Summary of new Virgin Changes

[Gretchendz]

I thought it might be helpful to summarize some of the new changes at Virgin.

 

1. Has many have noticed, prices are rising.  Virgin says their ships are sailing full and they offer a premium product so it is time for all the pandemic-era bargains to end.  While many people are angry, I understand. And BTW lots of cruiselines are raising prices on cabin and packages and gratuities right now.

 

2. If you hope to status match through Virgin (well worth it IMHO), place a booking and file for it NOW. They are saying the ability to status match like this will end December 31.

 

3. The Loyalty program will remain and the Deep Blue Extras perks will change. We don't know how yet, but they have been crowd-sourcing surveys much of this year for suggestions.

 

4. Florida resident rate has gone down to 5% and you still must book 45 days or less out from the cruise to receive it.

 

5. MNVVs are going to change somehow early next year.  We don't know how. I'm sure existing MNVVs will be honored.  

 

6. Travel agents belonging to a certain consortium adding $100 on board credit to their clients continues.

 

7. Gold Tier agents will (probably) continue to add more on board credit for clients adding a Zoom call and then booking.

 

8. The current offer ending January 31 is Save 70% off your 2nd Sailor plus up to $600 in free drinks on select voyages through October 2025

• 70% off 2nd Sailor on select voyages in 2023, 2024, and
2025
• $600 in free drinks per cabin on sailings 14+ nights
• $300 in free drinks per cabin on sailings 7+ nights
• $200 in free drinks per cabin on sailings 5-6 nights
• $100 in free drinks per cabin on sailings 2-4 nights
Sale ends  January 31st, 2024.
Restrictions apply.

 

9. Expect to see future promotions doing the lower amounts of bar tab on shorter cruises. No more $600 in 4 days 🙂

 

10. Pre-Purchased Bar Tab. You will continue to be able to buy a $300 Bar tab and get $50 added credit. They will be adding two lower levels, for people who don't want $300 worth.  $200 Bar Tab will receive a $25 credit and $100 will receive $10. These must be purchased before the sailing. 

 

11. Paid in full discount is gone.

[raphael360]

Virgin can and should charge whatever they can. (In higher fares with lower discounts).
 

My current cruise fare is a full 75% higher than my first cruise this past January which had 800 passengers. My current one is nearly full. This is good for Virgin and they deserve it with the product they offer. One could hope they don’t get greedy and start to quality to make even more profits. 

 

With that said I’m not going to book any further cruises for a while. Maybe ever!  IMHO Virgin offers full value for the money but they are no longer: “too good to be true”. 

. 

Edited December 15, 2023 by raphael360

[Tolkmit]

It's going to be interesting if their claims of "sailing full" actually become true. The vast majority of their European offerings were less than half full this last summer. And most of what they just released is their 2025 European offerings. They have either sold 2024 European offerings at a vastly increased rate than they did 2023; or they are pushing prices and focusing on the relatively full Caribbean sailings to maximize their quarterly report and projections before an IPO. Both are equally plausible.

[crusinthrough]

A raise in price and different promotions was expected as VV navigated the cruise space. However, the raise in suite prices is insane. This past Sat on a 6N cruise in a Rockstar suite the price was $3800.  With the price hike on Thursday the same suite is now $7700.  The price difference between a Seriously Suite and the least expensive Sweet Aft Suite was relatively minimum at less than $100.  Now the price difference is more than $1k.  It will be interesting to see if suites continue to sell out with this new pricing or will Virgin need to lower pricing to meet the new non demand.  Feedback on social media tends to indicate consumers are not willing pay the new inflated suite price.  I'm also interested to see if there will be heavy last minute pricing and more level up opportunities.  

 

Pricing increased on other cabins as well but not in the same proportion as suite prices.  I saw a few reasonable priced sailings like a 8N Caribbean cruise for the same price as a 6N Caribbean cruise and less expensive than a 5N Caribbean cruise. All sailings were in the same month.  This type of anomaly doesn't make a lot of sense. 

