What happened to Brilliant Lady

[trippingpara]

I wonder if it's been chartered.  I heard that several of Virgin's cruises over past year or two have been chartered suddenly after it was listed.  I did a Google search trying to see if it was available anywhere and every cruise site either says to call them for info or lists it as sold out.  Yet, there is a LGBT travel site that is listing the TA to Lisbon as their "Gay Group Cruise".  That sounds chartered to me but I've never been on a ship that was chartered, so I'm just speculating.  I'm wondering if they are holding it waiting to see how many cabins this group will take and then open it back up once they know.

[Wildcatllamas]

1 hour ago, trippingpara said:

I wonder if it's been chartered.  I heard that several of Virgin's cruises over past year or two have been chartered suddenly after it was listed.  I did a Google search trying to see if it was available anywhere and every cruise site either says to call them for info or lists it as sold out.  Yet, there is a LGBT travel site that is listing the TA to Lisbon as their "Gay Group Cruise".  That sounds chartered to me but I've never been on a ship that was chartered, so I'm just speculating.  I'm wondering if they are holding it waiting to see how many cabins this group will take and then open it back up once they know.

Yup, there it is on a Gay website for this particular cruise. So back to the planning board.

[Wildcatllamas]

They also have the TA on 10/29/2023-11/12 on the Valiant Lady from Barcelona to Miami.

[CineGraphic]

1 hour ago, Wildcatllamas said:

Yup, there it is on a Gay website for this particular cruise. So back to the planning board.

 

I'm going to contact the agency behind this and ask them if they've chartered the whole ship or if they are in the same situation as we are.

Don't cancel anything.

Having Virgin cancel is to your advantage. They've been generous in the past.

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by CineGraphic

[CineGraphic]

I will add that based solely on the simplicity of the agency's website, I doubt they've charted the entire ship. They don't even list a phone number, but I did send an email to see if we can learn anything new.

[CineGraphic]

I exchanged a few emails with someone with the happy gay group website, and they are in the same situation as all of us.

They've asked Virgin for clarification, but so far have no clear answer.

It's not a full charter, just a small group cruise. Currently about 100 guys and a wait-list.

[CanadianCruiser21]

 I don’t want them to cancel the TA, but if they do, I hope it is sooner than later. I’m worried they will only offer a refund and 20% FCC, which isn’t enough to compensate for the price increases over the past few months. 
 

[librarylady19]

1 minute ago, CanadianCruiser21 said:

 I don’t want them to cancel the TA, but if they do, I hope it is sooner than later. I’m worried they will only offer a refund and 20% FCC, which isn’t enough to compensate for the price increases over the past few months. 
 

I agree. Can’t book air fare home either as I use points and that usually incurs a cancellation fee. 

[CanadianCruiser21]

16 minutes ago, librarylady19 said:

I agree. Can’t book air fare home either as I use points and that usually incurs a cancellation fee. 

Totally! I was planning on using points and reward flights are ideally booked about 350 days ahead, once available. 

[cantgetin]

54 minutes ago, CanadianCruiser21 said:

 I don’t want them to cancel the TA, but if they do, I hope it is sooner than later. I’m worried they will only offer a refund and 20% FCC, which isn’t enough to compensate for the price increases over the past few months. 
 

A FCC on this level would not be consistent with VV's previous compensations when voyages were canceled, but of  course there is no way to predict what they would do this time.

[Lustate]

I was kind of hoping they did something in Europe (or even a TA) for Brilliant this year. They would need something to "run her in" a little as doing the mermaiden public voyage starting on Christmas Eve is just asking for drama. 

Fingers crossed might see something pop up, and dive on into a booking for 2023.  

[librarylady19]

1 hour ago, cantgetin said:

A FCC on this level would not be consistent with VV's previous compensations when voyages were canceled, but of  course there is no way to predict what they would do this time.

Curious - what were previous compensations? 

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, librarylady19 said:

Curious - what were previous compensations? 

200%.  Yes, do mean twice what you paid as a future cruise  credit.  Many people used that to get suites....or multiple. cruises.

[Wildcatllamas]

17 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

I exchanged a few emails with someone with the happy gay group website, and they are in the same situation as all of us.

They've asked Virgin for clarification, but so far have no clear answer.

It's not a full charter, just a small group cruise. Currently about 100 guys and a wait-list.

Thanks for the update CineGraphic. I sure hope Virgin gets this sorted out because 3 friends and I want to go on it. 

