VV IT is horrible

[Russiamomm]

Hi everyone.  I’m here to vent for just a bit.  For a company that claims to be so IT savvy, their tech sucks.  I’m currently booked on two voyages - one in November and one in December.  On the website I can see them both, but I can only see the November sailing on the app.  On the website you can’t do any of the check in stuff.  Have to do it on the app, but it’s not there for the December voyage.  There’s also issues with bar tabs and sailor loot not showing, but I have emails saying that we have it.

We’re also having trouble navigating both the app and the website.  I get somewhere then can’t figure out how to get back to it.  Specifically, finding the Add-ins on the website. Even getting to your account isn’t easy.  It’s all very frustrating and we consider ourselves rather tech savvy.  I think they’re trying to be too cute.  Why can’t they just have everything in one place?  As has been said many times here, I tried to call.  Endless waits.  Tried to chat and no agents available,  I sent an email. We’ll see if there’s any response.

 

Anyone else have similar frustrations?  At first I thought it was just me not being used to the site,  now I’m convinced it’s not just me.  It sucks.  I just want to know what I have, when I’m checking in and what else I need to do.  Doesn’t seem that hard, but it’s virtually impossible.  

[neverendingcruising]

Have you tried switching voyages and/or connecting the second voyage in the app? 

 

Go to the Me tab bottom right, then Settings top right, scroll all the way to the bottom and select Switch Voyage. All of your bookings should be listed, if your other one is still missing select Connect Booking to add the missing voyage. 

 

As far as I can tell you can only see add-ons for your next cruise on the site. ☹️

[Russiamomm]

17 minutes ago, neverendingcruising said:

Have you tried switching voyages and/or connecting the second voyage in the app? 

 

Go to the Me tab bottom right, then Settings top right, scroll all the way to the bottom and select Switch Voyage. All of your bookings should be listed, if your other one is still missing select Connect Booking to add the missing voyage. 

 

As far as I can tell you can only see add-ons for your next cruise on the site. ☹️

Thank you!  That worked to see the second sailing.  I was able to check in.  They sure don’t make it easy!  My add ins are still not right for the November sailing but the December trip seems to be in order.

 

Thank you again!  

[cantgetin]

My add ins are right on the website but not on the app....I did confirm that the agent answering the phone that his screen has it correct.  I have several screen shots and figure I'll straighten it out on board if they have it wrong!  Yes, very frustrating.

[yarramar]

11 hours ago, neverendingcruising said:

Go to the Me tab bottom right, then Settings top right, scroll all the way to the bottom and select Switch Voyage. All of your bookings should be listed, if your other one is still missing select Connect Booking to add the missing voyage.

Thanks, worked for me too. Now I can see that I have some sailor loot missing.... must contact them again!

[rebeccac]

On our cruise, some of our sailor loot (through promotion at time of booking) did not show up on the app until after we arrived and connected to the VV wifi.  

[Cloud9 Bob]

I've said many times that I'm the odd man out having very little trouble with the app....well at least no trouble a reboot of my phone couldn't fix. The thing that really bothered me though was that they don't allow use of private VPN's to safeguard the transmission of data....like when I want to connect to my bank and transfer funds. I spoke to IT and was even willing to upgrade to the faster service, but they said VPN is a "no go" on either service. Still can't figure why??

[neverendingcruising]

25 minutes ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I've said many times that I'm the odd man out having very little trouble with the app....well at least no trouble a reboot of my phone couldn't fix. The thing that really bothered me though was that they don't allow use of private VPN's to safeguard the transmission of data....like when I want to connect to my bank and transfer funds. I spoke to IT and was even willing to upgrade to the faster service, but they said VPN is a "no go" on either service. Still can't figure why??

Most likely they are using content filtering to help control bandwidth usage and likely to block streaming on the free tier. If your traffic is wrapped in a VPN tunnel they lose visibility to what you're doing and therefore can't filter it. Just a guess based on something similar i do at my job for customer facing WiFi. 

[AdoraBelle]

3 hours ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I've said many times that I'm the odd man out having very little trouble with the app....well at least no trouble a reboot of my phone couldn't fix. The thing that really bothered me though was that they don't allow use of private VPN's to safeguard the transmission of data....like when I want to connect to my bank and transfer funds. I spoke to IT and was even willing to upgrade to the faster service, but they said VPN is a "no go" on either service. Still can't figure why??

I had no problems using my company’s OpenVPN server on the ship. 
 

It’s possible they block some commercial/consumer VPNs. 

[Zana711]

16 hours ago, rebeccac said:

On our cruise, some of our sailor loot (through promotion at time of booking) did not show up on the app until after we arrived and connected to the VV wifi.  

 

This is reassuring confirmation - thanks! I called customer service a few weeks ago and was told that they literally adjust promo sailor loot manually at the moment and they only do it just before you set sail; otherwise, they might have to do it again if a sailor adjusts their booking just before sailing. 

