Saga Ruby

[trams]

We are booked to go on Saga Ruby later this year and would be pleased to hear from anybody who has recent experience of her.

 

This will be our second cruise having sailed on the QM2 last year. We do expect to have a different experience. One reason for choosing the Ruby is her size as we found the QM2 rather impersonal but couldn't fault the sevice.

[dougnewmanatsea]

I am not old enough to sail with Saga but I visited RUBY last year and found her to be a most delightful ship with a superb crew, and the lunch I was served aboard may have been the best meal I've ever eaten on a ship.

 

You can see my photos of the ship here.

 

If you are the "right" age and enjoy classic, traditional cruising, I cannot recommend Saga highly enough.

[Saga Ruby]

As you can see from my screen name, I am a big fan of the Saga ships and sailed on Saga Ruby in June 2005 for 15 days, from Dover to Svalbard (the edge of the North Pole icepack), then to Nordkapp (North Cape) and down the western Norwegian coast, with the obvious stops along the way. Just sailing out of the old Victorian cruise terminal was a thrill, then began the excitement of being onboard a fine-quality, intimate-sized ship.

 

You asked about Saga Ruby. As you may know, Saga Cruises is 99% British passengers who must be 50 years of age or older. I found the atmosphere on the ship to be cordial and accommodating, with passengers interested in the world around them and a staff who wanted to provide the best quality experience onboard. You probably know that the ship is a single-seating - we eat at 7:30pm - which keeps the entire ship on the same schedule. Evening entertainments are amazingly top quality with talented dancers and singers garbed in costumes that would shine as brightly on Broadway. The food was outstanding with a broad variety on the menu each day - dining was memorable in its quality and presentation.

 

The hotel staff (waiters and cabin stewards) are mostly Filipino offering impeccable service. I am a nonsmoker and have no memory of being bothered by smoke during the cruise. The lecturers are quality experts and quite informative whose lectures are also broadcast on the shipboard TV channel for your later perusal. I was the token American on my cruise and was warmly welcomed by one and all.

 

I would refer you to this thread on Cruise Critic where many of us were talking about Saga Ruby back in 2006:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=295371&highlight=Saga+Ruby

 

Many of us Saga fans are now chatting about Saga Rose, the sister ship of Saga Ruby (we call them the Saga Sisters) on the thread below. I will be on my first voyage on Saga Rose to Greenland this August and you can find wonderful reminiscences about Saga Cruises and other classic ships at this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=480683

 

Saga Ruby and Saga Rose both exude class and style coupled with smiling service, fine attention to individual requests, an intimate atmosphere, and generous hospitality. I have been sailing since 1957 and Saga Cruises stands head and shoulders above all the rest. For me, Saga Cruises was a fortuitous find in this current cruise world of behemoths whose standards are not mine.

 

Enjoy perusing the information about Saga Ruby on the thread posted above. I will check back to see if I can answer any questions you may have.

 

Please join us on the Saga Rose thread. We would love to hear from you, where you live, when and where you will be sailing on Saga. Come aboard!

 

Happy sails,

Ruby