Saga Spirit of Adventure to Scandinavia July 2025

[Mervyn and Trish]

I fully understand that. Saga is fast becoming our go to cruise line for the two of us, but Iona/Arvia offer great choices for our wider family holidays.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The Swedish Island of Gotland today and our first tour, our only paid one. Four and a half hours including some scenic driving, a ride on a vintage railway, local refreshments, a church visit and a slow walking tour of the old town. I know the cruise lines have little say in the guides but ours was excellent.

Organisation of the tours was good too. I've got fed up recently with other lines' tours where you are asked to meet on the quayside at a particular time, and not before. Then you have to estimate how long it will take to disembark and walk to the coach only to find everyone else has been sitting on the coach for 20 minutes and all the seats are full except two at the back, together if you're lucky.

Saga do it differently. We were given a time to meet at the theatre on board. If we played nicely we were given a sticker on our tickets with our coach number and directed to it. Anyone arriving excessively early was sent to wait in the theatre until their due time. So very smooth and no quayside scrum.

And a word on front seats. They are reserved for those occupying accessible cabins unless not required.

Tomorrow we have our first included tour.

[Mervyn and Trish]

More on food, and flexibility.

We've got used recently to seeing the regular predictable rotation of menus, the giveaway reference codes are printed on them. There's more flexibility on here with the insertion of a few local dishes.

And flexibility on opening. Unlike the bigger ships the buffet isnt open 24 hours a day, though room service is. It actually closes for a time in the afternoon between lunch and dinner. Afternoon tea is elsewhere. But yesterday when we returned from our tour after it was due to close we were pleased to find they'd kept it open for an extra half hour for us.

Food quality continues to be excellent. I've only seen one dish I was pleased I hadn't ordered. That was a Sunday roast served yesterday which didn't look inspiring. Fortunately I'd opted for the Quail.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Actually management has reminded me it was Guinea Fowl.

[Portsmouth]

Organisation of the tours was good too. I've got fed up recently with other lines' tours where you are asked to meet on the quayside at a particular time, and not before. Then you have to estimate how long it will take to disembark and walk to the coach only to find everyone else has been sitting on the coach for 20 minutes and all the seats are full except two at the back, together if you're lucky.

Interesting to know that organisation of tours is well planned......I know exactly what you mean about getting to the coach at the right time and finding it already virtually full. Good to hear you had an excellent tour guide

[Mervyn and Trish]

Although Saga do their best some passengers still make trying to get the best seats on the coach an Olympic sport.

We were a few minutes earlier arriving at the Theatre today and there was a slight delay in the coaches being ready. So once having been allocated our group and given our stickers we were asked to take a seat in the theatre. Enter on the starboard side, pointed to the row to sit in and asked to shuffle along the row towards the port end.

We were around about tenth in the row, which filled over the next ten minutes.

When our turn came we were invited to depart from the port side and make our way down to the gangway. Most of us did so in an orderly and polite fashion. But there were some.who broke away from the other end of the row and sprinted for the exit and then weaved down the stairs passing more people. Unbelievable.

[Stephen]

They should have been sent back. Probably bloody Northerners

[david63]

Probably bloody Northerners

Northerners don't sprint - have you tried sprinting in clogs?

[Stephen]

Probably bloody Northerners

Northerners don't sprint - have you tried sprinting in clogs?

Probably too high on drugs

[Ray B]

Actually management has reminded me it was Guinea Fowl.

Easily done merv, guinea fowl are cheaper. May be on really posh ships they serve Quail.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I wouldn't know. I've never seen them in Aldi.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Today's entertainment is the woman who still doesn't realise she needs her cruise card to get on and off the ship and never has it ready. Yesterday she held up everyone while she searched her several purses, handbags and rucksacks. This morning she went further, arguing with the guy on security that since she knew her cabin number he could just look her up.on the system and let her disembark. He with infinite patience was assuring her that no Ma'am he couldn't.

[Stephen]

Must be from planet brain dead.

[david63]

since she knew her cabin number he could just look her up.on the system and let her disembark.

He should have done that and then she would not be able to get back on - problem solved for tomorrow!

[Mervyn and Trish]

We’ve now done two of the included tours. Generally they're panoramic overview tours around two to two and a half hours with no frills like included admissions or refreshments.

