Resilient Lady Sailings: Canceled

[jamesv2811]

26 minutes ago, Virgin Voyages said:

Ahoy jamesv2811, could you let us know what platform your DM'd us on and what your username is? We'll look into this for you. 

Hi have tried on twitter, instagram and Facebook messenger so far.

 

i believe there’s clearly  an issue with online chat as well as you can wait an hour or two and get to the front of the queue and it says no agents available.

[ociana]

As much as I am impatient beyond belief now that I have my rebooking strategy ready to go, they said to be patient and wait...so I am. My hubby's credit process was done in less than an hour, and submitted after mine, and mine has been over a week. Does it stress me out? Yup. Do I worry our planned rebookings and free cruises will get filled before get there? Yep. Do I know that their customer service team is doing the best they can taking abuse and anger from others? Certainly, which is why I am waiting for my turn. I encourage others to do the same.

[kendid]

4 hours ago, jamesv2811 said:

Hi have tried on twitter, instagram and Facebook messenger so far.

 

i believe there’s clearly  an issue with online chat as well as you can wait an hour or two and get to the front of the queue and it says no agents available.

 

Yes, if you contact them on those social media sites, they just ask you to email anyway.

Chat never worked - maybe it's overloaded?

Get up at 8AM EST and call at EXACTLY 8AM - you'll only need to wait an hour or so on hold.  Otherwise, you'll never get anyone the rest of the day - you be on hold all day.

 

That being said, once I finally got a hold of someone I was well taken care and had all my questions answered.

[PhilHamburg]

 

After we also belonged to the unlucky people who were affected by a cancellation on a trip with the Resilient Lady, we also faced the situation that Virgin Voyages was, so to speak, unreachable for rebookings. Somehow I can understand that the situation cannot be solved smoothly by looking at the amount of canceled voyages, on the other hand, this is simply not acceptable to the customers (to be honest: how it could be done better, fortunately, it is not for me to decide). I can only say that I spent six days with a minimum of several ours daily thinking, calculation, reading the T&C´s, planning on myself and with my fellow sailors about how to proceed and with trying to contact the cruise line accordingly to make it happen.

 

I had been through several hours of being on hold by phone on different days, countless and also several hours of attempts to make contact via chat (all of which then broke off just before I was supposed to be next), and then there was an initial conversation with an employee who didn't really feel able to help. A connection to a manager took another three quarters of an hour and unfortunately also broke after a short time and everything started all over again. As expected she didn't called me back after the line broke up. Later in there was another employee who preferred not to help us either, saying that the person who we talked to first would call us back "in a few minutes", who never got back to us.

 

And then another day later we reached her, our salvation: Monxxxx (we call her Magnifique Monxxxx by the way). She was friendly and funny, grateful for our patience with Virgin Voyages, she was patient herself with us and experienced and able to clarify everything that needed to be clarified. And there was a lot to clarify: The phone call lasts 3.25 hours and I wondered how she could get through this and other phone calls day after day, but that's what separates dilletantes from professionals. When a terrible initial situation comes to an end like this, it's usually wonderful people who are responsible. Thank you, Magnifique Monxxxx!

[jamesv2811]

Finally got a resolution quickly by twitter yesterday with my previous FVC doubled as it should have been. I have feeling this page may have helped so I’m appreciative they checked on here. 
 

overall they need to probably work on being more reachable, you can definitely tell they’re still in infancy and learning how best to go about things. 

[PiperHolliday]

On 6/16/2022 at 7:03 AM, dippyblond said:

Anyone here booked on the cancelled Greek cruise (for 2022) from Barcelona and booked a package from an agent (imagine cruises in our case).

have you been contacted yet?

