Spirit of Adventure delayed again?

[Windsurfboy]

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

 

I agree, as long as the sample is representative. If you are doing market research on, say, disposable nappies, it's pointless asking 1000 people, if only 10 of them are young mothers. You will get more meaningful data by interviewing 50 mothers. Sample selection is everything, and tends to be an expensive part of any  market research exercise.

 

But in this case sample selection is done for us, cabins in cruise ships out of the UK.

[Windsurfboy]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

But you are not seeing full availability.

I accept you may be right about suites, but there is no way that you have looked at cabin availability on every Iona cruise for the next 12 months.

 

Two points, if there was any availability you wouldn't  see sold out. Also what you see may be more than what's available. The reason , if say there are10 unallocated and 5 guarantee bookings, a select customer will have the choice of all 10. It would only be when you got down to only 5 unallocated cabins it would suddenly go to sold out.

 

You don't need to look at every cruise and cabin, if you keep seeing full on a representative  sample then a very high probability that others are full.  On all the UK cruises the sun cruises are fuller than the northern cruises so you must look at a representative sample.

[white_bear]

I see (Cruise Critic News - 3 November) that Spirit of Adventure's inaugural cruise has been put back to 4 May 2021 and Spirit of Discovery won't re-start before April.

 

We are now getting to the position where we are having rolled-over bookings cancelled!  I think this time (as and when Saga get round to contacting us) we will just take a refund.

[LandC]

It’s disappointing, but better than postponing sailings one month at a time. We rolled over a booking on Spirit of Adventure to 2022, and we have a cruise booked next June on Spirit of Discovery.  We’re hoping that by March, when the balance is payable, we will have a COVID vaccine or at least effective treatment.  

We’ll have to hope for the best!

 

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, white_bear said:

I see (Cruise Critic News - 3 November) that Spirit of Adventure's inaugural cruise has been put back to 4 May 2021 and Spirit of Discovery won't re-start before April.

 

We are now getting to the position where we are having rolled-over bookings cancelled!  I think this time (as and when Saga get round to contacting us) we will just take a refund.

Announced by Saga at the beginning of the week.

[RosieRuby]

We have now had two Spirit of Adventure cruises cancelled and are waiting to hear from Saga about our options. Does anyone have details of the new (May 4th) maiden cruise? We are looking for details of itinerary and duration, although still concerned that it might not go ahead even though almost six months away.

Any information would be helpful. Thank you

[LandC]

 I’m not booked on it myself, but I understand from reading social media that it’s a 16 night Baltic cruise.  Hopefully with the latest news on the COVID vaccine, it will go ahead.  Please post here if you get details of the itinerary.

[Ulsteinvik]

1	Dover
2-3	At Sea
4	Copenhagen
5	At Sea
6	Klaipeda, Lithuania
7	At Sea
8-9	St. Petersburg - Overnight onboard
11	Stockholm
13	At Sea
15-16	At Sea
17	Dover

 

 

Just found this but there are missing some ports on day 12 and 14 I think

[LandC]

Thanks Ulsteinvik..  Just read that after St Petersburg there are port stops at Talinn, Stockholm, Visby and Aalborg before returning to Dover.  
 

It’s a lovely itinerary.

[JMyrtle]

. Well that's that then! 

 August 2018 booked on final sailing of Sapphire in mid March 2020 eight nights thru the Kiel Canal calling at Oslo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen and Kristiansand. 

On board beer festival, oompah band and guest celebrity Dame Esther Rantzen, expensive but a once in a lifetime experience. 

January 20 Dame Esther cancells because of Norovirus and thirty six hours before departure Saga calls to say we are not sailing.

Rebooked for March 2021 no Kiel Canal, no beer festival, no oompah band, no Dame Esther, one less night and one less port but the same price. 

November 2021 cancelled again, fully understandable but this time replaced in March 2022 by seven nights to the Fjords, Burgan, Stavanger and two days at anchor somewhere between the two. 

And to add insult to injury a substantial price increase as well. 

Enough is enough, are we finally cancelling, of course we are! 

 

 

[JMyrtle]

Sorry should read November 2020 cancelled again, edit option seems to have disappeared. 

[Glenndale]

You are not alone in having cruises cancelled, I’m sure Saga are as annoyed/upset with the situation as you seem to be.

Maybe it’s best if you hold off booking until there is a certainty that cruises will sail?

 

[JMyrtle]

It's not the cancellation that's so annoying, that is perfectly understandable. 

What is annoying is that every time the cruise is re-scheduled there is less on offer for the same money and this time the replacement bears no relation to what was originally booked.

It offers far less itinerary wise and is also more expensive, particularly when "Fred" are offering a ten night cruise to Copenhagen and Stockholm amongst other ports for less money than seven days in the fjords and three ports with Saga. 

[LandC]

I agree.  Saga prices have increased by more than I would have expected.  We have also sailed with Fred and they offer some interesting itineraries.  The prices of their balcony cabins have always been high though.  When you factor in drinks, tips, travel insurance, transport from home and some included shore excursions, the Saga prices are not that different.

 

I do think that Saga should offer more port intensive itineraries, and some fly cruises if they want to compete with Fred. Olsen.

[nosapphire]

6 hours ago, LandC said:

I agree.  Saga prices have increased by more than I would have expected.  We have also sailed with Fred and they offer some interesting itineraries.  The prices of their balcony cabins have always been high though.  When you factor in drinks, tips, travel insurance, transport from home and some included shore excursions, the Saga prices are not that different.

 

I do think that Saga should offer more port intensive itineraries, and some fly cruises if they want to compete with Fred. Olsen.

As far as I can gather from Saga publicity, chairman statements, etc, Saga do not want to compete with Fred, they are after the "luxury" end of the market.

They may now change direction, with the previous owner back on the board, and go back to what they used to do very well - which was a reliably comfortable experience, rather than a luxurious one.

 

[Windsurfboy]

3 hours ago, nosapphire said:

As far as I can gather from Saga publicity, chairman statements, etc, Saga do not want to compete with Fred, they are after the "luxury" end of the market.

They may now change direction, with the previous owner back on the board, and go back to what they used to do very well - which was a reliably comfortable experience, rather than a luxurious one.

 

 

Many people  have paid luxury  prices for 2021/2022 and will be disappointed if they dont get a Luxury product

[Windsurfboy]

On further thought, one issue is that many people may have booked on launch with a 30% or 35% discount,  when they come to book again after cancellation these discounts have gone and all they have is the 10% offered by Saga.  If Saga cancel they should honour whatever discount you  had originally,  plus a small extra for the inconvenience caused. 

[nosapphire]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

On further thought, one issue is that many people may have booked on launch with a 30% or 35% discount,  when they come to book again after cancellation these discounts have gone and all they have is the 10% offered by Saga.  If Saga cancel they should honour whatever discount you  had originally,  plus a small extra for the inconvenience caused. 

I think they do continue the discounts if the booking is rolled over - when the Inaugural cruise was deferred the 2nd time, we asked for a refund, and they offered to let us go to another booking keeping all the discounts we had on the Inaugural (we still went for the refund, which was received in superfast time -2 days for the credit cards, 5 days for the cheques).

 

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, nosapphire said:

I think they do continue the discounts if the booking is rolled over - when the Inaugural cruise was deferred the 2nd time, we asked for a refund, and they offered to let us go to another booking keeping all the discounts we had on the Inaugural (we still went for the refund, which was received in superfast time -2 days for the credit cards, 5 days for the cheques).

 

That's good to hear