentioned in this thread , be it racist talk, or  bare feet.  I have always  sailed on the same Saga as yourself with friendly, sociable,  well manered companions.

 

However , Saga are undercutting even 35% off E deck prices.

If you take my next cruise in November the one I look at to guess how full it will be..

 

The guarantee price is now £5996

 

The cheapest  E deck  with partially obstructed view of which there are a very limited number is currently £7211 at 25% off. If you do the arithmetic,  it would have been 7211÷0.75×0.65 that is £6250 at launch with 35% off. A standard E Deck would have been £6340.

 

So the guarantee £5996 is £256 cheaper than cheapest  E deck at launch.  So to secure this deal just take the gamble of waiting till last minute .

I just hope for it's own sake Saga isn't teaching people to wait for deals. 

[Norfolksaver]

About three weeks ago I made the comment to my partner that in future it might be better to wait to book a cruise until all the offers started to arrive in my inbox.

 

We booked our very first cruise for September 2023 to Norway and chose C deck as it looked a good position. We had never considered a cruise before and did no research until after we booked it.

Then before we had been, in April last year, we booked the November cruise to the Caribbean for this year. Having done research we picked E deck in case of a repeat of the bad weather of last year. This cost £7811,

 I am now being inundated with offers much below this figure.

 

In January I booked a 5 day cruise to Ireland and chose a guaranteed cabin, we were allocated one on the sun deck. As everyone has said, there isn’t a bad cabin on Saga. So unless you have a deck that you really want to be on it seems silly to pay what can be a considerable larger sum to book early.

 

 I do think Saga have made a mistake in training people to book late. I have questioned them about the low fares offered and the reply was that we had booked a better cabin. They are all the same at each grade so did feel aggrieved. Having said that the service and standard of their cruises is wonderful 

 

 

[Denarius]

14 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

I completely agree  with you that I have never witnessed the bad behaviour mentioned in this thread , be it racist talk, or  bare feet.  I have always  sailed on the same Saga as yourself with friendly, sociable,  well manered companions.

 

However , Saga are undercutting even 35% off E deck prices.

If you take my next cruise in November the one I look at to guess how full it will be..

 

The guarantee price is now £5996

 

The cheapest  E deck  with partially obstructed view of which there are a very limited number is currently £7211 at 25% off. If you do the arithmetic,  it would have been 7211÷0.75×0.65 that is £6250 at launch with 35% off. A standard E Deck would have been £6340.

 

So the guarantee £5996 is £256 cheaper than cheapest  E deck at launch.  So to secure this deal just take the gamble of waiting till last minute .

I just hope for it's own sake Saga isn't teaching people to wait for deals. 

If they are, I fear that they are making a rod for their own back.

People who want a particular cruise on a particular date in a specific cabin grade or location will continue to book early to secure it. Others are not so particular and will wait to see what offers come available closer to sailing, and potentially save themselves a not insignificant sum of money particularly if they missed out on the biggest discounts at launch. This is particularly true of those who can be flexible as regards dates, and many (most?) Saga customers are retired and fall into this category.

[Truro001]

15 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

I completely agree  with you that I have never witnessed the bad behaviour mentioned in this thread , be it racist talk, or  bare feet.  I have always  sailed on the same Saga as yourself with friendly, sociable,  well manered companions.

 

However , Saga are undercutting even 35% off E deck prices.

If you take my next cruise in November the one I look at to guess how full it will be..

 

The guarantee price is now £5996

 

The cheapest  E deck  with partially obstructed view of which there are a very limited number is currently £7211 at 25% off. If you do the arithmetic,  it would have been 7211÷0.75×0.65 that is £6250 at launch with 35% off. A standard E Deck would have been £6340.

 

So the guarantee £5996 is £256 cheaper than cheapest  E deck at launch.  So to secure this deal just take the gamble of waiting till last minute .

I just hope for it's own sake Saga isn't teaching people to wait for deals. 

