Jamesv281117

57 minutes ago, Tralfaz1138 said:

I really enjoy Virgin so I'd prefer to stick with cruises on them.  But it does seem like the itineraries I'd prefer end up priced at a level I'm probably not going to go with.  My wife and I got a couple of MNVV and I'll admit that I used the first on a cruise that might not have been "the one" we wanted, but it was still a good itinerary and the price on it happened to be pretty good at that point.  (The price on the type of cabin I got went up by almost $4k the next day also).

 

We used the second one on a TA, and the price on those is generally very reasonable and still seems to be on the one we booked.
 

It will be interesting to see what the Alaska cruises end up costing.  I want to do one of those, but I might have to wait for the smoke to clear on the first year of them running them.  I imagine the first year they'll be priced high due to demand, but "maybe" the second year they'll settle.  (Wishful thinking, I know).

Also intrigued to see Alaska pricing, is a very competitive market so on paper I would think they wouldn't go crazy with pricing but a lot of people are eagerly waiting for it so might pay big money!

46 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

Of course the special one-off or once a year type itineraries are priced higher than the ones they offer for months at a time so it may be possible to find cheaper cruises.

I'll persevere but there's no question they're really looking to exploit people's enjoyment of the brand so far, seeing how much people will pay. I have loyalty to virgin no doubt but this latest round of pricing is too high.

I think the pricing is outrageous to be honest, there's still value to be had such as for the LA to Vancouver cruise in 2026 but largely getting priced out at this rate. 

If you have avios with British airways I think the redemption prices are good value from Madrid to San Juan. I've booked a flight using this route before and had to pay for some avios to top it but it still worked out over half the cash price.. 

Sailing from San Juan next April and will be doing the same again. 

7 hours ago, neverendingcruising said:

You can pay for same day return as well, I don't recall what the price was though. 

$50 I believe 

You should be able to unless someone has any information otherwise? Whenever I've purchased one and gone to schedule the voyage the full inventory of voyages are available 

1 minute ago, trippingpara said:

Really?  This was our first one so I don't have anything to go by, but we found it super easy to get our food.  Much easier than on other lines in their crowded buffets and we never had a problem getting a seat either.  Maybe we were lucky and always missed the true peak times.  We have a couple more booked (one in the Caribbean and the Panama Canal transit) so I guess we'll see how comparable it will be.

Definitely the case for me compared to the other 3 I've done, all of those were in Europe, which is why I put the question out there. We enjoyed the food overall and adjusted to things but had an instance of having the flag up for 20 minutes with no one coming to the table and extremely busy moments around specials. 

It could be down to difference in our timings maybe but this also happened to be the first cruise when ordering at the counter was encouraged. On previous ones it wasn't a thing at all so I don't know if this affected how busy it seemed at times.

Next voyaging in the Caribbean with them so will see how it is then 😄

2 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

One - this would have been a great reason to use a travel advisor, especially a Top 100 or Gold Certified First Mate. Many of them were up at 3am booking Brilliant cruises when the inventory came online. Everything was available for the first hour or so. The Panama Canal suites went first.

 

Sadly there are travel agents and agencies who go in and put down deposits on as many suites as they can to block them out from everyone else.  Then they can offer them 'exclusively.' If they don't sell them by final payment date, they will be released back into inventory.

 

I've complained about this to VV multiple times because there are VERY limited suites on the Ladyships. Allowing agents to simply grab and prevent people who actually want to book these cabins is wrong. But as of now, they continue to allow agents to do this. It's especially prevalent in the Caribbean where you'll see a standard sailing with all of the Cheeky Corner Suites gone because those are the most popular. For the most part they're just being held by TAs to resell them. 

 

To be fair, all cruise lines allow agents to put down deposits on pretty much any cabin on any cruise ship to hold them until final payment, but with the Ladyships there is such limited inventory because there are only 3, soon to be 4 of them. 

 

On the flip side of that, there are approx. 100k agents in North America alone who sell VV. So it is entirely possible that those suites were actually sold because there's only 2 LA voyages. Mexican Riviera and California Coastal. 3 counting the reposition up to Vancouver.

 

I would keep an eye on a future itinerary release because I would expect Brilliant Lady to come back to LA for about 4 weeks in Sept/Oct 2026 before she goes back through the Canal for the winter season in Miami. I'm hoping they have 1 Hawaii run. That would be a fun ship for the LA to Hawaii cruise.

Whatever explanation there is for travel agents putting down deposits on a huge amount of suites I think it is unfair and is good of you to raise that. Why can't it just be the case that agents have access to what is available at the time like everyone else?

1 hour ago, BodaciousB said:

This question is for those of you who have sailed the other Lady Ships. I see they're all pretty much identical, but that there are some spots on the ships that are underutilized (all from research and watching YouTube, I've not yet sailed Virgin but have two booked). I just watched @cruisingwalter 's first VV review on YouTube and thought his comments on what they could change to make the ships better were interesting. Given that Brilliant Lady has been so delayed, and appears like she's just going to be hanging in Cyprus or elsewhere for another 18 months, I'm curious what things would folks like to see different on Brilliant Lady compared to the other ships? Or for that matter what changes they'd like to see as each of the first three roll through dry dock in the next few years. 

