notme2012

On 5/23/2023 at 7:05 AM, jamesv92 said:

I've noticed this as well, they might be preparing to announce the cancellation and preempting that people will want to move to the other transatlantic. Looks dodgy!

I suspect you are right. I know a group of people, who all booked suites on Brilliant Lady 4/20/2024 sailing. Everyone of them booked a "cheeky corner suites" for about $1200 person, or $2400 per suite. All of the suites have been sold out since last Sept. 2022.

On 5/23/2023 at 6:15 AM, FFMilesJunkie said:

The Scarlet Lady TA doubled in price a couple days ago. This past weekend was looking at prices in the $2,400 range and now they are close to $5,000 😭

The promos they had have ended. I suspect there will be a new promo. 

2 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

No, that's not what I'm booked on.  I'm departing from Miami on April 21 to Barcelona.

 

Sorry! This thread is about the disappearance of Brilliant Lady sailings after April 20th, 2024.

2 hours ago, cantgetin said:

My calendar says April 21, 2024

The ship sails at 10PM on April 20th, 2024, from San Juan, PR. Taken from my confirmation email from VV.

13 hours ago, cantgetin said:

We were able to cancel and rebook for April 2024 at a substantially lower price and better "deal" than we had.

For the April 20th, 2024 TransAtlantic sailing? 

19 hours ago, jon81uk said:

The current discounts only run through to April 2024 so yes some cruises after then might be higher prices, but almost every industry constantly changes their promotions. And yes they are a new line so they are trying to work out the correct pricing for certain itineraries.

"We've seen this 40% gap to land-based vacation [this year]. It used to be about 20%," Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty lamented Thursday in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. "We're not happy about that gap."

"Liberty's estimate of a 40% differential in pricing isn't hyperbole. Several Wall Street analysts that track pricing at travel brands in recent months have pegged the current difference between the cost of land and cruise vacations, when comparing like-for-like products, at around 30% to 50% — higher than they have ever seen."

This was taken from a few different sources. With the exception of Disney Cruise Line, none of the other cruise lines have been able to succeed in pushing prices up. Until occupancies on sailings approach 80% of capacity on all sailings, there will be heavy discounting.

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.

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?

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.

25 minutes ago, OfTheSeasCruiser said:

What itineraries were they showing for Brilliant? I've been monitoring the site for them, but hadn't seen anything. 

Very similar to the Resilient Lady this coming summer. Which may be the issue, too many ships in the Med.

14 minutes ago, TYCruise said:

 

Airfare to Europe is insane right now.  It could have something to do with it.  Also, Brilliant Lady is the fourth of four almost identical ships.  That could make being on the Mermaiden Voyage less special to some.

If you read my original post #7, I mention airfare being multiples higher than Miami.

VV is still having issues breaking thru into the mainstream. VV original concept was for millennials who have not chosen to cruise in the past. That demographic is not sufficient to fill 4 ships. Which is an issue going forward for VV. Not allowing under 18, eliminates the family market (many millennials have children). The marketing doesn't help with those over 55. The mermaiden sailings are holidays sailings at generous prices! That should be a big motivator for bookings. Yet both Dec 24 and Dec 29 sailings are not sold out. For any other cruise line that Dec 29th sailing would not sell well as it runs over into the school week. But that should not matter to VV!  Do you see the points I am trying to make?

15 minutes ago, Wildcatllamas said:

Yeah, I had planned on waiting but I just wanted to get a ball park idea. I'm going to just wait and see what happens because I'm really not interested in Barcelona.

Time to use miles and points. Barcelona is an excellent city to visit. You could easily fly to Lisbon on a low cost carrier. Personally, I would rather fly to Europe and do a Med cruise. I was only booked on this TATL because other friends were on this sailing.

2 hours ago, jon81uk said:

I must admit I hadn’t looked for the Brilliant Lady summer 2024 season in the last week or two but a month ago they weren’t there. 
 

if they went on sale for  a couple of days then were pulled it does seem like an error and were released too early as there wasn’t any other announcement.

 

I doubt the ship is going to be delayed as the Christmas sailing and the San Juan itineraries are still on sale.

 

why the transatlantic was taken off sale is a mystery still though!

From the "mermaiden" voyage to April 20, is 16 cruises. Much less than the 6+ months of cruises that were in play with Resilient Lady, some of those were fully paid. What really is strange, is the mermaiden voyage is still available in almost all classes of cabins. I have checked every sailing between Dec 24, 2023 and April 20, 2024, but none appear to be sold out. My point is this indicates there will be change. After a week, this isn't an IT issue or some other inventory issue. The most likely possibilities are the ship will be delayed or stay in the Caribbean. 

I always felt that my sailing had a 50/50 chance of actually sailing.  I sold travel for 30 years, including owning my own cruise-only agency. VV does not follow industry practices in any way. But maiden voyages not being sold out, this is a bad sign, for passengers and for the cruise line. With all the other cruise lines, maiden voyages are highly prestigious and usually sell out within days of being offered. New ships being delayed, changing itineraries are all normal. But not informing anyone about it, is just bad customer service. 

