Saga schedule June 27th return to UK cruising
Saga’s 2021 Cruise season is scheduled to begin on 27th June 2021 when Spirit of Discovery will set off from Tilbury…
The aft terrace of Discovery features a living wall
Her first cruise will be a six day trip ‘Scottish Highlands and Islands’, visiting the Shetland Islands and Scotland ports and I imagine it will be quite a party!
Saga do have some passenger restrictions …
Kirkwall Harbour Entrance, Orkney
all guests will be UK passport holders, in the over-50 age group and must have completed a full vaccination cycle. Pre-departure testing will take place in the London Cruise terminal before boarding and this will include a full medical screening.
The ship will carry a maximum 80% of capacity of guests and full cleaning regime, including a specialist misting technique, will take place when the ship returns to Tilbury on the 3rd of July. This will probably result in a slightly delayed Sailaway time when Spirit of Discovery sets off again that same evening.
Saga’s second scheduled cruise - on July 3rd - is a ‘Northern Lights and Fjords’ itinerary…
Sognefjord, Norway
this eight-day trip to Orkney and the Shetland Islands will also include a day of Scenic cruising in Sognefjord, Norway - but no passenger landings will take place in Norway.
This itinerary will be repeated on the 25th July.
Holyhead, Anglesey - Wales
In between the two trips Saga have scheduled a 14 night ‘Great British Adventure’ . Leaving Tilbury on the 11th July, this is a complete circumnavigation of the UK including Falmouth, Holyhead, Belfast, Greenock, Ullapool, Kirkwall, Newhaven and Newcastle. Following the successful completion of these four cruises Saga hopes to resume the published itinerary for Spirit of Discovery with “A Taste of the British Isles” on August 2nd.
At present it is planned that cruisers will only be able to go ashore in UK ports, on the included, organised, excursions…
but this limitation will be reviewed if there is further lifting of social distancing requirements by UK and Scottish Governments. Saga will be abiding by these onboard ship as well as off.
The Spirit of Adventure, is scheduled to commence her Inaugural season on July 26th…
The Distinctive yellow funnel of Spirit of Discovery
Spirit of Discovery's sister ship, she was completed by the Meyer Werft shipyard in July 2020 and arrived on Tilbury in October 2020. Her Maiden voyage is a 15 night cruise circumnavigating of the British Isles - again leaving from Tilbury. It is already almost completely booked, as is the following cruise which will be as the published itinerary.
The London Cruise Centre at Tilbury is home port for all these newly added itineraries …
The London Cruise Terminal, Tilbury
it is where Saga have been berthing both Discovery and the new Spirit of Adventure during the pandemic. With the demise of Cruise and Maritime Voyages, who often used Tilbury, it is a good use of the spacious Terminal there, especially given the amount of pre-cruise administration and lateral flow testing that will have to take place. It is not known yet whether departures will switch to Dover and Southampton as Saga returns to their published schedules.
At present Saga is contacting customers directly to reschedule those who were already booked…
on the May, June and July voyages that have been cancelled. Saga are hoping to complete this by the end of next week and then the cruises will be opened for general booking. Agents are working through those with cancelled cruises in date order so please be patient if you are one of those affected.
The Spa on board Spirit of Discovery
I hope you have found this useful, I think its great to see a plan to restart in the UK. I would love to know what you think so please add a comment below! There are also some small affiliate links there which help towards the running of the website - if you click through and buy anything from them it gives us a few pence but doesn’t cost you any extra! It’s a great help and thanks to all those who do!
Happy portExploring!
Cathy
xx
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