genian_travels

Have you heard about the secret invite-only loyalty club that’s reserved for the most loyal/frequent passengers and limited to 99 people? Richard is the 100th member apparently. Word is this still isn’t the finished loyalty product and some more revamping may happen. Over time I expect more levels will be added and goal posts will be moved…

This has come from a TA who was given the info. The website is currently undergoing maintenance - I assume to be updated with all the details. I rebooked a 2025 cruise over the weekend and spotted Deep Blue Extras with promo bar tab was on my booking. I had assumed it was an error, but it appears they added it before the official announcement. Headlines are you join the club after first sailing, you start receiving perks (Blue Extras) on your third sailing and then the highest level of perks (Deep Blue Extras) on your fifth sailing. Existing Sea Blazers/Sea Rovers will still receive Deep Blue if you sail in 2024/25. Status match also resumes from today. Sailors who join via matching will get Blue Extras on their first sailing. Blue Extras perks per qualifying sailor on their third lifetime voyage: ● Dedicated Sailing Club Sailor Services support ● Cocktail Event ● Laundry Service (1 bag of laundry) ● Speciality Coffee (one per day, not monetary credit) Deep Blue Extras perks per qualifying sailor on their fifth lifetime voyage: ● $100 promotional Bar Tab ● Unlimited Premium Wifi (where available) ● Priority Boarding: a dedicated embarkation queue ● Dedicated Sailing Club Sailor Services support ● Cocktail Event ● Laundry Service (2 pressed items, 1 specialty cleaned item, 1 bag of laundry) ● Speciality Coffee (2 per day, not monetary credit)

Yes, this would be the second rebooking. The T&Cs say only one date change/cancel and rebook is allowed with a MNNV. But my TA is investigating 🤞🏼

And so we see now the free bar tab promo is over and prices have indeed fallen, my suspicions/assumptions were correct and not so “big” after all… 😜

My 2025 sailing is now $1200 cheaper than it was 2 weeks ago. It had already dropped $700 which I cancelled and rebooked - and now the free bar tab promo has ended another $500 has been knocked off. I don’t drink so I’d rather have the saving, but not sure I can get the extra reduction as I have a MNNV. Great price now for a transatlantic though.

I wouldn't say it's a "big" assumption. Assumption, yes. But a "big" one? Given that this is the pricing strategy many other cruise lines adopt, it's not too much of a stretch to suspect it may also be the case in this instance. Either way, we'll see next week...

I booked 2 VV cruises in January - one sailing in August and one for May 2025. The prices had been steadily rising, with the sailing next year going up by almost $1000. This past week however, the prices on both have fallen lower than what I originally paid - August’s sailing by $200 and May 25 by $700. Called my amazing TA who repriced and my add-ons including sailor loot from my MNNV transferred over. And I saved almost $1000 too 😃

I suspect you’re right - and that prices will go down relative to how much the free bar tab is worth, ie if a sailing had $300 free bar tab before 27 Mar, after 27 Mar the sailing will be $300 cheaper… 🧐

I was lucky and won the spa raffle, so I didn't have to pay for my treatment (nor did I want to pay over-inflated prices for anything extra). I spent $100 on the arcade and stuff in the shop, so was left with $150 still to spend on the last day that I kept being refused. Ended up buying 2 of the most expensive bingo packages just to not forfeit it...

What has other's people's experience been using their shareholder benefit obc? On my last cruise I had $250 and found I was refused the use of it on a number of occasions. The terms on the shareholder benefit website only say it "may not be used toward onboard service charges or pre-purchased activities" - so I understood this to mean I would be able to use my credit for anything else I wished. But no. First I was told I couldn't use it in the casino. Two days before the end of the cruise I purchased a future cruise deposit and then a day later, when it hadn't been deducted from my credit, was told by guest services I couldn't use it for that either. It seemed ironic that I couldn't use the benefit given for investing in NCL, to continue my loyalty with the company and place a deposit on a future sailing... As it was by then the last full day of the cruise, I was told it was too late for me to use the credit by cancelling and re-booking an excursion I had pre-booked for disembarkation day. This meant I was left with a reasonably large amount of credit I had to use, or it would be forfeited. As I had already had a drinks and meal package, free internet, been to the spa, used the arcade, bought a souvenir in the shop and spent other sums, there was nothing else I needed - or wanted - to purchase. To avoid totally losing the credit we ended up playing bingo for the sake of it - which seemed contradictory to not being allowed to use it in the casino as it was still gambling, and winnings were paid out by the casino... Guest services told me the reason I couldn't use my credit any way I wished was because I had been given "non-refundable" onboard credit. I showed them the terms on the shareholder benefit site, but they just shrugged and said they didn't know anything about it.... It was generally a frustrating experience. I emailed investor relations when I came back to query it and they never responded, even after a follow-up email. Has anyone else come unstuck using their benefit?