47 minutes ago, Wildcatllamas said:

Wow. So this is interesting. I hadn't looked at the summer offers for Brilliant Lady but I had been really looking at the TA. I began pricing airfare yesterday for the TA that Scarlet Lady is doing and couldn't believe the prices just going through various months to get a feel for them. With a $500 credit that isn't even close to covering my cost out of Colorado to Miami and then back from Barcelona. I could get cheaper flights out of London and a pretty cheap flight from Barcelona to London so that might be an option. Guess I will wait and see.

I would wait and see, before purchasing any flights. Inventories for flights for around April 20, 2024, will not be loaded until May 21, 2023. Besides there could be promo airfares between now and Jan. 1, 2024. In this case, waiting is your best course of action.

22 hours ago, jon81uk said:

The summer season for Brilliant Lady has never been announced. Only the transatlantic has been taken off sale, anything beyond that was never published. I’m expecting they would announce in the next month or so the summer 2024 itineraries for Brilliant and maybe the winter 2024 for Valiant too.

Not true at all!  The beginning of last week all the cruises for Brilliant Lady were in inventory for Europe all next summer. I know because I was looking at them! We are on the TransAtlantic cruise. I was searching for airfares for myself, for a friend who is interested in joining us, and possibly extending our cruise. On April 12th, the TransAtlantic sailing disappeared from inventory and then on Fri. April 14th all the Brilliant Lady Europe cruises disappeared. 

Since VV postponed the maiden voyage of the Resilient Lady, this has all the appearances of the same thing happening to the Brilliant Lady. That is my primary guess. My second guess is the European sailings are not selling well enough. VV doing this now makes all the sense in the world. Not one of Brilliant Lady sailings is in final payment. Final payment for the Mermaiden voyage is August, 2023. The financial costs to VV are dramatically smaller than they were when VV postponed the Resilient Lady. Possibly VV has observed their Caribbean sailings to be outperforming their Med sailings. There are many reasons for that to be the case, as airfares to Europe are multiples higher than to Miami. If that is true, why move a ship to Europe? 

What I don't like is how deceitful this is. I called VV reservations. The agent told me "if a sailing isn't showing it is sold out". I then asked about the Brilliant Lady summer sailings, and she stated she could not comment. I am prepared for my cruise, the TransAtlantic to be cancelled. I always gave my cruise a 50/50 chance of actually sailing. 

But in the true VV form of "breaking the mold", tongue in cheek, they are ever changing.

On 7/8/2018 at 7:56 AM, pukekolive said:

 

 

When we did Venice to Istanbul on Viking Star in 2016 we had to hand in our passports the night before we docked in Athens as the customs officials came on board to stamp them.

This is an example of a ship returning from a non-Schengen country-Turkey to the Schengen zone- Greece. But not every cruise line does it this way. As we were on Celebrity Equinox and Celebrity did not take passports at all.

On 6/20/2018 at 1:33 PM, GOLDENBONNY said:

 

Depend on your ports. Our passports got collected last year because of Kotor Montenegro and not collected this year for Spain-France-Italy cruise. nothing to do with MSC just country rules. you should not be concern at all (or take your passport ashore any way).

Be sure to have photo copies of your passport and probably the image on your smartphone as well!

On 12/16/2021 at 9:41 AM, psmarkle said:

Here's a play-by-play issue I'm working in real time, trying to make good use of my on-hold time! 🙂

 

I am currently on hold with MSC "customer service" right now...going on 32 minutes so far.  I have a booking for 5 of us in YC on the new Seashore sailing on April 9th. Made the reservation back in July once I received my FCCs from our April 2021 cruise that MSC cancelled due to covid at the time. Using our Casino 30% off coupon, it came to $6,792.00 for the 5 of us.

 

Scroll forward to this week (Dec 13th) when I logged in to verify my final payment date and amount, and what to my wondering eyes does appear?  My son was dropped from the reservation and the price was showing $7,962.76...approx $1,300 more with 1 less person!  Whaaaat??

 

I talked to an agent named Frank back on Monday...short version, can you please e-mail your original MSC confirmation to our Existing Reservations team to get that price back?  Sure!  Delivery failure 2x. Ughh!  So, now at minute 40 right now with Adriana who's manager told her I'd have to contact my booking agent to remedy this.  Ummm, I am, I tell her. I booked through MSC. Oh, let me put you back on hold.  At least her manager says she got my son back on the reservation, but my total is showing now as $6,945, still not to the $6,792 I have in writing on my confirmation.  Please hold again....

 

OK, Adriana says, I have to transfer you to our Casino dept because I'm not showing the casino discount, so they would have to apply it.  Huh?  I explained that the $6,792 IS the price after the casino discount has been applied.  Oh, please hold again...

