Rhodes Guide

Our first visit to Rhodes and what a pleasant surprise, it is an excellent cruise shop. You can walk to the town, walk around it hassle-free, and it is not expensive. An example of how easy they make this visit, the tourist's authority normally deliver maps to the ship to be taken at the reception. Fridge magnet one Euro compared with ten dollars in Bora Bora ... so bonus. It is a find. Great food, great art, nice people, fantastic wine. We stopped there with P&O, and we were followed around by the Norwegian Spirit. We have guides of Athens, Malta, Crete and other Med cities.

DORIS VISITS EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN MENU OF PORT GUIDES   DORIS VISITS WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN MENU OF PORT GUIDES

ATHENS METRO ATHENS ICE CREAM ATHENS GUIDE ATHENS HORSE+CARRIAGE ATHENS PLAKA

Well, we did end the day with an incredible bottle of rose wine with some grilled sardines and a Greek salad just away from the oldest square in the town, in a restaurant where we were not hassled to go inside. The town is an old walled city, whilst there is a new part with designer shops that we looked at quickly at the end, it is, without doubt, the charm of the old town that wins.

The cotton and art are not expensive and we were not over hassled. It was hot and whilst you feel protected suncream and a stop for liquid is recommended. The ship is very close and you can enter at any gate. The maps handed out are very clear. There is no need to prep this site or spend a lot of money, the film may help.

There are options to visit, inside the buildings with or without guides.

In brief, Rhodes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a well-preserved city with about 10,000 residents. The streets inside the wall are flat, the roads up to the back of the city have a gradient which is a nice climb. Sensible shoes. Castles, narrow streets, mosques, fountains, squares, vines draping, wine, fresh fish, and more. The old city wall is thick, it has been a strategic island for the Knights Templars and many others for centuries. Mussolini wanted to use the old Palace of the Grand Masters as his holiday home. It was originally a Byzantine fortress in the 7th century, then the administrative centre of the Knights after they conquered the island. To find it, walk up the cobblestone alley, the Avenue of the Knights. You will see the Knights of St John's palace on the right at the top. There are explanatory boards to read.

The knights had a hospital to deal with the wounded and then the plague that developed because of mounting dead bodies.

Take a look at the maps and help hereHere you will find this map of the old town

SHOPS  - The shop where we saw jewellery being made belonged to Nikoz. It can be found at the back of the town if you are walking around. These streets are quiet and the shops less commercial. His brother's boat is here if you want to book something small and local before you arrive.

SHIP TOURS help you choose your next ship Aurora Ship Tour Marella Discovery 2 Azura Ship Tour Cunard Queen Victoria Britannia Ship Tour Virgin Scarlet Lady Arcadia Ship Tour Ventura Ship Tour SUITE on P&O Every cruise ship and every fleet listed here

PORT GUIDES filmed by Doris Visits are a great way to research, remember your cruise and share your memories with your friends.   ATHENS GUIDE ANTIGUA CRETE GUIDE RHODES ST PETERSBURG ROME DUBROVNIK KEY WEST STATUE OF LIBERTY TOUR STAVANGER

You may have seen cruise thriller author & movie maker Stuart St Paul - click here on a ship giving an after-dinner speech or a talk with a book signing. Crime novels are a whole new experience. You may not have been to the ports in the novels, you certainly won't have been to the parts of the ship they use but they take you there. Stuart's page is here. The cheapest way to buy his cruise thrillers is the KINDLE BOX SET, all six cruise thrillers for the price of two.

