Fly Cruise - a new departure for Saga?

[Denarius]

On 8/4/2024 at 5:03 PM, david05 said:

True but the number of passengers on the Saga river cruise ships is small in comparison to the ocean going ships so it's unlikely that Saga will offer fly ocean cruises with their current ships except, like the current offer, as a means of filling the ship for the majority of the cruise or by splitting a longer cruise into 2 or more sectors which they have occasionally done in the past.

Not particularly small. Whilst each individual ship is small, there are several of them

Spirit of the Rhine 182 (passengers)

Spirit of the Danube 182

Spirit of the Moselle 182

Spirit of the Douro 126

which totals 672 passengers, roughly one third of the joint capacity of SofD and SofA

Edited August 8 by Denarius
spelling

[Denarius]

On 8/4/2024 at 7:11 PM, Windsurfboy said:

Not sure if being based in one of big ports same as other cruise lines is best, they should offer something different. 

 

The nice thing about Seabourne fly cruise is they are not based in one port repeating same itineraries every two weeks like say Cunard queen Victoria  does. The Ships roam the med. Logistically more challenging but more variety,  so can offer multiple length holidays And cruises to places you may not have been to. 

P&O base a ship in Malta, which is well situated for the Adriatic as well as both the Western and Eastern Mediterranean.

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, Denarius said:

P&O base a ship in Malta, which is well situated for the Adriatic as well as both the Western and Eastern Mediterranean.

 

I've looked at that ,  but they seem to repeat a limited number of ports, going back to Malta once a week or once a fortnight.  That is the problem when they have to fill relatively big ships. On P&O you can't have a longer than a 2 week holiday without repeating ports.

 

I would hope with a smaller ship Saga would do something different, go to places others don't. Explore the eastern Med, smaller Adriatic ports of Italy,  not just Venice, smaller Greek islands , Turkisk ports ,unfortunately not middle East . Then explore western Europe,  but not big ship ports of Barcelona,  Marseille , Rome , Florence etc. Have the freedom of not returning to base all the time.

 

I expect many Saga passengers have done the standard Med ports on other cruises and would like something different. 

[DohaBreeze]

We have booked for next summer in the Med and there are two of the usual ports but the others are new to us, and i am really looking forward to Tangier 

[nosapphire]

On 8/4/2024 at 3:51 PM, Kohima said:

It’s interesting that, although a proportion of potential Saga clients may choose to ocean cruise with Saga because no flying is involved, Saga river cruising often involves flying which seems to be perfectly acceptable. Therefore there must be Saga clients who would be open to ocean cruising involving flying.

 

There are definitely people who would use Saga more if they offered fly-cruise (not me - glad to have stopped flying). A lot of people do not really enjoy sea days, and if people suffer badly from motion sickness then they can have a miserable time as all the seas that have to be crossed leaving the UK can be very rough (worst weather we ever had was in the North Sea).

When we did a Saga fly cruise (Ruby, the Round Africa cruise 2009) we flew out to Cairo to join the ship at Port Suez, and several passengers left the ship at Port Suez to fly home.(I think they offered the option of 2 different joining or leaving ports during that cruise.)

 

[Bloodaxe]

Has I have said before we on!y came to Saga when we no longer wished to fly.

If we did return to fly cruises Saga would not be our choice, at that price point much better small ship options are available with unusual ports of call.

 

 

Edited August 8 by Bloodaxe

[Windsurfboy]

On 8/8/2024 at 5:41 PM, Bloodaxe said:

 

If we did return to fly cruises Saga would not be our choice, at that price point much better small ship options are available with unusual ports of call.

 

 

 

I agree, we are going the opposite to you, embraced UK departure for ease but now run out of places we want to go. Would like Mediterranean,  short haul  flights. 

 

Which small ship options would you look at , I've been investigating Seabourne  (looks best for putting together a longer itinerary)  and silversea, senic and perhaps regent. 

[LandC]

We’ve sailed with Azamara.  Fly cruises with interesting intensive itineraries.  Four ships with max 680 passengers. They are not a “luxury’ cruise line like Seabourn, but food is good and they also have speciality restaurants.

[Bloodaxe]

5 hours ago, LandC said:

We’ve sailed with Azamara.  Fly cruises with interesting intensive itineraries.  Four ships with max 680 passengers. They are not a “luxury’ cruise line like Seabourn, but food is good and they also have speciality restaurants.

 

 

We sailed with Azamara many times from 2008 until 2018 they would still be our line of choice If we still flew.

The R Ships are our favourites just the right size.

Azamara now have 4 and Oceana have the other 4, now about 24 years old but still in great shape..

 

Edited August 10 by Bloodaxe

[Medeba]

11 hours ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

 

We sailed with Azamara many times from 2008 until 2018 they would still be our line of choice If we still flew.

The R Ships are our favourites just the right size.

Azamara now have 4 and Oceana have the other 4, now about 24 years old but still in great shape..

 

I think you may notice a difference in Azamara now, Bloodaxe.  We have done quite a few cruises on Azamara. We sailed on Journey last August and, whilst the itinerary was excellent, the food offering has definitely gone downhill as has the service.  The ship is beginning to show its age: there appears to be less maintenance carried out and the furnishings are looking tired. Oceania is much the same having experienced a cruise with them on Sirena in April.  So, we think the food and service on Saga is far better, the cabins are more spacious and the ships are much newer.

 

 

[Bloodaxe]

2 hours ago, Medeba said:

I think you may notice a difference in Azamara now, Bloodaxe.  We have done quite a few cruises on Azamara. We sailed on Journey last August and, whilst the itinerary was excellent, the food offering has definitely gone downhill as has the service.  The ship is beginning to show its age: there appears to be less maintenance carried out and the furnishings are looking tired. Oceania is much the same having experienced a cruise with them on Sirena in April.  So, we think the food and service on Saga is far better, the cabins are more spacious and the ships are much newer.

 

 

My last Azamara cruise was in June 2019 so obvious my opinion is out of date, it was also before Azamara split from RCCL.

Shortly afterwards we had a family disaster and then along came covid.

When we decided to start cruising again we gave Saga a try and it now suits us just fine.

What I miss the most is the international mix of passengers on Azamara we made friends with people from all over the world.

 

Edited August 11 by Bloodaxe

[Glenndale]

Friends of ours took their very first cruise on the ill fated SoD November cruise.

They then took a fly cruise with Silversea. 

Their verdict, for what it's worth, was that Saga were far better than Silversea in every department.

 

[Medeba]

41 minutes ago, Bloodaxe said:

What I miss the most is the international mix of passengers on Azamara we made friends with people from all over the world.

Completely agree. We do too.

Edited August 11 by Medeba

[Lady Meer]

In the past year we have done 2 Regent cruises - 28 days and 12 days. Neither, in our opinion, were 6 star and will certainly be our last with them. Saga was far superior and we look forward to our second cruise with them at Xmas.

Edited August 11 by Lady Meer

[LandC]

We have sailed with Noble Caledonia a couple of times, most recently in June this year when we did a circumnavigation of Iceland. They have two Sky vessels, just over 100 passengers.  They offer some unusual itineraries and due to the size of the ships, they can dock in places which would be unsuitable for larger vessels.  They are not a luxury line but have a loyal following.  

[Cruise-Cat]

One issue with Med fly cruises is passport control at the EU airport which means that you get a passport stamp.  If you are tight on the 90 in 180 Schengen days then a UK to UK itinerary currently avoids this.

Of course this may change once (if?) the EES and ETIAS are implemented.  It’s still not clear from the currently available online information how cruises and port days for cruises not originating from a EU port will be accounted for.