 

[Wildcatllamas]

Well, I tried calling Virgin again and the rep I spoke with once again went to her supervisor. This cruise is still in the inventory department. She said there are several tickets for review that have been put in. So who knows what they are up to.

[jamesv92]

4 hours ago, cantgetin said:

200%.  Yes, do mean twice what you paid as a future cruise  credit.  Many people used that to get suites....or multiple. cruises.

To be honest we used a resilient lady cancellation compensation to get a great suite on a med voyage so there would be silver lining. Like others though this was the more interesting itinerary compared to the Miami to Barcelona one.

[librarylady19]

20 hours ago, cantgetin said:

200%.  Yes, do mean twice what you paid as a future cruise  credit.  Many people used that to get suites....or multiple. cruises.

Sounds good. What is I’ve only paid the deposit so far?

[cantgetin]

2 minutes ago, librarylady19 said:

Sounds good. What is I’ve only paid the deposit so far?

It seems a little early to be worried about what the compensation might be for different sorts of bookings on a cruise that hasn't beeb canceled yet.  I suspect that info till be forthcoming when VV decides exactly what is happening with these cruises.

[notme2012]

On 4/19/2023 at 7:46 AM, FFMilesJunkie said:

The Brilliant Lady summer schedule was never posted.   

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.

[notme2012]

On 5/6/2023 at 4:01 AM, cantgetin said:

It seems a little early to be worried about what the compensation might be for different sorts of bookings on a cruise that hasn't beeb canceled yet.  I suspect that info till be forthcoming when VV decides exactly what is happening with these cruises.

People are concerned about alternative plans. My suspicion is this: since not one Brilliant Lady cruise is in the final payment period, compensation is going to be less than what was offered with the Resilient Lady.

 

I sold travel for 30 years. I closed my own cruise only travel agency in 2002. From my experience, this total black out on any info on this ship is giving me bad vibes. From my contacts, Virgin Voyages is still a hard sell. Many sailings are not selling out despite what people state here. VV targeted millennials as their main demographic. The uptake in that group hasn't happened. What has happened is word of mouth referrals. Using that as a soul motivator for gaining market share is a poor strategy. And, VV has not helped themselves to penetrate the market. Examples of this are the pitiful website and the constant, rapidly changing pricing. Besides the competition is fierce in the cruise industry. Most people commenting here, have already taken a Virgin Voyage. Imagine yourself as previous cruiser on Celebrity, why would you switch?

[jon81uk]

1 hour ago, notme2012 said:

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.

All transatlantic cruises are relatively cheap compared to standard itineraries, you basically get the week at sea for free on a TA.

[notme2012]

35 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

All transatlantic cruises are relatively cheap compared to standard itineraries, you basically get the week at sea for free on a TA.

Very true, but the Med cruise on May 1st was almost double TATL. I will not spend over $4k for a 7 night cruise in a Sea Terrace XL. As I posted before, Virgin Voyages has pricing that is constantly changing. It appears VV throws whatever out there and see if it sticks.

[CanadianCruiser21]

1 hour ago, notme2012 said:

People are concerned about alternative plans. My suspicion is this: since not one Brilliant Lady cruise is in the final payment period, compensation is going to be less than what was offered with the Resilient Lady.

 

 

Some people booked this cruise for a really good price though (free room upgrade and no solo supplement), so the compensation would hopefully at least cover the equivalent room on an alternate cruise. Prices have gone up so much! 
 

I did some research on sites that list cruise port schedules. Brilliant Lady isn’t listed on any of the port stops on this TA, but Scarlet is listed. Not sure what populates those websites, but it’s another data point that leans towards cancellation. 
 

At this point, I’m already planning for the Miami to BCN TA. I would have really preferred SJ to LIS, but I guess I can fly TAP Air Portugal back and use their free stopover in Portugal program. I would cancel and switch now, just for more booking options, but MNVV only allows for one change and the cruise is still a year away. Plus potential compensation if Virgin cancels. The 2023 TA just ended and it looks like a LOT of pax on that cruise booked the 2024 scarlet TA, which I’m worried will further raise the price of that one. 

[librarylady19]

Yes I saw that too and would agree that this cruise is unlikely. I had got on chat with Birgin a couple of days ago and was told :

 

“I can guarantee that your voyage is still set to sail. It is just sold out currently.” seems like B to me and very poor customer service 

[CanadianCruiser21]

Ha! It’s definitely not sold out. I think sailor services just assumes a voyage is sold out if they don’t see it. I heard from a TA that this was about 25% sold at the time they unlisted it.