Hello from a very quiet ship yard as the Italian and English contractors are still enjoying their Christmas break.

Having less people onboard allowed us to enjoy our Christmas and be able to give some of the crew some well-deserved time off. Some of them chose to go into town to get last-minute gifts for a Secret Santa, while others just chose to have a rest before the evening’s festivities.

Keeping with tradition at sea, the officers served the crew and our chefs prepared a sumptuous feast, including the festive favourite of suckling pig. Afterwards we had a party in the crew bar – it was well attended and enjoyed by all.

The crew bar is now complete. It’s painted in a striking ‘Bavarian Blue’ and furnished with unwanted, but comfortable and functional, furniture from various public areas. Upon completion, it was named H2O and we believe it will become the envy of the fleet. Many thanks to Markus and his team for their hard work.

Sticking with tradition, we thought we’d celebrate Christmas Day on the December 25. There were several turkeys onboard; most were enjoying a pre-luncheon drink in the Captain’s quarters (Thanks to Rob Payne for that one).  However, the one they chose to cook was the size of an Ostrich and our chefs did a superb job in managing to provide a very tasty plate of moist turkey with all the trimmings - and we even had crispy roast potatoes. Apologies to any of you who had to suffer under cooked potatoes and over cooked sprouts.

Although we were fed to bursting, some of us did manage to attend the mass we arranged with a local Catholic priest. Unfortunately he was a bit busy on Christmas Eve, but it didn’t seem to matter that the service was delayed until Christmas afternoon. He brought with him a 50-person choir, mainly Filipino, but some Mauritians, South American and Italians too. Their voices were quite beautiful. Afterwards they mingled with our crew, many of whom are new to Saga and indeed to sea life, so their company and giving of their time was much appreciated.

Whilst the contractors are away, we are doing our own ‘60-minute makeovers’. Nothing is thrown away in refit and unwanted tables and scraps of wallpaper are used again ‘back of house’. Today we demolished and transformed what will be the Chief Purser’s office, and our waiters can now add wallpapering skills and joinery to their CVs.

We also had a timely delivery of mattresses to the ship today. 142 mattresses were unloaded and brought up the gangway in 15 minutes. They were driven all the way from the UK by a Lithuainian driver in a German registered container, unloaded by Filipinos and brought onto a French ship in an Italian dockyard - that must be hard to beat.

Anyway, whilst the holidays continue we will go on with our own work in the spirit of ‘Quando il gatto non ć è, i topi ballano’ and do what we can, bearing in mind ‘Meglio un uovo oggi che una gallina domani’.

Ciao.

Buono Domenica,

We had two exciting events this week.

The first was when Assistant Maitre’d, Mark Pangilinan, who is here with us in refit, became a father on December 14. His wife Mylene, who many of you know as one of our onboard nurses, gave birth to a baby boy at 7pm at home in the Philippines. He weighed 6.9lbs and they’ve named him Maxim Nathan.

Upon hearing the news we had a small celebration in the office to wet the baby’s head (picture attached). I’m sure you will join us in wishing Maxim and his parents well.

The second event was Saga Sapphire going into the dry dock. We saw them preparing for us a couple of days before. We watched as the keel blocks were put into place to hold us once the water was drained away.

The dock master is sent a computerized image of the bottom of the ship in advance so he knows exactly where to place the blocks. The dock itself is 375 metres long, 68 metres wide and has a depth of 11.35 metres. The 400,000 tons of water it holds can be filled and emptied within 4 hours. The picture attached allows a rare glimpse of the ship out of water.

Whilst she is dry docked, work involving the external hull and all underwater work such as painting, tailshaft, rudder and propellers maintenance will be undertaken. A very important job will be the application of the Saga livery, which will proudly define the ownership and new identity of the ship.

Onboard ship ‘dry dock’ life continues. For those of us in need of a haircut, luckily one of our waiters, Dexter, has brought his hairdressing kit. Some of us faired better than others…

The increased noise level on the ship seems to indicate a certain push for projects being completed before the Christmas break. Those of us left behind will certainly appreciate less noise, fumes and dust for a few days. If any of you who have tried living in a house whilst it is being renovated, you’ll have some idea of what it is like.

In the last week, we’ve been filming some of the ongoing work on the ship - you’ll see this in the next installment of blogs - which I hope you’ll find informative.

In the meantime, the team and I wish you Buon Natale and we’ll catch up with you again soon.

Ciao e Ricordate, non importa dove tu vada, ci si è - another one for you to figure out.

