Effects of Red Sea troubles

[Jamesv281117]

1 minute ago, Splatt2010 said:

Wow that was easy. Perhaps shore side Sailor Services are improving. A quick online chat to swap voyage (I’m one of those twice cancelled sailors) and within hour have email confirmation,  voyage showing in my account and all previous loot/tab transferred over. Not bad going VV. 

They're not bad on chat, out of interest what voyage have you moved to?

[CruisingWalter]

4 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Walter, will private travel insurance cover this or will it be deemed an "act of war" which is sometimes exempt from policies?

 

That depends on the travel insurance policy and when the policy was purchased. For example Allianz Travel recognized the Israel-Hamas Armed Conflict as of October 7, 2023. Polices that became effective after that date do not cover any changes due to that conflict. At the moment, there is nothing on their website regarding the Red Sea tensions so something like this diversion should be covered. But you would have to check with the individual policy and individual insurance carrier to confirm. 

Edited February 9 by CruisingWalter

[wintrev]

2 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

That depends on the travel insurance policy and when the policy was purchased. For example Allianz Travel recognized the Israel-Hamas Armed Conflict as of October 7, 2023. Polices that became effective after that date do not cover any changes due to that conflict. At the moment, there is nothing on their website regarding the Red Sea tensions so something like this diversion should be covered. But you would have to check with the individual policy and individual insurance carrier to confirm. 

Exactly. Yet Virgin has continued to sell the Australian 2024/2025 itineraries knowing that they may not go ahead as per discussions on these boards. Surely under consumer laws this is illegal?

Regardless Virgin is doing itself no favours by treating Australian customers this way.- has left a sour taste in my mouth and will definitely not book ever again with Virgin regardless of their decision.

[TYCruise]

Virgin has paused/stopped selling all itineraries out of Australia. 

7 minutes ago, wintrev said:

Exactly. Yet Virgin has continued to sell the Australian 2024/2025 itineraries knowing that they may not go ahead as per discussions on these boards. Surely under consumer laws this is illegal?

Regardless Virgin is doing itself no favours by treating Australian customers this way.- has left a sour taste in my mouth and will definitely not book ever again with Virgin regardless of their decision.

 

[wintrev]

2 minutes ago, TYCruise said:

Virgin has paused/stopped selling all itineraries out of Australia. 

 

Correct but they were still on sail at the beginning of this week - That is why we are complaining. They would have known this was in the pipeline so sales should have been suspended immediately. We won’t get coverage with travel insurance as it is now an act of war as per CruisingWalter’s comment and that is the problem. I am not going to fork out thousand of dollars in airfares to fly to America/South America to catch a ship to use my cruise credit!

[texanaust]

23 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

It should also be noted that none of those three new itineraries will be offered to the general public. Only those impacted by the changes can rebook on one of those. Some of those ports are not well equipped to handle big ships so a less than sold out ship is apparently preferred. 

 

Is this fact or speculation?  I wouldn't mind booking the Capetown-Barcelona leg if it was made available.  

[DAP2]

I'm in! We've been rebooked and our details are in the app. All Add Ons transferred over.

[jeds]

13 hours ago, texanaust said:

 

Is this fact or speculation?  I wouldn't mind booking the Capetown-Barcelona leg if it was made available.  

I was told by Virgin yesterday when we tried to add the other leg we could not and it would not be made available for purchase.  Only way to add it was to find someone willing to transfer. 

[Jamesv281117]

1 hour ago, DAP2 said:

I'm in! We've been rebooked and our details are in the app. All Add Ons transferred over.

Just requested the same, how long did it take to get confirmation out of interest?

[trippingpara]

15 minutes ago, Jamesv281117 said:

Just requested the same, how long did it take to get confirmation out of interest?

We changed to the same itinerary and received confirmation back about 4 hours later.  I thought that was pretty good compared to the week for our Brilliant Lady cancellation.

[DAP2]

17 minutes ago, Jamesv281117 said:

Just requested the same, how long did it take to get confirmation out of interest?

Called last night about 5PM. It was updated in the app by 2AM. They did change our cabin and floor, so we needed to call this morning to get back on a floor we wanted.

