Virgin Resilient Lady Shambles embarkation in Melbourne

[hammo]

Ive been following the arrival of Resilient Lady in Australia and particularly Melbourne where we are embarking for a sample cruise shortly . What a debarcle for all .

We have sailed with Princess , P&0 and Carnival out of melbourne and no problems at all , drop bags , enter terminal up to checkin and on - quick and efficiently handled . Virgin have failed miserably here and their checkin procedures are ridiculous , even with Richard up and down the lines in the rain apologising .  Before you flame away here please read the posts Resilient Lady- Virgin Voyages on Facebook .Virgin Voyages -  First and last with Virgin for us .

[singleflyer]

On 12/12/2023 at 12:11 AM, hammo said:

Ive been following the arrival of Resilient Lady in Australia and particularly Melbourne where we are embarking for a sample cruise shortly . What a debarcle for all .

We have sailed with Princess , P&0 and Carnival out of melbourne and no problems at all , drop bags , enter terminal up to checkin and on - quick and efficiently handled . Virgin have failed miserably here and their checkin procedures are ridiculous , even with Richard up and down the lines in the rain apologising .  Before you flame away here please read the posts Resilient Lady- Virgin Voyages on Facebook .Virgin Voyages -  First and last with Virgin for us .

 

I don't have Facebook.  Care to share what went so wrong??

[CineGraphic]

The very first embarkation is a shambles, who’s surprised here? Could happen to any line. Hope you find a cruise line that makes you happy.

enjoy your cruise

[WanderingBrit]

To his credit, Sir Richard called out the fact that things had not gone well and commended Nirmal (VV CEO) for speaking to all the sailors and making sure he was the last aboard.
 

"When things go wrong, get out there as a leader, be open and honest, and show your face", he said.

[cantgetin]

That's lovely--wonder where the CEO was for our gosh awful embarkation that was delayed for the JLo shoot.
Bottom line, at least in Miami, is that they seem to do a good job normally, but aren't so great with any stress  or atypical situation put on embarkation. Each of our embarkations or disembarkations in Miami has had "issues" surrounding wheelchair assist embarkation/disembarkation.  In fairness, many of the terminal people wearing VV shirts are very part time people, working VV on days that they have a ship in port and other lines (meaning other rules and protocols) on other days.  BCN was great at the WTC terminal, a little less so at the newly required terminal.  

[raphael360]

On 12/12/2023 at 3:11 AM, hammo said:

Virgin Voyages on Facebook

No facebook account here either. 

[CineGraphic]

Those same shore side employees will screw up the first embarkations for other lines as well.

[hammo]

5 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

The very first embarkation is a shambles, who’s surprised here? Could happen to any line. Hope you find a cruise line that makes you happy.

enjoy your cruise

Found plenty of Cruise lines that make me happy - Elite on Celebrity ,Diamond on RCCL , Platinum on Princess , NCL , Crystal , even P&0 and Carnival , and never any first embarkation like this one. Sure we will enjoy the cruise but Virgin should change they way they embark with their timing and coordination especially in Melbourne .Delays and many  Lines stretching over 100 meters in the rain - a little research as to the pathetic Melbourne Port conditions and reasonably relaxing military strict adherance to boarding times would have gone a long way to not having cruisers boarding soaking wet and spending their first hour making puddles waiting to get their change of clothes from their delayed luggage. Obviously not entirely Virgins fault with computers breaking down and the inadequate Melbourne port facility , but surely they can do better if there is a next time here .... or maybe just stick to Sydney/Brisbane  as most Cruise lines will due to the new ridiculous State Govt tax implimentation in Victoria . Anyway looking forward to getting on Resilient Lady , just hoping the Deep Blue Extras  thing means an expedited embarkation although reading other  posts here on CC , it doesnt seem to be the case .

[Lustate]

13 hours ago, hammo said:

Anyway looking forward to getting on Resilient Lady , just hoping the Deep Blue Extras  thing means an expedited embarkation although reading other  posts here on CC , it doesnt seem to be the case .

 

A lot of confusion over this extra. In short, you still turn up at the slot you booked on the app, BUT you join a different line and pass others who have the same slot unless they are also in a DBE or package that gives them the perk. 

For some reason people think that the DBE expedited means they can book an entry slot and rock up when they want lol That's the VIP or Rockstar perk. 

