Firstly, I cannot fault the ship or the crew who were excellent. However, having just spent short of £8,000 on our first holiday for nearly three years we were rather surprised at the age group, advertised as "holidays for the over 50s" which in reality was more like over 80. Consequently the activities and the food on board the ship focused on this age group. I am 75, my wife 68. I felt like a teenager, my wife felt like an infant.

The cruise did not get off to a good start having been delayed leaving Southampton for 13.5 hours due to bad conditions in the Bay of Biscay and then a further 25 hours moored off Babbacome Bay. We eventually left Babbacombe Bay at approximately 5 pm on Saturday, two days after embarkation, which resulted in the first port of call, Cadiz, being missed. During this time the ship had it's first Covid outbreak brought on by the art teacher, resulting in it's first lockdown of approximately 2.5 hours. Our first port of call was in Lanzarote where we arrived at 11.30 am, five and half days after the start of the cruise. This only gave us a few hours to see the island, meaning that some of the trips had to finish early, missing out on the last hour or so due to departure time. The next stop was Grand Canaria. Sitting in the Playhouse waiting to disembark the ship at 9 am we were told there had been a further outbreak of Covid, resulting in the second lockdown lasting approximately 3.5 hours. The Spanish authorities then refused clearance for passengers to leave the ship until 5.30 p.m. by which time it was virtually dinnertime. The next port of call, Fuerteventura, we had an excursion booked for the afternoon and decided to stay on the ship in the morning, taking in some sunshine. Again whilst awaiting to disembark the ship, we were informed that because the sea was splashing onto the dock it made it unsafe to disembark and the gangway was closed. The crew went ashore looking for passengers who had left asking them to return to the ship, which then left early at approxmately 4.30 p.m. The next two ports of call went ahead as scheduled and we actually got to see two islands. The final port of call was Madeira. This ship was unable to make it as far as the dock due to heavy seas, so the ship set sail. The captain informed us there would be an additional stop at A Caruna which we arrived at two days later at approximately lunchtime, where we managed to leave the ship for a walk around the town.

We fully understand that most of the above problems were associated with the weather and were not the fault of Saga. However, this took the pleasure out of the trip. Read more