Are you crazy?
That's what friends said to me when they'd heard that I'd booked on the cruise line that
I am on right now.
I did it anyway, because I was intrigued to find out if cruising on a line where you have
to be over 50, is any different from the multitude of cruises I've done in the last few years,
whereby default, the passengers were mostly over 50 anyway.
Because that's basically most of the people who cruise and the cruise lines that I normally
go on.
So is this any different?
Well, yes.
It turned out to be different in ways I hadn't expected at all.
But importantly, I also discovered three really simple and very, very practical things that
you should do and I should do, if you're looking at going on a new cruise line.
I should have done this before I chose this cruise.
It would have made things so very different.
If you're new here, welcome aboard.
I'm Gary Bembridge and my goal is to make it much more fun and really much easier to
discover, plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations.
This was unforgettable, and let's find out why?
The first thing that worried me about going on this particular cruise line, Saga, which
targets the over 50, was who are the ships designed for?
What is the look and feel?
Is it going to be very old-fashioned, very fuddy-duddy and very traditional?
Because we've seen other lines that have a large percentage of over 50 travellers, bringing
on something much more contemporary and modern.
So even Holland America with their new ships, Celebrity certainly with their revamps, Oceania
with their upgrades.
They're bringing a much more contemporary look and feel.
Well, I shouldn't have been worried, because when I stepped on board, I found something
very unexpected.
It looked very much like a sort of more modern contemporary boutique hotel.
So the design and decor certainly wasn't old-fashioned at all.
It was very contemporary, with artwork dotted around the place, which was also pretty contemporary,
modern and pretty out there in many ways.
The ships are very new ships.
So Spirit of Discovery that I'm on, came into service in 2019.
Spirit of Adventure, the sister ship, only came to service in 2021.
So certainly the look and the feel and the design of the ship was very contemporary.
So that certainly was a big surprise, it was not something that I had expected.
As I explored the ship, I found of course, you had all the facilities, all the venues
that you'd normally expect to find on a ship, no matter who they're catering for.
So you had lots of bars, the South Cape Bar, the Living Room, the big Britannia Lounge.
You had, of course, theatres, all that kind of stuff that you'd expect.
But also importantly, there was lots of fitness activity centres as well.
So you had a good-sized fitness centre.
You had a swimming pool, which was actually a pretty good- sized swimming pool.
You have a massive big spa area.
You have outdoor deck game areas, even had a golf simulator.
So lots of activity-focused facilities as well.
When it came to the cabins, again, found those pretty contemporary and modern as well, with
all the usual things you'd expect.
So USB chargers, interactive television.
So it certainly wasn't as old and fuddy-duddy as I perhaps thought it would be when I was
using my stereotypical view of a company that might be catering for an older passenger.
There were, however, a couple of nods to that slightly older demographic, which they lay
down.
So for example, if you take a look at the swimming pool, there was a special kind of
slow, staggered entry system and so you can get in and out the pool very easily.
Twenty percent of the cabins on the ship are solo cabins, again reflecting that many people
in their demographic are cruising solo.
The fare included some things, which probably also are very much liked by an older demographic.
So it had things like transfers to and from your home included, insurance was included,
which included even COVID cover.
And I guess that may be talking to a demographic who is even skewing, even older, that may
struggle to get insurance for cruising.
The other thing though that did strike me is the lack of focus really on technology.
So Wi-Fi is included in the fare, the fares are pretty all-inclusive.
However, the Wi-Fi was not that good.
So for example, you couldn't really use a lot of social media.
So I couldn't use things like Twitter, I couldn't use Instagram very well, you certainly couldn't
stream YouTube.
And that felt to me, like not really focusing on the demographic.
I had loads of people coming up to me on the cruise who watch the channel.
So are YouTube watchers, they see things on Facebook, they talk to their kids and grandkids
on FaceTime.
But you couldn't really do that on the Wi-Fi.