 

I will miss the 10% paid in full discount.  I think this is one VV could have kept even if the discount was lowered to 5%.  The only positive change for me is the different bar tab amounts.  I hope DBE gets additions vs cutbacks.  I'm definitely expecting to book on board offer to change in the new year.  Maybe less sailor loot or discount.  

 

Other cruises lines are raising prices as noted but there will soon be a bubble and prices will come down.  Ships were sailing full after the pandemic because people wanted to travel and the price was reasonable.  If the price is no longer reasonable, there will be less of a demand.  At least, for now, VV dining has not declined like other cruise lines.  

 

Honestly, cruising can't last with the higher price, degraded experience and declining food.  It will eventually not have any value when you compare it to other vacation options. The industry has gotten greedy. 

[cantgetin]

I doubt that cruises will continue to fill at these prices, although as noted, there are still a few reasonable sailing dates.  None of my cruises has been full; the most booked had 1800 sailors (capacity 2700).  I do realize that some dates have been full, but many others have not even been close in 2023.

It is not just suite prices that have become unbelievable.  I paid $2100 total for my upcoming 2024 cruise after all discounts.  It is now selling for $9K for that same sea terrace cabin, and upgrading to an XL is $1K rather than $200.  IMHO, VV does not give enough perks to justify their new suite prices.  I LIKE that they have avoided the "ship within a ship" concept and the limited suite perks, but you can't charge outrageous prices and give limited perks.  Yes, you are paying for the increased room and balcony size, but how far can that be pushed?  Guess we'll find out.

[jon81uk]

58 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

IMHO, VV does not give enough perks to justify their new suite prices.  I LIKE that they have avoided the "ship within a ship" concept and the limited suite perks, but you can't charge outrageous prices and give limited perks.  Yes, you are paying for the increased room and balcony size, but how far can that be pushed?  Guess we'll find out.

The main thing is because there is only 78 suites on the ship the demand outstrips

supply, they don’t need to discount the suites as they sell well enough anyway.

[cantgetin]

7 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

The main thing is because there is only 78 suites on the ship the demand outstrips

supply, they don’t need to discount the suites as they sell well enough anyway.

Good point.

[raphael360]

I’m 100% sure Virgin has a robust sales and marketing department who are doing their pricing calculations to maximize sales/profits/occupancy. It just becomes more than I’m willing to pay going forward. It was really fun while it lasted. 😎

[crusinthrough]

2 hours ago, jon81uk said:

The main thing is because there is only 78 suites on the ship the demand outstrips

supply, they don’t need to discount the suites as they sell well enough anyway.

The point is that the demand was higher than the supply because the price was reasonable.  With the higher price tag will things reverse and supply outweigh the demand?  Time will tell.  

[AussieOmni]

6 hours ago, raphael360 said:

I’m 100% sure Virgin has a robust sales and marketing department who are doing their pricing calculations to maximize sales/profits/occupancy. It just becomes more than I’m willing to pay going forward. It was really fun while it lasted. 😎

I’ve loved Virgin Voyages and have one more booked, but I’ve long thought that I’d probably get priced out. That said there’s some Caribbean sailings that aren’t so bad, so maybe for special occasions every now and again.

[CruisingWalter]

17 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

It's going to be interesting if their claims of "sailing full" actually become true. The vast majority of their European offerings were less than half full this last summer.

The Caribbean has continued to sell well. Our Thanksgiving on Valiant was sold out months earlier. But you're right that many ships are not even close to selling out even as we get close to sail dates. Raising the prices this much while also holding back the Brilliant Lady, which by some accounts is ready to go, is an interesting move. Essentially lowering the inventory and trying to make it up by raising the pricing. 

 

Are the prices too high? That's up to the market to decide. Royal Caribbean's Star of the Seas recently opened their booking and interiors for some sailings start at over $6000 for 2. That princely sum gets you a cabin. Nothing more. 🙂

[-The-True-North-]

Time to just go back to conventual land vacations. You also don't gain 20 lbs down ng those. Haha

[Wildcatllamas]

Even though inflation has slowed, folks are still dealing with limited disposable income, unlike a couple of years ago. I have several friends who would cruise several times a year and with the current prices across all the lines they are now looking towards land tours.

