Resilient Lady Cancelled Australian Season

[robertsammons]

Resilient Lady’s upcoming Australia Season has been cancelled with the ship heading to San Juan. For full info on affected itineraries:  https://vvinsider.com/virgin-voyages-cancels-australian-2024-2025-summer-sailings

[wintrev]

Thank you for the article. Virgin have lost my business. Will NEVER book a cruise with them again. Can’t believe how many Aussies will be annoyed about this. Has been an absolute joke how they have handled this.

 

 

[arealcheapskate]

Ahoy First Mate, I just wanted to reach out and thank you for making our inaugural season in Australia such a huge success. In no uncertain terms, the warm welcome we received from Aussies was because of how deeply you championed us. This made for an incredibly brilliant season — with rave reviews and record bookings. And the love is very much mutual. With the safety of our Sailors and Crew remaining our #1 priority, and on the heels of our recent changes to Resilient Lady’s Spring ‘24 repositioning voyages, we’ve conducted a full safety and security review of future repositioning voyages through the Red Sea with a range of experts. Given the circumstances, unfortunately, she will instead be sailing in her temporary home of the Caribbean starting next October. We love Australia and have every intention of traveling back in the future when we can safely do so. While we’re sad to have had to make this choice for now, we are very much looking forward to getting back there as soon as possible. But in the best interest of your Sailors, we’re making these adjustments now in order to avoid disruptions in the future — giving them more time to think through alternatives. Thank you again for making our first season so unbelievably outstanding — we’re deeply grateful for that and your continued love and partnership. In the meantime, we want to make sure we can still get your Sailors who loved us in Australia escaping the winter and sailing the gorgeous waters of the Mediterranean aboard that very same award-winning ship that made such a splash. It’s safe to say the experiences at sea are even better when Aussies are on board. Gratefully,

Nirmal Saverimuttu CEO, Virgin Voyages

[wintrev]

Dear CEO

 

What a joke!!!!

 

Are you going to pay for me to fly halfway around the world just to use your product????

 

Why did you keep selling cruises when you knew this was going to be the end result???

 

 

[arealcheapskate]

1 minute ago, wintrev said:

Dear CEO

 

What a joke!!!!

 

Are you going to pay for me to fly halfway around the world just to use your product????

 

Why did you keep selling cruises when you knew this was going to be the end result???

 

 

 

The best part of this email is the link: 

 

www.virginvoyages.com?utm_source=cordial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fm_projecthope

 

LOL "Project Hope" is the name of the marketing / email campaign. 

[jon81uk]

21 minutes ago, wintrev said:

Dear CEO

 

What a joke!!!!

 

Are you going to pay for me to fly halfway around the world just to use your product????

 

Why did you keep selling cruises when you knew this was going to be the end result???

 

 

They took October to January 24-25 off sale a few weeks ago when it was certain that the Red Sea issues were causing problems. 

[CountessCookie]

This is quite disappointing news. I'm just glad for the members of this forum keeping us updated with what is going on. Otherwise I would not have had a clue what has been happening. I was able to book a similar itinerary with a different cruise line while it was on sale, but probably wouldn't have been able to if I left it untill they officially tell us.

[Luvsbooks]

It's a shame as I really enjoyed our cruise on Resilient Lady in January and wanted to go on more cruises in Feb 2025 with them too. I am glad I got a refund on the MNVV that I purchased when onboard though. There just seemed to be too much uncertainty around whether VV would return to Australia, so we felt it best to get a refund once home & during the cooling off period. I do hope they come back downunder one day.

[3rdCoastFan]

Can't say I'm thrilled about the rebooking options. From the TA we used to originally book a Feb 2024 Caribbean cruise that we turned into a March 2025 AZ/NZ cruise: 

Sailor Offer 1: Rebook On Any Voyage We Offer — At Their Current Pricing Rebook on any available voyage of their choice, and we will protect their original voyage fare as long as it's in the same cabin category. Plus, we'll still honor any previous promotions they had when they first booked, including their Bar Tab.

