What happened to Brilliant Lady

[tbmrt]

7 hours ago, Ixtoras said:

What a mess.  Been trying to make heads or tails out of it.  We were / are booked for the Feb 10 Brilliant Lady now Valliant Lady sailing out of San Juan.   Got a quick note this morning saying, hey we're just gonna change up ships.  So I guess we're fortunate.  Nothing to see here...

 

I get that it was clearly some sort of business decision probably favoring higher capacity sailings, but the logic seems questionable due to all the other complicating factors.   It seems like the "logical" thing would have been to just nix all the Brilliant sailings, with the natural excuse that she's just not gonna be ready till maybe April or Later.   Heck - with the issues with the Puerto Rico cruise port debacle, do we even know which port is going to host embarkation / disembarkation?

 

Taking the Valliant, which was doing 6 & 8 day rotating schedules and moving it to the 7 day schedule out of San Juan for like 3 months, and then pointing her passengers to the 4 and 5 day Scarlett sailings out of Miami just seems incredibly complicated. 

 

I feel sorry for all the impacted passengers and the poor TA's that are going to have to deal with this over the next few weeks.

I read info from VV chats that the port we will use to depart in San Juan is Port 4 not Pan American.  However, there still are many people saying they were told Pan American.  Really would like to know.

Edited September 8, 2023 by tbmrt
had problem editing

[Freelancer3]

In San Juan, ships depart from a different port than when they have a stopover.

[trippingpara]

13 minutes ago, Freelancer3 said:

In San Juan, ships depart from a different port than when they have a stopover.

Not necessarily.  I have sailed out of San Juan multiple times.  Different cruise lines have contracts with the 2 different ports so it depends on the line.  Now occasionally, they have to change their normal port due to scheduling conflicts, etc.  I was informed by VV as well as read in a couple different news articles from San Juan that Virgin has contracted with Carnival to use their dock space and port facilities in Port 4.

[WickedRed]

4 hours ago, BethesdaSC said:

My VL was cancelled. Considering the VL switch out of San Juan on Feb 3. Does anyone know the specific itinerary? It no longer shows and won’t be available to book till 9/11. Thank you!

I'm on this itinerary.  The route is San Juan • Oranjestad • Willemstad • Fort-de-France • Basseterre • San Juan.  Assuming they don't go completely crazy and change that up.

[soccersharon]

4 hours ago, BethesdaSC said:

My VL was cancelled. Considering the VL switch out of San Juan on Feb 3. Does anyone know the specific itinerary? It no longer shows and won’t be available to book till 9/11. Thank you!

We are considering this sailing on Jan 13

[David8965]

We were on the 13 Jan 8-dayer on Valiant from Miami. Really, really disappointed as we're probably Virgin's ideal target market and recruited a group of first time cruisers to join us. All now screwed by the decision to protect the BL itineraries. The offer of a refund or switch to another cruise is pretty useless when everyone has time off work booked and non-refundable flights UK to Miami booked. The only realistic 'options' are a 5 nighter from Miami or a 7 nighter from San Juan which is a real pain to get to. They will have known about this delay months ago and it's a disgrace they let us all go ahead and book with no intention of operating the sailings. Talk about bait and switch. Plenty of 'I'm alright Jacks' who think everyone should just suck it up but Virgin have behaved disgracefully and the offer of onboard credit is lame. We already have $1200 of onboard spend linked to our 8-night cruise booking. What use is another $600 we couldn't spend $1800 in a week if we tried so is just a false pretence of being generous.

Edited September 8, 2023 by David8965

[Wildcatllamas]

19 hours ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

Not really.  Mechanical issues, weather, illness, natural disasters and charters can cause any sailing on any line to be interrupted. It’s life. 

I have been booked on 3 NCL cruises that were then chartered and I got absolutely nothing for two of them. They offered one cruise option but even their staff couldn't move the bookings over. The third one came with a $50 obc and a list of sailings that weren't even close to what I wanted. So it can and does happen across the cruise realm. Some cruise lines are worse then others for chartering out their whole ships.

 

[Alegeeter]

38 minutes ago, David8965 said:

We were on the 13 Jan 8-dayer on Valiant from Miami. Really, really disappointed as we're probably Virgin's ideal target market and recruited a group of first time cruisers to join us. All now screwed by the decision to protect the BL itineraries. The offer of a refund or switch to another cruise is pretty useless when everyone has time off work booked and non-refundable flights UK to Miami booked. The only realistic 'options' are a 5 nighter from Miami or a 7 nighter from San Juan which is a real pain to get to. They will have known about this delay months ago and it's a disgrace they let us all go ahead and book with no intention of operating the sailings. Talk about bait and switch. Plenty of 'I'm alright Jacks' who think everyone should just suck it up but Virgin have behaved disgracefully and the offer of onboard credit is lame. We already have $1200 of onboard spend linked to our 8-night cruise booking. What use is another $600 we couldn't spend $1800 in a week if we tried so is just a false pretence of being generous.

I wonder if they'll let you use the $500 in travel expenses to get from Miami to San Juan. The email said it's for cancellation and change fees but perhaps given your circumstance they'll let you use it for an extra flight. Miami to San Juan flights should come in under $500. I'm hoping to move to 1/13 out of San Juan and hope to see you there.

[Ranger1227]

After weighing our options, we wanted to go on the TA Scarlet Lady.  Cannot get same class of cabin XL v. regular balcony.  VV agent told me this morning that new itineraries are opening on 9/11.  Is it worth to wait and see what the offerings are?

[CineGraphic]

Just now, Ranger1227 said:

Is it worth to wait and see what the offerings are?