 

I got in on the England to Barcelona repo of Resilient Lady in September of 2024 when the Sea Terrace was going for $2600. It is over $4K now and there is now way I would do that. The one in 2025 is with MNVV amount off and a solo traveler, so not extra taxes/fees, I'm at $6800. If this didn't have many bucket list ports on it I wouldn't be doing it at that price. It is better then Celebrity and Princess and has the ports that I want and there is enough time in case there is any price lowering.

[Jimmym1981]

Agreed. Prices are substantially higher now than before on all cruise lines…even pre-pandemic. We used to sail Royal (10x) then we switched to Celebrity (8+ cruises) because we wanted a difference experience. However, with the recent insane Celebrity price hikes, removal of gratuities, drink price hikes, and slow decline of food and service on our last cruise, we decided to book a VV to give it a shot. 
 

Thankfully the agent we have passed along a MNVV cert and told us to book before the 13th because they expected that prices were going to rise. I'm glad we did. Our regular Terrace went up $800 alone over night and dropped higher bar credits. Looking back, I wish I would've locked in a few cruises, but hindsight...

 

Either way, looking forward to our first VV cruise and hopefully the market will settle so we all can continue to sail! 

[Tolkmit]

8 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

The Caribbean has continued to sell well. Our Thanksgiving on Valiant was sold out months earlier. But you're right that many ships are not even close to selling out even as we get close to sail dates. Raising the prices this much while also holding back the Brilliant Lady, which by some accounts is ready to go, is an interesting move. Essentially lowering the inventory and trying to make it up by raising the pricing. 

 

Are the prices too high? That's up to the market to decide. Royal Caribbean's Star of the Seas recently opened their booking and interiors for some sailings start at over $6000 for 2. That princely sum gets you a cabin. Nothing more. 🙂

 

For those wondering, he is cherry picking the Christmas sailing of the newest, biggest ship in the world.
If we are going to do that in reverse, Royal also offers cruises for 1400 dollars for the entire cabin, for a 12 night cruise, with 84 dollars per day per person in drinks included for their regular cruisers. While a cruise on Virgin of a similar size ship doing a similar itinerary in the same month costs 8k.

[CruisingWalter]

1 hour ago, Tolkmit said:

For those wondering, he is cherry picking the Christmas sailing of the newest, biggest ship in the world.

Actually no, I wasn't. It was some of the first cruises, but if this is better for you. $4843 for an August 2025 sailing for the base Interior. The cheapest rate for the interior is about $3700 for 2. Now if you want to go on some of the smaller ships, absolutely you can get great deals on the interiors, sometimes right around $1000.  

 

1 hour ago, Tolkmit said:

While a cruise on Virgin of a similar size ship doing a similar itinerary in the same month costs 8k.

 

I'm curious which of these 12 day cruises you're mentioning have an interior for $8k. That's the cabin I'm showing for the Star. I think the highest interior I've seen is $4800 for some of the long TAs. Can you point me to the VV 12 day sailing that has an $8k interior cabin?  Thanks!

[Tolkmit]

3 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

Actually no, I wasn't. It was some of the first cruises, but if this is better for you. $4843 for an August 2025 sailing for the base Interior. The cheapest rate for the interior is about $3700 for 2. Now if you want to go on some of the smaller ships, absolutely you can get great deals on the interiors, sometimes right around $1000.  

 

 

I'm curious which of these 12 day cruises you're mentioning have an interior for $8k. That's the cabin I'm showing for the Star. I think the highest interior I've seen is $4800 for some of the long TAs. Can you point me to the VV 12 day sailing that has an $8k interior cabin?  Thanks!

 

I compared balcony to balcony in similar sized ships, sailing similar itineraries, in the same month. Scarlett's transatlantic in April, Explorer's transatlantic the same month.