Good grief, where to begin….? Firstly, I was on the transatlantic this was filmed on in April. I’m so tired of hearing people banging on about how JLo “inconvenienced 4000” people. I’ve posted at length already on the relevant thread about what actually happened and why, so won’t repeat it all - but the reality is sailors on the previous cruise were required to disembark an hour earlier than usual - ie by 9am instead of 10am - and boarding for the transatlantic began at 3pm instead of 2pm. The sense of entitlement that this hour change massively inconvenienced people at the start of their 15-night cruise is staggering. Two weeks’ notice was ample. The “mess” people complained of at the port was because people ignored the advisory to not arrive before 3pm, and just turned up anyway whenever they wanted - causing huge numbers of people everywhere to deal with. Not Virgin or JLo’s fault at all. Some negative experiences mentioned on CC were related to specific needs and not representative of the general experience. So onto the commercial and the AI tool. Given they only had 12hrs to film everything in all the various locations, with filming set ups and hair/make-up/costume changes - at least 7 I could see - I wouldn’t expect anything more than what was delivered and impressed they managed what they did. My name isn’t in the database - but then it’s never on mugs or keychains or other souvenirs. Others in my situation have likely accepted it by now and this instance isn’t going to spark any rage that will turn them off the brand. Yes it’s a gimmick - they’re jumping on a popular trend that young people enjoy - but if you think it’s off-brand and not aimed at the right people, you probably don’t understand the brand or target market - and you’re probably not the target market either. In terms of trying to be different and unique… well, no other cruise line is doing it… People who complain Virgin should be spending money on fixing tech rather than marketing campaigns… there isn’t only one pot of money across the whole company. It’s split across multiple departments and marketing can do as they wish with theirs - as can tech dev. They likely won’t have a clue what the other is doing. And for all you know, the latter is working on fixing on tech. I think a lot of comments about JLo are clearly clouded by personal opinion - but her role with Virgin is akin to celebrity godmothers on other lines. They serve no real purpose other than a photo and marketing opportunity - but at least JLo has more skin in the game.

You mean you expressed an opinion and didn’t expect anyone to oppose it?! 😜 Sometimes you don’t even have to express an opinion here - merely just sharing your experience will lead people to accuse you of lying or try to gaslight you… We had money stolen from our cabin on a Celebrity Cruise a while back and when I shared the experience on here I was staggered at the number of people who just wouldn’t believe it happened. One person even went so far as to suggest my husband had a secret gambling habit and he was the one who had taken money…! (Spoiler: the cabin attendant stole it)

My husband got one, but I didn’t. We happened to be on the Valiant TA at the time and we booked a future cruise on board. We didn’t even need the code as we were recognised as Sea Blazers and they just applied the discount.

Was chatting to a knowledgeable staff member on the recent Valiant TA about the new loyalty programme - and what it may look like - given Deep Blue Extras has been extended until the end of the year. They said Virgin is still collating data over a longer period of time to discover what the most-used benefits from DBE are, to decide which benefits should stay and which they can lose if they’re not found to be of as much value by Sailors. For example, “shake for champagne” was changed to the $100 bar tab as a direct result of feedback. They didn’t think the onboard benefits would be any worse than what’s currently offered, but they weren’t sure how it would be decided who would qualify for it going forward. With regards to the “tokens” earned from money spent on cruise fares and onboard spend, they suggested these would be used for a loyalty system unlike any other in the cruise industry. Rather than the tokens translating into a tier system like other cruise lines - eg, Tier 1 is 0-4999 tokens, Tier 2 is 5000-19999 tokens, Tier 3 is 20000-49999 etc - these will instead be used more like airmiles, where they can be exchanged for goods/services. For example, exchanging your tokens for differing amounts of Sailor Loot or Bar Tab, depending on how many you have - or even money off your next sailing, up to a free sailing. For my money, it would make sense to fold this token system into Virgin’s current points system earned and used across its other brands: Virgin Atlantic, its credit card and Virgin Red. It would be savvy marketing to have one big pot of points that you could use to pay for both your cruise and the flight to/from port. Or exchange the points earned from buying a cruise on a Virgin credit card for some free Sailor Loot or Bar Tab. My first cruise on Virgin in 2021 was paid for using Virgin points, so it’s not a stretch to think it could be a long-term plan… Will have to wait and see if this is what happens 😉