Thank you Windsurfboy for your response to my last post. We are obviously of like minds regarding our experiences on Saga cruises.  Having looked particularly at the prices of your next cruise I stand corrected as to my comments about pricing. There is one slight flaw in your calculations in that they are based on a L category cabin on E deck. It has been our experience that on release only K category standard cabins are available to book on E deck. We were once allocated a guarantee cabin that turned out to be an L category cabin aft of the library on E deck. We were quite happy with the position of that cabin but whenever we ask for that same cabin we are always told that the L category cabins are held in reserve and are not bookable at that time. We understand they are initially held back in case they are needed for entertainment staff. Nonetheless, you are still right in that the guarantee cabin price is lower that the K category price on release with 35% discount. Albeit £139 rather than £256. It is inevitable that we all have different preferences as where and when we want to book a cruise. We prefer to book at release as this allows us to select exactly where we want to be on the ship. However, this only works for us if we are able to get the maximum discount available on release. Failing that, we will wait to see if a guarantee cabin becomes available at a price less than we might have obtained at release.  Our next cruise is the Caribbean Christmas cruise. I note that the guarantee cabins on that cruise are more expensive than the amount we paid on release so we obviously feel we made a good choice. However, for anybody who has not yet booked on this cruise the guarantee cabin option is a “no brainer” a £6,999. This in effect guarantees a standard L category cabin on E deck whereas if one were to select a K category cabin on E deck the price is currently £9868. A difference of £2,869 per person. With only a limited amount of L category cabins, and only a few offering restrictive views, that is certainly a gamble we would be prepared to take.

[Glenndale]

1 hour ago, Truro001 said:

Thank you Windsurfboy for your response to my last post. We are obviously of like minds regarding our experiences on Saga cruises.  Having looked particularly at the prices of your next cruise I stand corrected as to my comments about pricing. There is one slight flaw in your calculations in that they are based on a L category cabin on E deck. It has been our experience that on release only K category standard cabins are available to book on E deck. We were once allocated a guarantee cabin that turned out to be an L category cabin aft of the library on E deck. We were quite happy with the position of that cabin but whenever we ask for that same cabin we are always told that the L category cabins are held in reserve and are not bookable at that time. We understand they are initially held back in case they are needed for entertainment staff. Nonetheless, you are still right in that the guarantee cabin price is lower that the K category price on release with 35% discount. Albeit £139 rather than £256. It is inevitable that we all have different preferences as where and when we want to book a cruise. We prefer to book at release as this allows us to select exactly where we want to be on the ship. However, this only works for us if we are able to get the maximum discount available on release. Failing that, we will wait to see if a guarantee cabin becomes available at a price less than we might have obtained at release.  Our next cruise is the Caribbean Christmas cruise. I note that the guarantee cabins on that cruise are more expensive than the amount we paid on release so we obviously feel we made a good choice. However, for anybody who has not yet booked on this cruise the guarantee cabin option is a “no brainer” a £6,999. This in effect guarantees a standard L category cabin on E deck whereas if one were to select a K category cabin on E deck the price is currently £9868. A difference of £2,869 per person. With only a limited amount of L category cabins, and only a few offering restrictive views, that is certainly a gamble we would be prepared to take.

One thing to bear in mind is that the full discount is never shown and one has to speak to an agent to get the best prices.

Maybe there will be an extra discount for Britannia club members or those with a magazine subscription to bring the price down further.

[Windsurfboy]

I think we underestimate the number of cabins sold on guarantee,  could be a much as 30%

 

I note on my last cruise,  I  checked just two weeks before to see how full it would be , there were 98 standard cabins, 11deluxe 16suites and 2 forward suites to choose from if you wanted to pay asking price. So nievely thought great !, the ship only 65% full. 

 

Just a few days later all deluxe and suites were shown  as full.  When on board someone said it was 95% full. So all the availability was just unassigned guarantee cabins.  Thus 30% sold on guarantee ,with most Edeck being sold on select basis earlier, guarantee cabins would be allocated higher decks. Guarantee is a good bet.

