Bookings for 2024/25

[Jumping Cruiser]

Deployment Prediction

I thought I would set out my prediction of home ports for the latest itinerary release (October 24 - October 25), just to summarise all port booking suggestions in one post. I will continue to update this post specifically with any changes over the coming weeks, before the deployment is made official.

 

November 24 - April 25 (Winter 24 / Spring 25):

Scarlet - Caribbean (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

Valiant - Short Caribbean (Miami, Florida)

Resilient - Australia (Sydney/Melbourne)

Brilliant - Long Caribbean (Miami, Florida) ??????

 

May 25 - October 25 (Summer 24 / Fall 25):

 

Scarlet - Mediterranean (Barcelona, Spain)

Valiant - Caribbean (Miami, Florida)

Resilient - Eastern Mediterranean / Adriatic (Athens, Greece)

Brilliant - Northern Europe (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

[jon81uk]

Scarlet Lady heads to Europe in April 2024 for the summer and is then expected to spend some time in dry dock, so if she is coming back to the Caribbean in winter 24/25 then it might be a late short season if the dry dock rumour is true.

[Jumping Cruiser]

7 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

Scarlet Lady heads to Europe in April 2024 for the summer and is then expected to spend some time in dry dock, so if she is coming back to the Caribbean in winter 24/25 then it might be a late short season if the dry dock rumour is true.

 

Correct! I don’t see Caribbean bookings until mid December 2024, so likely have a dry-dock at the end of the Mediterranean season and then do a TA to San Juan. There is a call in Funchal, Madeira on 4th December, which will be a TA call. The date she departs dry-dock would depend on whether the TA is a non-rev or passenger sailing, but I believe it will be the latter. This will likely start from Lisbon or Barcelona at the end of November.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Jumping Cruiser

[Jamespaton]

Keeping my 🤞 we get some new itineraries tomorrow!

[Wildcatllamas]

Well so far no changes. Brilliant Lady is still MIA. This is beyond frustrating.

[Kooper4411]

I suspect they will be announcing the itineries (and a new offer?) on the 'celebration' sailing from Athens this Sunday. They've got both Tom McAlpin and Richard Branson on board so it would be good timing for a PR perspective.

[CineGraphic]

A few people on multiple Facebook groups swore that their "friends" at Virgin told them today would be the day.

I wonder what their "friends" are saying now.

[librarylady19]

On 8/6/2023 at 4:45 PM, Jumping Cruiser said:

Brilliant Lady is currently booked into several European ports throughout Summer 2024 and 2025, in addition to Iceland. These bookings are often the closest you can get to predicting future itineraries, but keep in mind that they can change. Despite this, it’s definitely looking like VV are planning to add Northern Europe to their destination list.

 

Here is the full list of ports where BL is currently booked in 2024/2025:

 

- Lerwick, Scotland

- Reykjavik, Iceland 

- Akureyi, Iceland

- Bergen, Norway

- Amsterdam, Netherlands (Homeport?)

- Zeebrugee, Belgium

- Leixoes (Porto), Portugal

 

Amsterdam appears to have the most calls, suggesting that this will be her homeport. There looks to be a varying length for cruises, between 4 and 12 nights from what I can tell, as a result of the wide variety of destinations she is planned to cover. 

I have been to all these places and they are all great (especially Lerwick in Shetland and Bruges). I just hope the BL TA gets confirmed soon as I'm booked on that and would like to firm up the rest of my travel plans.

[cantgetin]

4 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

A few people on multiple Facebook groups swore that their "friends" at Virgin told them today would be the day.

I wonder what their "friends" are saying now.

I think people were just guessing because the previous specials on line ended yesterday.

[Lustate]

13 hours ago, cantgetin said:

I think people were just guessing because the previous specials on line ended yesterday.

 

Yer. The logic is there, but we are all just waiting for. 

 

Others have speculated that if there is going to be a big switch up and north Europe for the summer of 2024, they would want to make a splash this weekend on the special sailing,

[CruisingWalter]

21 hours ago, Kooper4411 said:

I suspect they will be announcing the itineries (and a new offer?) on the 'celebration' sailing from Athens this Sunday. They've got both Tom McAlpin and Richard Branson on board so it would be good timing for a PR perspective.

