JMMKUK

Been there twice. First time on Adventure's inaugral cruise they moved smoking to Deck 11 & got us. Second time we booked and hoped they'd moved it again but they hadn't. Only reallu a problem when not moving or when Captain Kim decides to reverse down the side of the Isle of Man.

We've only had a driver call once, the day before. She was checking directions for our house. Sensible because satnavs take you to a neighbours'.

I've noticed the swell more on the new ships than on Sapphire & Pearl 2. We put it down to the deeper hull of the old ships. One very bad night Sapphire was followed from Southamton by a P&O ship. I was watching on marine traffic & the P&O ship seemed to be strugging to keep up with us. In fact she didn't & we got well ahead.

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.

Just had an email about pre-registering for 2025! Southampton treated Saga as the underdog. We had to use Sapphire's crane to unload cases when the Queens were in port. It was chaotic, so I wasn't surprised they moved to Portsmouth to be top dog.

We've never had to do that. New bottles magically appear when the butler realises we are getting low. We get a cognac that isn't available even to buy in the bars. We also got premium lager that wasn't available elsewhere last time.

There's PG available. As a Brit Gold Saganaut who always does suites should I think about booking? Only 2 days left of the offer.

Hot tub will be hot. Pool will probably be available & heated. Enjoy!

When on the way to sunnier climes it is usually open. It doesn't empty itself as well as the ones on the old ships did when the sea was rough, it tries to sometimes.

Purpose built implies new IMO. Hope they have some bigger cabins though.

We've never pre-registered, but we get 35% off because we book suites & there are usually some left with that discount. If that stops happening we'll have to pre-register.

I presume the CD wasn't JoBo. Hope you enjoyed your cruise Jane even though it wasn't quite the one you booked. Have they offered any compensation?

I love it when that happens. When there was a Harwich to Hamburg ferry they used to do it as the ship left the river about 4 hours after leaving Harnburg. Hope you are well Denarius.

Sunny here but only 8c.

Good to see SoA has arrived at the final port.

There's a big suite with a wraparound balcony. bet that's really expensive. They are getting 6 of these ships. Saga used to offer cruises on other lines. I remember Fred but there may have been others. Personally I would prefer them to acquire a smaller ship, circa 500 passengers or less. Be lovely if they had a ship that could sail from Tower Bridge.

CM not CC

CC says max passengers approx 1400 & mentions children. That would be a good match for people who had kids in their 40/50s, I know some, or grandparents wanting to have a holiday with the offspring for a change.

The remaining port may not let you disembark of course. Looks like they need to investigate where it's coming from as I'm sure people on here said it was on 2 previous cruises. Last time we were on Sapphine they had door handles on the public toilets that squirted hand sanitiser. It was quite as shock first time as it was over generous.

Are there still only 9 cases? The launderettes & hydrotherapy pool were open at the height of Covid.

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.

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.

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.

Looks like you are there.

So not really discovering the Canaries at all. Personally I'd be really pleased to have an overnight in Funchal though.