Saga is insisting all cruise and holiday customers travelling in 2021 must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 at least 14 days before departure.
The move comes as the over-50s specialist moved the restart date for its travel businesses back from April to May.
This means that Saga’s return to service will now start with new ship Spirit of Adventure’s inaugural voyage continuing as planned on May 4 while Spirit of Discovery will return to service on June 2.
The holidays programme will begin on May 1 with hotel stays, escorted tours and river cruises.
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Saga’s new vaccination policy will be in addition to detailed arrangements already put in place for when cruises and other holidays restart.
A Saga spokesperson said: “The health and safety of our customers has always been our number one priority at Saga, so we have taken the decision to require everyone travelling with us to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
“Our customers want the reassurance of the vaccine and to know others travelling with them will be vaccinated too.
“To allow our customers time to get vaccinated, we are moving the restart date for our travel businesses to May. Our new vaccination policy will be in addition to the detailed arrangements we have already put in place for when cruises and other holidays restart.”
Saga Cruises Covid measures for sailings departing in May and June include:
- Pre-departure Covid-19 testing in the terminal for customers, including full medical screening
- A reduced capacity of customers onboard to a maximum of 800
- Increasing our crew to customer ratio, to enhance our cleaning regimes onboard
- Private chauffeur car per household up to 250 miles
- Social distancing which feels subtle onboard our spacious ships
- Additional enhancements to our state-of-the-art air conditioning, which already provides 100% fresh air in all public areas and cabins
- Improved and expanded medical facilities with a new dedicated isolation area
- Double medical team
Saga holidays Covid measures include:
- Implementation of dedicated Covid-19 protocols for operating across the supplier base
- Stringent training programme for all Saga employees to ensure the agreed protocols are implemented as agreed
- Ongoing monitoring and customer communications detailing destination specific covid requirements ahead of departure
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