Our First Saga Experience … A Personal Review

[BestGuessed]

We will be disembarking Spirit of Adventure tomorrow morning after experiencing our first Saga cruise so I thought I would write a review of how we personally, have found things on board.
This is our personal opinion so please bear that in mind … other opinions may differ !!

 

Our first impression was “Wow this is a lovely ship” …  Of course it’s only a year since SoA was launched so she is still very new which is evident in everything from the public areas to the cabins.  There is plenty of space and even though we are sailing at around 85% capacity the ship does not in any way feel crowded.

 

We have a standard balcony cabin (all cabins have balconies on this ship) which is compact and comfortable enough although I think if we were on board for more than a fortnight we might consider a larger room. However the cabin is very well equipped with everything well planned.  There are three British plug sockets at the dressing table, and one each side of the bed together with a USB point at each bedside. The bathroom is small but adequate and has a proper shower door and more than enough storage space for toiletries.  Soap is provided in bottle dispensers together with shampoo and conditioner and a bar of soap is also provided. These are all of a high quality.  A tip that helps with any storage issues is to put lesser used items in your cases under the bed as there is plenty of unused space there.

The food on board has been mainly good although some of the MDR menus have not been quite to our taste and we have found them to be slightly limited compared to other cruise lines’ MDR menus.  This could be down to the fact that there are three other restaurants where you can choose to dine which are fully inclusive.  Khukuri House is the Nepalese restaurant which I would class as something along the lines of Indian flavours and is very good.  Amalfi is the Italian restaurant and equally as good with a range of different styles of Italian food and presentation.  The Supper Club is more traditional in its cuisine and we enjoyed chateaubriand there twice, each time it was excellent.  The added appeal of The Supper Club is the live music that entertains throughout the meal.   
 

The entertainment on board this ship has been second to none.  The exceptionally talented musicians have provided some wonderful sounds and whether you are someone who just wishes to find a quiet corner to listen, or someone who wants to get up and jiggle, jive, waltz or foxtrot, there is something somewhere for everyone.  As dancers, we have enjoyed this aspect of the cruise immensely and the Britannia Lounge with its large dance floor has been a bonus for us. 
 

So a few other random observations which have enhanced our cruise experience in small ways :

Very comfortable bed and chairs in the cabin. Large dressing table with well lit mirror.
The air conditioning/heating controls work really well so we can keep the room at exactly the right temperature for us.  
The shower works well and the head is on a rod  making it fully adjustable to any height.

Soundproofing is better than we have experienced on other ships which has been very welcome. We have not heard any noise from other cabins, early morning toilets being flushed has not woken us on this cruise !! Corridor noise is sometimes discernible but hasn’t disturbed us at all.

There is a very wide selection of TV channels and everything from daily menus, to your account expenses and the daily theatre show is available to see on your in room TV screen. Also radio stations are available.

Other small touches are that we are having turndown service every night complete with the chocolate on pillow which I think I am right in saying seems to have dropped by the wayside on some other cruise lines now.

All the conveniences in public areas have mini rolled towels rather than the pull out paper version.

The standard of cleanliness is faultless and everything looks immaculate.

Bathrobes are provided as standard but we asked for slippers which were promptly delivered.  
Facecloths are also supplied and changed after each use.

The included wines are very good and we haven’t found the need to order the select wines and pay extra for them.

The wifi has been a bit slow on the odd occasion but it is included in the price and overall it has been more than adequate.

 

Other further observations:

There are no dance hosts at present and no books available to borrow from the library, the “books” on display are in fact dummies.

On this cruise the guests have chosen to dress mainly on the casual side and even on formal nights the majority haven’t been overdressed.  There have been a few sparkles and some evening gowns and dinner jackets but in general, every evening has had a very relaxed look to it.  That may please many people but we had somehow expected that in the evenings the attire worn would be more akin to onboard a Cunard ship.

 

When we saw these two new Saga ships advertised as “Boutique” I wasn’t sure how to interpret the expression used, but over the past ten nights I have come to the conclusion that my own interpretation would be “Classy, contemporary, luxury”.

So to conclude, we are very impressed indeed with our first Saga experience and we will be booking again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LondonLad60]

Thank you BestGuessed for a positive and accurate review. 

[david05]

Thank you for your review. You should have had slippers waiting in your room on arrival🙂

[sleepingcat]

On 7/18/2022 at 11:29 AM, BestGuessed said:

We will be disembarking Spirit of Adventure tomorrow morning after experiencing our first Saga cruise so I thought I would write a review of how we personally, have found things on board.
This is our personal opinion so please bear that in mind … other opinions may differ !!

