LandC

The BBC are asking people who were on board to email with their experiences. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

We had an email from friends on SOD. They were told that the ship couldn’t get into Porto or Lisbon due to the strike. As the Portuguese maritime pilots’ strike dates are 6-8 November, this seems a bit odd.

Winter 2025 cruises have now appeared on Saga website.

Spirit of Adventure is docked in Bilbao. Spirit of Discovery is sailing towards Portsmouth.

I’m surprised that Saga haven’t circulated a letter to passengers regarding compensation for the poor experience you have all had. Perhaps this will be discussed tomorrow when people are able to move around the ship.

I understand SoA will dock at Bilbao tomorrow and A Coruna on Tuesday.

Updates posted on another social media site this morning. Passenger on SOD reports that medical centre full, and part of dining room being used for injured passengers. A passenger on SOA reports that they had an awful night after leaving Falmouth with things crashing around, and wonders why the decision was made to leave Falmouth. A couple of passengers left the ship at Falmouth and, as they were new to Saga, got a full refund.

Thanks for posting Glad.

Oh Dear! They must be expecting very challenging weather. The other restaurants will be very busy if the Grill is closed. Is SOD heading straight back to Portsmouth?

I received an email from Saga this evening stating Winter 2025 cruises are about to go on sale (for those of us who didn’t pre-register).

It’s important to book early with Saga to get the best deal. Our last Saga cruise in April in a standard balcony cabin worked out at £223 pppn with a 35% discount. Saga will collect the day before and transfer you to a hotel near the port (hotel at your own expense) if you wish. We also like Azamara, and are prepared to travel to London and stay overnight in an airport hotel for the right itinerary.

Thanks for your blog NorbertsNeice. Antarctica with HAL on Oosterdam should be interesting, and very different to the Adriatic!

Thanks for posting Norbertsneice. The Officers talk is so informative. Steve was the Chief Engineer on our last cruise on SofA. Such an interesting military career, and as you say, he is very modest.

I pre-registered and received Summer 2024 itineraries on 28th February 2023. So if Saga are 2 months ahead this time, perhaps Summer 2025 itineraries will be released before Christmas. We do like to book early, and are interested in a couple of 2025 itineraries with other cruise lines, but we want to see what Saga offers first.

They haven’t appeared on the website yet - I keep checking! We have pre-registered for Summer 2025, so I hope Saga will send out details of those itineraries soon.

Thanks for posting, that is very encouraging. We await our email with baited breath!

Have you received the January to March 2025 itineraries? If so, are there any other than the usual Caribbean and Canaries itineraries?

That’s useful to know FatBoy20. Now we’re just waiting for the 2025 itineraries!

Embarkation usually starts at 1pm.

We also take our own coffee bags for the cabin. I can’t function properly until I’ve had my first cup of decent coffee in the morning!

We enjoyed our cruise on Azamara Journey, and would be happy to cruise with them again if we were looking for a fly cruise. The food in the speciality restaurants on Saga ships is on a par with the speciality restaurants on Azamara. The food in the Main Dining Room on Saga ships is better than Azamara. The service is good on both cruise lines. Entertainment is varied and generally good on Saga ships. We particularly like the Classical quartet, not so keen on comedians and magicians, but there is something to suit everyone!

We’re hoping that Saga will introduce some more interesting itineraries for 2025, and even a few fly cruises - fingers crossed!

The cruises advertised are: 7 November SD120. £6512 5 January SU105. £3418, 20 January. SU106. £2764 3 February SU107. £7999 17 February SD129. £4056 4 March. SU108 £3573. Only guarantee cabin prices are shown.

I’ve just seen Saga’s full page advert in today’s Telegraph, advertising 6 winter cruises. The prices for guarantee cabins are lower than those on Saga’s website. One would hope that any saving is passed on to clients who booked previously or haven’t seen the advert.

Thanks for posting twotravellersLondon, this makes interesting reading. We had a very enjoyable Baltic cruise on the Balmoral a few years ago, with a daytime transit of the Kiel canal. It is the only ship in Fred’s fleet which can sail through the canal, so it would be a shame if it was “impaired”. We have taken several cruises with Fred in the past but have nothing booked at present. We were stung last year by booking early to get the Oceans discount, only to find that prices reduced nearer the sailing date. We tend to book no-fly cruises with Saga nowadays. We love their new ships and all inclusive prices, and by pre-registering we know we will get a good discount when the cruises are launched. There is so much competition now, and Fred’s ships are getting on a bit. With debt increasing I guess Bonheur will have to make a decision on the future of the cruise line soon.