Sea Rover - Deep Blue Extras. The future???

[jon81uk]

6 hours ago, Eliminator55 said:

 

Did you have the premium WiFi on that transatlantic voyage or was it just the complimentary WiFi? It's hard to believe that you can stream and video chat on the standard WiFi. But, I'll certainly take your word for it, if that was what you experienced. THANKS for sharing your experience with this. It helps others know what to expect on their voyage(s). So it's really appreciated. 

I don’t really use YouTube so didn’t try to stream video but I’m sure Apple Music worked. FaceTime definitely works fine in standard WiFi we used it on the transatlantic and a carribean cruise without paying for premium.

[Lustate]

I do feel the need to kind of stick up a bit for the VV general staff on this thread. What is happening is management and marketing as a group look like they trying to offer the best they can so stand out from competitors, but operations as usual have to be the bad guys and say no / not possible / need of a rethink. Things go around in loops. To avoid any confusion of "well I was told by XXX" they just dont tell the people who answer the emails, phones and socials anything so they cannot be held to account.

They are selling a new offering, on a new brand, and the hard and soft products are amazing. Yes they have work to do to polish the edges but they are getting there a little more each day. 

So, they have a reward scheme and lets face it, even without it, they are significantly better than the other lines. Its good to feel "part of the club", but even when they offered by club, we would have still gone with them. 

[cantgetin]

Every  "bug" in the system I've encountered has been shoreside.  Once on the ship, things were amazing.

[Chrish2]

Two more reasons for the silence on this occurred me me last night

 

1. Loyalty scheme isn't finalised and/or requires sign-off from the Virgin brand it's self before it can be promoted.

 

2. They might be afraid the launch might put off people booking for "deep blue extra" perks in favour of whatever is coming. Most of the promos seem to focus on going in the next three-six months (short term) and this will be the pivot to converting them short term to long term objectives.

[raphael360]

As OP, and just getting off of Virgin, I wanted to add some final remarks from my point of view.  

1.  The Sea Rover program is changing and what was leaked to me was; the new program will require 2 sailings between Jan. 1st, 2023, and March 31st, 2023.  Sea Blazer's status was unknown.  Again, Virgin has not announced any new loyalty program yet.

2.  Deep Blue Extras are no longer offered on cruises after Apr 1st.  I'm keeping my March booking but canceled my April booking and I had Virgin refund my port taxes and bank my cruise fare to my account. (I'm hoping this gets resolved before my March Cruise so I can take advantage of any perks/special rates offered onboard.)  

 

 As a quick comment about premium internet: I had premium on my last 4-day cruise out of Miami but the speeds were only 5-10 Mbps with the ship at 50% occupancy.  To slow for me to stream. It is what it is.

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, raphael360 said:

As OP, and just getting off of Virgin, I wanted to add some final remarks from my point of view.  

1.  The Sea Rover program is changing and what was leaked to me was; the new program will require 2 sailings between Jan. 1st, 2023, and March 31st, 2023.  Sea Blazer's status was unknown.  Again, Virgin has not announced any new loyalty program yet.

 

Well, that rather stinks.  What is says is they are rewarding people who just happened to book 2 sailings in that 3 month interval.  Whatever.  I'll still cross fingers for an extension of Deep Blue into my April sailing.  They have a good product, and if their various status and loyalty programs don't fit into my way of cruising,  I will continue to do the cruises that work for me.  They've already lost me on one sailing due to their crazy ways of changing prices, delaying announcements, etc.  When the on line price of the cruise doubled, I decided not to book, and moved my flights.  A week later, they took the price back down, but I couldn't get the good airfare.  Not a big deal; it was just an "add on" cruise to qualify for Sea Rover on our next cruise, and it turned out they are ending Deep Blue before that cruise.  I just wish they'd figure out what they are doing and announce it.

[jon81uk]

1 hour ago, raphael360 said:

final remarks from my point of view.  

1.  The Sea Rover program is changing and what was leaked to me was; the new program will require 2 sailings between Jan. 1st, 2023, and March 31st, 2023.  Sea Blazer's status was unknown.  Again, Virgin has not announced any new loyalty program yet.

This sounds incorrect. Currently you need two sailings between January 2022 & March 2023 and I think someone has just mis-read that.
It’s already been said as part of the red hot booking months last year that the new scheme will be based on tokens earnt from spending,  not just pure number of sailings. 

[AtSeaWithChris]

Wonder what they will do to matching status. 

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, AtSeaWithChris said:

Wonder what they will do to matching status. 

That's what we are all waiting to hear.  I talked with my TA who said that the Sea Rover was the 2022 requirements which were extended to 3/31/23.  This is supposedly not anything new and was announced a long time ago.  What you get as a sea rover is  a bottle of Moet on each cruise for 2 years IF you are not already getting it on another promotion.  Bottom line is one free bottle per cabin.

 

No one seems to know what will happen to the "Deep Blue Extras" which was what you were getting thru the matching status as well as number of sailings.  That is different than sea rover, although you could have both designations.