 

This shows just how bad VV's IT systems are. You would think that the app just pulls data from whatever system the customer service rep is seeing on their screen but no, they manually adjust what you see on your app! So I'm not holding my breath that the right balance will come up!  

[rebeccac]

I did bring copies of all paperwork showing my sailor loot just in case it didn't show up on the app once on board, but luckily I never needed it.  

[gte732v]

Dumb question: how do you see add-ons on the website? When I go to my dashboard > upcoming voyages > click on the booking, I barely see any information for a paid-in-full booking. There are no add-ons it even amounts paid. Just basic stuff like sail dates, passenger names, whether we purchased travel insurance.

 

Is there a different place on the site to see add-ons?

[CanaryWharfCruiser]

1 hour ago, gte732v said:

Dumb question: how do you see add-ons on the website? When I go to my dashboard > upcoming voyages > click on the booking, I barely see any information for a paid-in-full booking. There are no add-ons it even amounts paid. Just basic stuff like sail dates, passenger names, whether we purchased travel insurance.

 

Is there a different place on the site to see add-ons?

 

For me it's in the "Dashboard" section - if you scroll down your booking should be there with a  line like "Add-ons: Enjoy these onboard this voyage" at the bottom of the booking details with a link to "View Details" which gives the breakdown per sailor

[CruisingWalter]

I had to reinstall the VV app on my Android phone a few times and update it a few times to get the app to work correctly. They push out updates fairly frequently. It's not the best app in the world yet, but it's a heckuva lot better than when they launched and the app was basically useless. 🙂 

 

As other's have mentioned the add-ons should appear in the "Me" section and in your booking. If they don't, login via the website to see if they are on the site. As someone else mentioned, once you have your add-ons booked, print them out just to have a hard copy backup just in case. Once we got connected to the ship WiFi in Miami, everything showed up exactly as it should have. The app actually worked quite well for the week we were onboard, certainly better than it does on land. 

[Janthere]

I agree on their IT issues. Is anyone else getting this screen when they try to log into their account on the website? Blank and can't use the book buttons or the chat. Ive tried on Chrome and Safari 

 

[VV2022]

This didn't seem worth making a whole new thread about, but my already paid in full, no solo supplement October sailing has decided that it's not paid in full, and I got a new invoice saying I owe another $1400. (In other words, it seems like it revoked the 'no solo supplement' deal.) 

Anyone else? I know it's probably not worth getting on the phone about and that they'll 'probably' fix it, but if it doesn't seem widespread I may need to give them a call. 

[reblue]

1 hour ago, VV2022 said:

This didn't seem worth making a whole new thread about, but my already paid in full, no solo supplement October sailing has decided that it's not paid in full, and I got a new invoice saying I owe another $1400. (In other words, it seems like it revoked the 'no solo supplement' deal.) 

Anyone else? I know it's probably not worth getting on the phone about and that they'll 'probably' fix it, but if it doesn't seem widespread I may need to give them a call. 

I had an issue similar to this. I paid in full day of booking to secure a pay in full discount. When reservations opened for dining, as soon as I made my first restaurant reservation - I got an new booking email with an outstanding balance equal to the pay in full discount. Called at 8am EST on the dot for virtually no wait, and it was resolved in about 10 minutes. The very friendly agent seemed to know what happened right away. May be best to shoot an email over to avoid long hold times. 

[cantgetin]

Was this this morning?  I tried to make a new reservation using a placeholder.  Instead of giving me the current price, the system kept defaulting to the price on the day I bought the placeholder.  The woman agreed that this was incorrect, but was unable to fix it so I did not complete the booking.  She said that she'd get with her supervisor, get it fixed, and call me back later today.

[VV2022]

19 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

Was this this morning?

Looks like the email actually came in around 9pm eastern last night. (I hadn't touched the reservation, fwiw.)

[_tacocat_]

4 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Was this this morning?  I tried to make a new reservation using a placeholder.  Instead of giving me the current price, the system kept defaulting to the price on the day I bought the placeholder.  The woman agreed that this was incorrect, but was unable to fix it so I did not complete the booking.  She said that she'd get with her supervisor, get it fixed, and call me back later today.

Be careful with that and stay proactive... we had the same issue (+ not getting the extra $300 off), and they manually extended our pay in full date by a couple weeks and said that they put a ticket in to fix the pricing.  That day came and still nothing. 

 

My husband called and the guy gave him a spiel about how "the pricing/promotions that were active when you made the deposit are the pricing/promotions that you need to book under."  That is patently false, as the deposits are valid for 2 years, and they don't even have their 2024 schedule out yet... by that logic, 2024 voyages should be free haha! 

 

He put us on hold and cancelled our reservation (😲), but he rebooked it and somehow we got an additional $300 off?  I know that people have been saying they've been told if they "cancel" a voyage that had promo creds, you lose that + any discount, but we still see $600 OBC for that voyage.