CHAT GROUPS - is a fantastic way to help others and a place to find answers. We run a Facebook Group for each of the ships. For example, P&O IONA group  P&O Ventura MARELLA EXPLORER Disney & Family cruise chatSAGA Ocean & River cruise chat group Viking Ocean & River Cruising chatCunard Chat - Premium cruise liners Find the complete list of chat groups here

Voodoo in New Orleans - one scary trick or treet

I challenge you to walk into a voodoo shop, handle the items and feel nothing. African religions can be mistaken for voodoo, just as the museums and shops can be mistaken for being a little commercial. But they are fun and buying a spell might just be something you do in-the-moment. The American diaspora religions were developed mainly in southern America and New Orleans has much history there. The African religions are said to have influenced many other religions including Christianity. You will hear a lot about Marie Catherine Laveau who was born on September 10, 1801. She was a hairdresser who added healing and being a herbalist to her talents as well as said to have supplied poison to prisoners wishing to escape the gallows. Some of the stories will have been embellished, but she is said to have walked the streets like she was the Witch Queen of New Orleans, and is said to be seen walking in the procession every year at Mardis Gras. She married her first husband Jacques Paris (or Santiago) in 1819. He died or disappeared so she could marry a prominent rich white man and she died Marie Catherine Laveau Paris Glapion died on June 15, 1881, aged 79. She is buried in the Glapion family tomb. The cemetery can only be visited by family members of those there, or with a guide. Her daughter, also Marie, was as well known as a priestess which does have the effect of the two being mistaken for each other. The daughter is at rest in a church but some of the museum pictures you will see are the daughter.Doris Visits producer Stuart St Paul wrote about the voodoo high priestess Marie Laveux, and how she got inside the head of Macey a character in his series of cruise thrillers CSCI Cruise Ship Crime Investigators. Macey is helping investigate art thefts from luxury ships and paints the priestess in the graveyard. It is an interesting passage in Cruise Ship Art Theft that really shows the place and excuses some inspirational art by the youngster who is the star guest on the ship. Click the picture for details of the book. On the series page in Amazon, there is the opportunity to buy all six thrillers for the price of two in their boxed Kindle deal. Previously a stuntman then director in major A-List movies, Stuart has many stories to tell on stage. Like the one he told in New York when taken there on the Aurora to explain the tale.

CONTENT

The Port guides here on Doris Visits are a great way to remember your cruise and share with your friends. But you might want to chat.

Continue your cruise anywhere - on the train, on the plane. Load your kindle now, because you can now get all six cruise thrillers for the price of two in the Kindle Box Set. Cruise thrillers are a whole new experience. You may not have been to the ports used in the novels, you certainly won't have been to the parts of the ship they employ. All the cruise crime novels will make you feel like you are in the adventure and on the ship - dodge the bullets and stay out of the romance (same thing!). Ship and cruise accurate, the novels are a great way for new cruisers to discover a ship too. Please share the Amazon link with other cruisers.

CRUISE NOVELS

We have a chat site of books about ports and cities ships visit, where guests can share and talk with authors. CRUISE READING CHAT GROUP You may have seen the author on a ship giving an after-dinner talk or perhaps in the theatre during the day. His page is here. Stuart St Paul - click here  

 

Essentials - cruise travel labels and our cruise crime novels - oh, and the seasickness bands.

CHAT GROUPS - FAMILY CRUISING

P&O Iona chat  P&O Arvia

P&O Britannia

P&O Azura - Family Grand Class ship max 3600  P&O Ventura - Grand Class ship

 

 

MARELLA EXPLORER   Marella Explorer 2

Marella Discovery   Marella Discovery 2

 

Disney & Family cruise chat

 

CHAT GROUPS - ADULT ONLY

SAGA Ocean cruise chat group - over 40's if travelling with someone over 50. Both ships SPIRIT of DISCOVER, SPIRIT of ADVENTURE

LUXURY ADULT Cruising Chat - this group is for guests who experience many different ships (RSSC, Seabourn, Celebrity, Silverseas, Sovereign, Hapag Lloyd and many others )

 

Cunard Chat - Premium cruise liners

 

Viking Ocean Cruising chat - all Viking ocean ships here

 

Ambassador Chat - Britain's newest cruise line

 

Fred Olseon Criose Chat - Bolette, Borealis, Balmoral, Braemar

Virgin Voyages chat - Modern styled ships, fitness and game areas with limited smoking areas

 

Azamara chat - Radiance Class ships - Journey, Pursuit, Quest (previously the P&O Adonia) 700 guests

P&O Arcadia  P&O Aurora

Mobility challenges when cruising

 