[Chrish2]

FYI, they keep track in their system what status and program they have “matched” you with. I assume this is so they can later match you correctly when launching the  2023 version.

[raphael360]

12 hours ago, jon81uk said:

This sounds incorrect. Currently you need two sailings between January 2022 & March 2023 and I think someone has just mis-read that.
 

You may be correct regarding your 'misread' comment observation.  This info came from my phone call with a sailor service agent when I was asking (or confirming) the reason I was not seeing Deep Blue Extras on my April booking.  She had to reach out to a colleague to get info so, as we know, land-based sailor services personnel are not always providing accurate information.

Deep Blue Extras are ending March 31st but no one on shore OR on board knows what Virgin has coming for their To Be Announced loyalty program structure.

 

Anyone: 'please post any breaking news as soon as you see it' 🙂

[gkbiiii]

Yesterday, talked with Virgin for an hour.  Future cruise credits and this current loyalty program very complex.  Add to this new Virgin Red Program; where you can redeem miles for free Virgin cruises and even Necker Island, Morocco Casaba, African Safari, or South African Winery.   Did I mention, you are to earn points from cruise purchases and spending on this universal program.  Apparently Virgin Voyages is helplessly behind on this and other things.

 

I was able to point out to them, that to be Status Matched you had to have an eligible booking and that status was good for two years, as stated on their website.  Furthermore, the new benefits were from Jan. 1st 2023 onwards. My status is good through November 2024. 

 

They wanted to say I had to requalify for it, or even qualify for the first time??  The emails I got from them, are so crazily written, the Lauderdale staff, really had no idea.  Many will end up disappointed, when you are not given status, due to not having "eligible bookings".  Like everything else with this "Bain Capital Cruise Line:" Sir Richard is in name only.  Thus the only pics you see of him, are in the elevators, as you leave the ship!

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by gkbiiii

[cantgetin]

The more confused they are a month before the new program is supposed to launch, the greater the chance tthat they will simply extend the Deep Blue Extras beyond 3/31/23.  One can only hope.  Fingers crossed for my April cruise.

My recollection was that Sea Rover status gave you the $100 bar tab bonus for two years, but no other benefits were promised.  Deep Blue Extras were a special thing for the status match....but each statement they put out says something slightly different than the one before.

[gkbiiii]

It was extended from Jan 1st, so i hope they get their act together.

[raphael360]

1 hour ago, gkbiiii said:

It was extended from Jan 1st, so i hope they get their act together.

I’m getting Deep Blue Extras on my March cruise but not on my April cruise. 

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, raphael360 said:

I’m getting Deep Blue Extras on my March cruise but not on my April cruise. 

So far.   That's what they did previously--it was supposed to end 12/31/22 and they had announced that their loyalty program would be launched after that.  Then it was extended till 3/31/23 with something about their program being not ready yet.   That announcement wasn't made till December. They actually improved it for Jan - March because they changed the "shake for champagne" to $100 free bar tab. Right now, no one has it on an April cruise....but I can hope for an extension, right? 

They had announced some teasers about the new program, but not much...just that it would be based on both the amount you spent on cruises and the amount of on board spending.  It didn't sound like they were doing the typical thing of basing it on number of nights or number of cruises with "extra" for suites, but we'll see.....

 

[Chrish2]

Heard direct from VV that after the 28th price will be going up. Messaging on this seemed well prepared in sailor facing "marketing talk" linking it with groceries going up etc.  Who knows if keeping the VV Sailing Club details under wraps is partly about offsetting these increases.

 

Deep blue ends at the end of March and you would expect on balance not announcing is probably going to have an increasing detrimental effect on bookings from existing sailers. The effect will get worse as the remaining weeks roll on.

 

Personally I'm expecting something this week but they really do like to keep things down to the wire.

 

 

[cantgetin]

I can confirm that I've  been told that the prices will be increasing in March...or rather that the percentage of discount for the second passenger will be decreasing, and also that the "free" bar tab offer will continue.  I do laugh at calling it "free" because I repriced a 2023 cruise.  To cancel and rebook with the "free" bar tab would have cost me $642 for a $ 600 tab.  No thanks!  

[gkbiiii]

I don't believe  them, because I think they are desperate, to fill there ships above 50%.

They need cash flow and will continue to offer better deals, then are offered onboard the ships.

If their ships were MUCH better, Celebrity & Princess would be a good clientele to convert; however this seems unlikely, based on the quality of the vessels themselves.  The Princess & Celebrity ships, blow Virgin's out of the water. The two Lines aren't good but lucky, Virgin built inferior vessels, with poor elitiest British staffing.  Princess & Celebrity dodged a bullet.

[_tacocat_]

3 minutes ago, gkbiiii said:

I don't believe  them, because I think they are desperate, to fill there ships above 50%.

They need cash flow and will continue to offer better deals, then are offered onboard the ships.

