Virgin Voyages coming to Oz

[antycbr]

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.
View attachment 413544
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.

I think the issue is you only matched recently and it doesn’t seem to be coughulative, to earn DBE you need to actually start from scratch. I matched last year before BE existed and my DBE sailing in Feb carried over to my cruise in 2025. A bag of laundry is USD50 so it sucks for you that it’s not working.

VV status is confusing and unstable so your nautical mileage may vary.

 

[odysseus]

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.
View attachment 413544
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?

Not sure whether it sounds 'right' but it is the way they structured it. They give you benefits from your first matched cruise, but no credit for cruises is given, so you start from 0. This is stated on their match page: "until you unlock Deep Blue Extras on your fifth voyage"

Eligibility Form | Virgin Voyages

Featuring stunning perks and access (among other things), Sea-Rover status is exclusive to Sailors who meet specific criteria within our Sailing Club.

www.virginvoyages.com

 

[SYD]

I think the issue is you only matched recently and it doesn’t seem to be coughulative, to earn DBE you need to actually start from scratch. I matched last year before BE existed and my DBE sailing in Feb carried over to my cruise in 2025.

Not sure whether it sounds 'right' but it is the way they structured it. They give you benefits from your first matched cruise, but no credit for cruises is given, so you start from 0. This is stated on their match page: "until you unlock Deep Blue Extras on your fifth voyage"

Eligibility Form | Virgin Voyages

Featuring stunning perks and access (among other things), Sea-Rover status is exclusive to Sailors who meet specific criteria within our Sailing Club.

www.virginvoyages.com

This is what they said in a reply:…

“We have confirmed that your Sailing Club account is in Ship Shape, up to date! Your perks tier will level up to Deep Blue Perks after your next full fare voyage.”

Which implies after one more voyage (which will be the 3rd for me.

A bag of laundry is USD50 so it sucks for you that it’s not working.

I received the 1x bag free. So that’s actually really good (and their laundry bags are huge!).

 

[Notyourbag]

What do we think the odds are of Virgin Voyages returning and home porting in Australia? Slim?

 

[odysseus]

lol.

No chance in the foreseeable future. They cut and ran.

 

[antycbr]

lol.

No chance in the foreseeable future. They cut and ran.

The original reason was the Houthis blocking the Red Sea - entirely legitimate.

However they now have Brilliant Lady which can transit the Panama Canal so it’s a commercial decision.

 

[SYD]

What do we think the odds are of Virgin Voyages returning and home porting in Australia? Slim?

It can take a year or two (or more) to secure berths, so if they cancelled all future bookings - it could take a while to reenter for a full season.

That aside, their model to mainly operate out of MEL (cheaper) and therefore doing a LOT of very short cruises probably didn’t stack up either. BNE might have been a better option.

My Euro cruise operated from Portsmouth (not South Hampton) and it’s a second tier facility… I reckon they’d operate out of Botany Bay if they could find a berth and save a lot of money…

 

[odysseus]

The original reason was the Houthis blocking the Red Sea - entirely legitimate.

However they now have Brilliant Lady which can transit the Panama Canal so it’s a commercial decision.

Not at all. They sailed back up the West coast of Africa, and could have sailed back down to meet future bookings the same way, and also as other cruise lines are doing to meet their bookings for this coming season. Nothing prevented them from doing that. It was purely a commercial decision.

i.e. they chose/wanted to leave, and didn't care about bookings already made. They didn't have to leave.

 

[Notyourbag]

lol.

No chance in the foreseeable future. They cut and ran.

Looks like Aussies will have to go to Miami or the Med to sail on her in the future.

 

[antycbr]

Not at all. They sailed back up the West coast of Africa, and could have sailed back down to meet future bookings the same way, and also as other cruise lines are doing to meet their bookings for this coming season. Nothing prevented them from doing that. It was purely a commercial decision.

i.e. they chose/wanted to leave, and didn't care about bookings already made. They didn't have to leave.

Legitimate the first time to get the ship back to Europe. Now it’s commercial.

Post automatically merged: Nov 1, 2024

Looks like Aussies will have to go to Miami or the Med to sail on her in the future.

Or SJU as I am in April.

 

[Saab34]

From all reports it wasn’t a huge success here

 

[SYD]

From all reports it wasn’t a huge success here

A bit of a disaster according to someone in the know who I was chatting to on another cruise late last year.

The market for MEL to BWT (return) is only sooo big. Trying to save money by basing the ship primarily out of MEL as a differentiator was probably false economy? If SYD is too expensive (and the OPT is heavily booked over summer), then a BNE porting and doing QLD coast, Pacific and NZ cruises (plus some SYD, MEL, ADL jaunts probably would have made sense?)

Pity. Those who are turned off big ship cruising because of hoards of kids onboard would actually enjoy VV.

 

[antycbr]

A bit of a disaster according to someone in the know who I was chatting to on another cruise late last year.

The market for MEL to BWT (return) is only sooo big. Trying to save money by basing the ship primarily out of MEL as a differentiator was probably false economy? If SYD is too expensive (and the OPT is heavily booked over summer), then a BNE porting and doing QLD coast, Pacific and NZ cruises (plus some SYD, MEL, ADL jaunts probably would have made sense?)

Pity. Those who are turned off big ship cruising because of hoards of kids onboard would actually enjoy VV.

The big selling point of Burnie was the woodchip mountain!!

 

[SYD]

The big selling point of Burnie was the woodchip mountain!!

I was chatting to a MEL friend the other day who actually grew up in Burnie and went on one of the cruises there. They got to see their Grandfathers grave!

 

[odysseus]

Legitimate the first time to get the ship back to Europe. Now it’s commercial.

They were already going back to Europe anyway, so there was no change in plan for their leaving Australia there.

But the reason they didn't return was commercial.

 

[FishFood]

Or SJU as I am in April.

Are you also on the repositioning cruise

 

[drron]

They were already going back to Europe anyway, so there was no change in plan for their leaving Australia there.

But the reason they didn't return was commercial.

Which is an entirely sensible reason for any company. besides they would have had the same problems for this coming season. My cruise in May 2025 has only just been cancelled and it is now sailing from Singapore to Athens via Africa empty. great foresight by VV.

 

[odysseus]

Which is an entirely sensible reason for any company. besides they would have had the same problems for this coming season. My cruise in May 2025 has only just been cancelled and it is now sailing from Singapore to Athens via Africa empty. great foresight by VV.

No reason they have to sail empty. There are other cruises as well as the VV cruise back to Europe that went via Africa and carried passengers.

So there's no reason to turf already booked passengers, except that you care more about profits than customer experience. And in the service industry that's not a great thing to do, cause your whole purpose is customer experience.

As for 'great foresight' as the case was better profits elsewhere that only shows bad foresight, that they had to cancel all those bookings, instead of going where they believe was optimal to start with.

 

[drron]

Cruises via Africa's West Coast are not particularly attractive as most are no where near full. even prior to the Red Sea crisis the number of cruises that were available was limited.
Certainly part of the reason to make no early return to Australia was profit. although a lot of their cruises were well patronised the pricing was a lot lower than their Med and Carribean cruises. With a small number of ships you would be rather silly to base a ship in a low profit market.

Also it doesn't mean that the profit motive was the reason that they diverted the last few Australian voyages back via Africa. Every cruise line did the same because of the Red sea situation. I doubt many customers would have appreciated sailing through a war zone.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agree with all the points raised. But given that it *is* a commercial decision to not reposition cruise ships via the west coast of Africa, or use the ship that can go through the panama canal, I think it’s a bit unfair to the winners of the VA/Voyager cruises that they miss out on fair compensation.