The Saga of a super cruise ship’s city visit

Aug 4 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

IS MERSEYSIDE old enough for Saga Cruises? It came as a shock to hear that I now qualify myself, just limboing into the minimum age category of 50 (young at heart condition, natch).

To find out, I helped myself unaided aboard the hugely successful Saga company’s MV Saga Rose. It nosed into Liverpool last week to test the water for basing cruises here for the older, discerning person.

The answer is a resounding yes. Paul Green, for Saga, says: "Liverpool is a fantastic turnaround port and we have certainly added new passengers.

"This year was an experiment that has worked. Next year, Saga Rose and Spirit of Adventure will operate seven cruises from Liverpool from June 18 to August 24."

During my visit, Saga Rose was disembarking 500 passengers in Liverpool and waiting for a further 505 people for a cruise to the Orkneys, Shetlands, Norway and the North Cape.

About a fifth of these people live within 30 miles, and half within 100 miles.

Saga offer a complimentary chauffeur service to all cruisers living within a 75-mile radius of the departure port.

This welcome rise in using Liverpool for sea passenger traffic has a direct economic impact, with each Saga liner visit pumping £150,000 into local business through port costs and provisions.

Ross Furlong, Saga’s land- based hotel director, says: "We’re taking on 120 tons of food, with fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy produce locally sourced."

Capt Alistair McLundie, from Dunoon, Scotland, warmly welcomed me on to the bridge, in spite of having been up for hours during the night, due to fog clouding his approach across Liverpool Bay.

When asked to describe the Mersey, that familiar word "tricky" emerged.

The former Blue Funnel Ocean cadet, from a family of seafarers, spent some of his childhood in Greasby as his father and grandfather were also "Blue Flues". He is a great ambassador for the ship and was firstly Saga Rose’s master in 2000. He returned last November, sharing command with Capt David Warden- Owen. He says: "Our greatest challenge is to get people to try Saga. After 11 years, we have 80% repeat business, but felt northern England and Scotland was left out, which is why we’re here."

The ship’s security manager, Roy Gandy, from Widnes, jokes: "I’ve been 10 years on board, but never said I liked it!" But he adds: "No, seriously, because this is a small company, it’s great to work for and that transmits to the passengers."

Unprompted, the captain and others stated their disappointment at turning around at the euphemistically named Cruise Terminal at Langton Dock.

It remains a mystery to all why the new £19m City of Liverpool Cruise Liner Terminal, by the Pier Head, lacks baggage handling and Customs facilities.

for embarking and disembarking passengers.

Steve Broomhead, Northwest Development Agency chief executive, who signed off its payment, told me there were no restrictions on its use.

Meanwhile, cruise passengers have to find their way to Langton Dock through the working port, a bleak landscape with its giant scrapheap, the infamous "Sierra Metallica".

Once aboard, though, Saga Rose is an absolute gem. Built in France in 1965 as the Norwegian America Line’s Sagafjord, for summer service between Oslo and New York and worldwide cruising, she later passed to Cunard.

One of the last traditional transatlantic-style liners in service, sadly her classically cool Scandinavian interiors of mahogany and rosewood are her downfall.

Jo Boase, cruise director, says: "We’ve got too much wood on board and it’s too costly to strip it out to comply with the latest Safety of Life at Sea regulations, so Saga Rose will be sold in two years."

Capt McLundie adds: "Both Saga Rose and me are 43 years old, so I’m keen to see her out. She’s a lovely ship and will be much missed.’’

So catch her down the Dock Road while you can, you empty-nesters, comfortably-off olders and perky pensioners.

* STARTING price for an 18-night Saga Rose cruise to Iceland and Greenland is £2,397, on July 23, 2009.

peter.elson@dailypost.co.uk