So that was probably one area that hadn't really reflected the people like me, who are
in my early sixties, who are very active on Wi-Fi, digital, and that wasn't really catered
for as well as it could be.
So there came at my first really big aha moment.
The first big, simple, practical tip is make sure, before you go on any new cruise line
and any new ship, you check out in a huge amount of detail, exactly what is on the ship.
So you check out the kind of hardware, what the facilities are, but also check out the
software and some of the reviews on things, whether it's important to you, like say Wi-Fi,
or it is the fitness centre or whatever it is.
So spend some time studying the deck plans, spend some time looking at reviews and certainly
spend some time looking at ship tours that you can find very easily on things like YouTube.
If I'd followed that simple tip, I would have realised, for example, that one key facility
and thing that I like to do on a cruise, is not on Saga and not on the Spirit of Discovery.
And that is that there is no casino.
When I'm on a cruise, I do like to have a bit of flutter and play the machines or play
a bit of blackjack.
Once I was on board and I realised that was the case, that did start to get me worried
a little bit around, does that mean that the activities and the daily programme and the
things to do on board are also not going to really talk to me as a cruise passenger?
As I started to look at the daily programme and look at the plan of events, I could see
that it was a pretty classic cruise experience, pretty much as I've experienced on Celebrity,
Holland America, Princess and those kinds of cruise lines.
So pretty classical.
Dress code for example, was in place, as it is on most of those other cruise lines where
you have a majority of passengers, by definition, who are over 50.
So there was a smart casual evening where you're expected to wear, as a gentleman, a
collared shirt of some kind.
I tended to wear long sleeve shirts, smart slacks, no jeans.
And then they did have a formal gala night, where a lot of people, as I discovered on
this cruise, would go the full hog and wear a dinner jacket or a tuxedo.
And ladies would wear the most remarkable gowns.
But that wasn't that different to my experience on other cruise lines.
So it's kind of expected that was going to happen.
The daily programme had the usual fare of quizzes, deck games, enrichment, cooking demonstrations.
The shows were, again, fairly similar.
They were kind of review type shows, focusing on different decades, song and dance type
material.
They had guest artists, comedians, guest singers from famous bands, West End, that kind of
stuff.
So the actual overall programme was pretty much the same.
So what was clear is a cruise line that requires you to be 50 or over, has pretty much the
same structure, the same dress code, the same daily programme activities as those more traditional
cruise lines or mainstream cruise lines like Princess, Holland America, Celebrity, that
don't have a specific age target, but tend to have that kind of traveller on board.
The other question I had is around dining.
Would I have the diversity and the range and the choice of innovative food options that
I would have on those other cruise lines?
Or would Saga actually have a much more conservative, traditional approach to dining options?
What I found was I should not have worried, because they had quite a wide range of dining
schedule, usual, your buffet and your main dining room with big menus, as you have on
those other cruise lines.
They also had three specialty dining restaurants.
They had one which was a steakhouse called the Club with Jools, they had East to West,
which was an Asian fusion restaurant, so pretty innovative.
Then they had Coast to Coast, which is mostly a seafood restaurant, again with a wide range
and very innovative food.
So I shouldn't have worried.
A cruise line targeting people over 50, Saga, it definitely had a diverse range there.
The other area that I was less sure about is excursions, because I certainly like to
do excursions which are a little bit more on the active side.
So I'll always go for the cycling excursion, for example.
Or if there's whitewater rafting or some kind of hike up a volcano or something like that.
So I like things that are much more in that area.
So my concern was, would Saga have excursions, which were much more sedentary, much less
out there, if you like?
And in reality, the answer was probably skewing a little bit towards that.
So there was panoramic excursions, for example, much more bus-driven focused excursions.
They did though have some excursions, which were more hikes and walks, but not really
out there, pushing you kind of excursions.
So the excursions I would say, definitely leaned a little bit more on the conservative
side than some other cruise lines.