 

thanks for posting.  Just a suggestion, there is a section of CC where you can post your review of a Ship/cruise and I think more people will see it than here on the boards, as one can access the reviews without being a member.  The Saga boards are mostly populated by a dedicated band of enthusiasts, some of whom we met on board (hi all!). whereas your review is ideal for saga newbies or people wondering whether to try. You ll see our review of S of A/Canaries from January there, which mainly agrees with all that you say.  it was great and at the time a welcome relief from winter and post covid blues. 

(cannot understand why there are still no books in the 'library' though). 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your comments.

[escrick]

We will take our first Saga cruise in November.  Thank you so much for your helpful review.

[BestGuessed]

Sleepingcat I agree that I should probably post my review on the CC Ship Review section but prior to our cruise I was asking people who were onboard to report back to us about what we could expect once it was our turn.  With that in mind I wanted to provide our feedback for future cruisers who tend to observe the Saga threads.    
I also agree that the lack of books in the library is rather ludicrous 🤷🏼‍♀️ …. Even the paperback exchange isn’t available.

 

Thank you David05 for informing me that slippers should have been present in the cabin on arrival, I did wonder about that !!

 

There are a couple of other details that I forgot to mention in my review, one of which is The Veranda at the back of the ship which is beyond The Grill.   This is a lovely outdoor space where lunches of freshly (cooked to order) fish and chips and scampi, burgers and other such items are served. If the weather is nice it’s a great place to sit with a drink and enjoy the view. We enjoyed lunch there everyday that the weather permitted. The quality of the food is incredibly good and we can highly recommend it.
Other buffet items available from The Grill can be taken outside and if you order freshly cooked food from hot section there, they will bring it out to your table when it is ready. There are also the usual salad items together with a variety of other dishes all of excellent quality.

Another thing I should have commented on is the water carafes that are refilled by the steward as required, with, I presume, filtered water.  In view of the fact that on other lines bottled water is supplied with a charge, we appreciated this system.

 

Saga have also excelled in delivering my husband’s suit carrier back to us today.  We stupidly left it at Southampton on Tuesday, but a phone call when we arrived home put the wheels in motion and DHL delivered it back to us this morning less than 48 hours after disembarking.  Added to that, Saga didn’t want us to reimburse them for the carriage.  We feel that is very commendable.

 

If anyone has any questions I can answer I am happy to do so.

 

Enjoy your cruises everyone !!

 

 

[rojojacko]

Thanks very much for the review. We have today booked a Northern Lights cruise on S of A for next February and weren’t sure what to expect. We are seasoned cruisers but this will be our first with Saga. 
 

Rob

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, rojojacko said:

Thanks very much for the review. We have today booked a Northern Lights cruise on S of A for next February and weren’t sure what to expect. We are seasoned cruisers but this will be our first with Saga. 
 

Rob

 

Saga is different to other lines, but very good service.  I don't know if you've cruised with Cunard, but Saga food and service up with Cunard Queens grill, and it's available to all. 

 

Don't  have any worries about Saga.

 

Saga are friendliest ships you can find, crew and passengers 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by Windsurfboy

[BestGuessed]

Thank you Rojojacko, I am pleased that you enjoyed reading the review.  
We certainly weren’t disappointed and like you, we are seasoned cruisers.
As Windsurfboy has said, everyone on board was very friendly.   
I am sure you will enjoy your cruise.

 

[ann141]

7 hours ago, rojojacko said:

Thanks very much for the review. We have today booked a Northern Lights cruise on S of A for next February and weren’t sure what to expect. We are seasoned cruisers but this will be our first with Saga. 
 

Rob

Is it the new cruise sailing on 28 February? If so ,we have booked it too. We sail on our first Saga cruise in October which I am looking forward to.Thank you for your review Best guessed  Interesting to read

Edited July 23, 2022 by ann141

[rojojacko]

Thank you for all of your encouraging responses. Following my post, friends from some years ago were in touch to tell me that they had sailed on this same itinerary last year and thoroughly recommended it and were very impressed with their Saga experience. The more I read about the ship, the more I look forward to the experience. I also note that premium drinks (whatever they are) are to be added to the all-inclusive for next year so a further bonus I guess. Nearer the time, I will be looking for advice as to whether my tuxedo needs to come with me!
 

And yes ann141, it is that sailing. 

Rob

[FatBoy20]

The answer is yes your Tuxedo need to travel with you. The "Premium Drinks" are for Branded Spirits & not House Label types as available on current sailings.

[lincslady]

Or at least a suit (preferably dark) with tie.