Yesterday's in Stockholm was slightly curtailed because the ship had to depart earlier than planned. So there were no stops. Nonetheless we saw and learned more about Stockholm than we did on a paid P&O tour a few year's ago.

This afternoon's in Tallinn was longer and included three photo stops, one with a short guided walk. We were prewarned that coaches are not allowed within the old town so we did that ourselves via shuttle bus/on foot this morning.

We've very pleased with them. And it's not a myth. Saga tour escorts really do hand out Werthers Originals!

[Mervyn and Trish]

More on food. The variety and quality in the buffet is better than I've seen anywhere in a long time, if ever.

And the staffing levels show. You can barely sit down anywhere before someone is offering you food or drink.

[Stephen]

Good to hear it’s all going well Merv. If you book for next April you can buy me that drink you promised. Bu99er, just remembered it’s all included. Foiled again.

[Whynd1]

The variety and quality of the buffet on Saga is superb. Amazing shellfish.
You can have fresh baguettes made to order, pizzas etc.

Love having lunch up there.
Then the waiter pops over with a bottle of dry rose. !!

Lindsey

[jacksparrow]

Great reading this, I don’t know if I did the search wrong but yesterday I did just a random search for a single on a Mediterranean cruise and us was over £11k. Whilst it sounds nice it’s a bit too much for me.

[Whynd1]

The average for a standard single cabin for a 12 night cruise is about £7,000.

Saga do it differently you don't pay a single supplement, you have a single cabin. Occasionally there not much difference in price from the standard single to the next grade up.

If you cost everything into your cruise, drinks, speciality restaurants, transport etc and that on Saga all cabins are balconies, I didn't think the price was too bad.

Lindsey

[Onelife]

Great reading this, I don’t know if I did the search wrong but yesterday I did just a random search for a single on a Mediterranean cruise and us was over £11k. Whilst it sounds nice it’s a bit too much for me.

Hi Sparrow,

I did a similar search comparing (roughly) the difference between a 19-day cruise (two/possibly three adults) on Aurora costing £8.500 to that of one on Saga. Allowing £3.400 for the extras you don't get with P&O I estimate it would still cost me a minimum of £7, 000 more to do a similar cruise with saga. Like you this is more than I would be prepared to pay for any holiday… land or sea.

[Ray B]

OL, I tend to agree with you. One very nice cruise on an upmarket ship, or, two maybe three cruises on a average priced ship.
All depends what your expectations are.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I agree, it's more expensive than P&O. But...... Saga pricing is very transparent. They have a brochure price that doesn't change. But they offer discounts that start at 35% and then drop as cabins fill. So book early. We got 30% off this cruise. The only cheaper late deals they offer have no choice of cabin. You get what no one else wants. We would never do that. Position is too important for that.

Next point there is so much included. And a HUGE difference in quality and service. They position themselves as a premium line, not a budget one, and work hard to live up to it.

It's a position P&O once occupied pre Carnival. Our first cruise on Oriana cost us £130 pppn in 1999 in an outside cabin, no balcony. That's equivalent to £250 today, so £500 pn for two of us. £7k a 14 night cruise. Then we'd spend about £50 per day on drinks, tours etc. Another £700. Then tips, internet if we wanted it, parking etc . So a total of around £8k by the time it's totted up.

This cruise, in a far superior and larger balcony cabin has cost us around £7700 and all we've spent extra is one paid tour. So it's not really Saga is expensive, it's P&O that's now cheap as chips. But it shows in the moaned about cutbacks.

[david63]

Just for comparison I was looking at Saga v Cunard.

Last year we had three weeks on Queen Victoria in Queens Grill. Taking the total cost (cruise, onboard spend, gratuities, air fares, hotel etc) an equivalent Saga cruise in 2026 is 40% more expensive.

Looking at two comparable cruises to the Med in April 2026 a twin balcony on Saga is the same as a Queens Grill Master Suite (Saga is actually twice the price).

Now I can fully accept that Saga has some benefits over other cruise lines but I am having a hard time trying to justify the overall benefit for the significant extra cost.

[Mervyn and Trish]

You must have a good radar for bargains. We paid more for Princess Grill on Victoria even before drinks, trips and excursions than we're paying here!