 

Also curious if it will still be possible to circumnavigate the exterior of the ship on Deck 7 on BL with the tighter life boat placement that they have acknowledged due to the Panama Canal dimensions. Anyone know? 

I wish it was possible to go he whole way to the front of the ship on deck 7, it's quite an interesting design on the current ships..

They won't do this but they could make improvements still to the pool area I think.

9 minutes ago, trippingpara said:

We were also on that cruise but never had to wait when walking up and ordering at each station during any meal.  We also had no problem flipping up the flag and ordering through a server.  With only 1,400 sailors onboard we never found the Galley (or any place) overly crowded even during peak times and there were plenty of servers walking around to take your orders.

On 4 virgin voyages so far it's the busiest and craziest I've seen the galley I have to say 

3 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

All I can say is... Virgin is Tripping!

 

Stay off drugs kids!

There's still value to be had in my opinion amongst these itineraries - Cali to Canada is a good price for 8 nights I think. 

Virgin are succeeding if they're getting people this excited about booking these new batch of voyages. 

Intrigued by this burger also, never saw it on 17 nights on resilient lady just gone but want to try!

2 hours ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

Do the 2 coffees per day include embarkation day?

How about debarkation day also?

They absolutely do include both. Also worth pointing out that we've been getting 2 free drinks per day from Grounds Club so not just coffees but also hot chocolate etc 

17 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

 

yeah, I heard that.

You seem to be going slower so thinking is a chance we'll bump in to you soon, not literally hopefully 

I think we're getting close behind on resilient lady based on that view 😂

4 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

We are on Scarlet right now and ordering by raising the flag for a server and by going up to counters has worked very well. Generally we ordered with a server at breakfast (to get pancakes) but went to counters at lunch to find the specials.

 

Only Galley issue we had was at 2.30am after Scarlet night when they ran out of hash browns, then served them still frozen and the ordering went to complete chaos.

That's interesting as well thank you I'm sailing Caribbean with virgin soon so will be interested to compare, could be down to this particular crowd and timings. On the current voyage there's been a lot of chaos moments with ordering, was a special at the burger place yesterday everyone seemed to want and it was mayhem with management getting involved to deal with orders!

Interesting thanks, we've been struggling a bit with getting anyone to take an order using the flag method on Resilient which has been strange. Is the busiest I've ever seen the galley though on any virgin voyage so far..

Hi

We've been on the repositioning cruise from Cape town the last couple of weeks and have found that you now go up to each station in the galley to order. Personally I have found this to get really busy at peak times and a bit chaotic and thought the previous way of table ordering was better.

Interested to know is this something that has changed across the other ships too?

54 minutes ago, periodic itinerant said:

I'm eyeing the 10-day New York to Quebec City. I really hope it's at a price point that works for me, since I'd want to tack on some time in Quebec at the end.

I'm also really looking forward to them sailing out of my home base in 2026 and beyond. Overall really stoked about these new offerings!

Also hoping to do that one and Panama Canal but concerned what the prices are gonna come out like for these!

Will definitely be doing the Panama canal and very excited to hear it's going from new York to Quebec as well!

Significantly better than the other lines in my opinion. The variety and quality of food is amazing even down to the room service offering. The included WiFi, app and tablet to control the room are also all great features. It's refreshing as well not to have the thought of tipping and the staff are so friendly and helpful at all times. It's great if you like to be laid back and fun and want to do what you want, when you want and where and the destinations they go to are continuing to improve.

I'm not the only one who views it as their number 1 cruise line now.

Extremely easy and relaxing to fall asleep in!

1 hour ago, jcarter4551 said:

For those that have done TA, what is the weather like on the cruise days at sea? I imagine its not warm right now and I need the pool to keep me out of the casino during the day. What do you do all day for 7 straight sea days? I am curious because want to look into one sometime.

On resilient lady at the moment and doing a 9 sea day stretch and a virgin ship is a great place to be in my opinion if you're doing lots of sea days. There's loads to do and the food is all amazing and it makes it even better that everything is included for a long journey. Is baking hot on our itinerary at the moment past Africa so don't know how it is on transatlantic but the outdoor areas are cool to hang around at.

4 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

Yep, get ready West Coast.  My guess is she comes across the pond to NYC. Does a few sailings there.  Comes down to Miami, does a few sailings there. Then Panama Canal Crossing to LA.  And then Seattle for some Alaska itineraries?  That'll be interesting. I'm really hoping Hawaii is at least one of the itineraries.

Will be heading over for one of those if this is true!

Very interesting reading through details of your transatlantic, I'm on Resilient Lady currently on what is a very similar sailing to yours heading north from Cape Town. I'm also very much enjoying the food and relaxation!