Virgin Voyages coming to Oz

[bPeteb]

Hurtigruten is still a possibility for next year but in case we don't get another cruise in we've booked Resilient Lady out of Melbourne for six days over Christmas. Booked a limited view sea terrace waaaaaaay forward. I love modern design but these ships are ghastly looking.

Ended up booking through Qantas Cruises (cruiseguru). They were much cheaper than Virgin direct and offered the same deal with the included bar tab. The booking is now being handled by Virgin with final payment to them.

Virgin virgins. Really looking forward to the 'experience'.

 

[VPS]

Interesting. Looking forward to the TR

 

[asterix]

Hurtigruten is still a possibility for next year but in case we don't get another cruise in we've booked Resilient Lady out of Melbourne for six days over Christmas. Booked a limited view sea terrace waaaaaaay forward. I love modern design but these ships are ghastly looking.View attachment 316982

Ended up booking through Qantas Cruises (cruiseguru). They were much cheaper than Virgin direct and offered the same deal with the included bar tab. The booking is now being handled by Virgin with final payment to them.

Virgin virgins. Really looking forward to the 'experience'.

Checkout the series "The Cruise". Season 1 came out last year and season 2 is currently up to episode 2. We cruise on Carnival and after watching The Cruise series, I don't think Virgin is for us. They really focus on the party aspect of Virgin cruises in the series.

 

[bPeteb]

Checkout the series "The Cruise". Season 1 came out last year and season 2 is currently up to episode 2. We cruise on Carnival and after watching The Cruise series, I don't think Virgin is for us. They really focus on the party aspect of Virgin cruises in the series.

We've watched a lot of YouTube videos and even as 60yo and mid-50s Virgin Voyages appeals to us. The food offerings look excellent and the music is definitely to our taste. We won't be at the nightclub until 4 but also look forward to going on a cruise where we feel like we're the only people awake after 11.

Funny you mention Carnival. We're both both much more concerned about our first Carnival cruise next year than the Virgin Voyages cruise. Life is about experiences. We haven't had a cruise we didn't enjoy.

 

[AIRwin]

Virgin Voyages Cancels Australian 2024/2025 Summer Sailings

Virgin Voyages has cancelled Australian 2024/2025 Summer Sailings and several linked repositionings. The ship will move to the San Juan.

vvinsider.com

 

[asterix]

I suspected this would happen when they pulled the Australian 2024-2025 season from the website. One of the reasons we didn't buy the offer when we were onboard last week, didn't want to be stuck with a credit.

 

[bPeteb]

Sad but inevitable

 

[RooFlyer]

Sad but inevitable

How come? Too small a market; not enough in their target market?

 

[asterix]

How come? Too small a market; not enough in their target market?

They use the Suez canal to get here from Europe and with the current climate in Israel and surrounds had to change the routing back to Europe at the end of March to go via Mauritius and South Africa.

 

[drron]

And it IMHO is a sensible decision as I doubt the problem in the Red Sea is going to go away for a long time.
Repositioning the Resilient Lady to the Caribbean instead Will possibly boost their earnings as well.

 

[odysseus]

They use the Suez canal to get here from Europe and with the current climate in Israel and surrounds had to change the routing back to Europe at the end of March to go via Mauritius and South Africa.

But which also means they could still have come back a similar way - likely better as they have more time to make alternative bookings rather than the ~3 months they had for bookings on the trip up via Africa.

I dodged a bullet, cancelling my MNVV booking over the weekend from a cruise last week. Still a shortsighted and not customer friendly decision imo - they built some goodwill here, but will also burn some with the way they've done this (and their other rapid changes/cancellations to date).

 

[drron]

But which also means they could still have come back a similar way - likely better as they have more time to make alternative bookings rather than the ~3 months they had for bookings on the trip up via Africa.

I dodged a bullet, cancelling my MNVV booking over the weekend from a cruise last week. Still a shortsighted and not customer friendly decision imo - they built some goodwill here, but will also burn some with the way they've done this (and their other rapid changes/cancellations to date).

