Bloodaxe

I fully understand my comment about Saga Car Insurance had nothing to do with the cruise arm of Saga.

I was responding to the poster taking about Saga insurance, obviously your claim with Car Insurance went much better than mine.

The attitude of the Volkswagen garage really surprised me at the time.

17 hours ago, Alchymist said:

SAGA halted their efforts to sell the insurance business in September and in the meantime their cashflow looks quite disturbing. I sincerely hope that they will thrive, because they do offer a lot to us of senior years, even if there are concerns that should be addressed. If one looks at their revenue against earnings lover the last few years, they haven't made as much progress as the dreaded Carnival and it would be awful if the insurance business sank them. (Not the ships, of course.) Institutional holdings and insider holdings are pretty high, but not too sure if that is a good or bad thing at the moment.

An experience a few years ago turned me away form Saga insurance, someone ran into the back of my parked car doing a few hundred pounds of damage.

At the time the car was nearly new so I went to the local VW main dealer, they took one look at my insurance and said sorry we do not deal with Saga they take far to long to pay up.

They would repair the car but I would have to pay and make the claim with Saga myself

Luckily the 3rd party insurers paid up and the garage were happy to deal direct with them.

I no longer have any insurance with Saga and other than the Included  cruise insurance and never will.

5 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

I've  had two Queens grill cruises total 28 days and one Saga 30 days this year . As I said I  had to send 3 QG meals back as inedible,  and often had to resort to the la carte , sole or lamb quite often. Cavair not the best and a bit of a gimmick and Chateaubriand doesn't turn me on. I ordered off menu a couple of times, one a simple risotto Milanese,  flavourless,  same for a simple Mac cheese,  asked for osso bucco but didn't have ingredients, but Cunard do an excellent curry.  My only dissappointment on Saga was liver, which last year was melt in mouth, this year more like pub food. Had lobster as often as needed in coast to coast. A suite on Saga is roughly same price as QG Saga a bit dearer but you get more. Remember whether you approve or not,  suites are not rationed to use of Speciality restaurants.

 

Of course non suites don't have as much access to speciality restaurants,  but then you must compare Saga food to Brittania in Cunard with no off menu ordering and a smaller menu. That's a clear win for Saga.

Our one Saga cruise so far was in September, we found the food OK for the most part but not great, one of the best meals in the main dining room was the Liver.

In recent years we can only really compare  Saga with Azamara and to be honest Azamara would still be our line of choice but we are not fans of flying anymore which rules them out.

39 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

If you are a good sailor and don't have to be midships,  then there are no bad cabins on Saga, they are all very good. So last minute guarantee bookings can be reasonable 

I agree but they do not seem to be offered on many cruises.

I will keep looking has we cannot commit very far in advance to get the best price. 

Until recently I would never have seriously considered Saga, but not wishing to fly to join a cruise anymore the home pick up and included insurance did appeal.

We enjoyed our first cruise with them in September but have not booked another yet.

I do not usually like booking very far in advance and Sagas policy of reducing discounts doesn't really suit that

If we could get a good discount nearer sailing date I would be more likely to book.

I do think the cruises are rather overpriced.

We have never cruised P and O probably never will,  has others have said you pay your money and make your choice.

10 hours ago, eddjbishop said:

Can veranda partitions be removed  between cabins..???

Not usually allowed for safety reasons has they are glass, we once found ours shattered on embarking, they did replace it has soon has I reported it.

They can sometimes be a noise problem, have had to pack the hinges to stop rattles.

14 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

One of my bowling friends who used to work in our Tesco Extra told me that they had closed the staffed tills over night as a cost cutting exercise.  I now go to the slightly smaller but more convenient one near to the school where I drop the children off.

Sounds like Tesco could be shooting themselves in the foot in the run up to the festive season.  

 

It's getting common to only have manned tills at busy times, I was in our local Aldi mid morning on a weekday only self service was  open, told they will only open others If it got busy.

On 11/18/2023 at 11:43 AM, Fionboard said:

Malaga

Some years ago we joined a cruise in Malaga in early December.

We spent a day there before the cruise and that night was the switch on of the Christmas lights.

A lovely evening with the streets full of locals and lots of entertainment.

17 minutes ago, purplesea said:

It is times like this that I sometimes regret moving to the far end of Cornwall, as it takes us a day to get anywhere. Before we moved down we were only half an hours drive from Luton Airport. A taxi is a very expensive option for just 2.

One thing less to worry about with Saga, that and the included insurance is what sold me, I know you pay for it in the price but much less hassle.

We sailed with captain Jason several times on Azamara and had a nice chat with him on our September Saga cruise.

