New ship kinks

[creativeroutes]

Hi there - I have always avoided cruising on a new ship in the first few  months as I figured they need time to work out all the kinks ! I am very interested in the Greek island glow on the resilient lady but would have to travel June which would be the 7th cruise for this new ship. Does anyone have a different point of view or new ship experiences that could help me make a decision? I cruised on Scarlet Lady last June and loved it.

[cantgetin]

First, every crew member I met on VV had previous experience on another cruise line...and usually not a low end line.  Yes, they have to be trained to the Virgin way, but that's easier to do if you have previous experience. Next, they have 2 other ships functioning now; they will move crew from those ships so  not everyone will be new to Virgin. They will likely overstaff the two existing ships for a short time in order to begin training for the new ship. For instance, we were on a "turnover" cruise--a lot of the old entertainers would complete their contracts when we docked,  so they brought the newbies on for our cruise.  That gave the new cast a chance to train and perform with the old, and toward the end of our cruise the newbies did the show alone with the departing crew member watching from the audience.  Finally, this is 6 cruises into things....most of the bugs should have been worked out, and Virgin already has experience sailing in the Med.

 

I made the serious mistake of cruising on the first paid customer cruise of a new cruise line about 25 years ago.  To say it was awful was an understatement. I wrote a 4 page letter to the cruise line president saying that if they just wanted to know they had an unhappy customer, quit reading after the first paragraph.  If they wanted to fix things, read on to learn what was wrong.  They sent back a very nice letter, a box of Disney stuff, and a coupon for any future cruise in the next 18 months.  We  waited more than a year to use that coupon, but when we did, essentially everything was "fixed."  

That's a whole lot different than launching a third ship.  All you have to worry about are things relating to the ship itself, and since the launch of other ships had to be rescheduled, I think they will have allowed time to be sure they'll be ready to go on this one.  The 7th paying guest sailing wouldn't bother me.  There will have been lots of unpaid experiences in advance to get the crew up to snuff, etc. (the cruise line invites TA, PR people, etc. they allow crew to invite family for dinner services or whatever just to "practice.")  They should have finished their learning and be ready to go.

I will never go on the maiden voyage of a new ship again, particularly on a new line.  But the 7th cruise new ship, existing line....I'd do it.

[CruisingWalter]

8 hours ago, creativeroutes said:

Hi there - I have always avoided cruising on a new ship in the first few  months as I figured they need time to work out all the kinks ! I am very interested in the Greek island glow on the resilient lady but would have to travel June which would be the 7th cruise for this new ship. Does anyone have a different point of view or new ship experiences that could help me make a decision? I cruised on Scarlet Lady last June and loved it.

 

By the 7th cruise the ship and the crew should be well underway in figuring out the kinks.

 

With any new ship, the cruise line will cherry pick the best of the best from their existing ships to be part of the launch team. So you're going to have leaders who are well versed in the Virgin way of doing things helping everyone else get up to speed quickly.

 

Virgin is building four identical ships so that makes it much easier to train new folks because everything is the same. All the other cruise lines usually tweak this, that or the other, but it appears VV is sticking to the original plan of four identical ships. 

 

The only thing I will say is that Valiant Lady seemed to get worse reviews for the overall food quality than Scarlet Lady when she was in Europe.  The meals and menu are essentially the same, but the food suppliers would be different in Europe. Other than the culinary team onboard the two ships, that would be the major difference. I have not seen many, if any, complaints about the food quality during her winter season here in Miami. So that might be one little thing to watch for when you sail Resilient.

 

But heading out on a ship in her second month of operation is a lot different than being first. I will say VV seems to have had the most successful MerMaiden voyages of any cruise line I've watched. Probably in part because they do keep it simple and all of the ships are identical. You should have an amazing time on your voyage!

 

[CineGraphic]

We were on the 5th sailing of a ship a few years ago, and thankfully didn't have any problems.

The new ship smell was everywhere. We kept saying, "this place smells like ship".

[aviators99]

This makes me a bit nervous about my Dec 24th 1st sailing of Brilliant Lady 😮

[Lustate]

11 hours ago, creativeroutes said:

Hi there - I have always avoided cruising on a new ship in the first few  months as I figured they need time to work out all the kinks ! I am very interested in the Greek island glow on the resilient lady but would have to travel June which would be the 7th cruise for this new ship. Does anyone have a different point of view or new ship experiences that could help me make a decision? I cruised on Scarlet Lady last June and loved it.

