People were doing the inevitable in the dining room, grill, Library (no books due to fear of cross contamination), stairs and in the coaches (thankfully not one of ours). No proper wiping of walls, switches, handles that I have seen done before. The cabin was not “fogged” and cleaned properly until we were allowed out which meant I was still at risk from spores. We were washing and sanitising constantly but my husband still became infected.Their worst offence was that when we dialled 999 as instructed by the Captain in his announcements, we had to wait three and a half hours for attention and this only came after chasing them. so much so that we were beginning to get offended. Deep cleaning is not working! The Captain was constantly telling us to wash our hands etc. Unfortunately we did not have the proper cruise experience because, as we now know the ship was infected with Norovirus and had been the cruise before, the cruise before! In fact she had been refused entry into Gibraltar. I am sure there are some who will disagree with this comment but that was just our opinion. The girls had nice voices but they were being asked to sing songs from the likes of Phantom and Les Miserables that I feel needs a more powerful rendition. I enjoyed the individual acts but wasn’t a fan of the theatre company. The food is excellent and the cheese board is to die for!Entertainment was a mix for me. A light remained on all night which was good.The ship is lovely, I particularly enjoyed the spacious Britannia lounge on deck 12 and the three speciality restaurants which need to be booked quickly under normal circumstances but if the ship is sick you can get a cancellation! The crew are outstanding particularly under the prevailing circumstances (see later). Shower with door was nice but as usual on ships the bathroom wasn’t generous in size. Other things provided were dressing gowns, slippers, binoculars, umbrella and when we went out in the snow (if we could) walking sticks. The wardrobe was a let down as no shelves, not much room for shoes and too close to the bed. Plus points were good linen, large HD TV with plenty of films (needed later), fruit, filtered water, plenty of tea and coffee and hot chocolate. Lifeboat drill after 10pm was a bit of a struggle, it had been a long day.We had a standard balcony cabin which was of normal size. Nice touch to be met with musicians playing and a steward to personally show you to your cabin. No problems at check in, free drinks and magazines were available during the short wait to board. Two reasons were given, one that the ship was delayed by storm Dennis, the other that the ship had Norovirus on the previous cruise and had to be deep cleaned. However our excitement was short-lived but more on that later.Embarkation was late, our pick up time was changed three times. It was a new ship of moderate size and advertised as boutique and it was a Northern Lights cruise. We had been waiting for two years for this cruise. This is quite a long review but a lot happened! Our first Saga cruise, although not new to cruising.
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