Windsurfboy

It is good news, they can negotiate a partnership from a position of strength. When we were in Carribean docked along side new MSC expedition ship, 960 passenger 58,000 tons all balcony , all adult. A new venture for MSC. What does it remind you of ?

Have they stopped table tennis

My eventual response was from Saga,

Starting 7th Nov , Island hopping in Carribean

No over crowding, means system works.

The problem is as Molechip explained, overcrowding. The terminals have safe capacity for 2000 people. Big ship can hold 6000, so you must control entry to terminal. So can't let those too early in.

No one has said those that turn up on time should be made to wait, anyone who turns up no more than half an hour before their allocated time should be let in and given somewhere to sit down. It's the chancers who turn up at 12pm for a 3pm slot that should be turned away

The infirm , disabled , wheelchairs aren't made to stand in queue, everyone else says those that qualified for assistance are let in. Just a red herring to justify turning up at wrong time.

You must all be disappointed. Enjoy the ship as much as you can. Weather no one's fault , a risk of winter cruises. But the generator problem which added to that is not.

Old and infirm or in wheel chair you get assistance so all this doesn't apply! So not relevant! If you aren't and don't qualify for assistance then, no issue having a coffee or whatever in Southampton and arriving on time. Come by car, go to M&S or IKEA for a coffee

This way it was on SOD in November

No general compensation when Sod stuck in Lisbon for 3 days , interesting to see if this is different

Interested to see what happens , Saga said our two days stuck in Lisbon with broken engine was insignificant.

Rough or very rough in northwest Fitzroy, but they would not go there.

Could be bad by tommorow lunch in north Biscay, but would have missed it if kept to orginal track. Like our cruise dodging imaginary storms. SoD disaster leading to excessive caution

Have you asked interesting to see what they say

At Airports you can get priority for both process, just fly first or business or have a gold card. It's the same with P&O pay for a suite or have high status.. It's like someone said earlier, buy a basic economy ticket, BA allocate you group 6 , so why think you should board with group 1. However lots do and it causes chaos. Yes there's many "almost" valid excuses why anyone thinks they should be allowed to board earlier , at their leisure. But in the end things run more smoothly if everyone sticks to allocated time

Not a huge sum.

No from Saga

Success

I had a similiar problem on Cunard whose WiFi is notoriously bad. By going on very very early before everyone else awake, it was surprisingly good.

The included sparkling is better in speciality restaurants than MDR, don't know why. Get a glass from supper club bar. To significantly improve on the included wines need to go to top end of pay for. Wines at £30 to 40 . Good news Saga charge same as wine merchants, so would be £100 in most restaurants. Except for the occasional treat of top pay for wine, on other days avoided house wine may be a odd glass of sparkling. As a nice cocktail before dinner, and a malt or armagnac or two after dinner was plenty. Included spirits far better than included wine.

Saga just like to do things their way , even if it makes no sense. For example in 2022 when black sea cruise was cancelled, I learnt all the detail about it on this forum , including new Intinerary, 10 days before they rang me. When I said to good old Nigel Blanks that it was annoying to hear about it first on social media, and why Saga couldn't email out the details. He was surprised and said , Saga customers like to be phoned up, that is the Saga way. I think that only applies to a small %. Saga surprisingly out of touch.

Windsurfing in South Africa 😁

I completely understand how you feel. Now that I have all the arguments "down on paper", in my emails to Saga, and sorted out succinctly in my mind. A formal complaint to ABTA looks quite easy, and I will make Saga work for it for as long as I can. ABTA looks the easiest step as it can all be done online, as I will be out of country for 3 months.