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Resilient Lady Sailings: Canceled


PiperHolliday
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9 minutes ago, Virgin Voyages said:

Yes, that's all correct 

So I could book a 4-night out of Miami using the FVC and use the Access Key for a 5-night, which would create a B2B booking for a total of 9-nights?

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20 minutes ago, Virgin Voyages said:

Ahoy, if your sailing in 2023 was impacted by our delays you can still choose our Double Your Value offer (200% Future Voyage Credit based on your paid voyage fare).  

Unfortunately your rates out of Miami are comparatively way more expensive than what I had booked out of San Juan. Doubling my deposit doesn't even make up for it. In addition, the ports available out of Miami are either ones we have sailed many, many times and/or are not to our liking. If we were offered what you are offering in '22 to those of us booked in '23 it would be a great deal. But since we booked early I guess we get penalized. 

Edited by Island Dog
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Sorry but i think its an unfair offer for people booked in 2023. There’s only 6 months left of the year which is unrealistic for most people but for the lucky some who might live near a port they can have a free cruise. 
 

Virgin doing a terrible job at building loyalty with their cancellations and odd policies.

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2 minutes ago, Island Dog said:

Unfortunately your rates out of Miami are comparatively way more expensive than what I had booked out of San Juan. Doubling my deposit doesn't even make up for it. In addition, the ports available out of Miami are either ones we have sailed many, many times and/or are not to our liking. If we were offered what you are offering in '22 to those of us booked in '23 it would be a great deal. But since we booked early I guess we get penalized. 


completely agree, people who’ve booked early and put a lot of money down getting penalised. Virgin basically saying “sorry we screwed up your 2023 plans but you can help fill our ships in the next 6 months”

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16 minutes ago, MTAK said:

So I could book a 4-night out of Miami using the FVC and use the Access Key for a 5-night, which would create a B2B booking for a total of 9-nights?

Nine nights on a back-to-back and two chances to experience The Beach Club at Bimini 🏝

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You know that old saying "Want to know how to become a millionaire? First get a billion dollars. Then buy an airline".

 

I wonder if Sir Richard could apply that to his Virgin cruises due to all the give aways they'd had to fork out.

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Super bummed about this cancellation. I requested a refund since none of the alternate 2022 cruises work for me, and I already have my 2023 travel plans set. For those who have more flexibility or possibly more vacation time than me, the 200% credit sounds like a good deal. 

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For those who had sailings out of San Juan, you may want to check Celebrity.  The have a nearly identical itinerary to ours that departs and arrives on the same dates as our VV, so in our case we wouldn''t need to change travel plans - just change ships.

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15 minutes ago, MTAK said:

For those who had sailings out of San Juan, you may want to check Celebrity.  The have a nearly identical itinerary to ours that departs and arrives on the same dates as our VV, so in our case we wouldn''t need to change travel plans - just change ships.

 

Good catch! 

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Wading through all of Virgin's "gobbledygook" it appears that the line seems to be struggling to book the Caribbean bound itineraries that they already have sailing in 2022. Their solution seems to be to cancel the Resilient Lady bookings and try to entice those canceled to book the Miami voyages by dangling the carrot of a free Cruise if you book both in 2022. Summer is usually prime family time for traditional lines. Being adult only might be hurting their Summer traffic and fall is low season for all lines due to hurricane season in the Atlantic. I get it. They are in business to make money and adding another ship to the region whilst you are well under booking capacity with ships currently sailing makes bad business sense. I just don't understand why they would alienate new customers booked for the first 4 months of 2023 by not extending the offer just to those booked in '23 to book the comped cruise and rebook the canceled cruise by April 30th 2023. There can't be that many of us. Unfortunately, despite it being the "fair" thing to do, that's not the direction they are headed in. All this gives me a bad taste in my mouth. I'm requesting a refund and won't consider Virgin moving forward for a long time at minimum.

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12 minutes ago, Island Dog said:

Wading through all of Virgin's "gobbledygook" it appears that the line seems to be struggling to book the Caribbean bound itineraries that they already have sailing in 2022. Their solution seems to be to cancel the Resilient Lady bookings and try to entice those canceled to book the Miami voyages by dangling the carrot of a free Cruise if you book both in 2022. Summer is usually prime family time for traditional lines. Being adult only might be hurting their Summer traffic and fall is low season for all lines due to hurricane season in the Atlantic. I get it. They are in business to make money and adding another ship to the region whilst you are well under booking capacity with ships currently sailing makes bad business sense. I just don't understand why they would alienate new customers booked for the first 4 months of 2023 by not extending the offer just to those booked in '23 to book the comped cruise and rebook the canceled cruise by April 30th 2023. There can't be that many of us. Unfortunately, despite it being the "fair" thing to do, that's not the direction they are headed in. All this gives me a bad taste in my mouth. I'm requesting a refund and won't consider Virgin moving forward for a long time at minimum.

 

When they cancelled Valiant for the TV show they received a lot of negative feedback. They upped the offer the next day....then upped it again a few days later.

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17 minutes ago, CroozFanatic said:

 

When they cancelled Valiant for the TV show they received a lot of negative feedback. They upped the offer the next day....then upped it again a few days later.