We have already done one mermaiden with virgin (Valiant) and you would not have known it was the case. Everything was working fine and spotless, crew was amazing. 

 

We had also done i think it was the third public sailing they did on Scarlet Lady, that was slightly more "start up", but still did not impact on the enjoyment at all. 

[creativeroutes]

Thank you this is very helpful!

[creativeroutes]

3 hours ago, WheresWalter said:

 

By the 7th cruise the ship and the crew should be well underway in figuring out the kinks.

 

With any new ship, the cruise line will cherry pick the best of the best from their existing ships to be part of the launch team. So you're going to have leaders who are well versed in the Virgin way of doing things helping everyone else get up to speed quickly.

 

Virgin is building four identical ships so that makes it much easier to train new folks because everything is the same. All the other cruise lines usually tweak this, that or the other, but it appears VV is sticking to the original plan of four identical ships. 

 

The only thing I will say is that Valiant Lady seemed to get worse reviews for the overall food quality than Scarlet Lady when she was in Europe.  The meals and menu are essentially the same, but the food suppliers would be different in Europe. Other than the culinary team onboard the two ships, that would be the major difference. I have not seen many, if any, complaints about the food quality during her winter season here in Miami. So that might be one little thing to watch for when you sail Resilient.

 

But heading out on a ship in her second month of operation is a lot different than being first. I will say VV seems to have had the most successful MerMaiden voyages of any cruise line I've watched. Probably in part because they do keep it simple and all of the ships are identical. You should have an amazing time on your voyage!

 

Great point!!

[_tacocat_]

they seem to pull most of the same crew back as the "openers" for the new ships.  i spoke to a bunch of folks who were on subsequent contracts, but a few of the happenings cast started on scarlet, then bounced onto valiant.  a few of them were about to find out if they were tapped to open resilient.  i think they've either started staffing resilient up already or plan to pretty soon - hopefully doing some "friends & family" cruises to break the ship in.  i'm on voyage #3 and didn't realize at the time, so we shall see!

[creativeroutes]

2 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

they seem to pull most of the same crew back as the "openers" for the new ships.  i spoke to a bunch of folks who were on subsequent contracts, but a few of the happenings cast started on scarlet, then bounced onto valiant.  a few of them were about to find out if they were tapped to open resilient.  i think they've either started staffing resilient up already or plan to pretty soon - hopefully doing some "friends & family" cruises to break the ship in.  i'm on voyage #3 and didn't realize at the time, so we shall see!

Thank you seems like VV does a good job with it !

[cantgetin]

Taco nailed it.  We spoke to someone who opened Valiant, is on break now, and believes she will be going back to Valiant before she is moved to Resilient to open there...but she's waiting to hear for sure what the plans are.

[William Spongeworthy]

Well, that was not the kind of "kink" that I thought it would be!

[Lustate]

14 hours ago, William Spongeworthy said:

Well, that was not the kind of "kink" that I thought it would be!

Dont worry, they have that covered with the "hammocks" on the balcony's... lol 

[CalaDragonflyLady]

On 2/8/2023 at 7:21 PM, creativeroutes said:

Hi there - I have always avoided cruising on a new ship in the first few  months as I figured they need time to work out all the kinks ! I am very interested in the Greek island glow on the resilient lady but would have to travel June which would be the 7th cruise for this new ship. Does anyone have a different point of view or new ship experiences that could help me make a decision? I cruised on Scarlet Lady last June and loved it.

As the new ships roll out, VV is using employees/entertainers/happenings cast with experience on them, so things should roll out pretty smoothly.  And VV is paying attention to feedback and constantly updating/changing.  When I was on the Valiant Lady I encountered numerous crew members in all types of jobs who I had met on the Scarlet Lady, and many of them asked me if I would be sailing the Resilient, since they would be transferring to her.  I am on the Friends and Family Resilient cruise, so I will be finding out soon!!

All will be well, I promise!  It will be amazing, and I will see you there 🙂  

Edited March 7, 2023 by LibratPDX