[FFMilesJunkie]

5 hours ago, Lustate said:

 

A lot of confusion over this extra. In short, you still turn up at the slot you booked on the app, BUT you join a different line and pass others who have the same slot unless they are also in a DBE or package that gives them the perk. 

For some reason people think that the DBE expedited means they can book an entry slot and rock up when they want lol That's the VIP or Rockstar perk. 

That's not been my experience in Miami or Athens.  If you have DBE or Romance Pkg, you can ignore the check in time on your app and show up at the earliest time. You will be sent to the 1:30 line and you will board right after Rock Stars

[Lustate]

4 minutes ago, FFMilesJunkie said:

That's not been my experience in Miami or Athens.  If you have DBE or Romance Pkg, you can ignore the check in time on your app and show up at the earliest time. You will be sent to the 1:30 line and you will board right after Rock Stars

In Athens, we were "jumped" through all lines; in the two from Barcelona, we did the outside check first and then split when you pass security; in Miami, we were sticking to slots, but then in the lobby, we called through to board easier if they had space. In portsmouth, both times was processed faster post bag drop but standard line first. 

[Ondine]

On 12/14/2023 at 11:23 AM, singleflyer said:

 

I don't have Facebook.  Care to share what went so wrong??

 

We were there.  Our check in time was 1.45 (originally 1.30) and we arrived at 1.40pm.  There was no access to the pier as per usual to drop off luggage etc because they were having "technical difficulties" so everyone was told to just drive around and come back later or join the queue.  We parked and waited for 20 minutes in the car and then decided to join the queue which was growing and snaking around the street and along the beach front.  Probably around 500 in the queue by then.  After about 30 minutes we had moved around 50 ft/15mts with little or no information being given out. After 2 hours and still not reaching the port gate officials came along calling out for passengers with 1.30 or 1.45 boarding times to go to the front of the queue and check in their luggage.  We then progressed onto the pier and crawled or stood for another 2 hours before reaching the lifts/elevators leading upstairs to the check in lounge.  Finally Richard came along apologising for the debacle which was caused by their systems going down in the terminal and the back up systems in Miami being very slow and dropping out all the time.  By then I think there were about 1,800 people in the queue.  People loved getting selfies with Richard so some were happy.  When we finally reached the lifts people were allowed to go to check in in groups of 10 because there was mayhem at the check in counters.  We had DBE and saw the line for Rock Stars so we joined that.  There was no one in it.  The officials were channeling people into the snake without asking if they had priority boarding and so many people were not aware of it. We got on board in about 10 minutes after that.

After all that there was confusion with disembarking because people were not told to select a disembarkation time via the app. Most passengers are used to the cruise line issuing papers with times and coloured tags.  They kept sending out messages to ask you to select a time under excursions but many people especially older passengers, and yes there were quite a lot of over 50/60/70/80s onboard (including me), did not read their messages.  I had to ask at sailor services how to handle disembarking.  I did find the absence of announcements and general how-to info confusing.  I know better for next time (February) now.  It was a learning curve.

So all in all it took us 4 hours to board.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Ondine
added bit

[CruisingWalter]

On 12/14/2023 at 10:25 AM, cantgetin said:

In fairness, many of the terminal people wearing VV shirts are very part time people, working VV on days that they have a ship in port and other lines (meaning other rules and protocols) on other days.  BCN was great at the WTC terminal, a little less so at the newly required terminal.  

 

Actually most of those people in the VV shirts don't work for VV. They work for the Port Authority of Miami and are assigned daily terminal duties depending on what ships are in that day and which cruise lines they've trained with. There might be a few senior managers who are VV employees, but most everyone outside and in the terminal are Port Authority employees, that's true of most every cruise port at least in the U.S. 

[cantgetin]

22 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Actually most of those people in the VV shirts don't work for VV. They work for the Port Authority of Miami and are assigned daily terminal duties depending on what ships are in that day and which cruise lines they've trained with. There might be a few senior managers who are VV employees, but most everyone outside and in the terminal are Port Authority employees, that's true of most every cruise port at least in the U.S. 

Yeah, you explained it better than I did.  Exactly what I was trying to convey--that they don't work for VV and (in my experience) don't know what they are doing when working VV in Miami.  Barcelona has been much better each time, even when it was the first use of the A terminal rather than WTC.