CRUISE READING CHAT GROUP

 

CARIBBEAN PORT GUIDES

ANTIGUA ARUBA BAHAMAS BARBADOS BERMUDA BONAIRE CANAVERAL COSTA RICA COLUMBIA CURACAO CUBA DOMINICAN REP - AMBER COVE GRENADA GUADELOUPE JAMAICA KEY WEST MARTINIQUE MEXICO NEW ORLEANS PANAMA St THOMAS St KITTS St LUCIA Sint MAARTEN St VINCENT (& Bequia) TORTOLA TRINIDAD & TABAGO

 

Not all cruises are the same - the Canaries v the Baltic

 Because Spain has been more welcoming to UK families, the Canaries have become a go-to cruise destination. It is a long-used and liked holiday retreat for the British. Warm though sometimes windy, the sand is white and beautiful in most places, though a little black and volcanic in Lanzarote. In general, the islands are the same kind of cruise as the Caribbean in that you can treat the holiday as a floating hotel and do the beach. There is certainly nothing like the history of the Baltic, or the drama of the Fjords. 

Jean's videos of Madeira show the town, the gardens and the sledge ride. They form part of the playlist of Canary Island guides. They are all useful because she shows the buses in Tenerife taking you to the old town or across to the main beach, and Gran Canaria with the route down to the beach. 

This year we should be taking that tour and adding in Casablanca as well as another island or two. This is a relaxing cruise, sea sun and sand. A Baltic cruise can be said to be hard work, and we have at times been exhausted even though we love it just as much. It is a very different cruise because the beach doesn't really feature, although it can do. These ports are often following the old Hanseatic trade route and the towns are full of history. Palaces are grand, the guards often change and there are museums from Abba to the Vasa and St Petersburg art, religious buildings and re-constructed palaces. On this cruise as well as a coat or cover incase it does rain, though it can be very sunny, shoes and made for walking. Looking at Jean's videos you can see it is easy to more than your 10,000 steps a day at each stop.

Take a look at all the playlists we produce to help research before your cruise. This is our playlist of Baltic Cruise aids.

One note worth taking on board because this option sells out fast, is to do BOTH palaces in the same day. If you take a day for a palace, the tour inside is under an hour, the rest is taken up with looking at the outside and then strolling the gardens. Two palaces in a day is efficient. If you cannot climb stairs, check the help that might be offered. If it is only to watch a video tour in a room downstairs while others climb up the stairs and see the rooms, you will have seen it all here first. 

Book or Kindle file? A box set of multiple eBooks cheaper than a single paper book.

Many people still like the feel of a book, but it uses trees, creates waste, is costly at all points of manufacture, distribution and disposal as well as pays the author next to nothing if anything at all. In fact, it is harder and harder to defend against the fact that any smartphone can download a Kindle app and then play the audiobook as you read. 

Search for the Kindle app and just play with it, because once you have any form of device that will use the app you can send anything to yourself from your NHS proof pages to work you need to catch up on.  That is as well as more books than you could fit into your travel case. 

So, that is all history. The past we know about, we know you can listen or read and both keep up so they know where you are, but these books can appear in front of you relaxed in your living room reading off your giant 80-inch screen. One day houses won't have windows, they will all be screens, and you will be able to wake up as say, put my house in the Rockies... Your vision and experiences will be so much greater, just as now our base knowledge is capable of being so much greater.

The folding phone now seems to have come of age. It has been around for a while but struggled. Now screens can bend, and fold cloth-like. They can be wallpaper. They will be anything. The new Samsung is amazing. Link here.

https://amzn.to/314aebW

It has a standard size, phone screen front, but then opens up and doubles in size to become a tablet. You may say it is heavier than you are used to, but you have forgotten how heavy last years phone was and this will get lighter. But a tablet and a phone together. Then, books sold in box-sets so you can pick up 6 for the price of two, and they were already at the ridiculous Kindle price a paper book could not compete with. 

If you haven't already got a Kindle or Reader app on your device then do download one and play.  The box set of the six crime books has been created and it means you can get all 6 books bundled together for the price of two which is less than half price. You can find the books and the box set at .. https://amzn.to/3mg21JJ

How to cruise without getting on a ship.