 

You are trying to compare the biggest ship in the world, and one of Royals most expensive, that offers far more onboard activities, to a ship less than half it's size. Your cherry picking to make Virgin look like a good deal for some reason. Well, I can make Virgin look insanely over priced doing the same thing.

[CruisingWalter]

12 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

You are trying to compare the biggest ship in the world, and one of Royals most expensive, that offers far more onboard activities, to a ship less than half it's size. Your cherry picking to make Virgin look like a good deal for some reason. Well, I can make Virgin look insanely over priced doing the same thi

 

Sure you can play that game all day long with balconies.

 

For the price of an interior on the largest ship in the world, that gets you the cabin, some of the activities, not all since they are now adding rates to some of those activities, and the included food. For less that than price I can put you on any VV sailing, in the same interior category for less. I've yet to find an interior on a VV sailing that's $6k. $5k is the max for some of those really long itineraries. But to really compare apples to apples, then you have to add a full specialty dining package, WiFi, Refreshment Package and the Gratuities to the Royal Caribbean fare. Comparing straight cruse rates isn't how you compare VV to anyone else. You have to add in all the extras. 

 

No matter what you pay on Royal Caribbean, Virgin is almost always going to be the better value once you add everything to that Royal cruise that you get on VV. Princess is going to be the closest in terms of monetary value with their Plus and Premier packages but even there you don't get the specialty dining unless you go Premier. 

[bdever]

I hate to admit it but Walter is right. I recently booked a 12 day sailing on NCL Sky for 11/24/25 Lisbon to Barcelona with stops in 3 Canary Islands, 2 Moroccan ports, Cadiz, Ibiza, Motril, Valencia, & Mallorca. Inside cabin for 2 people and free at sea promotion for 4,036.56 before gratuities. While a lot less ports and a 10 day versus a 12 day, I could get on Scarlett Lady with a similar itinerary in the summer of 2025 in an Insider for $4,230. On the NCL to include gratuities, unlimited WiFi, essential drinks included, and additional specialty dining I would also need to upgraded to the Free at Sea + promotion for an additional $1176.00 and it still excludes gratuities.

Some might argue that the shore excursion credit’s, unlimited open bar, the 2 extra days and 5 additional ports might be worth staying with NCL. I’m on the fence right now. I love NCL’s itinerary compared to VV but outside of the itinerary, VV offers way more value. 

[TripsYouMustDo]

The prices are probably fair if you would've paid for all the extras they include. I priced a Royal Caribbean 5-day inside cabin sailing vs Virgin 5-day sailing (cheapest available), both out of Miami. Initially Royal Caribbean was twice as cheap (cheapest was $2,000 for 2 passengers on VV vs $1,000 for 2 passengers on RCCL, Western Caribbean out of Miami, not same dates). 

 

Then I took RCCL rate and added gratuities, internet for 3 devices, Unlimited Dining package, and price of exercise classes. VV price looked very fair after that (since all of that is included).

 

I personally still prefer RCCL for reasons other than price (I prefer shows, activities, etc. on RCCL). I also never pay for the extras I listed above (the only thing I buy above the basic cruise rate is internet for 1 device). So for me VV rates will never be a good deal compared to RCCL. But if you were to do all of the add-ons I mentioned, the rates are comparable. RCCL has gotten considerably more expensive than last year as well. 

 

FWIW I sailed on VV twice on credit card points (very very ridiculously cheap) and it was too good to be true (equivalent of $600 for 2 people for a week in Central Veranda on Valiant out of Athens, Greek Islands cruise). I don't think that will ever happen again. VV has many hardcore followers (I'm not one of them) that will likely not patronize any other cruise line (for reasons I'm not going to into, not necessarily cruise fare inclusions). I'm not one of them.

 

Also the supply is very limited with only three ships. There will be four, but that's it. I was on a "behind the scene" tour on my last sailing, and they said they don't have any ships on order (don't know if it's true, but that's what one their top-level design executives said, it was the President's Cruise with Charles Branson and all the big wigs). So high prices are probably here to stay. Good for VV I guess, sorry for those that want to go but getting priced out.

