How can a prospective first-time "sailor" on a VirginVoyages cruise feel confident about making a booking, when getting to a reservationist/customer service/online chat is almost nil. Then nightmarish reviews on CC about "Sailors" not getting the cabins they originally booked. Here's our story . . . we are looking to book 2 cabins (side by side) in the Caribbean on the 8-night Valiant Lady in January 2023; we're family traveling together and want to be close together on the ship. It appears that “sailors” can only book; pay a deposit for one cabin at a time (unlike other cruise companies). We wanted a “Sweet Aft Suite-Pretty Big Terrace” and a “Cheeky Corner Suite-Pretty Big Terrace.” I spent a lot of time on the VirginVoyages website; knew exactly the areas we wanted; what privileges were offered for each specific cabin class; what was and was not covered in our cruise fare. But could not successfully book the 2 cabins side by side. So I thought . . . telephone customer care (954-488-2955). This took place this past Mon, Mar 14 at 2p (Eastern Time). While holding for Customer Care I thought . . . . I’ll use the online Chat mechanism at the same time to see who I reach first. I was number 28 in line for Chat; I eventually made it to 23, then unresponsive. Not a problem as I was doing other work. Meanwhile I was in a holding pattern on the telephone (where is doesn’t say how long the wait is) for 39 minutes when I was totally disconnected. No human voice, just totally cut-off. I phoned back and held the line for 20 minutes and decided . . . to take up the offer that the hold voice mentioned “or, you may leave a message and we’ll hold your place in the que and phone you when it’s your turn.” I received a return phone call at 9:30p from Elder (in Guatemala – what???). He had a beautiful British vocabulary. Although it took about an hour 20minutes for Elder to locate 2 cabins side by side, he did a super job. I asked for the $200 JLo discount; no problem it was reflected in the total fare quoted. Since I had just received a “$0 down, $0 APR; Live in the Now, Pay in the Later” promotion I asked about that. In order to qualify Elder would need to run a credit check (what, you’re kidding!!! No Way !!! You’re not getting my treasured personal information). So I passed on the $Down$0APR. I asked if it were possible to hold the cabins for 24 hours so I could get approval to spend the other family members’ money. Elder said he’d give us until Fri, Mar 18 at 12nn to confirm; gave us the booking numbers for each cabin and it would take 1 hour for the booking confirmations to arrive in my email inbox – great! Checked email the next morning, no email. I thought . . . since I have the booking numbers and had already set up an online VirginVoyages account I would check there to see if the booking confirmations appeared there – NOPE. Not in my SPAM folder either. I knew better than to telephone VirginVoyages so I just didn’t expect anything to arrive. Then on Wed, Mar 16 at 1247pm (Eastern) I had 4 emails from VirginVoyages. All 4 emails’ subject line “your booking is officially on hold for 24 hours” Reading further into the body of each email . . . 3 had “booking expires Tues Mar 15” – what??? They sent an email after the expiration date – duh!!! One email did have an expiration date of Fri, Mar 18. Why 4 emails? During the booking process with Elder, he asked what county our passports were issued, and date of birth of the lead “sailor” in each cabin. I told him October on one sailor; Elder input “Aug.” I told him the birth year for the other lead sailor and he was off by 10 years. I am so disgusted with the whole process for booking a cabin and not being able to communicate with anyone in a reasonable amount of time; and yet I’m so grateful that I asked for a 24hour hold. I just cannot bring myself to phoning VirginVoyages to cancel the only one booking on hold due to expire tomorrow. Gosh, if I had paid the deposit (or even the booking in full) and had a question – I thought . . . this is a sign and it’s time to say goodbye VirginVoyages. There’s too many great cruise companies out there that would welcome us as a passenger. Lastly, why would anyone book a cabin address knowing that it can be changed at anytime because VirginVoyages states on their website . . . “Like a hotel, we auto-assign you the best cabin available in your category.