There are a number of TV shows from the biggest cruise ship built, to the most expensive cruise ship ever built, to watching the daily events as lost bags are found and staff deal with customer demands. However, none of them is a holiday adventure. None of them mimics going away and being surprised.

The feel of being there, of seeing the ship and seeing the story unfold before you both happen in a cruise novel, and in the series of Cruise Ship Crime Detectives there are now six. The first, Cruise Ship Heist, sees a special forces war veteran go to a ship to commentate on the Panama Canal crossing, and be at the memorial service. He does not expect to be involved in a major crime with sums of money and people none of us expects to find on any cruise ship. The fast action story throws together a number of characters who in the second book, Cruise Ship Serial KIller, start a detective agency and find themselves being dropped way out into the Pacific to board a ship. The third book in the series is a simple problem; one of human trafficking and slave labour. A series of ships are used for the trade and the detectives solve the crime. Cruise Ship Art theft comes in as the fourth book when the younger members of the CSCI group that has expanded to include others, find themselves being used. Used is a word that many have to interpret, and many answers are available. The pandemic hits and cruising stops, and the fifth book is less of a direct action-adventure as a woman who is mentally ill sees that the world understands her lockdown. No one understands her taking a cruise and trying to come out of that state. It is a complex book of crime and mental illness.

Now released is the sixth book in the series. Blood Diamonds, the latest cruise thriller is definitely a page-turning action thriller. Like all of the books it can be read as a stand-alone novel, but the character's development is best appreciated when the books are read in order. However, if you want just one great cruise adventure, then it is Blood Diamonds. It is available now in the Amazon Books section as a hardback large print, paperback, or Kindle. The Audiobook is going through the system.

The longest chapter in Blood Diamonds is the first one, read here by the writer, Stuart St Paul. It sets up the story of the call the agency gets from the cruise operator because there is a problem on one of their ships. Like most cruise operators they have more than one ship, and like some their ships are identical. There is also a theme, and in this case, it is nymphs and mermaids; the ship is called MS Aerwyna. The name means friend of the sea and is pronounced Aer-wy-na. She is the daughter of the Greek goddess Doris, and Greek god Nereus who are said to have 50 daughters. The number associated with the mermaid Aerwyna is 6, but she is the prime focus of this investigation when the diamond safe on the ship is opened and almost totally cleaned out.

CSCI is an agency, about four blocks back from Dodge Island, the cruise terminal in Miami. Another four or so blocks away is the i95 highway, and Overtown. The i95 is south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 in Miami, Florida to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Overtown is said to be the worst project and slum area in the USA. The contrast in wealth could hardly be greater. On the streets, someone might be killed when a ten dollar drug deal goes bad, but on the ships, it would take a diamond heist for murder to be worth the risk. The call to the crime might seem ordinary, but the agents of the agency all know this could be another kill or be kill mission. The books are available on Amazon, hardback in large print, paperback and Kindle. The Audiobook is going through the process and will be released any day. All CSCI books are based around the cruise industry, and some follow a cruise route. Cruisers will be able to imaging most of the backdrop through the below-decks and the inner workings of the crew and cruise marketing will be new to them. The adventures all read like TV shows or movies, which they no doubt will all become eventually. Author Stuart St Paul comes from 50 years in the movie industry and is an award-winning writer and director. Find out more about the series and the author here on the CSCI series Amazon page. Or the author's page.

If you want to hear the first chapter read by the author, grab a coffee, put your feet up and take a twenty-minute break.

WORLD CRUISE

Have you ever cruised longer than a two week holiday period?

With the announcement by Royal Caribbean that they have a 9-month around-the-world cruise, with 150 stops, starting in December 2023, and leaving Miami. Helen mentioned it on our SAGA page.... My first cruise was 11 days at sea... I joined the ship in Antigua. Flying somewhere in the world was not new to me having worked as a stuntman in major world movies for many years. Another airport, another hotel room. However, this was a cabin.

