Covid restrictions - which have been lifted and which remain?

[arlowood]

1 hour ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

 It is...  in the accompanying Essential Information...

 

EMBARKATION "Should the medical screening indicate a positive test result from you or anybody else in your vehicle, or any other medical concern which would prevent you from sailing, your cruise will be postponed..."

 

Page 1, section 3.

 

As SAGA has suggested... we will take our own books and a laptop.

Any chance of an informal book exchange being permitted?

 

We were on 2 Viking cruises last year in the middle of the pandemic and they had a section in the Library where you could leave paperbacks you had read for others to pick up and read. Equally we could make use of that facility to expand our reading quota.

[Windsurfboy]

There is a small pile of passenger books in library that disappears.  There is face to face exchange of books on sun decks, if you get into conversation with someone .

[JoJo1947]

On 6/9/2022 at 1:43 PM, Portplush said:

Thank you for posting the update, we are sailing in September and pleased to read that restrictions are easing.   Does anyone know if the taxi driver still has a LFT when we arrive at the port.

Thank you

Restrictions being lifted are for cruises sailing  from 19the June -31st August. After that there will be another update 

[Portplush]

Thanks for that JoJo.    September is a way off yet and no doubt we will be kept up to date by Saga.

[BestGuessed]

I hope everyone who will be returning to Southampton tomorrow has had a wonderful cruise and if anyone can find time to post comments about their onboard experience and how the current protocols are working we would be very grateful.  
Did anything change from the 19th June or are the restrictions on SoA only being eased for those boarding from tomorrow? 

To Nooosey and others who will be embarking tomorrow, any feed back whilst you are onboard would be appreciated … my husband and I will be on the Melodies of Ireland cruise following yours and if you can possibly give us an insight into what we can expect when we get on board that would be very helpful.  
Thank you to everyone who takes time to post.

To all of you about to sail, have a fabulous cruise ….  Bon Voyage !! 🍾😎🥂
 

[nooosey]

BestGuessed, thanks for the Bon voyage, I will try my best to keep you updated. We are waiting to hear if we have a shared van as per our website manage your booking info or a private car as per the pre cruise letter we received last week. All may be revealed soon as we are expecting a phone call from the driver. In January we got a text and phone call the evening before pick up.

[BestGuessed]

Hi Nooosey I hope whether you have a shared journey or a private transfer tomorrow that the drive is smooth and uneventful and you arrive at the port cool, calm and ready to chill out with a glass of something cold and bubbly to toast your arrival.  
Enjoy your cruise, we will be thinking of you. 🥂Cheers !!

[nooosey]

BestGuessed, thanks for the Bon Voyage on the way now from North Yorkshire in a nice private car.

[BestGuessed]

Hi Nooosey,  very pleased to hear that you are now on your way.    
Your holiday has begun !!      Have a wonderful cruise 😎😄

[david05]

23 hours ago, BestGuessed said:

I hope everyone who will be returning to Southampton tomorrow has had a wonderful cruise and if anyone can find time to post comments about their onboard experience and how the current protocols are working we would be very grateful.  
Did anything change from the 19th June or are the restrictions on SoA only being eased for those boarding from tomorrow? 

Protocols seemed to work pretty well on cruise just finished with low number of covid cases. Didn't seem to be any real change before leaving the ship, except the removal of most of the keep left signs on the stairs and corridors, so those embarking now should see a significant difference from what we experienced regarding protocols. Hope all goes well for them.

[BestGuessed]

Thank you for your feedback David.  That sounds very encouraging and we are starting to get excited about our cruise now …. hope you had a lovely holiday.

[david05]

5 hours ago, BestGuessed said:

Thank you for your feedback David.  That sounds very encouraging and we are starting to get excited about our cruise now …. hope you had a lovely holiday.

Yes it was a lovely cruise with mainly very good weather which always helps 😎 and the staff were brilliant.

Apart from less mask wearing the big advantage of the new protocols may be that close contacts no longer need to self isolate, just be tested regularly and only isolate if testing positive. On the cruise just finished, the only close contacts to a positive case who themselves subsequently tested positive that I know of were spouses who opted to remain together is isolation. That is not to say that there weren't any unrelated close contacts who subsequently tested positive during their self isolation but I didn't hear of any.

[BestGuessed]

Hi David,  really pleased to hear that you had a lovely cruise and thank you for your update.    
It’s good to know that protocols are gradually easing on board to eventually fall in line with what is happening on land at home. 👍🏻
My husband and I enjoy dancing, do you if this was affected by any restrictions that you were aware of and was the entertainment generally good?  
This will be our first cruise with Saga and we are keen to know what we should expect.   Thank you for taking the time to post. 
 

[nooosey]

Onboard now, all is good on the way up to Scandinavia. The in car covid testing at Southampton was somewhat disorganised with car passengers not having lateral flow tests examined in the order of arrival as cars were being haphazardly lined up. It took an hour for ours to be checked, we were then allowed to unload luggage and proceed to terminal, from there all went very smoothly.

Guests wearing masks are in a minority.

Apparently this is the first post covid cruise with Bridge classes, interesting to see if cards can be handled and played or if teaching is on a whiteboard.

There seemed to be quite a lot of crew turnover in Southampton , Captain Tanner is now back as Master and executive chef Raj is back.

