What happened to Brilliant Lady

[singleflyer]

US based.  Can see sailings.

[aviators99]

3 hours ago, DrSch said:

 

does anyone know how long it was before they canceled the cruises on the Resilient?

 

It was 2 months before sailing.

[Jumping Cruiser]

7 hours ago, Ranger1227 said:

Cruise Mapper port schedule does not have a departure time for the boat leaving San Juan on 4/20/24 nor does it have an arrival in Lisbon or departure time from Lisbon.

Cruise Mapper can be very inaccurate at times. The itineraries and port bookings shown are pulled from whatever is on sale or has been on sale in the past. The data is far from ‘live’ and it can sometimes take months before it is updated to show any changes that have been made. It is port agencies websites that will have accurate information.

[PhilK2000]

It is official. Virgin spokesperson confirms return to Portsmouth 

 

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/virgin-voyages-confirms-return-to-portsmouth

[Chrish2]

> “The best part is these series of ‘Portsmouth Shorts’ itineraries are just a fraction of the news we have to share. 

> “All I can say is stay tuned for epic news – we’ve got more sailing your way next week, and the new itineraries will be available to book starting Sept. 7.”

 

On the "epic news" I'm not going to hold my breath given their track record.

[LadyLion_AP]

8 hours ago, notme2012 said:

I am able to see them on and off for the last 30 minutes. There is obviously something going on. 

Same here. Inconsistent on my end. Some disappear and then reappear. Weird!

[LadyLion_AP]

8 hours ago, Alegeeter said:

I'm in the US and am able to see and mock-book BL sailings Jan-Apr. 

 

I still think those rumors in the 2024-2025 thread are true and the TA will be cancelled and the winter season will be replaced with VL- but for now at least I can still see every BL sailing available.

I know it’s just a rumor, but what would being replaced with VL look like? VL has sailings as well & the Dec 23/Dec 24th sailings don’t match in sail date or duration.

[DrSch]

1 hour ago, Chrish2 said:

> “The best part is these series of ‘Portsmouth Shorts’ itineraries are just a fraction of the news we have to share. 

> “All I can say is stay tuned for epic news – we’ve got more sailing your way next week, and the new itineraries will be available to book starting Sept. 7.”

 

On the "epic news" I'm not going to hold my breath given their track record.

i am hoping they will do the transatlantic as promised, and then an add on up to Portsmouth.

[Jumping Cruiser]

The announcement says:

‘The itineraries feature short breaks to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge for Bruges and a longer cruise between Portsmouth and Barcelona via La Coruna, Lisbon, Casablanca, Malaga and Ibiza.’

 

This suggests to me that the cruise to Barcelona will be a one-way repositioning voyage. It does create a few questions though: When will this be? What will the ship do once she has reached the Med? Is it actually BL or another ship? So many questions and very few answers. 😅

[Jumping Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Chrish2 said:

“All I can say is stay tuned for epic news – we’ve got more sailing your way next week, and the new itineraries will be available to book starting Sept. 7.”

I think the ‘epic news’ will refer to October 24 - October 25 cruises going on sale, or at least those sailings until April 25. I could very well be wrong though!

[DrSch]

15 minutes ago, Jumping Cruiser said:

I think the ‘epic news’ will refer to October 24 - October 25 cruises going on sale, or at least those sailings until April 25. I could very well be wrong though!

I am hoping so.

 

The other good news is that I was just out looking at the Jan 13th cruise on the travel agent portal, and they have loaded the shore excursions.  The one for the 20th does not have them yet.  This hints to me that all things should be good for Jan - Apr

[librarylady19]

2 hours ago, DrSch said:

i am hoping they will do the transatlantic as promised, and then an add on up to Portsmouth.

Me too! Since the first appearance on the Amsterdam ship calendar until May 8, plenty of time to get from Lisbon to Portsmouth for the first short cruise. 

[Mbot222000]

Much earlier in this thread there was talk about the physical structure of the ship and the tweaks from it's sister ships, and there were some pretty great photos of the BL under construction. But those photos were from almost a year ago - does anyone have any links to recent pictures of it from the shipyard? or during trial runs? I'm curious to see how those changes from the other ships look as it gets to be a more finished product.