[Jamesv281117]

4 minutes ago, trippingpara said:

We changed to the same itinerary and received confirmation back about 4 hours later.  I thought that was pretty good compared to the week for our Brilliant Lady cancellation.

 

2 minutes ago, DAP2 said:

Called last night about 5PM. It was updated in the app by 2AM. They did change our cabin and floor, so we needed to call this morning to get back on a floor we wanted.

Thanks that's encouraging, been affected by a couple of cancellations in the past with virgin and whilst sorted in the end was a bit of a nightmare getting through to them or with stuff being wrong so fingers crossed all moves over ok. 

[helkatred]

On 2/8/2024 at 3:35 AM, aqlollipop said:

Right there with you @giraffic  Fingers crossed 🤞🤞 they find a way to do it impacting the fewest number of sailings. I'll be optimistic and hope that at worst, they arrive a few days later in Athens and our itinerary is shortened/adjusted accordingly. Not an outcome I would love, but better than an outright cancellation, maybe...

I believe their schedule will be as before with the first cruise from Athens on 9th May (?) - they're doing a very quick leg from Barcelona via Malta to Athens.

[helkatred]

On 2/9/2024 at 8:59 AM, Mark_UK said:

I'm booked on the October one from Athens 🤦‍♂️😫

So are we.  Not too sure how we feel about the African itinerary as we booked because we've never been to India, Sri Lanka etc etc ... there's a few alternatives around that date in October so considering that.  Because - of course - we have flights booked!!

[helkatred]

6 hours ago, Jamesv281117 said:

Just requested the same, how long did it take to get confirmation out of interest?

Have you booked direct with VV or through a travel agency?

[Jamesv281117]

Just now, helkatred said:

Have you booked direct with VV or through a travel agency?

Booked direct, got the change confirmation through a couple of hours ago so also took four hours for mine like others had said. 

[helkatred]

1 minute ago, Jamesv281117 said:

Booked direct, got the change confirmation through a couple of hours ago so also took four hours for mine like others had said. 

Unfortunately we have booked our October Athens-Perth sailing through an agency.  Wish we hadn't but of course it was a terrific deal 🤑

[CruisingWalter]

On 2/9/2024 at 8:24 PM, texanaust said:

 

Is this fact or speculation?  I wouldn't mind booking the Capetown-Barcelona leg if it was made available.  

 

Fact from a VV rep. 

[Chrish2]

Marketing leaflet for the 3rd leg (only) is on first mates site which sort of contradicts what we have heard so far.

[Rambo24]

Everyone has done well to get conformation, we are still waiting, but I'm sure will be the same terms  conditions and room we originally booked  

[Jamesv281117]

3rd leg Barcelona to Athens is on sale now I noticed, nothing particularly special about the pricing I don't think for the 5 night voyage 

[DAP2]

28 minutes ago, Jamesv281117 said:

3rd leg Barcelona to Athens is on sale now I noticed, nothing particularly special about the pricing I don't think for the 5 night voyage 

 

They're definetly working to recoup some costs from the long way around from Africa.

[onechaiguy]

29 minutes ago, Jamesv281117 said:

3rd leg Barcelona to Athens is on sale now I noticed, nothing particularly special about the pricing I don't think for the 5 night voyage 

Makes sense...as impacted individuals would be unlikely to select a standalone 5-night cruise, other than those who are doing the entire journey from Sydney to Athens.

[wlbox]

How rough are the seas after leaving Cape Town and up to Namibia and into Cape Verde Islands in March?  Our cruise rerouted too. I don’t enjoy rough seas. 

[Jamesv281117]

1 minute ago, wlbox said:

How rough are the seas after leaving Cape Town and up to Namibia and into Cape Verde Islands in March?  Our cruise rerouted too. I don’t enjoy rough seas. 

It's hard to know exactly as the Atlantic can be unpredictable but having looked in to this I would say for the crossing from Namibia to Cape Verde the seas will get gradually calmer and temperatures gradually warmer with each day. It could be a bit cool on deck for the first few days I think.