Although we had not seen him for over 10 years he remembered us, lovely man.

19 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

Very interesting  speciality restaurants  opening for lunch

On our September cruise the speciality restaurants opened for walk ins on sea days. It was a lunch menu.

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

I suspect that over a certain distance they will offer the "car to local airport - flight to London - car to port" option instead. I doubt if they would offer a transfer which necessitated changing drivers on the way.

 

It happened to us on a Titan holiday, we changed driver and Car at a service area part way down the M1, on the way to Gatwick from Yorkshire.

It almost caused us to miss our flight has the second driver was late.

1 hour ago, Wacktle said:

I was just going to say the same. Maybe we were on the same cruise (11 Sept, 5 nights). 

Correct cruise, it was 6 nights.

On our recent cruise we were advised to take copies of our passports and not the originals when going ashore.

On the night before we arrived in France copies of our passports were left in our cabin.

40 minutes ago, Denarius said:

This thread appears to have been hijacked by coffee afficinados. May I respectfully suggest that the quality of coffee is not a major factor for most people in deciding which cruise line to sail with.

Nobody suggested that it was, the original posted was asking for comparisons with other lines and many things have been mentioned.

3 hours ago, Kohima said:

Oceania definitely has the edge over Saga with its barista style coffee bar serving an excellent range of coffees.

Has does Azamara, at Saga prices it is a shame that Barista Coffee is not available on the ships.

However Sagas included alcoholic drinks are much better than Azamaras swings and roundabouts I guess.

2 hours ago, Glenndale said:

I know that, but I don’t understand your comment on the standard cabins on Saga not having bean machines?

Just meaning that they just have a kettle with tea bags and instant coffee.

We did enjoy being able to make our morning tea with real milk from the fridge.

2 hours ago, JMMKUK said:

I mean the ones in the Library & the Grill. Coffee served in Britannia lounge & the Living Room also comes from bean machines.

 

The machines in the suites are pod not bean

I did not rate the coffee has good anywhere on the ship, obviously just my opinion.

2 hours ago, Glenndale said:

I don’t remember Azamara having bean machines in their standard cabins either nor in their club continent suites.

They do not but they do have a proper cafe that serves good coffee and tea all day long.

7 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

There are tables for two, but, if you like dining as a couple, be warned some of the tables, in both dining room and buffet are VERY close together.  When I say close together, I mean a couple of inches apart. They place two tables for two so close together, it's akin to being on a 4 seater table.

 

We did our first  Saga cruise in August. We enjoyed the cruise and liked most things that Saga had to offer, but have to admit, the way the dining tables are set up did place a slight cloud on the cruise for us. We are both introverts, and don't really enjoy making small talk with other people.  But the tables I described were so close together, when we were assigned to one of those tables it would have been plain odd not to have spoken to our neighbours. But it meant that we didn't enjoy the experience quite so much.

 

We had already booked another cruise on SOA for next year, so we will be attempting to make it better for  ourselves. I've contacted Saga, and have requested a fixed table for dinner, so we can (hopefully) secure a table for two in a position to our liking.  We generally go to the buffet for breakfast and lunch, and will go early before it gets busy, and will be a lot more proactive in our table choice when being led to our table, so that we can get one to our liking. Or, as suggested by a Saga regular on this board, simply go in the back doors and pick our own table. 

 

 

We had a regular table for 2 which we had requested on with our booking, it was fine and not that close.

The closest was in the speciality restaurant which did surprise us.

We did enjoy the cruise and will probably book again soon.

2 minutes ago, JMMKUK said:

The coffee they pour in the restaurants is awful but the coffee from the bean to cup machines is pretty good.

But the bean machines are not in the standard cabins unfortunately.

Saga compares very well with Azamara who we have sailed with many times, the standard cabins are nicer than Azamaras basic balconies.

The bathrooms are much better without shower curtains, food very similar on both.

We did miss the international feel of Azamara and their good

Coffee, Saga is very British and the coffee is poor.

Azamara is not classed has a luxury line and does not claim to be one, it is a step up from the mainstream ones.

17 hours ago, Kinniegirl said:

I was just wondering if it was crack of dawn or reasonable.

 

what times are other people picked up approximately?

Just back from our cruise, live near York, pick up time 08.30/ 9.00.

Shared Car 5 hours to Dover, Great service

9 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Kresimir Korona has been with Azamara for ages. He was previously Staff Captain and was promoted. I'm surprised you have never come across him. He's a super guy. 

 

Phil 

Pretty sure I must have, I would remember if I met him, just not great with names these days.

11 hours ago, silkismom said:

WOW, all new to me.

Tomasz and Mario are long time with Azamara, the others are new to me.