I did not have to get up at some ridiculous hour to be taken to a film set. I could eat sitting down! Although that still seems odd to me on so many occasions as my food was always eaten while walking and talking. Food breaks were when we did recces or told the crew HoD's what was happening next. So how did I cruise? I had never cruised before. As someone with a history of planning major disasters around the world, I was asked, years ago, maybe in the 1980's ??? To design the Emmerdale Plane Crash, a major part of TV history that is still talked about. The plan was to move the sleepy daytime soap from the real village to a purpose-built one, and switch it to the evenings and make it every night. The public had no idea what was ahead. Neither did I. I was asked to stay as the action and event advisor and stayed 26 years. I only left Emmerdale to direct the Status Quo movie Bula Quo in Fiji which would make me not available to ITV for almost a year.

I was never expecting to be attached to a soap, not as a stunt and action designer. I also never expected to be sent on a cruise.

I was sent by the EMMERDALE producer as part of their PR. I was and I got hooked. The ship was the Black Watch and it was on a world cruise..Now I am a regular across many ships, inc SAGA next year, but I ask, what was your longest ever cruise?

https://www.dorisvisits.com/stuart-st-paul/

Since then I have written six thrillers that happen on a ship, and I have switched my office to the lounge, where I write on sea days looking out to sea. For an hour I go on stage and chat about my weird career and writing screenplays and novels, as well as mad disasters. Do I miss working up to 18 hours a day in the wet and mud for 6-days a week? No! I am not sure now why I did it.

Me on a rope is a painting by Quint Buchholz, a German painter, illustrator and author. It is called Giacomond, available as a print.

SEA SICKNESS

A wave of new cruisers is sailing onto our Doris Visits chat groups. Even the Azamara one has new members and that was in danger of my culling... A couple of them have raised the question of seasickness. I am not sure I have ever heard a crew member or staff say they never get it. We can cruise up to twelve times a year talking about our cruise thrillers and my past career in the movies, and I have been hit by it. Though I did also sleep through a force 11 gale back from Iceland.

To find our chat sites go onto our website, listed here. Look at all the ships on all the fleets, and the black CHAT box next to the ships will take you to the groups. The list of world ports is rather mind-blowing too .... see what a journey you have started?

This can be one of the least pleasant experiences on a cruise and it can hit anyone at any time. It is a result of a conflict in the inner ear, where the human balance mechanism resides and is caused by a vessel's erratic motion on the water. This motion sickness is the same in varying forms as that experienced in a travelling car, plane, or a white knuckle fun park ride. It comes from motion.

After a severe (or other) head injury, the crystals in your inner ear may misplace themselves and change your whole experience of balance, and getting the crystals back to where they should be, is far from easy. The treatment for that is vast, fast head movements to shake the crystals back. Age can affect the body, the motion may affect the body, ill health and injury can also affect the body and its response to the motion.

Basic ways to help yourself. Keep your sinuses clear, and have excessive earwax removed. Then, be prepared. Seasickness can even hit experienced crew at times, so don't get complacent. Arrogance is almost as bad as the movement of the sea at catching you out.

If you suffer from motion sickness and you are about to embark on your first cruise, consider booking a cabin on the ship that moves the least. The middle, or midships, and low down. This is the fulcrum-like invisible point around which the rest of the ship pivots. Like watching a sea-saw. In rough seas, those high up at the back, or the front can regret their choice. In such weather, public areas in these extremes may close just as outside decks will. The swimming pools are emptied too but when full show the motion the liquid in your body is trying to resist.

Whilst, the bigger the ship, and the newer the ship, the more stable it can be, prevention is always better than a cure. The medical centre will have fast-acting help, but in the shop, they will have both off the shelf medication and wrist bands. If in extreme weather, if the shop has to close, call reception or the medical centre. One leg out of the bed with a foot on the floor, or trying to look at the horizon are also told as helpful tips. The meaning of these cruise terms like 'stabilizers' is explained in our ABC of CRUISING.

