Summary of new Virgin Changes

[Cloud9 Bob]

2 hours ago, cantgetin said:

<SNIP>…and the rest is that I can't justify the costs I'm seeing.

I think VV isn’t always the best at projecting what a cruise consumer really wants. In the last two years I have seen some real blunders as far back as the postage sized swimming pool and the “”all we need are Millennials to trot into the future with,” mindset …and my pet peeve…blocking VPN use onboard. But that aside, I really DO like the line a lot. I love the adults only rule, but I won’t be held hostage wallet wise. If they get too greedy, they will erode their present loyal customer base  (like me) and I will go elsewhere for my vacations even if that means no cruising for awhile. Who will replace us as the new customer base? Ultra high end cruisers? Don’t think so. Their current ships don’t seem like they are set up for that, both structurally and design wise. To change those two things would be very costly. I hope VV treads wisely. There are many potholes out there for them.

[TripsYouMustDo]

11 minutes ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I think VV isn’t always the best at projecting what a cruise consumer really wants. In the last two years I have seen some real blunders as far back as the postage sized swimming pool and the “”all we need are Millennials to trot into the future with,” mindset …and my pet peeve…blocking VPN use onboard. But that aside, I really DO like the line a lot. I love the adults only rule, but I won’t be held hostage wallet wise. If they get too greedy, they will erode their present loyal customer base  (like me) and I will go elsewhere for my vacations even if that means no cruising for awhile. Who will replace us as the new customer base? Ultra high end cruisers? Don’t think so. Their current ships don’t seem like they are set up for that, both structurally and design wise. To change those two things would be very costly. I hope VV treads wisely. There are many potholes out there for them.

 

Millennials definitely worship VV though, lol 🙂 I wore a VV T-shirt in Orlando last month, and a young guy working at Universal Studios got so excited when he saw it - showed me his VV key chain, etc. They have almost cult following at this point. 

 

I personally wasn't impressed by the ships. As their chief (engineer? designer?) said their principle was "ship is not the destination". That's silly for me though, and the reason I prefer RCCL. You can never guarantee the ports, but you can guarantee the ship. At least half of the time I go on a cruise is for the ship rather than for the destination. To me personally VV ships are mind-numbingly boring other than the restaurant variety (there are only so many times I will do the VHS workout, lol). 

[TripsYouMustDo]

3 hours 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.

 

Hey, we may have met! I was the guy running around the ship with the big funny camera. Not the younger cool guys that were working for Virgin PR, but the older fatter one, lol. 

[TripsYouMustDo]

3 hours ago, bdever said:

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.

 

If you are more interested in ports than the ship, VV might be a better way to go (I'm not a big fan of either VV or NCL, sailed with NCL 6 times). VV tries to give folks as much time in ports as they can, including overnights when they can. Also in Santorini they even gave everyone lift tickets in advance (for free) for the cable car/tram/whatever they call it. Nice touches. In Mykonos somehow we got to dock rather than tender, the only ship that got to do it (and we stayed there overnight). I guess they paid more than the other lines for that spot. Also had free shuttles running to downtown 24 hours a day. Very well done. I'm not a huge fan boy of VV, but again, if you are going more for the ports than for the ship (and remembering any port can get cancelled) I'd recommend VV if the price is close for you. Unless of course you like NCL itinerary much better. Also you probably know that June is going to be MUCH hotter than Nov/Dec in the Med.

[jon81uk]

4 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

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.

Scarlet Lady will be in dry dock November 2024 before doing a Rome to Miami transatlantic in December.

[_tacocat_]

On 12/15/2023 at 11:05 AM, raphael360 said:

One could hope they don’t get greedy and start to quality to make even more profits. 

i think they've already started down this path.  they've cut down on some onboard offerings (classes/activities, restaurant items, entertainment like phantom folktales and NSA, and my beloved cold brew, off the top of my head).  it was kind of inevitable, given their depressed revenue for 3 solid years + the extremely generous OBC that they've been offering for cancellations and with MNVV. 