[-The-True-North-]

1 hour ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

Also the supply is very limited with only three ships. There will be four, but that's it. I was on a "behind the scene" tour on my last sailing, and they said they don't have any ships on order (don't know if it's true, but that's what one their top-level design executives said, it was the President's Cruise with Charles Branson and all the big wigs). So high prices are probably here to stay. Good for VV I guess, sorry for those that want to go but getting priced out.

I was on the Celebration Cruise as well.

 

Some other data points to add, the President of Operations spoke and said every 5 years, ships need to be "Dry Docked" for a period of time (month or few). So in 2025+, Scarlett Lady will be pulled out for awhile.

 

In addition, they lost an entire year of revenue (plus more for making it right with cancelling everyone's cruise) because of Brilliant Lady set backs. So I'm sure they are trying to secure as much revenue as they can now for investors.

 

But just like Covid, timing couldn't be worse. I like people will be tightening spending with a recession on the way, even if interest rates are cut. Doubling the prices might come to nip them in the Bud. Plus cutting back on the PIF discount and reducing Perks won't help.

[Gretchendz]

14 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

I was on the Celebration Cruise as well.

 

Some other data points to add, the President of Operations spoke and said every 5 years, ships need to be "Dry Docked" for a period of time (month or few). So in 2025+, Scarlett Lady will be pulled out for awhile.

 

In addition, they lost an entire year of revenue (plus more for making it right with cancelling everyone's cruise) because of Brilliant Lady set backs. So I'm sure they are trying to secure as much revenue as they can now for investors.

 

But just like Covid, timing couldn't be worse. I like people will be tightening spending with a recession on the way, even if interest rates are cut. Doubling the prices might come to nip them in the Bud. Plus cutting back on the PIF discount and reducing Perks won't help.

 

Interesting. Most cruise line executives would disagree, I think. They are almost all seeing record bookings and raising fares accordingly. https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Cruise-executives-lament-price-gap-with-resorts

 

However, of course, only time will tell who is correct!  And if you are right, you will see most lines cutting prices again.

[bdever]

1 hour ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

 I also never pay for the extras I listed above (the only thing I buy above the basic cruise rate is internet for 1 device). So for me VV rates will never be a good deal compared to RCCL. But if you were to do all of the add-ons I mentioned, the rates are comparable.

I agree, there is no way I can justify spending $1176.00 for Free at Sea + which essentially for me would be the cost of sparkling water and unlimited WiFi when there is only 1 sea day on the 12 day sailing. So I’m content with the all in NCL fare of $4,036.56 + $280 gratuity for 2 people in an inside cabin. This happens to be the same price for an insider on Scarlett lady for the 10 day summer itinerary. So it boils down to itinerary and time of year. June vs November/December in the Med. The NCL itinerary is insane though, which is why I’m leaning towards it. That and the fact I’ve never done an NCL cruise before.

[-The-True-North-]

4 minutes ago, Gretchendz said:

 

Interesting. Most cruise line executives would disagree, I think. They are almost all seeing record bookings and raising fares accordingly. https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Cruise-executives-lament-price-gap-with-resorts

 

However, of course, only time will tell who is correct!  And if you are right, you will see most lines cutting prices again.

I agree that cruise lines have experienced a massive spike and 2024 cruises should have matched that demand. But for 2025 sailings I think there will be an ease again.

 

And this sticker shock we see now, will be felt sooner than later. People who would have impulse bought a resealable priced cruise will now reconsider.

 

The people I talked to on our recent VV said they all expected to book 2+ cruises onboard (we waiting for the 14th). Then saw the prices and not 1 of the couples we talked to even bought MNVVs. Only 1 time did I see a line up at the future cruise desk. On our Greek Island Glow cruise, there was a line up from open to close. 

[cantgetin]

When I do the best "apples to apples" comparison I can come up with, VV with the new prices is comparable to what I'm seeing on most other lines.....which means we're taking a break from cruising after our previously booked 2024 sailings.  Part of that is "cruise fatigue" as we've done quite a bit recently and the rest is that I can't justify the costs I'm seeing.