Hello I’m back again.

This week more cutting and welding has been taking place, including the cutting of the new atrium, which will be a real special feature within the aft stair tower. This atrium will be opened over two decks - Deck 5 and 6, so when you are embarking on Deck 5 you will be able to see up to the reception desk. They also started to dismantle the old shore excursion desk, which will become a state of the art future cruise sales center and travel shop.

The Kone lift engineers have arrived and are starting to work on the lifts as we need to redesign the landings and the openings. On Decks 9,10, and 11 we are opening the ship’s superstructure to move the staircase outwards. This will make space for a landing to enable the elevators to open near the Grill Restaurant which leads to the Verandah Deck aft and East to West on Deck 9.

On Deck 10 the same applies for the new build cabins, and again on Deck 11 for the jacuzzi and sun bathing area.
I have attached a few pictures showing the work. When we do our next video blog I hope to get Chief Len to explain more on this subject.

Here are some figures you may find interesting; the waste we have offloaded to date is 385970 kg. This consists of all sorts of materials, including steel, scrap metal and furniture - we are on lorry run number 139. Each time the waste is offloaded, Markus or I have to go to the weigh bridge each trip, witness the weighing onto the sorting area and come back to the ship. Very good for my waste, you got it waste ha ha. Sorry, that was a bad joke, almost as bad as Granddad’s.

Talking about Granddad, if you read this blog, where is my Christmas money???

Next time I hope to show you a few of the ‘back of house’ areas you might not usually get the chance to see. They include our newly painted and refurbished crew bar which Markus and some of the team have been working on in their very limited spare time in the evenings. The guys are also decorating the crew mess in preparation for Christmas. The suckling pigs and turkeys have been ordered for those of us spending the festive season onboard. Our surroundings may be a little unusual, but we will make the best of it.

In the meantime, abbi pazienza - one for you to figure out.

Ciao e bona notte.

Today, Horst shows us some of the areas that will be transformed in the exciting refit currently being carried out. These include The Britannia Lounge, Pole to Pole Restaurant and Cooper's Bar.

Buon Giorno a tutti.

Following on from last week’s blog, I am amazed how quickly all the public rooms have been stripped out. The yard is basically contracted to create an empty shell and then rebuild it to our specification. Our designer Jan Wilson, who is a major contributor to this project, has already proven popular by designing Saga Pearl II, Spirit of Adventure and also our hotel in St. Lucia.

The overall design scheme is yet again classic with a modern twist. The Dining Room in particular will have a unique feel to it with its around the globe theme full of beautiful paintings, statues and unique features. I of course cannot understand much of it coming from the Austrian Mountains; a cow with a bell around its neck looks the picture to me. However, I am very much looking forward to the day when the rooms begin to take shape.

Attached is a picture of the pool area where the Pier Restaurant will be. The Pool area is very large and generous in space. I do hope The Pier Restaurant will prove popular with you all, serving alternative traditional dishes for lunch. This will include fish, chips and mushy peas served in lovely seaside themed crockery we chose when we did the hotel purchasing during the summer in our Folkestone head office. I am certain that one loyal customer Mr. M, also known as “half past four” (you know who you are), would approve of my choice.

In the last few weeks we were also very busy getting the crew quarters into shape. When taking the ship over, this area was in a bit of a mess. We were given the support of top management to make sure that all our crew had comfortable cabins after delivering the usual high standard of service.

Yesterday, a huge Costa ship parked next to us with a name like “deliziosa” - why would you name a ship delicious? Only the Italians would do that. I’m surprised it is not wrapped in a Prada scarf and has Gucci shoes instead of propellers!
We look very small in comparison, but even the Italian workers like the shape of our Saga Sapphire. They say “un nave justa” a real ship.

It is December now, and with that, Christmas is approaching fast. The Captain, safety officer, uncle Albert, Anne Mette, Lyn and I will make sure that the crew are looked after and can enjoy some festivities with the approval from our CEO Mr. Shaw.

I doubt that much will be refurbished before Christmas. However, if it is you will be the first to know. I hope that next week I can show you the newly cut out staircase - a new, bold and stylish design on this ship.

I am off to the kitchen to cook fresh pasta Carbonara for the Officers’ Mess. I must stop spoiling them, but then they do have to put up with me week in week out!

Ci vediamo presto. See you soon.

There's lots to do and many people needed - take a look at all the preparation being carried out for Saga Sapphire's refurbishment.