But burning less goodwill than many cruise lines who are leaving cancelling cruises through the Red sea until literally the last minute.
We have already cancelled our cruise through there in May 2025 though only because Silversea put a 6 day gap between our back to back cruises so allowed us to cancel and get 10% off a new cruise.

However the cruise before is Singapore to Doha and if the canal is still closed then well this cruise will be cancelled.
So I much prefer the certainty of the VV announcement.

 

[odysseus]

They could also be certain about a western Africa relocation. Without all the rest of the disruption.

 

[RooFlyer]

RL leaves Hobart recently and caused a bit of a stink

 

[OZDUCK]

RL leaves Hobart recently and caused a bit of a stink

View attachment 372805

There has been follow-up about this smoky departure.

'Disgusting' emissions prompt Virgin Voyages to make changes to cruise ship fuel after backlash in Hobart

The Resilient Lady is a billion-dollar ship that has been offering adult-only cruises in Australia this summer. But its visits to Hobart have left residents concerned about the plumes of smoke belching from its funnels.

www.abc.net.au

 

[RooFlyer]

Caught right out. From that article (my bolding)

But it was revealed yesterday that the EPA had written to Virgin Voyages late last week to ask why the ship had been emitting significant smoke plumes in Hobart and Burnie, but not in Sydney.

"I wrote to Virgin … on Friday expressing my concerns about the smoke that was being emitted from the Resilient Lady," Mr Ford told ABC Radio Hobart yesterday.

In response, he received a "very positive result" from Virgin Voyages, he said.
...
For all future visits to Tasmania, the company said it would no longer use heavy fuel oil, which requires the use of an exhaust gas cleaning system.

Bit of background to this. When cruise ships first started coming to Hobart - maybe 8-10 years ago, the sleepy/green/just say no brigade were in uproar about emissions from the ships ... 'ban them ...' we are choking' ... 'we are all gonna die'. The usual response to anything new in Hobart. But that was overcome, but the grumblings persist.

So Virgin has done no-one any favours by dumping its dirty fuel in Tas ports.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Caught right out. From that article (my bolding)



Bit of background to this. When cruise ships first started coming to Hobart - maybe 8-10 years ago, the sleepy/green/just say no brigade were in uproar about emissions from the ships ... 'ban them ...' we are choking' ... 'we are all gonna die'. The usual response to anything new in Hobart. But that was overcome, but the grumblings persist.

So Virgin has done no-one any favours by dumping its dirty fuel in Tas ports.

Many cruise ships use extremely dirty high sulphur nasty fuel oil when out of sight. I thought there were regulations for the types of fuels they are permitted to use in port? Maybe Australia hasn’t enforced this just as with very poor fuel standards for automobiles?

 

[jb747]

Many cruise ships use extremely dirty high sulphur nasty fuel oil when out of sight. I thought there were regulations for the types of fuels they are permitted to use in port? Maybe Australia hasn’t enforced this just as with very poor fuel standards for automobiles?

Should be easy enough to test their tanks....

 

[TheRealTMA]

Should be easy enough to test their tanks....

They have multiple tanks for port and offshore activities.

 

[SYD]

Slightly academic with no return season down under for now but who managed to get a VV status match from VA? Did VA WP match to Blue Extras or Deep Blue Extras?

I was successful with VA SG -> “Blue Extras” a few months ago and received the benefits on two Euro cruises over the Northern hemisphere summer.

SYD+1 (no SM) also on same cruises has progressed to “Blue Extras” now and those benefits will be applicable to future cruises - consistent with the chart, but I was kind of expecting that the two cruises would then bump me to “Deep Blue Extras” (being effectively the 3rd and 4th cruise) but I’ve been told by VV I need another to progress? Does that sound right?

As it stands, I have nothing more planned for now, but the $100 bar tab, premium wifi and additional laundry, coffees are a decent uplift.