AlyssaJames

As of Dec 2023 in a Mega, I was told to just go whenever I wanted, no time slot or anything needed. 

It might not have been a completely full sailing, not sure. But I definitely didn't have to pre-book a slot, and my rock star agent told me so ahead of time. 

In the past I had needed to check in/select a time. 

Welp. I hadn't quite booked my flights yet (this is a big trip for me / pushing pretty far out of comfort zone), although I had been planning to get the flights locked in in the next few weeks. I suppose I'll hold off for a bit. Fingers crossed, everyone. 

2 minutes ago, Shrewsbury on Tour said:

Exactly what they told me..,however next years cannot be sold out!!! This Year’s is not sold out either I check regularly for price changes etc… they are lying!!!

It might have ended up sold out after the recent round of cancellations last week. (i.e., people taking their refund and rebooking to this sailing). 

I thought more recent cancellations had much worse offers, like you had a choice of only 3 replacement itineraries (one of which was only 7 days) or a full refund. 
 

(sorry, on mobile or I’d quote/provide links.)

22 minutes ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

Blogging every minute of a trip, editing photos of drinks and food, and uploading is very time consuming and takes a lot of time away from the actual activity being done.  I was just curious if there’s any perks or benefit for the blogger.

Yes, everyone understands that you're asking if people are being paid to pretend to like Virgin Voyages. 

Again, 'live cruise blogs' have been happening since before social media and influencers. People have spent WAY more time in the past, considering that they would take the time to process photos and upload them over what used to be extremely bad onboard wifi. So yes, people do it without any material benefit to themselves.
 

Do 'influencer' perks exists? Sure. But trip reports are their own thing, and the people who really enjoy writing them tend to really enjoy cruises and travel anyway. 

I've been waiting to see if I lose this one, I got a fantastic deal on it when it went live. Probably the last actual bargain I will ever get from VV. It's still showing up on my dashboard for now, but I've been wondering since the day they tripled the prices whether they will try to nuke and re-sell these dates. 

It doesn't seem to be 'geographically similar' to the troubled itins ... 

9 hours ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

Just curious…Is Virgin offering anything to the people posting Live content? What’s the benefit to spending your whole cruise posting on here? Seems excessive…

Some people come here to post a liveblog of their trip, some people come to argue. One person's 'excessive' is another's relaxing hobby, I guess.

PS, people have been posting 'live' trip reports on Cruise Critic for decades. Virgin Voyages has only been sailing since October 2021. 

This feels somehow familiar ... I can't quite put my finger on it ... 

On 2/2/2024 at 3:27 PM, WanderingBrit said:

I spent my first 27 years in Southampton, so I'm biased, but I think it's a pretty good base for a few days. Easy access to Stonehenge, Winchester, The New Forest (Beaulieu, Buckler's Hard), Tudor House and Garden ... 

 

London's easy to navigate too, public transport is excellent, and there's almost endless history to explore there. On a work trip 5 years ago I lead colleagues on a pub crawl starting in Greenwich which included a pint in a pub older than the United States 🙂 

 

Late September is a great time to visit - weather is still nice but the kids are back in school. You'll have a blast no matter what you do.

Thank you again, I really appreciate it!

Thank you both (all) so much for this discussion! Super helpful. I’m just now looking at flights for late September. I’m a huge Anglophile who was afraid of flying until relatively late in life, so this cruise will be my first time over the pond, and I think I’m going to tack on some days at the start for England. (I think I could spent about three months there, honestly.) I had been thinking I would figure out how to get to Portsmouth / Southampton, get a hotel there, and focus on sights in that area. (For example, I’m exactly the kind of tourist who wants to see the Mary Rose.) 

(Unfortunately for me, I can’t get the hang of packing light.)

3 hours ago, WanderingBrit said:

None of the international airports used by flights from the USA are close to Portsmouth, so you'll have ground transport to figure out no matter what - but Gatwick is much easier. You probably can't fly direct to LGW from MIA, and will end up connecting in New York, or Madrid, or Lisbon, or Amsterdam ...

 

Heathrow to Portsmouth (rome2rio.com)

London Gatwick Airport (LGW) to Portsmouth (rome2rio.com)

 

International flights from the US typically land early morning in the UK, so you'll have lots of time to get to Portsmouth if your plan is to stay in a hotel there the night before your cruise.

I'm not the original poster, but (American here) could you comment on how difficult it would be for a solo traveler to wrangle luggage around on (trains?) if flying into Gatwick? I also need to figure out how to get to Portsmouth later this year. 

(I'm from some of the various mid-to-large US cities with absolutely wretched public transport options. My train experience is almost nil.) 

1 minute ago, TM said:

I guess it's just a case of "to each his own."

And thus your question is answered. 🙂 

(I don't understand all the fuss about drink packages, or staring at the screen of a slot machine. But I don't go into drink package or casino threads just to mention it.)

4 hours ago, FFMilesJunkie said:

The thing is, solo passengers came to Virgin's rescue and helped fill up cabins in the 2023 Med season (albeit with almost too good to be true fares).  They bought up MNVVs thinking that they would be able to keep booking Virgin.  Now they are faced with these staggering solo fares and almost worthless MNVVs.  It's not a good way to treat those who were there to fill the ships and spread the word about Virgin. Now they rightfully feel ignored. 

