Virgin Second Australia Season removed?

[Chris86]

Hello, I went to check the sailings for the next Virgin Season in Australia. Haven't found them along with partner websites. I know the first season had poor offerings, perhaps they are reviewing the sailings and now realize Tasmania is not apart of the South Pacific?

[Tolkmit]

There are issues taking cruise ships through the Red Sea right now, which was the planned route to get a ship back to Australia. The issues are almost definitely enough to justify Virgin breaking their contracts to have a ship sailing out of Sydney with minimal penalty. There is an alternative route they could have the Resilient Lady take to get from the Mediterranean to Australia, but that re-positioning would likely be less lucrative than the planned one through the Red Sea. Virgin's sailings in Australia have not been selling well. Virgin has stopped selling the cruises to Australia for the 24 to 25 season, the cruises that were planned as part of that, and the cruises back.

That's about all we know with relative confidence. Virgin might be still be planning to bring a ship to Australia for 24/25 and pausing while they adjust the details. They also might be cancelling the 24/25 season due to a combination of the less lucrative re-positioning routes it would require, plus the low sales for it, plus the fact they can get out of their contracts there much more easily now.

 

Virgin will announce their new plans for Resilient whenever they can be reasonably sure of them; we can be certain their preference is to know what she is doing then and be able to sell those sailings. If I had to guess, I would say it's unlikely Resilient is coming to Australia for 24/25.

[jon81uk]

Due to the Red Sea issues they’ve taken everything for Resilient Lady from October off sale and there will be an update by the end of February.

 

”With the very likely continuation of this escalated regional conflict top-of-mind, and in an effort to minimize further disruptions to our passengers’ future vacation plans, Virgin Voyages is now conducting a full review of other geographically similar repositioning voyages and linked sailings. We will provide an update before the end of February on any further changes we will need to make.“

 

From  https://www.virginvoyages.com/travel-advisories/stories/resilient-lady-repositioning-update

[Chris86]

Thanks for the information, I feel also Virgin made the error of keeping fares eye watering up until the day they arrived

[MMDown Under]

On 2/14/2024 at 3:26 PM, Tolkmit said:

There are issues taking cruise ships through the Red Sea right now, which was the planned route to get a ship back to Australia. The issues are almost definitely enough to justify Virgin breaking their contracts to have a ship sailing out of Sydney with minimal penalty. There is an alternative route they could have the Resilient Lady take to get from the Mediterranean to Australia, but that re-positioning would likely be less lucrative than the planned one through the Red Sea. Virgin's sailings in Australia have not been selling well. Virgin has stopped selling the cruises to Australia for the 24 to 25 season, the cruises that were planned as part of that, and the cruises back.

That's about all we know with relative confidence. Virgin might be still be planning to bring a ship to Australia for 24/25 and pausing while they adjust the details. They also might be cancelling the 24/25 season due to a combination of the less lucrative re-positioning routes it would require, plus the low sales for it, plus the fact they can get out of their contracts there much more easily now.

 

Virgin will announce their new plans for Resilient whenever they can be reasonably sure of them; we can be certain their preference is to know what she is doing then and be able to sell those sailings. If I had to guess, I would say it's unlikely Resilient is coming to Australia for 24/25.

I hope Resilient Lady will be coming back to Australia in 2024/25.  If they don't, they will loose all the favourable publicity from this year's Aust/NZ new cruisers.  In addition, if they don't return, they would need to refund money paid as a future cruise deposit 

[Mark_UK]

1 minute ago, MMDown Under said:

I hope Resilient Lady will be coming back to Australia in 2024/25.  If they don't, they will loose all the favourable publicity from this year's Aust/NZ new cruisers.  In addition, if they don't return, they would need to refund money paid as a future cruise deposit 

 

I think if they didn't return they'd need to refund the money, not just a cruise credit! 

[MMDown Under]

On 2/16/2024 at 7:21 AM, Mark_UK said:

 

I think if they didn't return they'd need to refund the money, not just a cruise credit! 

I agree.  Money was paid as a future cruise deposit, which won't be possible if there were no local Aust/NZ cruises.