 

Now talking to a Brian who handles both regular and casino reservations.  Re-sent my original confirmation to msc existing reservation e-mail (Frank gave me an incorrect e-mail back on Monday, hence the delivery failure) and gave him the auto-generated service request # (SR Number, they call it).  He's trying to open the attachment. Back on hold again...1hr 9 mins so far. Brian did say there are a lot of new agents now that MSC is ramping up operations; he just started in July and will take his first MSC cruise in March, on the Seashore. They still can't open the confirmation, so scanning it in right now to try it that way.  They finally could open the third e-mail file...back on hold.  1hr 31 mins, so far.  Success'ish, Brian says "corporate" was able to open the confirmation, made the changes...but it'll be 72 hours before it reflects on the webpage. Fingers crossed??

 

1 hours 43 minutes of frustration.  To you Travel Agents out there, I don't know how you have the stamina to deal with this on a daily basis...you're better than I am!!

 

 

We had a booked cruise in April, that MSC finally applied the FCC in July. Then in the end of Sept., MSC takes that ship out of that port. We booked the other ship that sails from Dubai. It has been over 3 months and the FCC still has not been applied. MSC's home office in Geneva makes all the changes to reservations for FCCs. After we hopefully sail on this, we are done with MSC. They absolutely suck in customer service.

We bought our own policy on Squaremouth.com. 2/3s of our group are flying on British Airways. So they didn't get insurance that we did from Emirates. Emirates ended that offer. I wonder how good it is, because the paperwork to get it was a pain. As far as MSC honoring it, I sincerely doubt it. MSC is also a pain to deal with...a big pain! We are using a FCC and I think they are going to cancel this cruise. We were on the MSC Opera, out of Dubai , and they canceled that cruise. It was sailing on March 20. They didn't even call our travel agent to re-accommodate us. I had to call the agent, after MSC emailed me. My point is: prepare for the worst with MSC.

On 10/9/2021 at 1:01 AM, Wor1dTrave11er said:

Did you have a repo cruise or one of the 7 day ones?  I have some friends who booked the 7 days in Europe and they were offered to transfer to Virtuosa.  Mine was the repo unfortunately, so nothing for me lol.

No it was Middle Eastern cruise only.

Well after all the rigmarole to get the FCC, we had booked a cruise on the MSC Opera from Dubai. Today, MSC emailed me that our cruise is canceled. They have another ship in Dubai and didn't even offer us a cabin on that ship. MSC sucks at everything they do!

23 hours ago, drsel said:

Oh my god, that was a nightmarish experience.

You must have gone through hell after spending so much on return airfare and The Cruise.

 

Imagine the plight of thousands of passengers and crew who were stranded on Diamond Princess!

 

Actually buying new return airfares wasn't that expensive. We even received a credit for the ones we didn't use. I never felt that my safety was at risk. I just wish that this MSC grief would end. 

20 hours ago, drsel said:

Just a phone call & my new cruise was booked within 20 mins, with OBC included

My travel agent cannot get MSC to apply our FCC. MSC's excuse is that we boarded our cruise. But we were ordered off the ship, as Spain was not allowing the Grandiosa to come back to a Spanish port. So our Res# is a consumed cruise according to MSC. And I do have FCC certificate that MSC sent me. With MSC, it is just endless rigmarole.

21 hours ago, drsel said:

Since you originally asked for a REFUND, that is why the FCC was voided.

I originally asked for a refund. I received a FCC. That took 10 months.

11 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Thanks for posting this, Emma is one of my favorite YouTube cruise enthusiasts. My wife and I have cruised twice with Costa, and we loved it both times. We liked it not in spite of the fact that it felt very European, but because of it. I should add that I’m also a big fan of Rick Steves and his philosophy of ‘living like a native’ when overseas. If you want everything to feel like you’re back in the States or in Britain, you will definitely be disappointed. But if you are adventurous and you want to feel like you’re in Europe, Costa is a great choice. Also, maybe because we are Americans or because we bought the drink package, but we never once paid for any drinks, including bottled water. The pizza was free on our first cruise but there was a nominal fee for the second one, and it was worth every penny. Costa is reasonably priced to start with, so you’re not really going to go broke buying an occasional pizza. It’s funny how something is a negative to one person and is a positive for the other. For instance, I learned a lot of new words by seeing everything written in five different languages. To me that was a plus. My wife also loved being seated next to nothing but Italians, because we both speak the language and it was wonderful to learn while on vacation.
But again, if you’re monolingual and you only want to be surrounded by people who are just like you, then I say stay away from Costa. But if you like to learn new things and really feel like you’re in Europe, it’s a great choice.  

Costa and MSC both have huge presence in Europe. @drselwanted examples of European pricing. She isn't the only that has mentioned week long cruises for roughly $400, including drinks and airfares. But she is the one that I distinctly remembered having low pricing before and after Covid.