 

And the beginning of a new month is upon us. All the current specials have ended and we're in a 'limbo state' until the new offers are released. Would be good timing to release the new itineraries and the September deals at the same time. Will they announce it onboard the ship this week? That is a celebration of Virgin the company, not Virgin Voyages. But with the leadership of VV onboard, it's possible we might see an announcement towards the end of the journey. 

[librarylady19]

3 hours ago, Lustate said:

 

Yer. The logic is there, but we are all just waiting for. 

 

Others have speculated that if there is going to be a big switch up and north Europe for the summer of 2024, they would want to make a splash this weekend on the special sailing,

Seems likely. Virgin is definitely on the official port schedules for Zeebrugge, Amsterdam and Akeuryi and Reykjavik for summer 2024. 

[Jumping Cruiser]

VV have just launched a new offer on the UK site, which has mentions of a ship being deployed from Portsmouth, UK in Summer 2024. We must be very close to the itinerary release now.

 

[jamesv92]

12 minutes ago, Jumping Cruiser said:

VV have just launched a new offer on the UK site, which has mentions of a ship being deployed from Portsmouth, UK in Summer 2024. We must be very close to the itinerary release now.

 

Certainly before 28th September you would think!

[Kooper4411]

12 minutes ago, Jumping Cruiser said:

VV have just launched a new offer on the UK site, which has mentions of a ship being deployed from Portsmouth, UK in Summer 2024. We must be very close to the itinerary release now.

 

Well spotted and great news! It was realistically going to be Portsmouth but really nice to have it confirmed. Great move by VV as lots of their market is in the UK.

[Jumping Cruiser]

26 minutes ago, Kooper4411 said:

Great move by VV as lots of their market is in the UK.

Agreed! They also seem to like showcasing their ships to the UK trade and press, as both SL and VL did some type of launch there. By process of elimination, I presume that this will be BL. This would mean the only ship not to do a UK visit yet would be RL.

[jon81uk]

But the current offer only applies to Brilliant Lady sailings through to 13 April, so doesn’t apply to any new itineraries for that ship at present. Whereas for Scarlet Lady the terms show December 2024 dates the offer does apply to, but aren’t on sale yet.

[PhilK2000]

5 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

But the current offer only applies to Brilliant Lady sailings through to 13 April, so doesn’t apply to any new itineraries for that ship at present. Whereas for Scarlet Lady the terms show December 2024 dates the offer does apply to, but aren’t on sale yet.

I assume that the Brillant lady final destination will be then Portsmouth instead of Lisbon . Or there will be a special cruise Lisbon to Portsmouth with some nice stops in the north of Spain and west coast of France . 

[jon81uk]

5 minutes ago, PhilK2000 said:

I assume that the Brillant lady final destination will be then Portsmouth instead of Lisbon . Or there will be a special cruise Lisbon to Portsmouth with some nice stops in the north of Spain and west coast of France . 

Given people have seen the ship is in schedules for Northern Europe it is already assumed there will be some kind of Lisbon to Portsmouth or Amsterdam type sailing. But there is nothing in the terms of the current promotion that suggests what Brilliant Lady is doing in summer 2024, the promo for that ship only applies to the Caribbean sailings through to 13 April 2024.

[Freelancer3]

There arent any cruises listed to book out of Portsmouth as of now on the UK site. Fingers crossed.

[PhilK2000]

Things are getting clearer and clearer . The transatlantic must take place . They don’t transfer an empty ship from sanjuan to Europe. And they don’t cancel the San Juan routes because they wouldn’t put them in the newest promo released today. According Someone on the Branson birthday cruise this week there is a big press release planned for Wednesday this week. Fingers crossed … as I Heard that „will be released in the next days“ since weeks and months, lol 

[PhilK2000]

Looks like there will be short 3 night cruises . Something which is currently not available (even not in the Carribean). 

[jamesv92]

16 minutes ago, PhilK2000 said:

Looks like there will be short 3 night cruises . Something which is currently not available (even not in the Carribean). 

Portsmouth to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge maybe..

[librarylady19]

4 minutes ago, jamesv92 said:

Portsmouth to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge maybe..

Seems likely since BL is on OFFICIAL port schedule for Zeebrugge for 5/7 amd Amsterdam for 5/8. Fingers crossed TA goes as planned first! 

[PhilK2000]

3 minutes ago, jamesv92 said:

Portsmouth to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge maybe..

A „weekend escape“ from Friday till Monday  …. We could start working for VV as itinerary scheduler LOL