Virgin mystery trips

[Blossom]

Hi all,

Has anyone done one of the mystery trips yet? I figure there won't be a huge amount as you can't book them in school holidays, and alot of the time since they started has been school holidays.

The idea of a mystery holiday is quite appealing at the moment as I have had too much stress to want to organise hotels etc. However, I do see potential for it being more stressful.

The concept of a mystery holiday is not new to me, I am from the uk and lots of people do this. They do it however because it works out cheaper. The holiday company can put you places which haven't been very popular. Virgins prices however seem higher than a lot of their other holidays. Even taking into account the transfers and luggage.

The other concern I have is if this is real sensible people booking the trip or a computer. For example, I did a quick search for holidays and the flights it automatically picked were leaving quite late in the day going out ( not even enough time to go out for a nice meal when you had got there). And the flight home was leaving at 6am. Not only not relaxing on a holiday but a whole day gone. Online there is the option on change for more reasonable times, but if a computer is picking it, would you be stuck with cough times? He'll, even if a person was booking it, if there are choices of flight times would they go for the better suited one or just the one with the most seats free?

So yer, anyway, any feedback from anyone on the whole experience would be great.
And of course if I decide to go on one I will come back and review.
Thanks in advance

 

[Doug_Westcott]

Two nights (three days) from Melbourne 7/12/11 - did not elect to exclude any destination.
Received email with details 1.00pm 05/12/11.
Destination - Gold Coast
Flight out of Melbourne 6:00am.
Hotel - Watermark Hotel & Spa (relatively central and good standard).
Transfer from/to Gold Coast airport/ hotel was standard shared minibus type thing.
Return flight 4:50pm (pick up from hotel 3:00pm).
No Status Credits for flights, but Points from Blue Holidays.
Comment: I did this just for the experience and thoroughly enjoyed it, but probably would not do it again as I normally like more time to plan activities, even for such a short period - I am not the type to sit around the pool/beach and do nothing the whole time.

 

[Blossom]

Thanks very much for the feedback. They are pretty decent flight times for making the most out if your trip.

 

[MarkD]

decent hotel too!

 

[Mal]

decent hotel too!

Was better before that hunking concrete rustbox was built blocking it's views...

 

[Blossom]

Yes, I did notice that they are advertising that hotel a fair bit cheaper than the mystery break price though, even adding on transfers etc....

 

[Blossom]

Well I am all booked in for three weeks time, so I will report back on how it went. Apparently we get complimentary wine and chocolates at the moment too.