 

[cantgetin]

Thanks for the above--that is what the computer was doing today...that the promos at the deposit are what you get BUT the woman agreed it was wrong because the placeholder isn't technically a deposit.  She seemed sure that she could get it corrected, as did my TA.  You'd better believe I'm tracking it.  This is also the last time I'll try to make more than one booking at a time.  They tried to come up with new rules on each one!  

They also said that I couldn't us a placeholder on a "Lock it in" rate.  I don't see where it says that.  It says "no cancelations, no refunds, no date changes."  Not a word that says placeholders can't be applied to this.  SO,  I didn't book that one at all, and then tried to use the placeholder on a 2023 cruise and they couldn't apply the current pricing.  That is absolutely NOT what we were told when I bought it.  I know it will get worked out, but for now it is beyond frustrating.

I'm amazed that you SEE the $600 OBC.  I'm only seeing $300 and both VV and TA have said that they have to add the other 300 manually.  But the cruise we did book successfully has not shown up on my dashboard yet, only on the emails.

[_tacocat_]

17 hours ago, cantgetin said:

They also said that I couldn't us a placeholder on a "Lock it in" rate.  I don't see where it says that.  It says "no cancelations, no refunds, no date changes."  Not a word that says placeholders can't be applied to this. 

The "lock it in rate" is excluded by the terms that say you need to book a regular Sea Terrace cabin or above.  There's a list of meta categories and cabin types on their site, and while the lock it in & ltd view are both part of the sea terrace meta category, the actual cabins you need to book are "The Sea Terrace" and above.

 

ETA: i think my post was "hidden" because of the large table, so updating to say that it's under the “Lock It In” Guaranteed (GTY) Bookings" heading (currently #29) on this site: https://www.virginvoyages.com/promotions-terms-and-conditions

Edited September 10, 2022 by _tacocat_

[_tacocat_]

17 hours ago, cantgetin said:

They also said that I couldn't us a placeholder on a "Lock it in" rate.  I don't see where it says that.  It says "no cancelations, no refunds, no date changes."  Not a word that says placeholders can't be applied to this. 

Can't get my previous post to post for whatever reason, so apologies if this shows up as a double post eventually...

 

The "lock it in rate" is excluded by the terms that say you need to book a regular Sea Terrace cabin or above.  There's a list of meta categories and cabin types on their site, and while the lock it in & ltd view are both part of the sea terrace meta category, the actual cabins you need to book are "The Sea Terrace" and above.

 

ETA: i think my post was "hidden" because of the large table, so updating to say that it's under the “Lock It In” Guaranteed (GTY) Bookings" heading (currently #29) on this site: https://www.virginvoyages.com/promotions-terms-and-conditions

[DDAYNE]

On 9/3/2022 at 7:33 PM, Russiamomm said:

Hi everyone.  I’m here to vent for just a bit.  For a company that claims to be so IT savvy, their tech sucks.  I’m currently booked on two voyages - one in November and one in December.  On the website I can see them both, but I can only see the November sailing on the app.  On the website you can’t do any of the check in stuff.  Have to do it on the app, but it’s not there for the December voyage.  There’s also issues with bar tabs and sailor loot not showing, but I have emails saying that we have it.

We’re also having trouble navigating both the app and the website.  I get somewhere then can’t figure out how to get back to it.  Specifically, finding the Add-ins on the website. Even getting to your account isn’t easy.  It’s all very frustrating and we consider ourselves rather tech savvy.  I think they’re trying to be too cute.  Why can’t they just have everything in one place?  As has been said many times here, I tried to call.  Endless waits.  Tried to chat and no agents available,  I sent an email. We’ll see if there’s any response.

 

Anyone else have similar frustrations?  At first I thought it was just me not being used to the site,  now I’m convinced it’s not just me.  It sucks.  I just want to know what I have, when I’m checking in and what else I need to do.  Doesn’t seem that hard, but it’s virtually impossible.  

Don’t even get me started! I have two separate bookings for SEP16-21 (took advantage of solo terrace) and two separate bookings NOV25-30 (2 Rock Star Suites). Nothing but screwed up everything! Including them cancelling $8000 in bookings. “Oops, sorry our mistake.” Almost impossible to get an online reservation booked properly (charged Amex card but no record of confirmed resv). THREE separate confirm,actions for a reservation that wouldn’t go through on their website. Constantly getting error OOPS while booking dinner resv on app.

 

The good: nothing but great things from friends who have sailed. So I will take all the extra loot they put on my account and Champagne Shake my complaints away. But they should start by firing their CTO and whatever they call their Chief Customer Experience Officer! Oh, and put all your call center in FLL!

[VV2022]

I'm the person who lost my no-solo-supplement deal on a paid in full booking and now allegedly owe $1400. (FWIW: I hadn't touched this reservation in any way, or done anything to trigger a change in their system. My best guess is that they were manually updating some of the onboard bookings made with the new $600 OBC. Which, I don't have that either.)

Anyway, I sent them an email Friday but didn't hear back (through this morning), and this morning the booking still says I owe $1400, so I called in and am waiting for the callback system. Will report back ...