 

Yes, because basically you can choose any itinerary, any length.

We were going to switch to the Scarlet TA as well, but decided that it might be too crowded.

[scubagal44]

6 hours ago, BethesdaSC said:

My VL was cancelled. Considering the VL switch out of San Juan on Feb 3. Does anyone know the specific itinerary? It no longer shows and won’t be available to book till 9/11. Thank you!

 

I'm booked on this sailing, here you go 

[Ranger1227]

We have a back up TA on the RC Oasis.  We can cancel that by December.

[CanadianCruiser21]

I’ve been following various cruise news over the past year and Celebrity and Royal have both had to cancel on a lot of passengers due to charters, moving a ship while dry docking another, overbooking, etc. The offers have varied from Lift and Shift to nothing. 
At least VV is covering up to $500 in cancellation fees this time, though with the price of travel these days, that might not cover non-refundable flights. 
 

I don’t think this offer from VV is bad, there are probably more winners than losers because you can book a longer cruise. It’s just that in most cases, people will have to spend more money on other aspects outside of the cruise fare to make travel changes and rearrange their plans. $600 sailor loot is not really useful to everyone on such an all inclusive cruise line. The base product is already so good that you can easily depart without spending any money. Plus, a lot of people already have bar tab and sailor loot. On other cruise lines, I like OBC because I use it to cover the automatic gratuities. 
I guess I’ll buy a hammock? Hopefully things are still well stocked with so many people trying to use up their Sailor Loot. Also difficult to use for shore things since they might be booked up by the time you board. 
In the past, FVC was nice because you could upgrade your cabin, but I can see why they didn’t do it this time. Cruise fares have gone up so much since a lot of people initially booked, so it might not even cover alternate sailings. 

[Ranger1227]

The increase in fares is one of the reasons we may be better taking another itinerary on Monday and use the RC Oasis for our TA.  We chose a TA as it was a bigger bang for the buck to get to Portugal for a river cruise as opposed to flying.

[librarylady19]

There have been some updates to the itineraries listed on the VV Insider site for some of those itineraries that are new/aren't appearing on the Virgin website.

https://vvinsider.com/full-itinerary-details-2024-2025-sailings-virgin-voyages/

 

Also, as a Royal/Celebrity customer, I would agree that this Virgin offer is much more generous than what they gave their customers.

 

[Ranger1227]

LibraryLady:

Thanks for the info.  I am not seeing anything great as a sub for a 10-14 TA crossing.  Most are short hops except for Australia, NZ 

[Wildcatllamas]

11 minutes ago, Ranger1227 said:

LibraryLady:

Thanks for the info.  I am not seeing anything great as a sub for a 10-14 TA crossing.  Most are short hops except for Australia, NZ 

I was just looking at one on Resilient Lady that is a 12 night from Portsmouth to Barcelona with a stop in Casablanca that looks interesting.

[Ranger1227]

That might be good!

 

[Wildcatllamas]

9 minutes ago, Ranger1227 said:

That might be good!

 

That's what I thought. It's part of a multi cruise for repositioning.

[Freelancer3]

Has anyone been able to receive confirmation that their cruise has been rebooked? I was told on the phone it will happen on Monday. Is this the same you have heard?

[Russiamomm]

18 minutes ago, Freelancer3 said:

Has anyone been able to receive confirmation that their cruise has been rebooked? I was told on the phone it will happen on Monday. Is this the same you have heard?

I have the same question.  I’ve heard here and on the Face Place that they will notify people on Monday.  I didn’t hear that directly.  At the moment I have a case number.  It’s very frustrating.  But Monday will come quickly.

[librarylady19]

44 minutes ago, Russiamomm said:

I have the same question.  I’ve heard here and on the Face Place that they will notify people on Monday.  I didn’t hear that directly.  At the moment I have a case number.  It’s very frustrating.  But Monday will come quickly.

I submitted mine today too and got a case # and an email that said I’d hear back within 72 hours. I was actually surprised when I called w/a question that a got a rep on the phone in 5 minutes! Since it’s a new sailing (the Barcelona to Rome SL) I wanted to get my request in before it was open to the public. 

Edited September 9, 2023 by librarylady19

[PhilK2000]

7 hours ago, librarylady19 said:

I submitted mine today too and got a case # and an email that said I’d hear back within 72 hours. I was actually surprised when I called w/a question that a got a rep on the phone in 5 minutes! Since it’s a new sailing (the Barcelona to Rome SL) I wanted to get my request in before it was open to the public. 

What did the say ? You need to wait until Monday and call them again or only via this form ? 

[CruisingWalter]

2 hours ago, PhilK2000 said:

What did the say ? You need to wait until Monday and call them again or only via this form ? 

 

You only need to submit the form. The forms will be processed on Monday in the order in which they were received. Once you're on the ship, your TA can look at the cabin situation and reposition you on the ship if desired. 

[CruisingWalter]

9 hours ago, librarylady19 said:

I submitted mine today too and got a case # and an email that said I’d hear back within 72 hours. I was actually surprised when I called w/a question that a got a rep on the phone in 5 minutes! Since it’s a new sailing (the Barcelona to Rome SL) I wanted to get my request in before it was open to the public. 

 

They cannot do any bookings or 'move requests up' via phone. They are literally going to be handled in the order in which they were received. They have an entire team ready to go starting Monday to work through the requests as quickly as possible. You will receive the booking notifications as your requests are turned into bookings. Then if you want to change your cabin position, your TA can go into your booking and reposition you based on availability so long as you originally booked with a TA.  All new bookings are automatically being assigned to the same TA as the original booking.