 

i've noticed a marked dilution in the onboard experience this year vs my 2021-2022 voyages, particularly when they started going hard after filling the ship with traditional cruisers expecting traditional cruise things and a ton of hosted casino guests.  i've lost count at this point, but i think i've been on 13 times.  my latest voyage was in early october, and I have nothing else booked going forward with no immediate or medium-term plans to do so 🤷‍♀️

[jon81uk]

19 minutes ago, _tacocat_ said:

classes/activities, restaurant items, entertainment like phantom folktales and NSA, and my beloved cold brew, off the top of my head

Technically NSA was replaced with the festival stage acts on all ships, but yes nothing replaced phantom folktales. Although there has been a slight increase in daytime activity I think like Zumba, there has also been an increase in paid for stuff like Loteria.

[-The-True-North-]

17 hours ago, jon81uk said:

Scarlet Lady will be in dry dock November 2024 before doing a Rome to Miami transatlantic in December.

Ahh thanks for that.

 

A guess they won't be doing any major renovations if it's only being dry docked for a month.

[-The-True-North-]

18 hours ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

 

Millennials definitely worship VV though, lol 🙂 I wore a VV T-shirt in Orlando last month, and a young guy working at Universal Studios got so excited when he saw it - showed me his VV key chain, etc. They have almost cult following at this point. 

 

I personally wasn't impressed by the ships. As their chief (engineer? designer?) said their principle was "ship is not the destination". That's silly for me though, and the reason I prefer RCCL. You can never guarantee the ports, but you can guarantee the ship. At least half of the time I go on a cruise is for the ship rather than for the destination. To me personally VV ships are mind-numbingly boring other than the restaurant variety (there are only so many times I will do the VHS workout, lol). 

On our recent cruise this was the exact case. 30 years were playing board games and having drinks enjoying the best of the meh weather.  In the elevator an "older" (50's) woman and her friend asked if we were enjoying the cruise. To which we responded "Yea". When we asked if they were, I literally got this face and answer from both, "😒 It's definitely different".

 

18 hours ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

 

Hey, we may have met! I was the guy running around the ship with the big funny camera. Not the younger cool guys that were working for Virgin PR, but the older fatter one, lol. 

So funny! I actually do remember see you both passing by.

[Tolkmit]

On 12/15/2023 at 10:54 AM, Gretchendz said:

11. Paid in full discount is gone.

 

Just an FYI for everyone, when we went to book our last Virgin cruise to use up our unassigned MNVVs, we were able to get the Paid in Full discount. Went into our Virgin account, and assigned the MNVV to a cruise, and when going to pay it was a clickable option and gave us the discount.

 

When our travel agent called to transfer one of our other MNVV's to friends and book them on the same cruise, multiple customer service reps and a supervisor insisted PIF discount was no longer offered anywhere and that I couldn't have gotten it. It was not showing for my TA either. We ultimately just booked online again, got PIF discount again, then switched names on the second booking to friends.

 

There is a small chance you are supposed to get PIF discount on MNVV's made while it existed, and the Virgin people my TA talked to just didn't know this. But I personally think it's much more likely that their website just isn't working as intended, that it shouldn't show as an option when you book your floating MNVV to a specific itinerary. If it's the latter, it's only a matter of time before this gets fixed. 

[Tolkmit]

On 12/17/2023 at 11:54 PM, Cloud9 Bob said:

I think VV isn’t always the best at projecting what a cruise consumer really wants. In the last two years I have seen some real blunders as far back as the postage sized swimming pool and the “”all we need are Millennials to trot into the future with,” mindset …and my pet peeve…blocking VPN use onboard. But that aside, I really DO like the line a lot. I love the adults only rule, but I won’t be held hostage wallet wise. If they get too greedy, they will erode their present loyal customer base  (like me) and I will go elsewhere for my vacations even if that means no cruising for awhile. Who will replace us as the new customer base? Ultra high end cruisers? Don’t think so. Their current ships don’t seem like they are set up for that, both structurally and design wise. To change those two things would be very costly. I hope VV treads wisely. There are many potholes out there for them.