If their ships were MUCH better, Celebrity & Princess would be a good clientele to convert; however this seems unlikely, based on the quality of the vessels themselves.  The Princess & Celebrity ships, blow Virgin's out of the water. The two Lines aren't good but lucky, Virgin built inferior vessels, with poor elitiest British staffing.  Princess & Celebrity dodged a bullet.

They’ve continued to increase pax counts, while they’ve continued to raise prices and decrease the amount of freebie voyages they give to casino players. I had 2k passengers on the first leg of my B2B last week and at least 1900 on the second (someone told me 2,300, but the checkin tablet showed about 1,900)

[aviators99]

3 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

I don't believe  them, because I think they are desperate, to fill there ships above 50%.

They need cash flow and will continue to offer better deals, then are offered onboard the ships.

If their ships were MUCH better, Celebrity & Princess would be a good clientele to convert; however this seems unlikely, based on the quality of the vessels themselves.  The Princess & Celebrity ships, blow Virgin's out of the water. The two Lines aren't good but lucky, Virgin built inferior vessels, with poor elitiest British staffing.  Princess & Celebrity dodged a bullet.

 

Last month I went on Celebrity.  I had only experienced VV before.  Celebrity was remarkably inferior.  VV staff is much better, overall (with a couple of notable exceptions).  Not sure why you think otherwise.

[cantgetin]

3 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

I don't believe  them, because I think they are desperate, to fill there ships above 50%.

They need cash flow and will continue to offer better deals, then are offered onboard the ships.

If their ships were MUCH better, Celebrity & Princess would be a good clientele to convert; however this seems unlikely, based on the quality of the vessels themselves.  The Princess & Celebrity ships, blow Virgin's out of the water. The two Lines aren't good but lucky, Virgin built inferior vessels, with poor elitiest British staffing.  Princess & Celebrity dodged a bullet.

To each his own.  I think Celebrity comes closest to Virgin (of the lines I've sailed), but Celebrity 15 years ago was better than Celebrity now.  Princess? Are you kidding?  We've done Princess in everything from an inside cabin to a small suite.  We cruised them for specific itineraries rather than for the ship or the line.  The ships are beige and boring.  They are great for Alaska and Japan where you are going for the itinerary/scenery, etc., but not when you are going for the ship.  Food on VV was better than Princess suite level food.  Same for service.

I priced the closest cruise I could find on both Princess and Celebrity (as well as NCL) compared to my upcoming VV cruise, and did the other lines with just those things I would choose to pay for as well as the packages like "Princes Plus,"  In each case, VV was the most economical....in every case, I looked at a balcony cabin and added wifi, soda, gratuities, and 1 specialty dining.   We liked VV so much that we did 3 bookings on board!  Best crew I've ever seen, probably because they are treated better than on other lines.

I would not be surprised if VV offered some last minute deal on cruises that were not filling....prior to my October cruise they offered a "no single supplement" deal that got many singles onto the ship.  THeir goal is to fill ships, and 2000 seems to be a reasonable point for them.  Since they are an adult only line and most cabins hold 2, they aren't ever going to be a line that sails at 110% of capacity.  They have had some cruises booked at 2200.  They have one March cruise that is no longer showing up on line and passengers have been told that it is "full."  

[Lustate]

9 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

I don't believe  them, because I think they are desperate, to fill there ships above 50%.

They need cash flow and will continue to offer better deals, then are offered onboard the ships.

If their ships were MUCH better, Celebrity & Princess would be a good clientele to convert; however this seems unlikely, based on the quality of the vessels themselves.  The Princess & Celebrity ships, blow Virgin's out of the water. The two Lines aren't good but lucky, Virgin built inferior vessels, with poor elitiest British staffing.  Princess & Celebrity dodged a bullet.

Wow, don't hold back there on a very personal opinion. lol 

I think it depends on what you view as superior. One person's roller coaster-covered, waterslide-filled kid-fest might be an idea of heaven, where a lot of people might want fewer neon lights, more relaxed vibes, and a feeling your not going to be grabbed by the ankles and shaken for your last dime on board. Its all very personal views really. 

 

I would be interested to hear the comment of "poor elitist British staffing" explained though. 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Lustate

[Chrish2]

11 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

Virgin built inferior vessels, with poor elitiest British staffing. 

 

It's funny as the only downside we found was some of the American passengers acting entitled and rude to staff. 🤣

 

The one that stands out the most was sailer services had to be physically closed off whilst a "security incident", a woman was screaming at staff, was resolved.

 

I'm really surprised they haven't gone more out their way to push get get more British passengers given the design and setup. They could be running "Fly-drive-and-cruise" type deals that would be appealing to this market.

[gkbiiii]

17 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

They’ve continued to increase pax counts, while they’ve continued to raise prices and decrease the amount of freebie voyages they give to casino players. I had 2k passengers on the first leg of my B2B last week and at least 1900 on the second (someone told me 2,300, but the checkin tablet showed about 1,900)

But most cruise lines are at 100%+ (more than "2" per stateroom), they are not profitable at this level, and remain far off.