Jestocost61

We just got off the same cruise and heard many different and conflicting versions of the issues related to the bulk of the Australian passengers. Most (as many as 1,200 - 1,300) were booked by one or two Australian travel marketing agents who purchased packages from Virgin. One version of the story is that those agencies sold it to their regular clients without disclosing that it was three cruises and/or without regard for the fact that the experience would be different than what those clients were used to. The other version--from an employee of one of the travel bookers we met in Airlie Bech--was that the Australian passengers knew (or should have known) that it was three cruises and that Virgin told the agencies in advance that the experience would be different than the usual Virgin cruise experience. It was our first Virgin cruise so I can't speak directly to how the vibe was off but friends who had cruised remarked on the fact that the pool deck was notably quieter and devoid of more contemporary music. It also seemed to me that at least one of the bands on board was actively learning (and later playing) classic rock songs that weren't part of the repertoire they brought on board. Other random facts include that crew told us liquor sales were as much as 25% of what they would normally sell (although they apparently were out of Dom before the Singapore cruise departed; at least we never were able to find any and they replaced it in the chicken and bubbles tasting).