AGO Cruising with SAGA Updated 05 Sept 2007
I have never cruised with SAGA before, but today (Wed 14 Sept 2005) I booked a cruise from Dover to Greenland. I have seen Iceland with P&O and was impressed at the Nordic cleanliness and order. I believe that Greenland has a similar history to Iceland.
I got a brochure from SAGA and found the cruise in there. What I like about SAGA cruises is that insurance is included, as are in-board gratuities. This can add quite a sum to the basic cost of a cruise. I asked about the cost of shore trips and it seems that they are somewhat lower than the costs on P&O and Carnival.
Climate is changing as we saw recently in New Orleans, but the North Atlantic is not in a hurricane zone. And August 2006 should be fairly benign. The SAGA Rose is not as big as some P&O ships, but it is not a rowing boat either.
I was impressed with SAGA two years back when we flew from Heathrow to a German airport and got a superb coach into the Austrian Tyroll. The tour guide was superb and his English was better than most Englishman despite him being an East European.. The only slight fly in the ointment was that the plane was struck by lightning as we gained height on the climb from Heathrow. But I don't think SAGA has upset Thor causing him to want vengeance on us. The big bang scared us all, but I know that an aircraft is safer against lightning than standing in a field. I'll expand on that if anyone asks me.
I'll report on the cruise after I have returned home next August (2006)
But have a look at Page ACE
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Today is Wednesday the fifth of September 2007, and I returned from a SAGA cruise on Monday. The cruise I refer to above the line, I had to cancel because of a urinary condition. I'm not certain that I have covered the details in another page, so I won't repeat that data here. Having had ten nights on the SAGA Ruby, I can assert that they are up with P&O as being good. I am going to list the niggles just to show the quality of the service. Different people have different standards, meaning that a reader cannot be sure what "good" means. So I'll list all the niggles so as to give a guide what "good" is in my opinion.
The variety and quality of the food in the restaurant cannot be faulted. And the only complaint with the waiters is that they are too attentive. You will probably heard the quip "cats are the enemy of conversation". I'll replace cats with waiters. There was only one complaint, and that was by the elderly lady who shared a cabin with my step-daughter. She has various dietary problems and a severe vision problem. SAGA arranged that she could order almost what she liked despite the menu of the day. Not quite the extreme situation I saw a few years back when a Cunard chef gave an interview on TV. In the Queen Mary first class dining room, the diner could order anything that was aboard. This Yank ordered caviar at every meal. Whether he was really over the moon with sturgeon's row, or he decided that he would have his money's worth, we were not told. Anyway this lady met a huge cock-up at one of her dinners. And she wasn't afraid to complain. But the staff (all Phillipinos) just took away the meal she had been given (in error) and brought what she had ordered. Remember the rule: you judge a company by the way it responds to a problem. No organisation is perfect, but a company who sorts out a problem quickly is one to use again.
The breakfast menu was vast, evening including a sirloin steak.. My fried eggs were always just a wee bit undercooked, with liquid albumen on the white of the egg. I said a "wee bit" and that is what I meant. The one time I had a steak for dinner it was a wee bit too well-done for me. I think it was my error, I should have said "medium" rather that "medium well". But it was very eatable nonetheless.
I found that the slight engine noise was a plus, because on the Carnival cruise on the GT Infinity, various creaks and other noises were annoying in the early hours of the morning because the background was so quiet. I told the Hotel Director of the Ruby this, and she put it down as a future reply to people who complain about engine noise; some folk will complain about anything. I am a critical cuss, but I do try to be understanding. One of my jobs before I retired was in Quality Assurance, and you are required to be fussy whilst being honest and fair.
I didn't go ashore on any of the trips available around the whole of Ireland, but my wife and step-daughter said they were well run. A number of new names were on the brochures. They were landing points for towns or cities that are well known: Ringaskiddy for Killarney; Foynes for the Dingle Peninsular; Killybegs for Donegal town; Greencastle for Greencastle -- I've never heard of it before. Names like St Peter's Port in Guernsey; Galway; Belfast and Dublin are all well known places to me.
The sailing was arranged so that we awoke at each new port in the early morning. Lowering the anchor was always a bit noisy, but the captain told us on one occasion that they had problems with the anchor and getting it secured to the sea bottom. It seemed to take a number of attempts each time.
I made a quip to one of the crew "The name 'SAGA' was chosen as it is close to "GAGA". It raised a weak smile. Incidentally, SAGA is an acronym for "Social Amenities for Golden Ages". I'll bet you didn't know that!
To sum up: SAGA are good. They dabble in all sorts of businesses, from insurance to credit cards. What I truly like is that most of their telephone numbers are freephone. You'll see what I mean if you look at page AAP
.And SAGA truly seem to respond to customer complaints. I made a list of complaints and suggestions to the Hotel Director. The lady took everything down and told me that one or two of my ideas had implications of which I was not aware. Some of the ideas meant that head office would have to deal with them. I got a very nice letter and a bottle of wine as an appreciation for my suggestions. I made it clear to her from the outset that some of my ideas would cost real money. One such idea was that the dining room have acoustic tiles fitted to the ceiling to deaden the noise of a lot of people talking. This is a problem on most ships. I suggested that several chairs should be outside the lifts to cope with the likes of me when one had a long wait for a lift when things got busy. "This could give rise to safety difficulties, but will be forwarded to head office for detailed consideration".
SAGA is on my 'A' list