Wrist bands, with and without magnetic buttons, are used. Both Jean and I have used them. Although we, as travelling guest lecturers we like to think being on the ship sometimes monthly means we are used to it, that is sometimes not the case. However, we did sleep through the storm force 11 back from Iceland that had the guests airlifted of a Viking ship. What storm? We asked as we heard guests talking the next day. But that is being lucky even though our cabin was behind the stage.

If worried. Book a central room, take medication and wristbands. If bought before they might be cheaper and you can access colours for your mood.

Bands are worn as a prevention, and the button sits between the two ribs of the inside wrist (Neiguan Point) and it is better when worn on both wrists. A pair. When the sea gets rough you will see many experienced sailors wearing them. They are so cheap compared with the holiday cost it seems daft not to carry them. We can cruise up to twelve times a year being a guest on one ship or other and can get (though rare) caught by a little disorientation so we always carry the bands and like a few other items are never taken out of the case.

Here is something else to help when you are seasick, as some people cannot read when motion sick. In the cruise thrillers I have written I have used seasickness and a head injury to show both. In the second book CRUISE SHIP SERIAL KILLER, one of the heroes picks up a head injury. In the next book, the effects of the sea and dealing with it all happen while solving the human trafficking on board ships, in the story CRUISE SHIP LAUNDRY WARS. Our hero has to start the cure (trying to resettle the crystals in the inner ear) while battling a human trafficking gang.

For the many who have suggested, they can see Joanna Lumley as Violet in DISASTROUS COVID-19 CRUISE ROMANCE, rest assured we have sent her the book. This is a story about a woman whose life has been suppressed by mental health problems. She cruises as a test to herself, determined to succeed. It is a romance and a troubling book. While holding the thriller thread and characters development. Her attempt is the catalyst of a number of disasters, and as often in the books a murder.

WHISPERSYNC - well, just as the population refused to accept early mobile phones, admit Debenhams or Top Shop could be bought by fledgling internet shopping sites, or that Netflix or Amazon might reduce the BBC to an also-run ... we have Whispersync. If you can't read when seasick, take note! Whispersync is still the fledgling, but growing fast. It is a system for almost any touchpad, smartphone, or Kindle. It uses a combined eBook (Kindle or other formats) with an audiobook. It means you can read the text while listening to the reader... or just read, or just listen. (No more, "I can't read when moving."). When you stop enjoying the novel, you can then pick up from where you were. It is fast taking up as a media form, like radio, like TV, but sitting in between. The manufacture of these is not easy as the paperback should, but certainly, the eBook must match the audiobook to as close to 100% the same as possible. Then the formats can be linked within the Whispersync system. Our first one to hit this system will be DISASTROUS COVID-19 CRUISE ROMANCE which has a few murders and a few failed romances entwined in the first ship back at sea under new regulations. The paperback and Kindle are out now and it is our best selling book yet. Maybe because the ship is just that bit different when guests are track and traced, vaccine certificated and forgeries dealt with as an international crime, buffet changed and face masks worn..... hey, it is just a novel, right?

Ever wondered how art is stolen from a cruise ship? CRUISE SHIP ART THEFT.

Take a moment to read the reviews on Amazon book pages or see the Amazon book series page. They can be bought as a box-set.  All these books are from the author of this blog, Stuart St Paul. He is a contributor and chat site moderator to the 43 Doris Visits ship chat sites. See his Doris Visits page. His Emmerdale fan page.

Doris Visits revamp

As a result of user feedback - I have been experimenting with a fact-table design for the ships and fleets on the main Doris Visits website. I have started with Iona and SAGA (both) .. and tried to get deck plans as well as the current position in there with links to the site pages. Take a look.

https://www.dorisvisits.com/saga-spirit-of-adventure/

I am sure I will mess with the design, and by the time all the ships at sea are done, sometime next year they will have been bought sold and changed again. I will do the British market first as these are the ones I get to visit as a guest author. The others will not get done until next year.

To save you clicking across, I will post the content here, and will try and post more regularly again now... having been sidelined by health for a while now... I am back.

