Saga Rose - cruising into retirement

**Ally** · 04-18-2008, 11:25 AM

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'YOU can tell me if you don't like anything I've said," Wilson Tuckey is saying, with a touch of hope in his voice. "Many people do."

But isn't it just like the English to grin and bear something in silence? About 70 of them have just sat through a rambling lecture by the federal Member for O'Connor entitled "Australia's Political Structures", and their stiff upper lips aren't moving.

Maybe they haven't understood him. Someone tells me later that one elderly lady who was "a bit posh" had walked out on Tuckey because she couldn't bear his Australian accent.

Whatever the reason, the grand ballroom of the 24,500-tonne British cruise ship, Saga Rose, en route for Cairns out of Sydney, stays quiet, and the controversial Australian politician departs with the threat of another lecture later in the cruise.

Who would have thought you'd find a bloke like Wilson "Ironbar" Tuckey as a guest lecturer on a round-the-world cruise for a bunch of well-heeled, well-travelled English seniors?

Tuckey, as it happened, was in the right age group for the job, which he had slipped in as part of a 50th wedding anniversary cruise with his wife, Jenny, from Sydney to Hong Kong. At 72, he cut quite a figure among the rest of the some 400 passengers, most of whom were two months into a round trip from Southampton.

They'd already seen a dozen ports, including Curacao, Lima, Easter Island, Papeete, Wellington and Sydney. Ahead of them lay Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Colombo and a dozen more exotic ports of call before they'd be home.

In England, where Saga is big on the cruising scene, some reckon the company name is an acronym for "Send Aged Grannies Abroad". For this cruise line unashamedly caters for the over-50s, and many of its customers are considerably older than this suggested lower age limit.

In the worldwide cruising industry, this is an important niche and one that Saga, with its four-star ships Saga Rose and Saga Ruby, works hard to protect. The company's motto is "Cruising done properly" and, if you sign on for a voyage, you will be hard put to find a soul who thinks that claim is misplaced.

I know this because I joined the Saga Rose recently in Sydney for a four-night cruise up the east coast to Cairns by way of the Whitsundays. The ship, which has been cruising the seven seas for more than 40 years, is certainly no stranger to Australian waters, and nor were many of the passengers I met aboard.

Very few were novice cruisers, most had done numerous voyages aboard the Saga Rose and some had been around the world on her several times. For many, if not most on board, it must have seemed like a family reunion.

"Some people practically live on this ship, you know," said Harry, an affable retired builder from Worcestershire. "Virtually everyone on this ship has sailed together with Saga before."

This cruising "family" is a substantial asset to Saga, as is the company's niche – operating small, 550-passenger ships such as the Saga Rose – in a world cruising market increasingly dominated by multi-storey monsters like the new Queen Victoria, which can carry thousands.

The secret about the Saga Rose, a beautiful-looking ship with classic lines, is that without much effort, you can imagine yourself transported to an era when cruising seemed more relaxed, more personal and more refined.

You won't find casinos and all-night discos on the Saga Rose, but you'll enjoy a show or a cabaret every night and discover enough cosy bars or cocktail lounges to keep anyone happy. You won't have a choice of a dozen restaurants, but you'll dress formally for dinner every now and then, have cocktails with the captain, take English-style afternoon tea in the ballroom and believe you're in another, grander age of travel.

It doesn't take long to settle into all of this as a newcomer on the ship. By the time guest Australian vocalist Annie Frances had topped off an excellent show on my second night aboard with a rousing Vera Lynn singalong, I'd already made a few firm friends. Good conversation is part of the mix, and from the captain down, the ship wears its friendliness like an old jumper.

"From my perspective, on a smaller ship you can talk to the passengers, hear their concerns if they have any, and keep them informed," said Captain Alistair McLundie, who took over the Saga Rose in Sydney after a rostered holiday for the homeward run to Southampton.

"Creating a friendly and happy atmosphere on board is not that hard. We make sure the crew is happy, for a start. I just make the announcements on board, but the guys down below are a great team . . . they know exactly what to do.

"We have passengers who come back, maybe after an absence of a few years, and the crew remember them. How they do it, I don't know, but they have a wonderful memory and a great way with the passengers.

"They are just fantastic, and I feel humbled to work with them."

All this rings true. The ship has a crew of 395, many of them Filipino or Indonesian. A fraction of the age of some of the passengers on board, they were, I found, tirelessly friendly, cheerful and obliging.

The cruise highlight for me was the company on board. The cruise up the Queensland coast, into the last brilliant days of a summer still threatened by monsoonal lows, must have been old hat to most of the travellers I met on the Saga Rose.

But by the time I got off at Cairns, swapping addresses and saying goodbyes under a brooding tropical sky, I knew that not one of them would have wanted, or chosen, any other way to go off and see the world.

Cruising into retirement | The Courier-Mail