Just back from our first cruise since 2019 and first time abroad since the pandemic. Visited Lisbon, Portimao, Santander, La Coruna, Bordeaux, Brest and, finally, St, Marys. Too busy (you couldn’t make it up) so full post at some indeterminate future date!! I promise this won’t be the long ramble of previous holiday posts. This one is short, sweet(ish) and very much to the point….
First things first, this was our initial voyage with Saga cruises, attracted by the no fly option and the door to door chauffeur service. A bit pricey, but our first for a while, so hey ho.
The car service was exemplary, both to the port (Dover) and the return trip (Portsmouth). The ship was understated, deliberately so, but our cabin was fine and, like all on this ship, had a pleasant enough balcony. The ship was genuinely all-inclusive and the food and wine were both well above average. The specialty restaurants (again no additional charges) were also perfectly fine but not really a discernible step up from the main dining room fare. The staff on board were, almost to a man (and woman) excellent and very attentive – particular shout out to our cabin steward (absolutely brilliant) and the waiter in the Britannia Lounge who soon remembered our names and favourite late evening tipple. The open dining promise (whenever and with whoever you wish) proved to be completely misleading however, fuelled by the huge number of main restaurant table reserved by previous cruisers and also by what appeared to be an informal company policy of eating at 6.30pm or 8.30pm. So irritating that we only ate in the main restaurant twice and on both occasions we noted how perverse it was to be sat in amongst so many empty tables, presumably in the forlorn hope that most customers would be happy on a ‘sharing table’. Other than eating in the specialty restaurants, we ended up eating in the “self service” grill which, despite the moniker, supplied exactly the same food / menu as the main dining room and was also a served environment in the evenings. Fine for us, not so peachy if you were looking for a genuine self service alternative.
The itinerary was also a plus point as we had only ever been to Lisbon before. In addition to Lisbon, we visited Portimão, La Coruna, Santander, Bordeaux overnight, Brest (with an included excursion to Locronan) and finally St. Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. They all had merit and the included excursions were well organised and did give you a taste of the ports of call; the downside was that the trips broke up your day to the point that any independent time shore was extremely limited or non existent. We enjoyed the ports without included excursions the most – Portimão in Portugal, Bordeaux and the Scilly Islands, although even the trip in the Scilly’s was understandably cut short by the impending arrival of almost certain local storms.
So, would we travel with Saga again? They do a lot right and the ship, whilst deliberately understated, is extremely comfortable and the food is very good, but not exceptional. Whilst reading reviews beforehand they had intimated we would be surrounded by the aged and infirm, but it proved to have a much broader clientele than anticipated. We did indeed meet a few elderly people (late 80s, early 90s), who proved more capable and mobile than some of their younger brethren – good luck to them. If the itinerary and price proved attractive, then we probably would return. The two ships are modern and, looking at the deck layout, much the same and all inclusive is a bonus – it’s not free (hence the initial cruise price) but, beyond that, you don’t expend a penny on the ship. Oh, and we’ve never met a couple we first met on a 2011 cruise on a subsequent sailing. Well, we did on this one, a mere eleven years after the last one with them!
