Lousy Booking Experience; Gave Up; Goodbye Virgin

[dandz1455]

How can a prospective first-time "sailor" on a VirginVoyages cruise feel confident about making a booking, when getting to a reservationist/customer service/online chat is almost nil. Then nightmarish reviews on CC about "Sailors" not getting the cabins they originally booked. Here's our story . . . we are looking to book 2 cabins (side by side) in the Caribbean on the 8-night Valiant Lady in January 2023; we're family traveling together and want to be close together on the ship. It appears that “sailors” can only book; pay a deposit for one cabin at a time (unlike other cruise companies). We wanted a “Sweet Aft Suite-Pretty Big Terrace” and a “Cheeky Corner Suite-Pretty Big Terrace.” I spent a lot of time on the VirginVoyages website; knew exactly the areas we wanted; what privileges were offered for each specific cabin class; what was and was not covered in our cruise fare. But could not successfully book the 2 cabins side by side. So I thought . . . telephone customer care (954-488-2955). This took place this past Mon, Mar 14 at 2p (Eastern Time). While holding for Customer Care I thought . . . . I’ll use the online Chat mechanism at the same time to see who I reach first. I was number 28 in line for Chat; I eventually made it to 23, then unresponsive. Not a problem as I was doing other work. Meanwhile I was in a holding pattern on the telephone (where is doesn’t say how long the wait is) for 39 minutes when I was totally disconnected. No human voice, just totally cut-off. I phoned back and held the line for 20 minutes and decided . . . to take up the offer that the hold voice mentioned “or, you may leave a message and we’ll hold your place in the que and phone you when it’s your turn.” I received a return phone call at 9:30p from Elder (in Guatemala – what???). He had a beautiful British vocabulary. Although it took about an hour 20minutes for Elder to locate 2 cabins side by side, he did a super job. I asked for the $200 JLo discount; no problem it was reflected in the total fare quoted. Since I had just received a “$0 down, $0 APR; Live in the Now, Pay in the Later” promotion I asked about that. In order to qualify Elder would need to run a credit check (what, you’re kidding!!! No Way !!! You’re not getting my treasured personal information). So I passed on the $Down$0APR. I asked if it were possible to hold the cabins for 24 hours so I could get approval to spend the other family members’ money. Elder said he’d give us until Fri, Mar 18 at 12nn to confirm; gave us the booking numbers for each cabin and it would take 1 hour for the booking confirmations to arrive in my email inbox – great! Checked email the next morning, no email. I thought . . . since I have the booking numbers and had already set up an online VirginVoyages account I would check there to see if the booking confirmations appeared there – NOPE. Not in my SPAM folder either. I knew better than to telephone VirginVoyages so I just didn’t expect anything to arrive. Then on Wed, Mar 16 at 1247pm (Eastern) I had 4 emails from VirginVoyages. All 4 emails’ subject line “your booking is officially on hold for 24 hours” Reading further into the body of each email . . . 3 had “booking expires Tues Mar 15” – what??? They sent an email after the expiration date – duh!!! One email did have an expiration date of Fri, Mar 18. Why 4 emails? During the booking process with Elder, he asked what county our passports were issued, and date of birth of the lead “sailor” in each cabin. I told him October on one sailor; Elder input “Aug.” I told him the birth year for the other lead sailor and he was off by 10 years. I am so disgusted with the whole process for booking a cabin and not being able to communicate with anyone in a reasonable amount of time; and yet I’m so grateful that I asked for a 24hour hold. I just cannot bring myself to phoning VirginVoyages to cancel the only one booking on hold due to expire tomorrow. Gosh, if I had paid the deposit (or even the booking in full) and had a question – I thought . . . this is a sign and it’s time to say goodbye VirginVoyages. There’s too many great cruise companies out there that would welcome us as a passenger. Lastly, why would anyone book a cabin address knowing that it can be changed at anytime because VirginVoyages states on their website . . . “Like a hotel, we auto-assign you the best cabin available in your category.

