Medeba

1 hour ago, Riocca said:

I will admit I have very little knowledge about golf but is it possible that this was a Perry Golf cruise and if so is there a course near Foynes that would be popular with golfers?

I cannot be 100% sure but I think the Perry Golfers on the Aug/Sept Intensive Ireland cruise went to Adare Manor from Foynes (even better than Portrush in Country Antrim).  We met a couple of golfers and they said it was the best course on the whole trip (the other courses were also very good).  

Here is the list of included drinks on our Discovery cruise in May.  Hope it's helpful.  Apologies for the fuzziness of the text!

Here is the list of charged drinks

18 hours ago, tiggis said:

Can you choose your reserved table or do you have to accept the one that is allocated to you?

On our last cruise we sat next to a couple in the MDR who had booked a specific table pre cruise.

14 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said:

Those who try to cut down on caffeine can experience withdrawal symptoms.

My husband was advised to cut out caffeine for medical reasons and it worked (and luckily without any withdrawal symptoms).  Decaf coffee for him now and I have decaf tea to keep him company😊.

13 hours ago, GerryL13 said:

And here is the view from SoA. Could hear shouting from your side but not from ours/

 

Hi Gerry.  Thanks for posting these photos.  I like to think I can just about see me on the upper aft deck waving at you 🤨😂

I'm SO glad I don't like coffee....🤣

On our 15 night SofD cruise in May we made one reservation for each of the speciality restaurants on the first day (we had a silver wedding anniversary and birthday to celebrate).  After about a week we tried to book another but we weren't allowed to.  We did manage to secure a reservation in East to West for the last night of the cruise about two days prior.

1 hour ago, Tothesunset said:

Clearly, such excitement whets one's appetite to be satisfied by the verandah grill's monstrously large hamburger. Not a bad setting for lunch:

I don't see any margaritas.  Too early🤔?  (There's that "too" again). Lovely backdrop for lunch.

On our way back to Dover last Thursday on Discovery, the two captains organised a sail by. Adventure was on her way to Lisbon. There was much horn blowing and waving. It was great.

@TothesunsetI'm having such a laugh reading your posts.  Keep it up!  BTW I too love margaritas and probably had one too many one night on our recent cruise on SofD🤣.  

23 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said:

How bad was it? Did it deter people from using the decks? Would it ruin a holiday? Did you ask for compensation? Was it so bad that you think that we should consider cancelling our next cruise on the Sprit of Discovery?

My experience of the soot issue was really limited to the aft terraces, mainly C Deck (Deck 9). I didn't sit out on the main sun decks but I don't remember seeing a big issue here when I walked round.  I think the aft terraces are the main areas affected as they are behind the funnel.  As I posted earlier, I only really noticed the problem at the end of the cruise which coincided with strong winds.  My husband sat out on deck 9 aft terrace in a light jacket (I know, very silly, but I didn't see him go!) and came back with a few soot marks.  I still think the problem is much reduced from last August.  It definitely didn't deter people from sitting outside and certainly didn't ruin our holiday. We have already booked another cruise for next year and are very much looking forward to it.

Sadly, I have to report that the soot situation worsened during our SofD cruise (post 13 refers). The last three sea days were the worst. It was very windy so perhaps that had something to do with it. Clearly Saga has not resolved the problem.

We were told to take boarding passes for SoD on 6 May but we were not required to show them. A week into the cruise and no one has asked to see them.

Currently on SoD. Soot problem much improved since last August - just the occasional spot (from what I’ve seen).

15 hours ago, Vivaldi said:

Is Saga still requiring guests and crew to be fully up to date with vaccinations, and it's just that we no longer have to give evidence of this?

 

If this is a sign that the threat of Covid on Saga ships has significantly reduced, then that in itself is good news.

We have to take Covid passes for our cruise which departs this Saturday.  Whether they will check them is another matter.