SAGA is interesting because it junked its old ships and decided to make a power move. Out with the old, in with the new. And in with upmarket, style, all-inclusive and lots more. This is now a luxury cruise brand where even the speciality dining is included and if Virgin Voyages shout, 'but we stay up all night!'... so can SAGA cruisers.

Two ships, both with nightclubs, and Jouls Holland well into a five-year deal to be the name to them, they offer cabaret dining.

It is a small ship model, both the Spirit of Adventure and the Spirit of Discovery have a maximum capacity of 999 guests. Some cruises sell out very fast. Both SAGA new ships offer the highest standards in every respect: The Saga sisters are characterised by their eco-friendly and resource-saving design and their appropriate facilities for a discerning cruiser. With 20% of cabins for solo cruisers, the ship is spacious as well as stylish. They offer a familiar classic style, but with modern facilities from a USB charger in the room to an online system (which at the time of writing only works if you book direct and online). CLICK TO GO DIRECT If you go for the current position - see the button in the table. The SoA should be centre screen when the advert is dismissed.

The buttons in the table don't translate, so any of the book direct highlights take you to the SAGA site which will show the ship and deck plans. This is the chat group link https://www.facebook.com/groups/saga.cruise.chat.group

Dining. Spirit of Adventure has a fantastic choice of restaurants. The Dining Room and The Grill, also offers alfresco dining on the adjoining Verandah. There are 3 speciality restaurants; Amalfi, Italian; Khukuri, Napalese; The Supper Club, is a cabaret-style club where you can stay all night. But these fill so be sure to reserve your table once on board. These and the complimentary drinks served throughout your cruise are all-inclusive. Look around, there is so much the SAGA website can do a fuller job. While you are there, book direct with them, online.

Small ships have many advantages, but the main one is the ports and islands it is capable of getting to stop at. SAGA in particular has some very special routes with exciting stops. On any cruise ship, many of the guests can be said to be older, but SAGA states adult only. 40 years of age is the youngest guest, but they can only travel if with someone over 50; 50 being the main threshold. This is a typical year for the Spirit of Adventure, and in October of 2021 at least one cruise, the 32-night Ancient Wonders of the Black Sea on May 22nd, 2022 was sold out. SAGA's change to new modern, luxury all-inclusive ships has been a great success.

January 5, 2022 - Classic Canaries - 15 nights

January 20, 2022 - Canary Island Adventure - 16 nights

February 5, 2022 - Under the Glow of the Northern Lights - 17 nights

February 22, 2022 - A Caribbean Spring - 35 nights

March 29, 2022 - The Glorious Canary Islands - 15 nights

April 13, 2022 - In the Footsteps of St James - 11 nights

April 24, 2022 - Croatia and Cities of the Central Mediterranean - 22 nts

May 16, 2022 - An Irish Interlude - 5 nights

June 21, 2022 - Ancient Wonders of the Black Sea – 32 nts

June 22, 2022 - An Exhibition of the Baltic - 16 nights

July 8, 2022 - Melodies of Ireland - 11 nights

July 19, 2022 - Spitzbergen’s Arctic Landscape - 18 nights

August 6, 2022 - Croatia & Cities of the Central Mediterranean -22 nts

August 28, 2022 - Britain’s Celtic Fringe - 13 nights

September 10, 2022 - Secrets of the Emerald Isle - 9 nights

September 19, 2022 - Majestic Fjordland - 9 nights

September 28, 2022 - Spain and the French Riviera -15 nights

October 13, 2022 - Classical Islands of Greece - 22 nights

November 4, 2022 - The Glorious Canary Islands - 15 nights

November 19, 2022 - Archipelagos of the Atlantic - 19 nights

December 8, 2022 - Grand Caribbean Christmas - 35 nights

If a holiday is sold out, it is often removed from selling on the SAGA website, whereas, annoyingly, it will still be being sold at some agents who are behind the curve.

This is meant to be no more than a quick and helpful reference.

To research these, click above in the main box and it will take you directly to the SAGA site where the information will be accurate. Booking direct with SAGA has its benefits.

 

I am sometimes on the ships talking about my novels and career in film. Come and say hi. Stuart St Paul.