[Raiders4Life32]

Wow....tons of details!  Sorry to hear your experience as your request seemed rather simple.  The only cabin switching I've read about so far was COVID related as the ship must keep a certain amount of rooms for possible quarantine situations.  I would hope that by 2023 you wouldn't have that issue anymore as things seem to be progressing that way.  

[_tacocat_]

the 0 down thing is actually a loan, so yeah, the credit check makes sense.  that is a bummer that you weren't able to get your booking settled, but i have to say that the service you received is outside of the norm of what i've had over the past couple years. 

 

i've had the best luck either calling really early or really late in the day.  if there's a long wait, there's an option for them to call you back.  it may take a couple hours, but i've always gotten a call back and been able to reserve.

 

i agree it is REALLY annoying that you're not able to select the cabins from the website.  the only way you can select or move to a specific cabin is by calling or if you're booking your next voyage while physically on board with the future voyage agent.

[Sixcruiser]

Aww that sounds like a terrible experience! I had something similar with trying to put some bookings on hold and not having the emails come. The only way I was able to book the specific room I wanted was with my travel agent. It worked out better because they were able to get the extra 200 for JLOVERSLOOT and they also threw in an extra 75 dollars obc. 

 

Chat with VV was hit or miss. One time I waited for 30 min and then it just got disconnected before an agent came on. Tried again later and got an agent right away. At least with chat there's not the issue of things being lost in translation with the Oct/Aug issue. And you can save the chat if any issues arise. 

 

I found calling in difficult as it's long distance from Canada so Skype wouldn't even let me call for free. My travel agent in NY has a 1800 number I call into and it's free via Skype. 

 

Maybe you can give it another try? My sailing is in a month and half so I hope things go smoothly on board.

[Fogcityca13]

Not being able to see what cabins are available when booking and then choosing your cabin, is pretty frustrating. I emailed sailor services and requested a room change. Gave them a few different cabin numbers, and asked if they were available. With in a day or two I received an email stating our new room assignment. We are sailing Mega Rockstar on this booking so I’m not sure if that played a part. The nice thing about e-mail is you have documented the conversation, much easier to engage the next CSR.

[sid_9169]

I've found a method of figuring out which cabins are available. It may take some time, but it works. When you're in the booking process, choose your date, cabin category, and get to the page where it shows you the "cabin selected"... Then, open up another browser and do the same thing again. I've done this all the way up to a dozen or more browsers, but it gave me a better idea of the cabin selection. Once I find the one I'm happy with, I place a hold on that particular cabin...

[Doug S]

We were moved without notification, so yeah it happens. Were originally mid ship adjacent to family and when we boarded we realized we had been relocated to an accessible cabin all the way up front.  Accessible, but a Loooong walk to get there??? We just went with it. Cabin was larger and bed was better (not one of the convertibles) so it was a wash.

 

[Etherealethel]

This sounds like one more frustrating piece of admin malfunction - there are lots of them with Virgin. The phone app they make you use is not really fit for purpose either. 

[cantgetin]

I contacted my agent, then booked myself because he was on another cruise at the time.  I indicated that I needed an accessible cabin, but the one assigned did not show that feature.  Contacted travel agent, who suggested that I call at 8am EDT as I was most likely to get a US based Virgin person at that time.  The person I got was fantastic. He said that the cabin we were assigned was one of the remodeled HA cabins and it showed up that way on his map.  I told him exactly what our needs were and that I would be very upset if we got to port and could not travel due to inadequacies in the cabin (we've had issues in some hotels, but can make it work for one night!).  He moved us to an original HA cabin--no concerns at all.  He was also full of good info about the cruise.  Very professional and helpful.

 

I later called with concerns about covid testing with departure from Barcelona.  I already knew that Spain requires a booster within 270 days, but wasn't sure about where/how we could get the test with the need to fly in a day early, etc.  I even pointed out that the rules may be different in Barcelona than Miami, and may change before our sailing date, but I didn't want to have to find an off site place to test in Barcelona...so would there be testing at the terminal.  The Virgin agent knew nothing. He didn't understand why the rules for Spain mattered, and could just read me the Miami policy.    Yes, I've since found the policy on my own and received a link from people on the boards.  I guess my point is that it all seems to depend on which agent you speak with; they need uniform training.