I Took a Traditional 50+ Saga River Cruise (Food, Ship, Entertainment and More)
Are you Wondering if a Saga River Cruise is right for you? I took one and had an amazing time exploring the Danube.
I’d definitely recommend a cruise with Saga – but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone.
The following seven points will help you to make an informed decision about whether a Saga River cruise is right for you.
Saga Cruises Are Aimed At The British Market
Without a doubt, Saga River Cruises is aimed primarily at the British market.
I recently returned from a Danube river cruise with Saga where almost all passengers were British. Having said that, Saga cruises are not exclusively for Brits.
Saga doesn’t advertise in the USA, Canada, or Australia, which explains why the majority of passengers are British.
Saga Cruises Include British Touches
British favourites are regularly on the menu of Saga cruises.
I had the most amazing fish and chips during my Saga River cruise. You’ll find out more about the food later in this post.
Tea is heavily featured in the daily schedule. Afternoon tea happens every day and offers passengers a variety of sandwiches, cakes, and teas to choose from.
Onboard, there was a choice of Yorkshire tea, PG tips, and about 15 other tea choices.
Tea and coffee-making facilities are available in the main lounge 24 hours a day, and tea and coffee are also served at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Mum and me, enjoying afternoon tea!
Saga Now Build Their Own River Ships
When I sailed with Saga, they didn’t own river cruise ships. They chartered them from other river cruise companies.
There is now a mixture of Saga-built river ships, but they continue to charter ships from other companies too.
This means that there is a lot of variety in regard to onboard ship amenities within the Saga fleet. The ships are chartered exclusively for Saga, meaning that no other cruise lines/companies can use the ships while they are chartered to Saga.
Other river cruise lines that build their own ships will usually have little or no variation in their fleet.
The ships chartered by Saga are generally older than ships you may find on other river cruise lines like Emerald Waterways and Avalon.
You will know if you are travelling on a purpose-built Saga ship, as they have similar themed names. They are called:
Spirit of the Douro
Spirit of the Danube
Spirit of the Rhine
Spirit of the Moselle
This aligns with Saga’s two Ocean Ships, the Spirit of Adventure and the Spirit of Discovery.
Filia Rheni River Cruise Ship Review
I cruised on the Filia Rheni, which was built in 1999. She was a very comfortable ship, and although she was not really showing her age, you could still tell that she wasn’t a modern river ship.
The design of river ships has changed in recent years and certain features onboard gave away the ship’s age.
That said, all of the furnishings onboard appeared relatively new, and nothing was broken or scruffy. The Filia Rheni provides a traditional river cruise experience.
She has one big dining room, one lounge and a swimming pool on the top deck. The ship is a good size for the number of passengers that she holds, we certainly never struggled to find a seat or a sunlounger!
At one point, I had eight sun loungers, a giant chessboard and a swimming pool to myself!
Filia Rheni Cabin Review
We stayed in a balcony cabin, which was a decent size. The cabin had everything we needed, and we were very comfortable there.
That said, there wasn’t anything in the cabin that particularly wowed me, but I did enjoy leaning out of the balcony as we sailed along.
The cabin was cleaned to a high standard every day, and my only complaint was that the bed wasn’t very comfortable. I could feel the springs digging into my arm when I lay down.
I fixed this by using the bed cover as a mattress topper, and from this point on, it was fine.
Saga Cruises Include Transfers
During my Saga cruise, I spoke to many other guests and asked them about why they liked cruising with Saga.
Other passengers onboard said that they liked Saga because it looked after its guests well, and they included transfers within the cruise fare.
Saga seems to be pretty flexible when it comes to travel arrangements.
Some passengers caught trains instead of taxis, and a few even had hotel stays included because they lived so far from the airport.
Transfer Distance
Saga includes a transfer if you live within 250 miles of the cruise port or airport, which I think is amazing.
I was picked up for my Saga cruise at 4 am and taken to the airport. The taxi alone would have cost over £100 and we had the same thing on the way home too!
This service is a private chauffeur for distances up to 75 miles each way, and a shared chauffeur service from 76-250 miles each way.
Your included nationwide shared chauffeur service Getting to your UK departure point is easy and hassle-free, thanks to our nationwide shared chauffeur service, which is included on every river cruise. On the day of your river cruise, you will be picked up from home and driven to the international airport for your included flight, or the Eurostar terminal for your train journey to your destination and included transfer to your ship. On the final day of your cruise, you will travel back to the airport or Eurostar terminal, where a chauffeur will be waiting to drive you home.
Saga
If you don’t want to be driven to the airport, Saga will pay for your airport parking.
Car parking at the airport If you would prefer to drive yourself, we can arrange secure car parking at the airport for no extra cost.
Saga
*This service operates only in the UK.
The Saga Team Will Look After You
On my Saga cruise, the bar team, housekeeping team, and kitchen team were all incredible and made sure that every guest had everything that they needed.
A port talk by the Saga team
Saga Team
On a Saga river cruise, there will be a few members of staff from Saga and I was lucky enough to have Charlie, Loraine, and Debbie. Charlie was our Cruise Host with Loraine second in command.
Debbie was our entertainment for the week, she sang, she hosted games and she ran the Zumba! A lady with many talents.
During our cruise, they were always available for the guests and were constantly friendly and patient which made the atmosphere onboard very homely and welcoming.
If anything went wrong or anybody onboard ever had any questions, we all knew that we could go to Charlie, Loraine or Debbie and they’d help sort it out.
A rose made for us at dinner from a napkin.
I spoke to many other guests onboard, all of whom loved the trio. Many praised Charlie’s ability to explain things, Loraine’s ability to organise everything (and everybody), and Debbie’s ability to make everybody laugh.