[DrSch]

11 minutes ago, Mbot222000 said:

Much earlier in this thread there was talk about the physical structure of the ship and the tweaks from it's sister ships, and there were some pretty great photos of the BL under construction. But those photos were from almost a year ago - does anyone have any links to recent pictures of it from the shipyard? or during trial runs? I'm curious to see how those changes from the other ships look as it gets to be a more finished product.

the last pictures Ive seen are from Feb

 

 https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/gallery?shipName=BRILLIANT LADY&shipNameSearchMode=begins

[PhilK2000]

5 minutes ago, DrSch said:

the last pictures Ive seen are from Feb

 

 https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/gallery?shipName=BRILLIANT LADY&shipNameSearchMode=begins

If you go on google maps and Fincanteri in Genoa you can see some newer photos . Not very recent but newer than in the link 

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QtopynxrXP1y52xx6?g_st=ic

[FFMilesJunkie]

Here's one from about a month ago (posted to IG on Aug 2).  Can clearly see the aft is not curved out like the other Lady Ships.  Hopefully the interior is further along. I think the key is hearing when staff will make it on board. Hopefully we start to hear some reports of managers flying over to Italy to get the ship up and running. I imagine they need at least 6-8 weeks to get the staff on board and trained.  Then sea trials and it will take 7-10 days to sail her to Miami.  Cutting it close! 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by FFMilesJunkie

[Mbot222000]

Great stuff - you all are on top of this. I'm really hoping they take some of the feedback they've gotten on the other ships and put it in place here, but from the aerial view of the ship under construction it doesn't appear that way. Pool is still really small and not enough hot tubs.

[PhilK2000]

2 hours ago, FFMilesJunkie said:

Here's one from about a month ago (posted to IG on Aug 2).  Can clearly see the aft is not curved out like the other Lady Ships.  Hopefully the interior is further along. I think the key is hearing when staff will make it on board. Hopefully we start to hear some reports of managers flying over to Italy to get the ship up and running. I imagine they need at least 6-8 weeks to get the staff on board and trained.  Then sea trials and it will take 7-10 days to sail her to Miami.  Cutting it close! 

 

 

This loooks far from being ready for December 🙁 

[AdoraBelle]

59 minutes ago, PhilK2000 said:

This loooks far from being ready for December 🙁 

Not gonna lie, I saw the rumors on this thread and booked a cruise I had been considering for next March on SL, in case there’s an unexpected loss of room inventory for the first few months of 2024.

[Janthere]

11 hours ago, FFMilesJunkie said:

Here's one from about a month ago (posted to IG on Aug 2).  Can clearly see the aft is not curved out like the other Lady Ships.  Hopefully the interior is further along. I think the key is hearing when staff will make it on board. Hopefully we start to hear some reports of managers flying over to Italy to get the ship up and running. I imagine they need at least 6-8 weeks to get the staff on board and trained.  Then sea trials and it will take 7-10 days to sail her to Miami.  Cutting it close! 

 

 

Am I wrong in thinking that perhaps the net (or provisions for one) on deck 15 has been removed?? If so I wonder what would be in its place?!

 

[Jumping Cruiser]

On 8/28/2023 at 2:01 PM, DrSch said:

As to the Transatlantic.. it will probably go out on the 20th as it is supposed to, but where it is going, is another question,

 

Wasn’t this cruise supposed to call in Funchal, Madeira on 29th April?

 

If so, the port booking for BL has been removed from their port schedule. The only one which remains is for SL’s transatlantic on 30th April. Just to point out, there is a chance that this could be incorrect, but Madeira port authority are usually very accurate with their schedule.

[Mbot222000]

10 hours ago, Janthere said:

Am I wrong in thinking that perhaps the net (or provisions for one) on deck 15 has been removed?? If so I wonder what would be in its place?!

I was thinking the same thing as well. A lot of reviews have said that net is kind of a waste of space and would better be served as a an actual deck, or even if possible, a second pool given how tiny the only pool is.

[Lustate]

1 hour ago, Mbot222000 said:

I was thinking the same thing as well. A lot of reviews have said that net is kind of a waste of space and would better be served as a an actual deck, or even if possible, a second pool given how tiny the only pool is.

 

From a google view, you can see the same cutout shape with a barrier around it so I assume the net remains. 

[Mbot222000]

1 minute ago, Lustate said:

 

From a google view, you can see the same cutout shape with a barrier around it so I assume the net remains. 

I see that now. I'm really interested to see how this will all come together.

[trippingpara]

I don't think what you're seeing on Google Maps in BL, I think that is RL.  If you notice the 4 life boats sitting on both sides aft overhang the sides.  On BL, the lifeboats are tucked in to be flush so she can fit in the Panama Canal.  If you zoom in on Google Earth, you can clearly see that it is RL as you can zoom in enough to see the name.  Both Google Earth and Google Maps are not current satellite photos as they have to be processed and cleaned by Google before they can upload them.