I’m curious to know how / if the 200% FVC will be allocated as we have booked a package including flights and hotel?

have tried to contact said travel agent only to be advised we will be contacted by 30th June and NOT to contact Virgin Voyages!

any advice appreciated

Thank you

 

 

The 200% FVC is on the cruise fare only. If the package was actually completely booked with VV by your travel agency, then the flights and hotel are easily refundable or changeable. But I get the feeling this travel agency may have booked you via another supplier for flights and hotel since VV only just recently got those up and running. That means if those weren't booked with a flexible policy or you don't have travel insurance, that could be a sticky situation. VV is however offering reimbursement for those expenses up to a certain amount but most likely will not cover it all. It's extremely odd to me that your travel agent is refusing to give you information and will take that long to get back to you. I would advise not using them again and possibly requesting they release your booking so you can find an agent that is actually willing to do their job or just handle it yourself. As a travel agent myself, I would be ashamed. 

 

By the way, I looked up your agency and their reviews are terrible. Definitely get them to release your booking. 

Edited June 17, 2022 by PiperHolliday

[Janthere]

@Virgin VoyagesI called Virgin on Monday June 13 and waited on hold for 3.25 hours - finally spoke to a pleasant and capable person who answered all my questions and said she would officially cancel our Jan 7/23 Resilient booking so that we could rebook. (we weren't sure at the time which sailing we wanted to do). But now 5 days later, it is still not showing as cancelled on my dashboard. I want to be able to use our FVC to rebook as Mega RS again and now those voyages are booked up. We weren't eligible for the 200% FVC since our booking was made using FVC from a previous Valiant Lady voyage that VV also cancelled on us.  I can't seem to use the generic form to do this online as there is doesn't appear to be an option for this?  Any ideas how to proceed other than sitting on hold for hours again? I have used twitter who sent me the generic form which doesn't really help as we don't know which voyage to book at the moment. 

[kendid]

On 6/17/2022 at 4:32 PM, janbear said:

@Virgin VoyagesI called Virgin on Monday June 13 and waited on hold for 3.25 hours - finally spoke to a pleasant and capable person who answered all my questions and said she would officially cancel our Jan 7/23 Resilient booking so that we could rebook. (we weren't sure at the time which sailing we wanted to do). But now 5 days later, it is still not showing as cancelled on my dashboard. I want to be able to use our FVC to rebook as Mega RS again and now those voyages are booked up. We weren't eligible for the 200% FVC since our booking was made using FVC from a previous Valiant Lady voyage that VV also cancelled on us.  I can't seem to use the generic form to do this online as there is doesn't appear to be an option for this?  Any ideas how to proceed other than sitting on hold for hours again? I have used twitter who sent me the generic form which doesn't really help as we don't know which voyage to book at the moment. 

 If you want to use your 200% FVC you are best to phone - mine never did show up on my dashboard

[westguy99]

When booking over the phone I was told I needed the booking number. I tried to give them the link but the Virgin rep said they could not apply it to my new booking. Anyone do this over the phone and what did you need or give them to do it?  

[Ceeztheday]

10 hours ago, westguy99 said:

When booking over the phone I was told I needed the booking number. I tried to give them the link but the Virgin rep said they could not apply it to my new booking. Anyone do this over the phone and what did you need or give them to do it?  

Look near the bottom of the email that they sent you announcing the cancellation. It says Impacted Bookings and lists a Booking Reference with a number. That is the number we gave them on the phone.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Ceeztheday

[COMermaid]

I called Virgin Sunday morning.  Was on hold 4 minutes before I got the option for a call back.  Got the call back 38 minutes later.  Spent 18 minutes on the phone adding the share the love code to my cruise successfully and then applying the expired credit to pay off the balance due and cash in the remaining $50 to sailor loot!  I'm worried about getting through again on Wednesday once they release the free cruise access keys.  Bring it on!

[Janet D 2]

Canceled? I just got here!

[PiperHolliday]

1 hour ago, COMermaid said:

I called Virgin Sunday morning.  Was on hold 4 minutes before I got the option for a call back.  Got the call back 38 minutes later.  Spent 18 minutes on the phone adding the share the love code to my cruise successfully and then applying the expired credit to pay off the balance due and cash in the remaining $50 to sailor loot!  I'm worried about getting through again on Wednesday once they release the free cruise access keys.  Bring it on!

 

Free cruise access keys should be able to be redeemed online. I have done it before, three times. They emailed me the codes. Although, that was not for this situation.

