Following the breakdown of Saga Ruby (1973/24,492gt) in November 2012, the ship suffered further mechanical problems just before departing on her world cruise in January, when a problem with her crankshaft and bearing was discovered. Her departure from Southampton was originally delayed by a week, with passengers given the option to spend the original embarkation night aboard before being returned home.
Subsequently, the problem was found to be more serious, and at the time of writing the world cruise had been adapted to become a round-the-Atlantic cruise taking in ports in South America and the southern Atlantic islands, including Tristan da Cunha and Africa, with departure from Southampton expected to be on 20 February. Saga Ruby had recently returned to service following her final refit in Bremerhaven, and completed just one cruise before being taken out of service once again.
She is due to be retired in January 2014, though as yet there is still no indication of what the future holds for this fine little ship, but with the amount of maintenance that has been undertaken so close to her leaving the Saga fleet, she ought to be good for a few more years of service.