I think some of the comments about this situation are a little unfair, not to mention untrue and speculative, adding flames to the fire. Just because someone may have a masters in film production and works “in the field”, doesn’t mean they’re an expert about this. Sure, they may have some knowledge as to what they’ve experienced in their job - but with regards to this specific situation, unless they were working that day or hired by Virgin or the production company, they have no idea as to what was or wasn’t needed - nor what was in contracts, or what was “demanded”. Yes, Jennifer Lopez was on board and there was a whole day of filming which started at 7am. I saw her around 6pm while filming in a cabin on deck 15 and she didn’t get off the ship until around 7:45pm - I watched her leave and get into her car from my balcony. It’s nonsense to speculate “the only reason that [sailors] couldn't have been in other areas of the ship was the star put it in her contract”. It’s a Herculean effort to try and film a commercial in less than 12hrs - let alone one on a massive ship with a lot of ground to cover to highlight it all. Factor in wardrobe/make-up changes for each location and you can see how time gets eaten away. There were multiple crews simultaneously setting up and filming in different areas on board. This is the most efficient way of doing things, so the “talent” can just arrive and film what they need to with no delay. As this poses a safety risk with equipment, rigging, cables etc, those areas would need to be closed off to the public. Having an empty ship (or as close to empty) to film on for as long as possible is the ideal scenario, so everyone can move about easily and you can get great shots of the ship without having random people in shot - and not least to avoid having people hanging around gawking. Side note - the ship wasn’t completely cleared as suggested. The ship’s crew were still on board, as were B2B passengers who were initially led off in the morning for immigration and then led back on shortly after. Of course Virgin was going to keep filming under wraps and not broadcast JLo’s attendance on board. That would have caused extra chaos and may have encouraged fans and media to turn up to the port in the hope they could catch her - adding more people and crews outside the terminal and cause unnecessary congestion. As for Virgin “putting their marketing before the passenger experience” - when else would you expect them to be able to film a commercial on a ship in service, other than turnaround day? And then be able to co-ordinate it with JLo’s availability too? So disembarkation of the previous cruise had to end an hour earlier than normal - and boarding of our sailing started 2hrs later… and people are quibbling that was a huge inconvenience…?! A 2hr postponement to boarding, which we were informed about prior, for a 15-night cruise… that’s hardly delaying a sailing “for thousands of others, leaving them standing outside, and depriving them the first few hours of their long awaited for vacation”. I’m not sure how much you can conflate the filming with specific passenger issues/needs experienced during the boarding process. Clearly a lot of passengers turned up at the port earlier than the advised 3pm, adding to the weight of people and slowing things down. I had priority boarding too and personally, arrived at 2:30pm. I saw previous comments that traffic had been bad, so I allowed for an hour from my hotel and it took half as long. The number of people already there suggested they had arrived much earlier. I waited a little under 25mins in line and was on board by 3pm. It was certainly no worse than waits and lines I’ve experienced on Royal Caribbean, Princess or NCL. The only actual “disruption” I experienced from the filming was that my muster station was moved from The Manor as they were filming in there. Otherwise, the filming crew and production team setting up/milling around the ship didn’t bother me. All things considered, there was pretty minimal disruption to passengers. Hardly an “inconvenience” at all on a 15-night cruise. Extra side note - the filming was originally supposed to happen on embarkation day of the JLo cruise, but the ship was delayed getting back to port on turnaround day so the shoot was abandoned as there wasn’t enough time. My sources of information for the above is from multiple Virgin staff directly involved with, and responsible for, making the promo, B2B passengers who shared the experience of their turnaround day and what I personally saw and experienced. No rumour, no speculation - just the facts to better inform people of what actually happened.