14 hours ago, beaujolais said:

 

Interconnecting cabins are quite clearly marked on the deck plans in brochures

Yes they are but the interconnecting cabins are not shown on the website deck plans which I have used to make bookings.  I have learnt a valuable lesson and I thank @Vivaldi for posting that information. 

51 minutes ago, david05 said:

We have had an interconnected cabin and noticed no difference with regard to eg sound proofing. So if you can't change it hopefully you will be OK. We did make sure the door was locked on our side!

Thanks for the reassurance.  Given that our cruise departs on Saturday, I suspect we will end up with our allocated cabin (with locked interconnecting door!) but I'll still ask.  Don't want to end up in a location we're unhappy with.  As it's a special anniversary cruise, I just want everything to be perfect but life's not like that, is it?  I'll definitely check the brochure deck plans in the future before making a booking.  Luckily our 2024 cruise cabin is fine.

17 hours ago, Vivaldi said:

The online deck plans are very basic, and the printed ones are much better, both for showing the shower/bath arrangements and for indicating which cabins have interconnecting doors to the adjacent cabin: there are a few of these, and some people might prefer to have a cabin which doesn't have a door to their neighbour's cabin. Or the opposite, of course.

Many thanks for posting this information.  It made me look at the deck plan in the brochure and I've discovered that we are in an interconnecting cabin which we would prefer not to be so I shall ring Saga to see if I can change it.  Needless to say this wasn't mentioned at the time of booking.

2 hours ago, david05 said:

I would second this. We complained about a terrible driver - over the speed limit, driving right behind the car in front, changing lane right in front of another car at speed (you get the idea!). We weren't looking for any compensation but said we would not step into the car if he turned up again. Anyway they said that he wouldn't be used again and gave us some on board credit for our next cruise.

I think we may have had the same driver last summer on our way back from Dover.  He was late picking up someone in our home town to take them back to the ship but from the way he drove us home he wasn't late in the end!  Like you, we should have told Saga as I wouldn't want to be driven by him again.

27 minutes ago, Portplush said:

Can anyone tell me please, how long they waited for the phone call after receiving their e-brochure.    Thanks.

I got the e-brochure late afternoon on 28 February.  Saga rang me early afternoon on Sunday 5 March. The timing of the call does depend on when you paid your advance registration for the summer 2024 brochure.

2 hours ago, Scorpio41 said:

I don’t but our original advance registration was in March 2022. We moved it when they called as we could not cruise during the winter months. We were in the first batch of calls for the summer 2024 release. I thought we had gone to the back of the summer queue, but hey ho, I’ve no idea how they do it.

 

They do get to everyone fairly quickly though.

Same thing happened to us.  That's why I was surprised to get our call on Sunday.  We've now had our call about the insurance so, fingers crossed, we're all good to go.  Given the savings with the discount of 35%, we decided to pay the advance registration fees for the summers of 2025 and 2026. 

I got the call from Saga today, much earlier than I expected.  We have booked one cruise for 2024 at 35% discount.  Happy days.

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

On the other hand discounts through travel agents with Saga are rare , not like other cruise lines.

I didn't know this so that's interesting.  I normally book my cruises through a travel agent (and usually get a decent discount) but with Saga I decided to book direct because I wanted access to my account to organise shore excursions etc myself.

12 hours ago, SummmerInKefalonia said:

Can someone share the images of the 2024 itineraries here please?

Thank you!

Hope you are able to open the document.

Saga2024.pdf

12 hours ago, Denarius said:

Just had a quck flip through it. Surprised by the large number of British Isles cruises. Otherwise Summer programme largely divided between Scandinavia/Arctic and the Mediterranean. Not much to the Eastern Baltic.

The call is awaited!

Yes, I too thought there were a lot of British Isles offerings. I cancelled my call for the winter cruises (didn't realise I signed up for that!) and transferred my option to the summer ones so I expect I will be at the end of the call list.