I guess I'll wait a few days, then. Thanks! 😁

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One other thing to note if you have only paid a deposit you can pay the full amount by June 22, 2022 to up your credit to the full fare. 

 

From the FAQ in the link below:

Can I pay for my voyage in full before receiving the 200% offer?
Yes - Sailors can pay in full on the original booking up until June 22, 2022.

 

https://www.virginvoyages.com/travel-advisories/resilient-lady-new-launch-dates

 

For me I have only paid the deposit for a Dec cruise. If I pay in full I will get $6000 additional credit that I have 18 months to use on top of a free cruise if I book in 2022. That is 3 cruises for the price of one. Now I am just trying to figure out how I can take 2 cruises in 2022 and then another in 2023. It seems like a more that fair settlement to me. 

 

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I am going to guess it is for new bookings. But you can get your 200% credit, then cancel your October 2022 cruise (and get a credit for that) and then rebook the Oct 2022 cruise as a new booking. With all the credit you can get a room upgrade. 

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Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm not sure I understand how the future voyage credit works. Do I have to use it all on one cruise and one stateroom or can I save it for later? Can I buy a second stateroom on the same sailing with it? Use it as on-board credit? I can't find much info about how it works other than how much you get. Not much I can find on redemption. I'm trying to figure out if we can use this 200% to treat some friends of ours to a free cruise.

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Has anyone even been able to get through to Virgin? I got the cancellation email, but the link did not work. Had to scour the Internet looking for the details - which are completely inadequate. I tried to call - was on hold over an hour and no luck getting through. Come on - offer an option to call me back or at least call me - after all, you cancelled. Plus, even if i wanted to re-book, there are no details on how to do it - no option to get my own code and re-book myself.  for a tech forward company this is shameful.  

 

This is more pressing for me (and others like me), as I am a solo traveler in a solo room. There are very few of those per voyage, so I need to hurry up and get booked or there will be none of these rooms left.

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Have to say I’m now very nervous about keeping money tied up in VV so am minded to go down the refund route.

 

With anecdotal reports on here of very low loads on Scarlet Lady out of Miami, cruises on Valiant Lady out of Barcelona being practically given away this summer and now this, I’m now genuinely worried for their future.

 

I hope I’m wrong but my instinct says trying to disrupt the industry by launching four brand new ships right off the back of a global pandemic that shut down cruising and scared off many potential sailors may prove to be unwise.

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Its a real shame that Virgin have cancelled Resilient Lady’s inaugural season, so close to the maiden departure. Virgin do a lot of cancelling unfortunately - I’m thinking of those people who were looking forwards to Valiant Lady from Portsmouth, only to find a lot of those departures cancelled at short notice. 

 

In the past when Virgin cancelled a trip I was on, they dealt with it well, and the compensation was very fair, the reimbursements quick. This time, the compensation offer is again pretty generous. However the communication and organisation is a bit shambolic. They send an email with links that dont work, the ‘indicate your choice’ form on the website doesnt work (goes into the wheel of doom when completed), you cant get through on the phones, and the ‘Chat’ function has been replaced by a robot which says it does not understand if you type ‘Resilient Lady’ or ‘Refund’. - Come on Virgin, you ought to do better than this. 

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The communication has been very poor — extremely long hold times, unclear emails, inability to rebook other than through a form. 
 

They should have devoted more reps to being able to work with these customers, maybe even a dedicated phone line. 
 

Not definite yet, but pretty sure we’re going to go for the refund. Unfortunately, cancellations like this seem to be a much greater risk with Virgin versus other cruise lines. Too much risk when we’re also making transatlantic arrangements snd extended time off work. 

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1 hour ago, hoover86 said:

The communication has been very poor — extremely long hold times, unclear emails, inability to rebook other than through a form. 
 

They should have devoted more reps to being able to work with these customers, maybe even a dedicated phone line. 
 

 

In case you've been in a coma for the last few years you might know there are labor shortages everywhere. You can't walk by a business without seeing Help Wanted signs or experience long hold  times on the phone.

I'm sure Virgin would love to add reps if they could find and train them.

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12 hours ago, elynbeth said:

Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm not sure I understand how the future voyage credit works. Do I have to use it all on one cruise and one stateroom or can I save it for later? Can I buy a second stateroom on the same sailing with it? Use it as on-board credit? I can't find much info about how it works other than how much you get. Not much I can find on redemption. I'm trying to figure out if we can use this 200% to treat some friends of ours to a free cruise.

We were canceled 2x due to covid, I was unable to use the FCC to bring our (18+) sons on boards, as they considered that a transfer of FCC. I even tried putting hubby in one cabin & me in another - and the phone agent just said 'nice try Mrs Jones!". Others may have had success with this - might depend on who you speak to.

 

You can use for 2 cruises within the time frame that you have to use it.

 

We finally sailed at the end of May, we blew the entire FCC on a Gorgeous Suite (mega rockstar), and had $70 left over. I was able to convert $50 into sailor loot (onboard credit) as they will do that for you in $25 increments. 

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