[BestGuessed]

I agree,  from our recent experience that most gentlemen wore dinner suits … probably around 80% and quite a few were wearing white jackets.   There were some dark suits and very few who didn’t comply with the formal dress code. 

[deck chair]

Hello from America!  I sure wish Saga sailed from United States as does Cunard.

It seems like such a great experience on wonderful ships.  It is rather inconvenient to fly to UK.

Deck Chair.

 

[wineoclock]

Thank you for the review.

 

I’ve been looking at Saga & Viking cruises for next year & wonder if you can tell me the age demographic please of Saga? We are 57 & 59.

 

We have only cruised with Disney & Celebrity before thank you Ann 

[BestGuessed]

Hello wineoclock  (great name !!)

 

We are in our mid sixties and active, enjoying ballroom and Latin dancing which was well catered for in the Britannia Lounge.  
At times it was rather lonely on the floor as not many others were dancing but we would say most people were older than we are.  I think, from the sailing we were on, the average age of passengers would be somewhere around the late seventies.

Saga offer the door to door chauffeur service to the port and their own included insurance which makes the brand very appealing to the older generation.

 

We too are big Celebrity fans, the only downside for us is the lack of space to dance.  
We love Cunard and have also enjoyed cruises with P&O, Royal Caribbean,

Marella and Princess.

Saga compared favourably with all of them and we will definitely cruise with them again in the future, but that for us, will probably be in around five years time.

 

I hope this is helpful.

BG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LondonLad60]

16 hours ago, wineoclock said:

Thank you for the review.

 

I’ve been looking at Saga & Viking cruises for next year & wonder if you can tell me the age demographic please of Saga? We are 57 & 59.

 

We have only cruised with Disney & Celebrity before thank you Ann 

Hi Ann

 

I fully agree with BestGuessed above. My wife and I are 62 and 65 respectively. We've been on three Saga cruises this year, and I would say we were definitely at the younger end of the age demographic on all three

 

I can't recommend Saga highly enough. Try them - I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

[wineoclock]

Thank you so much both of you. You have confirmed what I suspected.  I don’t think we will be disappointed with the product at all but will wait a few years. 

[wineoclock]

Can I ask BestGuessed above which is your favourite line out of them please? 
 

I sometimes wish there was a quiz to put likes & dislikes to get the best cruise line 😂

[BestGuessed]

Your question is a difficult one to answer Ann.

I think probably Celebrity is our favourite cruise line particularly if we book a suite and have the pleasure of Luminae but we have enjoyed many cruises with them when we have eaten in their main riding room too.

The quality of the food and everything on board just seems one notch up on the other lines.
However, for us personally, the lack of places to dance is an issue.  
We don’t find “The Grand Foyer” has enough room as it is really only a stairwell and The Sky Lounge has a tiled floor which isn’t ideal.  But those criticisms are personal to us and probably don’t affect the vast majority of people.

 

Cunard is great and obviously has the lovely Queens Room for dancing but to date we have not sailed in Grills cabins.  However that will change in just over a weeks time when we  will board Queen Victoria and this time we have booked Princess Grill so once we have been on this cruise Cunard may well come out as favourite !!

 

P&O and Princess we have enjoyed too and have future cruises booked with both but comparatively, to us, these lines don’t rate quite so highly.

 

Royal Caribbean we found to be very family orientated and there were rather a lot of young children on board which, now we are older, we prefer to avoid. However the ships were lovely and we had no complaints. 

 

Marella, we found to be excellent value for money and we would sail with them again but the fact their ships don’t normally leave from Southampton is something that deters us.  We don’t enjoy airport experiences and prefer not to fly if we are able to cruise from U.K. ports.

 

Incidentally, we will be trying an Ambassador cruise next Spring and are hopeful that we will be impressed.  The fact that they are departing from U.K. ports and the cruise we will be taking is leaving from Tilbury which is very close to home, is a big plus point for us.

I have been following the blog that Norbert’s Niece is writing from Ambience at present and you might be interested to read her account of her previous cruise on Saga’s Spirit of Adventure.     I followed that too before our own cruise on that ship.   She writes a very informative blog and it’s well worth reading.

 

…. So going back to your original question, from a personal perspective,  every single cruise we have been on has had something that has been exceptionally good and memorable about it.  
We just love cruising and since we discovered it fourteen years ago, no other form of holiday has seemed as attractive or exciting!! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wineoclock]

Thank you that is most interesting.
 

We are near Tilbury as well so I’ll take a look at Ambassador.

 

My grandparents have 3 WC on Cunard under their belts plus many more, but I think Cunard may be too formal for us.

 

My cousin loves Cunard &’keeps telling me to try. One day perhaps.