Edited June 20, 2022 by PiperHolliday

[_tacocat_]

1 hour ago, PiperHolliday said:

 

Free cruise access keys should be able to be redeemed online. I have done it before, three times. They emailed me the codes. Although, that was not for this situation.

yeah, our access keys to book after our first voyage automatically ended up in our accounts on the website. 

 

the odd thing there was that any time we started looking to book to compare prices or whatever, it would "use" the access key when we were searching. so if we came back to look later that day it would say it had already been used.  come back the next day, no problem.  so weird.

[PiperHolliday]

1 hour ago, _tacocat_ said:

yeah, our access keys to book after our first voyage automatically ended up in our accounts on the website. 

 

the odd thing there was that any time we started looking to book to compare prices or whatever, it would "use" the access key when we were searching. so if we came back to look later that day it would say it had already been used.  come back the next day, no problem.  so weird.

 

Clearing the cache and cookies in your browser might fix it. Or maybe an incognito window? I'll have to remember that for next time. I already knew what I would be booking so I didn't have to encounter that. 

[kendid]

16 hours ago, Janet D 2 said:

Canceled? I just got here!

Welcome to the party!  For us, it worked well to our benefit!  Hopefully for others as well!

[westguy99]

Has anyone received their free voyage access key yet after booking a 2022 with the FVC? Is there a set date to email them out? I was told by the Virgin rep they would email it which was last week but still nothing. 

[B747Purdue]

I had several amazing agents tell me (since being cancelled) the Access Codes would be sent out today, 22 June.  They went as far to extend my hold, for which I was thankful.  I have still not received an Access Code today, and a sailing mate called and they were advised they are now rolling them out throughout the rest of this week.  
 

I feel so bad for these great frontline agents that are forced to work for weak leadership, which is creating and passing down false details.  I have sailed once before with Virgin, earlier this year, and I am looking forward to again.  Although, the lies and incompetence of leadership of this cruise line are driving it in to an iceberg.

 

I get the delay and appreciate the offer to make it right, although the lack of competence to streamline the process to move forward…which includes the app (which didn’t work on my cruise in March…and is still awful) is abysmal.  What a disgrace.

[westguy99]

Just found the access key in my account and booked it. 

[ociana]

11 hours ago, westguy99 said:

Just found the access key in my account and booked it. 

Nice! Was it just listed in your access keys when you logged on? 

 

I gave up being patient yesterday and called to get my bookings taken care of. The rep had to put me on hold while she reached out to a different team (not sure why we couldn't just call them directly) that was responsible for the FVC credits. After a three hour call we got everything but the free cruises taken care of from our two cancellations. I again wish there was more self service for this, but at least that step is done.

[westguy99]

1 hour ago, ociana said:

Nice! Was it just listed in your access keys when you logged on? 

 

I gave up being patient yesterday and called to get my bookings taken care of. The rep had to put me on hold while she reached out to a different team (not sure why we couldn't just call them directly) that was responsible for the FVC credits. After a three hour call we got everything but the free cruises taken care of from our two cancellations. I again wish there was more self service for this, but at least that step is done.

I went to my account on the Virgin website and under access keys there was a new one with no information other than it was an access key (it didn't say free cruise or anything). I clicked on it and it sent me to the booking page with all the cruises listed. I selected a sea terrace for the cruise I wanted and it came up as $240 total which was the taxes. I booked it, paid the $240 and that was it. 

[Ceeztheday]

Is anyone else having trouble signing in to the VV website? Thx

[karmamule]

 

6 hours ago, Ceeztheday said:

Is anyone else having trouble signing in to the VV website? Thx

 

It was a bit slow to respond when I first loaded it but was fine after a reload.

 

Side note: No access key listed for me yet.

[Xyla]

Has anyone received their refund yet, if you requested it?

[lavaflow99]

16 hours ago, Xyla said:

Has anyone received their refund yet, if you requested it?

I was just coming in here to ask this.  I am still waiting for my refund.  It’s been more than 2 weeks.

 

Anyone got their refund?