Saga Have Fixed Dining Times and Table Sharing
Saga has fixed dining times on their river cruises and table sharing is common.
On most river cruises, you will have fixed dining times because the majority of river cruise ships only have one main dining room.
There are a few new ships with multiple restaurant options, but river cruise ships generally have one main dining room.
Saga River Cruise Breakfast
Saga offers a buffet breakfast in the main dining room. This usually is open for a couple of hours and when you arrive you will be seated with other guests.
You can arrive at any time when breakfast is open. Tea and coffee are offered, and a variety of juices and water are available.
The buffet contained everything from a full English breakfast to continental favourites. Bread, cereals, and fruits were plentiful and always of really high quality.
I’d find it very difficult to find any fault with anything in the buffet.
Saga River Cruise Lunch Options
There are two options for lunch. Guests can either have a 3-course meal in the main dining room or can have a ‘light lunch’ in the lounge. I tried both, and they were great.
Main Dining Room Lunch
The sit-down lunch in the main dining room was very similar to dinner. The only difference is that during lunch, guests are seated on a first-come, first-served basis.
I quite liked this as it meant we got to chat with new people each lunchtime.
The menu options were varied, and I never had a bad dish during the entire cruise. In fact, I never heard anybody say anything bad about any item of food during the entire cruise.
Light Lunch
I really enjoyed the light lunch. It was usually a collection of sandwiches, salads, pasta, or soups.
Don’t be fooled by the ‘light lunch’ title, it definitely is possible to overeat. We were actually planning on leaving the ship one lunchtime when the smell of spare ribs wafted from the lounge… we decided, of course, to have lunch and then venture out.
Saga River Cruise Dinner
Saga has fixed tables for dining which will be given to you on the first night of your cruise.
We were sharing with four other lovely ladies, who were lovely. It’s always a relief to have nice table mates.
The dinner onboard is usually 4 courses, a starter, soup, main, and dessert. On odd occasions, other courses would appear – such as a sorbet.
Our waiter often gave us another dish to share if he thought we should try a certain dish. We never really wanted the extra dessert but somehow always managed to eat it… funny that!
Saga River Cruise Food Quality
I’ve been on over seventy cruises to date – and I have to say that, in my opinion, the food served on Saga ships is up there with the best.
During my 6 night cruise, I didn’t hear a single complaint from any passenger about the food quality.
Saga River Cruises Include Some Excursions, Drinks with Meals, and WiFi
In addition to the transfers I mentioned earlier, Saga includes a lot in their base cruise fare.
Are Excursions Included on a Saga River Cruise?
On our 6-night cruise, we had two excursions included, plus a very strange bonus excursion on the first day that we didn’t expect. To read more about that, check out this post:
The excursions are mostly coach-based. During our excursions, we were given some time to walk around, and those who were less able were given the option of waiting in a coffee shop.
Saga river cruises do not include daily excursions, and the number of excursions offered varies by cruise.
Having said this, cruise director Charlie was always available to do a ‘walk into town’ for the passengers who weren’t on an excursion.
I thought that this was a lovely gesture as it helped the passengers to feel safer when exploring new places and meant that they knew where they were going when doing their own exploring.
Danube Delta Excursion
Are Drinks Included On Saga River Cruises?
Saga River cruises include drinks with meals. This includes beer, wine and soft drinks such as soda.
The ‘free’ drinks aren’t only available in the main dining room, but they are also available in the main lounge when lunch is being served. Beer/wine isn’t served with breakfast.
Wine Is Included On A Saga River Cruise
The wine servings were huge, and most nights, I had no more than one other drink in the evening.
We actually only spent £42 on drinks during our cruise! Dinner is quite an event on Saga cruises and we often sat for quite a long time just chatting and getting our money worth out of the free drinks.
There is only one dinner seating, so you don’t have to be rushed out of the restaurant and can take as much time as you need.
A Red, White and Rose wine are available every night. This didn’t change during the cruise but I wouldn’t have wanted it too. I liked the Rose. Check out those wine servings below!
WiFi is Included on a Saga River Cruise
WiFi is included on Saga River cruises. The quality of the WiFi depends on where you are cruising at the time.
Sometimes the WiFi was pretty good and other times it was awful. To use the WiFi, you’ll need to get a password from reception and use this to log in.
Travel Insurance Is Included On A Saga River Cruise
Saga river cruises include travel insurance, which is a big benefit for many passengers who may find it expensive to buy travel insurance.
If you don’t want to take the travel insurance, Saga will usually offer you a small discount on the cruise fare.
Saga Are A 50+ Cruise Line
Saga is a 50+ cruise line. The only exception to this rule is that guests 40+ may travel if they are cruising with somebody who is 50+.
Having said this, I don’t think I saw anybody in their 40s on my Saga cruise. Most were in their 60s or 70s.
You may have noticed that I am not 50! I’m in my twenties.Saga invited me on the cruise.
When the cruise was booked for me, I went onto Saga’s website to try to order a brochure. It wouldn’t let me – until I pretended I was 50!
Despite the cruise definitely not being targeted at me I had a really great time and I’ll remember the cruise forever.
To read more about the cruise I took with Saga, check out this post:
If you are looking for a more Budget river cruise, you could try Tui. I took the first sailing of the season with my family, and it had a few “teething” issues. Find out more about that great value cruise here:
Before You Go
Some people think River Cruises are boring – I would definitely disagree. Find out why here:
The maps are available to buy for cruises back to 2015 and for any future cruises. They come in different sizes and colours. All you need to know if your cruise dates and where you started and ended, the team will work out the rest.
