Departure Time Changes (seems to be affecting all ships/many voyages)

[xerenthar]

I have three cruises booked through the end of the year, and yesterday, I received an email for each of them stating that "Based on feedback from you, our Sailors, we're excited to share that you'll now have a bit more time to spend onboard our beautiful lady ships." Some of these changes make sense based on that intro, some it's sort of funny and not at all based on sailor feedback (like the Med one), others are welcome I think.

 

8/28 Spanish Obsession - depart Gibraltar 6pm (was 8pm), depart Ibiza 4pm (was 6pm)

10/19 Fire and Sunset Soiree - depart Miami 6pm (was 7pm), depart Key West 5pm (was 7pm), depart Bimini 7pm (was 8pm)

11/19 Eastern Caribbean Antilles - depart Miami 6pm (was 7pm), arrive Puerto Plata 10am (was 9am), depart Puerto Plata 7pm (was 6pm), arrive San Juan 12pm (was 11am), depart San Juan 10pm (was 12am), depart Frederiksted 6pm (was 7pm), depart Bimini 7pm (was 8pm)

[kwokpot]

28 minutes ago, xerenthar said:

I have three cruises booked through the end of the year, and yesterday, I received an email for each of them stating that "Based on feedback from you, our Sailors, we're excited to share that you'll now have a bit more time to spend onboard our beautiful lady ships." Some of these changes make sense based on that intro, some it's sort of funny and not at all based on sailor feedback (like the Med one), others are welcome I think.

 

8/28 Spanish Obsession - depart Gibraltar 6pm (was 8pm), depart Ibiza 4pm (was 6pm)

10/19 Fire and Sunset Soiree - depart Miami 6pm (was 7pm), depart Key West 5pm (was 7pm), depart Bimini 7pm (was 8pm)

11/19 Eastern Caribbean Antilles - depart Miami 6pm (was 7pm), arrive Puerto Plata 10am (was 9am), depart Puerto Plata 7pm (was 6pm), arrive San Juan 12pm (was 11am), depart San Juan 10pm (was 12am), depart Frederiksted 6pm (was 7pm), depart Bimini 7pm (was 8pm)

When the Virgin Beach Club at Bimini was announced there were writeups that it would be a day to late night place, where at night, I assume after dinnertime, there would be a outdoor pool party/dance party with headliner DJ's and an experience similar to Scarlet Night Deck Party. Did those kinds of events ever actually happen? Did any of the top headliner DJ's ever spin at the Beach Club? Or were those events nixed due to the low occupancy levels? 

[_tacocat_]

24 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

When the Virgin Beach Club at Bimini was announced there were writeups that it would be a day to late night place, where at night, I assume after dinnertime, there would be a outdoor pool party/dance party with headliner DJ's and an experience similar to Scarlet Night Deck Party. Did those kinds of events ever actually happen? Did any of the top headliner DJ's ever spin at the Beach Club? Or were those events nixed due to the low occupancy levels? 

Those were nixed with the covid cancellations and never rescheduled (I'm assuming so they wouldn't have to scramble to unwind again if they were delayed/cancelled again). 

 

I think they were supposed to be in Bimini super late irrespective of DJ (maybe 10pm?) when they first announced.  Obviously that changed, but even with the late-ish 8pm departure, the extra time seemed like a waste.  People have tended to head back to the ship at like 4pm so they could clean up and go to dinner, which left the Beach Club pretty dead after that. 

 

We finally stuck around for the "bonfire" during Richard's Birthday Bash because we were already going to be there for the Happy Birthday drone photo/cake/celebration (which was a disappointment in its own special way haha, but that is for another time/thread).  By the time the bonfire started, there were maybe 20 people left at the beach club. VV also abruptly cancelled Phantom Folktales' contract early.  They were the group that did the bonfire and all the smaller pop up event around the ship.

 

It has to be hard from a staffing perspective - the ship crew comes to Bimini, but 90% of the guests were back on the ship at that point.  Chicken or the egg - there aren't enough crew left at Bimini later in the day to satisfy guests (most of the bars close, no food, etc.), but there aren't enough guests there to support more staff.

[averageisboring]

The  "Based on feedback from you, our Sailors, we're excited to share that you'll now have a bit more time to spend onboard our beautiful lady ships"-line actually annoyed me a lot. I'm not dumb, don't talk to me as if I won't immediately know that's a cost cutting move...

[cantgetin]

Interesting, I did not get such an email.  I wonder if it is only on certain voyages, which makes it  a little more confusing.  I even went back thru my deleted emails looking for such a thing.  I only have one 2022 cruise scheduled.

[Cloud9 Bob]

Sometimes you will ask 3 different staff members something and you will get 3 different answers. It was funny, when I cruised TSL this June, I had all my dinner reservations booked except the last day which was Bimini. I left it open, but finally decided to try dinner at Razzle Dazzle. The app wouldn't let me reserve a dinner spot. The first staff member said they were probably booked up (highly unlikely for this venue). The second said there was probably a glitch in the app. I then started walking around the ship. I passed a dining manager and asked him. Finally I got the answer I was searching for. The reason you can't book RD for dinner on a Bimini day is because the staff is used at the Beach Club for service. Made perfect sense. Case in point, not everyone has the answer. Some will find out for you and some will guess 🙂

[Fogcityca13]

Got a notice for our November trip. Nothing for our Dec 2023 trip yet. Looks like some folks on med sailings are affected as well.

[westguy99]

I have back to back Med trips booked first one starting tomorrow. Big disappointment for me they did this especially on such short notice. How many people had plans with prebooked third party excursions screwed up. Makes no sense to do this with less than 1 week notice. 
 

This is a way to save money on fuel. More time so they can cruise slower. Maybe less port fees too. No way it is based on customer feedback. Like people surveyed said they wanted to leave Ibiza at 4pm instead of 6pm. If the ship leaves at 4pm it means you have to plan on being at the ship for 3pm. Cuts the day short. Not worth going to a beach club or much else other than lunch. I had to cancel my plans.  I suspect Virgin is bleeding so much money they are getting desperate. Glad I am using up all my credits this trip. Next they will be cutting the food quality. When they do stuff like this they will lose current customers and it makes the cruises less attractive to new customers. In the end bad for business all around. They already can’t fill the ships up. Bad move IMO. 

Edited August 13, 2022 by westguy99

[jamesv2811]

On 8/13/2022 at 2:40 PM, westguy99 said:

I have back to back Med trips booked first one starting tomorrow. Big disappointment for me they did this especially on such short notice. How many people had plans with prebooked third party excursions screwed up. Makes no sense to do this with less than 1 week notice. 
 

This is a way to save money on fuel. More time so they can cruise slower. Maybe less port fees too. No way it is based on customer feedback. Like people surveyed said they wanted to leave Ibiza at 4pm instead of 6pm. If the ship leaves at 4pm it means you have to plan on being at the ship for 3pm. Cuts the day short. Not worth going to a beach club or much else other than lunch. I had to cancel my plans.  I suspect Virgin is bleeding so much money they are getting desperate. Glad I am using up all my credits this trip. Next they will be cutting the food quality. When they do stuff like this they will lose current customers and it makes the cruises less attractive to new customers. In the end bad for business all around. They already can’t fill the ships up. Bad move IMO. 

I do completely agree with this. There’s no way people would want to leave Ibiza at 4pm, it will affect what we would plan to do on our upcoming voyage. Cynically it may be a way of encouraging people to take up their shore excursions for the guarantee they’re back in time.

 

I would always take being in port as long as possible, you can board the ship earlier if you want but those who want to stay on land longer can do.