 

Agreed. As someone who cruises with a group of 8-10 friends, all precisely in what I believe is Virgin's target demographic (millennials, no kids, professionals with reasonable amount of disposable income who's preferred vacation method is cruising); we prefer Virgin, but not enough to spend a large amount more than what other lines cost. If many of Virgin's target market feel the same way, they might be in trouble long term. It's also a problem for Virgin if too large a portion of the customer base they've built up over the last 2 years is people like us; as opposed to people for whom price makes a smaller difference or are willing to pay large amounts more for the (IMO small) advantages Virgin offers.

Across the entire cruise industry, demand is quite high. While anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, judging from everyone I know who regularly cruises, that is a bubble that is going to burst sooner rather than later due to the price increases. Not just for Virgin, industry wide. Virgin needs to find it's footage before that happens, or it could spell trouble for them in a way it wouldn't for other more established lines.

[-The-True-North-]

5 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

 

Agreed. As someone who cruises with a group of 8-10 friends, all precisely in what I believe is Virgin's target demographic (millennials, no kids, professionals with reasonable amount of disposable income who's preferred vacation method is cruising); we prefer Virgin, but not enough to spend a large amount more than what other lines cost. If many of Virgin's target market feel the same way, they might be in trouble long term. It's also a problem for Virgin if too large a portion of the customer base they've built up over the last 2 years is people like us; as opposed to people for whom price makes a smaller difference or are willing to pay large amounts more for the (IMO small) advantages Virgin offers.

Across the entire cruise industry, demand is quite high. While anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, judging from everyone I know who regularly cruises, that is a bubble that is going to burst sooner rather than later due to the price increases. Not just for Virgin, industry wide. Virgin needs to find it's footage before that happens, or it could spell trouble for them in a way it wouldn't for other more established lines.

2024 Should remain great for cruise companies. People have already secured these when the industry was hot.

 

2025 however... At these prices and recession in full sight... 😐

[Gretchendz]

8 hours ago, Tolkmit said:

 

Just an FYI for everyone, when we went to book our last Virgin cruise to use up our unassigned MNVVs, we were able to get the Paid in Full discount. Went into our Virgin account, and assigned the MNVV to a cruise, and when going to pay it was a clickable option and gave us the discount.

 

When our travel agent called to transfer one of our other MNVV's to friends and book them on the same cruise, multiple customer service reps and a supervisor insisted PIF discount was no longer offered anywhere and that I couldn't have gotten it. It was not showing for my TA either. We ultimately just booked online again, got PIF discount again, then switched names on the second booking to friends.

 

There is a small chance you are supposed to get PIF discount on MNVV's made while it existed, and the Virgin people my TA talked to just didn't know this. But I personally think it's much more likely that their website just isn't working as intended, that it shouldn't show as an option when you book your floating MNVV to a specific itinerary. If it's the latter, it's only a matter of time before this gets fixed. 

 

Congratulations!  I suspect you are correct that it was a technical issue on their end. I was able to get people "refer a friend" On Board credit long after it was officially discontinued.  That's gone too now, sadly.

[jon81uk]

19 minutes ago, Gretchendz said:

 

Congratulations!  I suspect you are correct that it was a technical issue on their end. I was able to get people "refer a friend" On Board credit long after it was officially discontinued.  That's gone too now, sadly.

You can still get a bottle of sparkling wine if you link your booking to a friends. 

Edited December 20, 2023 by jon81uk

[_tacocat_]

8 hours ago, Gretchendz said:

I was able to get people "refer a friend" On Board credit long after it was officially discontinued.  That's gone too now, sadly.

me too 🤫 my TA linked someone and said they just didn't know how to code the sparkling wine.  i told her i saw both the wine and the $$ and she was stumped.  ended up with both onboard!