[david05]

43 minutes ago, BestGuessed said:

Hi David,  really pleased to hear that you had a lovely cruise and thank you for your update.    
It’s good to know that protocols are gradually easing on board to eventually fall in line with what is happening on land at home. 👍🏻
My husband and I enjoy dancing, do you if this was affected by any restrictions that you were aware of and was the entertainment generally good?  
This will be our first cruise with Saga and we are keen to know what we should expect.   Thank you for taking the time to post. 
 

Dancing early evening and later in the evening in the Britannia lounge and masks were not required (although were needed for the morning line dancing), not many dancing though. The resident trio in the lounge were excellent and we were often in the lounge just to listen to them before going to dinner (ok we may have had a drink or two as well 🍸). Overall the entertainment was pretty good, though it does depend on what you like. The crew show towards the end of the cruise was one of the best we have ever seen with some excellent singers in particular.

[BestGuessed]

Thank you David and Nooosey.  
It’s really good news for us about the dancing and we love to be able to dance to  live music so we will enjoy the trio in the Britannia lounge very much.  
Also good news about the Bridge classes resuming  …  Do you know if books can be borrowed from the library yet and is the usual paperback exchange section open for use again?  
Sorry for the questions … any feedback whatsoever is very much appreciated!!

Thank you for taking the time to respond.  
 

 

[Denarius]

Can you now sit at the bars?

[nooosey]

36 minutes ago, Denarius said:

Can you now sit at the bars?

I’m in the Living Room and enjoying a Mojito, the waiter said that guests can now sit at the bar and all social distancing has been finished from this cruise. 
Bridge lessons allow card play.

[BestGuessed]

Ahoy there sailors we hope you are having a wonderful cruise, that the weather is sunny and the seas are calm.

If you have time to send an update to us with some feedback about the last week and how you are finding everything on board we would very much appreciate it.

A couple of specific questions … Is track and trace still being implemented and are masks required on tenders and coaches please? 
 

We are now getting excited about boarding next week and would very much like to know what we can expect once we are sailing.  Any comments will be very gratefully received !!
 

Thank you in advance.

 

 

[nooosey]

Hi BestGuessed,

Weather so far has been exceptional, track and trace is still being enforced in all venues and coaches.

As far as coaches masks are recommended but not enforced, the minority are wearing them.

I am sure you will have a great cruise, our last week has started, much more to enjoy!

[BestGuessed]

Hi Nooosey, thank you very much for your feedback.   Really good to hear that you are having a great cruise with fabulous weather.   I hope it continues for you next week and also for us for the couple of weeks after that !!   We are really looking forward to boarding next Friday.  Meanwhile if you have anything further that you can report back to us we are very grateful for all info.

Thankyou again. 😊BG

[Windsurfboy]

Be prepared,  Cunard have just now reintroduced masks. 

[Denarius]

On 6/23/2022 at 6:24 PM, nooosey said:

I’m in the Living Room and enjoying a Mojito, the waiter said that guests can now sit at the bar and all social distancing has been finished from this cruise. 
Bridge lessons allow card play.

Pleased to read that.

As a solo traveller I have always found drinking at the bar to be a good way of meeting and socialising with fellow passengers. To sit at a bar is a way of inviting social interaction in a way that sitting at a table is not.

[Denarius]

Just got back from Spirit of Discovery. Social distancing and the requirement to wear masks have been discintinued, though contact tracing is maintained. No onboard testing and no information as to whether there were cases onboard. Tables for 6 now available in the restaurants, but still no books in the library. And no bar stools! Apart from those bolted to the floor in the deck bars, they had all been removed. So none in the South Cape bar, Living Room or Britannia Lounge. Doh!!

[twotravellersLondon]

29 minutes ago, Denarius said:

Just got back from Spirit of Discovery. Social distancing and the requirement to wear masks have been discintinued, though contact tracing is maintained. No onboard testing and no information as to whether there were cases onboard. Tables for 6 now available in the restaurants, but still no books in the library. And no bar stools! Apart from those bolted to the floor in the deck bars, they had all been removed. So none in the South Cape bar, Living Room or Britannia Lounge. Doh!!

 

We were on the previous cruise on the Spirit of Discovery. 

 

Many people automatically respected a degree of social distancing where possible. All crew wore masks. About 50% of the cruisers wore masks voluntarily in the theatre. Masks were often voluntarily worn by some people while moving around the ship, on tenders and in excursion busses. As with all ships, there was some Covid but, thank goodness, no big deal was made about it... we were after all trying to relax and enjoy our holiday! 

 

We took our own books but had little spare time to read them! The Library was well used on every sea day... it's just such a nice area... and there's coffee!

 

Bar stools were still in little groups but positioned away from the bars serving areas to protect the staff. There was a group of the stools and a tall table just a few feet away from the bar itself in the North Cape Bar. I think that we spotted others here and there.

 

Every day there were events for singles so that they could get to know each other and meet up. Groups of singles would go to dinner together, enjoy a drink in the bars and even sit together in the lounges and theatre and make dates to meet in the speciality restaurants... many seemed to be having a great time with each other and mixing with the rest of the cruisers onboard!

 

We sometimes joined and were joined by singles at breakfast and lunch in the Grill and on a couple of occasions we sat with groups of them in the Britannia Lounge late into the evening. They we welcoming, convivial, chatty, very sociable and great fun to be with and seemed to be having a wonderful time... but then so were we!

 

We even booked another cruise on board!

 

So.... Cheers!