notme2012

Brilliant Lady had Med cruises with prices on-line prior to April 10th, this year. I know because I was checking them. I am booked on the TATL from San Juan. We were thinking of doing a back to back with TATL. But the pricing of the May 1, 2024 was so high, we wrote it off. It was priced more than TATL, so that was an easy decision. The itineraries were very similar to the Resilient Lady. But they were posted.

Very similar to the Resilient Lady this coming summer. Which may be the issue, too many ships in the Med.

If you read my original post #7, I mention airfare being multiples higher than Miami. VV is still having issues breaking thru into the mainstream. VV original concept was for millennials who have not chosen to cruise in the past. That demographic is not sufficient to fill 4 ships. Which is an issue going forward for VV. Not allowing under 18, eliminates the family market (many millennials have children). The marketing doesn't help with those over 55. The mermaiden sailings are holidays sailings at generous prices! That should be a big motivator for bookings. Yet both Dec 24 and Dec 29 sailings are not sold out. For any other cruise line that Dec 29th sailing would not sell well as it runs over into the school week. But that should not matter to VV! Do you see the points I am trying to make?

Time to use miles and points. Barcelona is an excellent city to visit. You could easily fly to Lisbon on a low cost carrier. Personally, I would rather fly to Europe and do a Med cruise. I was only booked on this TATL because other friends were on this sailing.

From the "mermaiden" voyage to April 20, is 16 cruises. Much less than the 6+ months of cruises that were in play with Resilient Lady, some of those were fully paid. What really is strange, is the mermaiden voyage is still available in almost all classes of cabins. I have checked every sailing between Dec 24, 2023 and April 20, 2024, but none appear to be sold out. My point is this indicates there will be change. After a week, this isn't an IT issue or some other inventory issue. The most likely possibilities are the ship will be delayed or stay in the Caribbean. I always felt that my sailing had a 50/50 chance of actually sailing. I sold travel for 30 years, including owning my own cruise-only agency. VV does not follow industry practices in any way. But maiden voyages not being sold out, this is a bad sign, for passengers and for the cruise line. With all the other cruise lines, maiden voyages are highly prestigious and usually sell out within days of being offered. New ships being delayed, changing itineraries are all normal. But not informing anyone about it, is just bad customer service.

I would wait and see, before purchasing any flights. Inventories for flights for around April 20, 2024, will not be loaded until May 21, 2023. Besides there could be promo airfares between now and Jan. 1, 2024. In this case, waiting is your best course of action.

Not true at all! The beginning of last week all the cruises for Brilliant Lady were in inventory for Europe all next summer. I know because I was looking at them! We are on the TransAtlantic cruise. I was searching for airfares for myself, for a friend who is interested in joining us, and possibly extending our cruise. On April 12th, the TransAtlantic sailing disappeared from inventory and then on Fri. April 14th all the Brilliant Lady Europe cruises disappeared. Since VV postponed the maiden voyage of the Resilient Lady, this has all the appearances of the same thing happening to the Brilliant Lady. That is my primary guess. My second guess is the European sailings are not selling well enough. VV doing this now makes all the sense in the world. Not one of Brilliant Lady sailings is in final payment. Final payment for the Mermaiden voyage is August, 2023. The financial costs to VV are dramatically smaller than they were when VV postponed the Resilient Lady. Possibly VV has observed their Caribbean sailings to be outperforming their Med sailings. There are many reasons for that to be the case, as airfares to Europe are multiples higher than to Miami. If that is true, why move a ship to Europe? What I don't like is how deceitful this is. I called VV reservations. The agent told me "if a sailing isn't showing it is sold out". I then asked about the Brilliant Lady summer sailings, and she stated she could not comment. I am prepared for my cruise, the TransAtlantic to be cancelled. I always gave my cruise a 50/50 chance of actually sailing. But in the true VV form of "breaking the mold", tongue in cheek, they are ever changing.