I usually keep this behind my teeth because I’m not an “influencer”, but I was sailing solo on VV in summer 2022 when ships were empty. And then I spread SO MUCH positive buzz on Reddit. Not because I am an influencer, the thought makes me practically break out in hives, but because back then it seemed touch and go whether the line would even succeed. And because I LOVED the line. I was (so I thought) realistic about the cheap 2022 prices, the eventual loss of the solo deals, and the price increases in 2023. But yeah, I wasn’t prepared for where they were heading ($$$$$) and I have some bitterness about how many times I recommended VV to people who had never heard of them (and some who had never even cruised). I’m not an influencer, but I can write persuasively and I know how to communicate on Reddit. (Yes, it’s a dubious talent.) And I post prolifically.

And I now take it they’re going to attempt to take the sting out of their Ferrari pricing by … offering flexible date changes. K. 

9 hours ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

 ... new 15 Pro had the most boring colors of any year I can recall. Why do they assume people that buy the Pro version want boring colors? I told them I thought that if they had a few colors like the Corvettes Atomic Orange (beautiful burned orange) or the Nassau Blue  ...

Why would you do this to me? Now I desperately want a new iPad Pro in Nassau blue!

48 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

I'm not willing to pay for the excursions he isn't taking.

And speaking only for myself, I'm most certainly not going to pay for the booze the ghost sailor isn't drinking. 

40 minutes ago, Wildcatllamas said:

I was just reading an article regarding Celebrity now charging solo travelers 300% of the fare and Royal has been inching up past 200%. 

This is a bit more anecdotal, but on other sites I've seen people saying NCL is starting to play games with fees charged to solo cruisers too. 

Remember: the company doesn't love you back. 

7 hours ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I checked it out today with a smile on my face and a zip in my step...quickly became a fall in the mud and I skinned my knee. 😲

I haven't even been able to bring myself to try a mock booking since Bloody Thursday (Dec 14 or whenever the new itins with crazy price increases came out).

This alleged solo offer did have my hopes up but it sounds like it's a good thing I didn't bother clicking. 

11 hours ago, cantgetin said:

If you ever have Carlos as the Diva, go to every show.

Quoted because it bears repeating. Unfortunately, Carlos was my first Diva and he ruined me for everyone else. Absolute pro. 

(In case anyone isn't quite clear on what this means, Carlos is a resident Diva/Drag Queen who runs different entertainment events. Why is he great? He is a fantastic performer (singing/dancing/stand up comedy) and particularly great at tossing jokes back and forth with the audience. For the most part, the other Divas I've seen aren't quite as experienced at the rapid-fire audience engagement.)

I’m not seeing any “confirmation” of a recession. I am, however, seeing a lot of unbooked five-figure cabins on VV ships when I do mock bookings. One of their most egregiously priced sailings in 2025 still has every single type of suite available. So I’m in wait and see mode. 

I think people are mixing up 2024 and 2025 a lot in this thread.

(I have one of the insanely good deals for late summer 2024, before fares were tripled, and I keep waiting for them to cancel it on some pretense so they can resell it at a higher rate …)

Now I'm just waiting for my great deal I got on UK > Barcelona in 2024 to be canceled so they can reprice it ... 

(I had been planning on booking Scotland or Iceland 2025, then saw the prices, and have actually now become a member of the "guess I'll book a land vacation" club.)

3 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

 

Yeah, I'm surprised at the sizable spike in prices. Resilient's spring of 25 re-positioning cruises for instance, are legitimately over double what her fall of 2024's were the day they came out. It's enough of a difference that I'm going to check back come morning to see if perhaps it's just because they just got loaded in and not everything is properly set yet; but I doubt it. New CEO's stated goal was to make the company profitable, but I think this big of a pricing spike might be a mistake. Needs to be a lot more gradual of a shift if they want to avoid losing a significant chunk of their current customer base.

Agree. I’m a longtime online cheerleader of theirs (which I know doesn’t entitle me to anything, btw), but I can’t really cheer something I can no longer afford. I’m not sure who their new audience will be—one-percenters and influencers, I guess. 

Yep, I knew it would be bad but I didn’t know it would be this bad.

20 minutes ago, Wildcatllamas said:

I peeled the skin off and ate what little rubbery meat was there.

Yep, this is exactly what I was talking about. I really just wanted some protein for that meal, because I wanted to get what I remember being an amazing apple dessert, but service was also really slow and I think we finally gave up and got ice cream or something. 

A friend also got the (chicken wing? something?) appetizer and it was the same deal, you could barely pry any meat off them. 

I was a big fan of RD when one could get the loaded tots and 'secret' steak for dinner. 🙂

Chiming in to confirm that The Wake is improved (including the filet). Service was also moving a bit faster. 

EV strip steak is still fantastic, although I did get a bit of the gristle mentioned above.

Razzle Dazzle's dinner menu is more incoherent than it's ever been, and I sent feedback about that. (All I remember from dinner there is a lot of rubbery chicken.)