 

No guarantee for suites were all full. So many lucky people got upgrades,  unlike those like us who paid full wack.

[Brummijam]

On 8/5/2024 at 3:29 PM, nosapphire said:

That is very sad to hear - but if this relates in any way to the "and where are you from?" question - many Saga cruisers ask everybody the same question, often they want to swap tales of how good/bad/exhausting the included transport was. After giving a general location, a bit of ponder, then the next question "Oh - I think I know that, is it just outside xxx?"

(Where we come from is so downmarket that nobody ever knows it. We now just say the nearest large town).

Attempting to make small talk that does not include politics or religion can be a bit of a minefield at times.

Sadly, there can be ignorant and/or unpleasant people on any cruise, and Saga is not exempt from having their fair share of of people that you would rather not meet again.

 

I did my first Saga cruise last Xmas on the spirit of adventure , My wife had cruised on saga before with her mother. We are both in our sixties and my opinions on Saga is as follows.

The staff are brilliant, so helpful,always happy. I think this may be due to the fact that saga are a good employer.

The food onboard cannot be faulted, we never had a bad meal during our time onboard.

The transfers to and from Portsmouth were faultless.

The entertainment team on board wasn’t really up to much in our opinion ,but a couple of the guest acts were very good.

 

Now for the biggest gripe. I found that a very small number of our fellow passengers were very rude/ignorant to the point of ignoring us when we we wished them good morning or good evening, and in the lifts they would be looking everywhere to avoid eye contact or having to speak.

They say that ignorance is bliss so these people must be the happiest people on earth.🤷🏻‍♂️

 

Edited August 12 by Brummijam

[Windsurfboy]

38 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

 

 

Now for the biggest gripe. I found that a very small number of our fellow passengers were very rude/ignorant to the point of ignoring us when we we wished them good morning or good evening, and in the lifts they would be looking everywhere to avoid eye contact or having to speak.

They say that ignorance is bliss so these people must be the happiest people on earth.🤷🏻‍♂️

 

 

We retired to a Cornish village,  everyone says hello  even to grockles like us. But come the summer you can tell the big city  visitors,  they look other way.  I don't think it's rudeness,  just big city habit of getting into your own space as a survival tactic. Even 50 plus years ago soon learnt if you said hello to someone on tube the looked at you as if you were weird. 

[Brummijam]

10 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

We retired to a Cornish village,  everyone says hello  even to grockles like us. But come the summer you can tell the big city  visitors,  they look other way.  I don't think it's rudeness,  just big city habit of getting into your own space as a survival tactic. Even 50 plus years ago soon learnt if you said hello to someone on tube the looked at you as if you were weird. 

Hi WSB.

My background is working class and the majority of people on the ship I would guess were from a similar background. We met some fantastic,funny and good honest folk on our trip and fortunately they were the majority. The rude people that I referred to in my original post were mostly well spoken and all up their own backsides.

I suppose it takes all sorts.

Keep well.😉

[Tabicat]

On the cruises I have been on, although there are mostly older travellers, there are also people in their late fifties 

Been on Spirit of Discovery and Spirit of Adventure 

[Canal archive]

Is it true that you gets a better deal if you book through a TA?

[Cruise-Cat]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

Is it true that you gets a better deal if you book through a TA?

Don’t think so. Most will recommend booking direct. The admin is much easier for access to MySaga, excursions booking and loyalty points 

[janecambridge]

We book all our holidays through our agent but not saga cruises.you don’t collect the nights you are on board to benefit you in the Britannia club and you have to go through your travel agent to book tours. We prefer to look at the tours and book them straight away without waiting for our agent to do it.. 

[Kohima]

I understand that it is possible to get a small discount through a TA but this is outweighed by the disadvantages of not then being able to deal with Saga online for excursions etc.