Speaking after the company announced it would be building one new ship, with an option for a second, Robin Shaw admitted to TTG the team were like “children in a toy shop” as they planned the design of the new vessels.
“We’ve been operating for a good number of years now, and we’ve never had a new build; we always operated older tonnage,” he said. “In the past we had to adapt to an existing footprint – this is the first time we’ve got a completely new design and we can think about what we do with it.”
The first of the new ships, which are currently unnamed, will be delivered in summer 2019, with the option of a second for delivery in 2021. They will eventually replace the line’s existing two ships.
New features will include balconies on all the cabins, while the number of restaurants will be increased from the two to three which the line currently has onboard, to a minimum of five. Shaw added that there would also be a “significant increase” in the number of entertainment venues, as well as an outdoor and indoor pool.
Shaw insisted however that the elements of the original ships would be maintained, namely the “small, intimate venues”.
“We’ve done research... customers don’t want waterparks and dodgems; they don’t want gimmicks, they want functionality.”
Shaw was also keen to stress that although the ships would be larger than the existing fleet, (Saga Pearl II has a capacity of 450 and Saga Sapphire has a capacity of 720), the new builds would not feel crowded.
“The size of the vessel has gone up 50%, but passenger capacity will only be going up 40%, so it will feel less crowded,” he insisted.
Meanwhile, ships will be “tech-enabled”. “A lot of our passengers have iPads – it’s about ensuring that the ships are future-proofed,” he said.
Shaw also revealed the new builds would enable the line to operate new itineraries. “The world does become a slightly bigger place now,” he admitted. “We may go to the US – there are certain regulations for operating there, lots of customer-facing things, for example, that were difficult to address on the older ships, but which will be built as a given on the new vessels.”
However, he added: “The most important thing is that even though the ships will be 30 metres longer than the Saga Sapphire, they’ll still be able to get into the same smaller places [that the current ships do].”