Of course, the advantage you have, is in port you can go and do your own thing, you can
do independent excursions.
So that probably counterbalanced that.
But certainly on the table, on the offerings, I would say the excursions were probably a
little bit more sedentary, a little bit more conservative than I personally would normally
have enjoyed, and I sometimes get offered on those other cruise lines.
There was a really big focus on art, on history, on culture and food.
So I definitely think when you got to the excursion side, there was more of a nod to
the demographic.
There are a couple of other little touches where we saw, again, a nod to the demographics.
So for example, when you got off the excursion, one of the Saga signatures is they offer you
a Werther's Original sweet, which for those of you don't know it, it's a very traditional
sweet.
And lot of the advertising, for example, talks about grandparents sharing it with their grandkids.
So little touches like that, probably more of a nod to the demographic.
Another nod to the demographic was we had a couple of ports where you had to get on
the tenders, we had to get on those little tender boats to take you to the shore.
And we had to all go into a step test, to show that we were agile and mobile enough
to actually step off the ship onto a tender.
So that was something that I haven't seen on other cruise lines.
So the programme itself was pretty conservative and fairly traditional.
And that brought up for me the second, really big practical and simple tip if you're looking
at moving to a new cruise line.
And that is to not just read the reviews, but to actually look at the daily programme.
So one of the things I've seen around, is people will often keep the daily programme,
they might post a blog about it.
But one of the things I realised is what you should do, is actually ask people who've been
on that cruise line if they've kept the daily programme, and can you look at it?
If I'd looked at the daily programme, I would have got a really good sense about what the
entertainment was, what the activities were and the nature of those activities.
That for me, is a really big, big tip.
If I'd followed that particular tip and looked at the daily programme for this cruise line
and this ship, I would have seen on the daily programme, in the Britannia Lounge, every
evening for quite some hours, was a live band and ballroom dancing.
There was going to be no nightclub, no silent disco, none of that kind of activity.
And that probably would have flagged the type of people who are going to be on board.
Clearly people, and a lot of people, who enjoy ballroom dancing, which by definition probably
means skewing a little bit older.
Now my background is marketing.
And one of the things I learned in marketing is if you put an age on something, you can
pretty much guarantee that people 15, 20 years above that, are going to buy your product.
So if you say 40, you can expect people like me in their early sixties to buy it.
What I found on board is, in reality, most of the passengers I would say were probably
in the 65 to 75-year age group.
So definitely, me in my early sixties, was on the younger side.
And I think really what my experience was, is that is really the heart of the Saga traveller.
That is where they cater for the best.
Those are the people who are definitely happiest on board and the daily programme and the ship
and all the activities really, really satisfied that group, probably more than anybody else.
That brings me to my next, really simple and practical tip.
And that's by looking at the ship, looking at the daily programme is, figure out what
the real sweet spot for a cruise line is.
Now on Saga, it's very easy because it is very much more age driven.
However, for every cruise line you can pretty much figure that out.
So are they going after the fun-loving, party, [inaudible 00:12:52] carnival?
Are they looking for the more international loving, multicultural loving families, which
could be MSC.
So try and figure out who the cruise line is really zeroing in on, who they want to
keep most happy, and decide is that for you?
Of course, all these cruise lines, you're going to have fun on anyway because of the
destinations, the food, the facilities, and that kind of stuff.
But if you really want to find the ideal cruise line or the cruise line that you know is going
to work when you jump into a new cruise line from one you're really familiar with, really
focus on who is the sweet spot?
And see if you fit within that.
And I think you can pretty much tell that by looking at the ship, looking at the facilities
and by looking at the daily programme.
If you think Saga is the sort of cruise line that could be right for you because it's in
your sweet spot, click on this video here, where I break down Saga in much more detail,
including one of the things that they do particularly well that other cruise lines don't do well.
So click on that and I'll see you over there right now.