Sailor Offer 2 — Refund: 100% of Your Voyage Fare Back to Your Sailors Should they decide not to rebook at this time, they have the option to request a full refund of the total amount paid, or we will automatically process their refund starting either 11 March, 2024 (for UK/EEA Sailors only) or 27 March, 2024 (for Sailors residing outside of the UK/EEA). • 100% Refund of the amount paid to the original form of payment

 

[Jamesv281117]

Australia was always going to be dead to them I think unfortunately as soon as the red sea issues started

[wintrev]

On phone with Sailor Services here in Australia and the girl has come back and told me that she has to speak to her manager to cancel my cruise - obviously they have been caught out!!!

[Clintwits]

Th

48 minutes ago, 3rdCoastFan said:

Can't say I'm thrilled about the rebooking options. From the TA we used to originally book a Feb 2024 Caribbean cruise that we turned into a March 2025 AZ/NZ cruise: 

Sailor Offer 1: Rebook On Any Voyage We Offer — At Their Current Pricing Rebook on any available voyage of their choice, and we will protect their original voyage fare as long as it's in the same cabin category. Plus, we'll still honor any previous promotions they had when they first booked, including their Bar Tab.

Sailor Offer 2 — Refund: 100% of Your Voyage Fare Back to Your Sailors Should they decide not to rebook at this time, they have the option to request a full refund of the total amount paid, or we will automatically process their refund starting either 11 March, 2024 (for UK/EEA Sailors only) or 27 March, 2024 (for Sailors residing outside of the UK/EEA). • 100% Refund of the amount paid to the original form of payment

 

The rebook option I got was even more restrictive than that... to rebook it has to be same cabin AND same duration or less to retain the deal... or get the refund.

Currently have a 6 day cruise booked here in Aus, wasnt likely to anyway but if I'm going to fly half way round the world even more unlikely would do that for 6 days or less... so seems refund it is 😞

Really does feel like they are hoping to push people towards just doing full refunds for anyone in Aus/NZ and wipe their hands of it, then start from scratch if/when they ever do decide to return

[CruisingWalter]

2 hours ago, wintrev said:

Thank you for the article. Virgin have lost my business. Will NEVER book a cruise with them again. Can’t believe how many Aussies will be annoyed about this. Has been an absolute joke how they have handled this.

 

 

 

Honest question for those of you who sailed in Australia.  How full were the ships?  From the little information I was able to glean, it didn't sound like the sailings in Australia were sailing full.  Just curious for those who actually sailed the ships in Australia, were the ships sold our or sailing light? 

[arealcheapskate]

4 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Honest question for those of you who sailed in Australia.  How full were the ships?  From the little information I was able to glean, it didn't sound like the sailings in Australia were sailing full.  Just curious for those who actually sailed the ships in Australia, were the ships sold our or sailing light? 

 

They were relatively packed - but due to heavy discounting 50 percent off fares (for example around $600USD for 5 nights total not PP for a Sea Terrace XL). Depending on the sailing but some sailings had lots of suite availability even the day of departure for upgrades. We upgraded to a massive suite on the spot for $1000usd for 5 nights. In the states the suites book out a year in advance sometimes as you know. 

 

The itineraries were garbage though. Tassie and back with 2 nights in a port. The only nice ones were the NZ ones. 

Edited February 26 by arealcheapskate

[Colin 2905]

18 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Honest question for those of you who sailed in Australia.  How full were the ships?  From the little information I was able to glean, it didn't sound like the sailings in Australia were sailing full.  Just curious for those who actually sailed the ships in Australia, were the ships sold our or sailing light? 

 

For the cruise we did (our first cruise, ever) from Feb 1 - 7, Melbourne - Sydney - Hobart - Melbourne, the figure I heard was 2300 passengers (or "sailors", if you prefer) and 1300 crew.

 

(Of the cruises available to book with Velocity points, as we did, this was the longest one.)

 

[wynkys]

1 hour ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Honest question for those of you who sailed in Australia.  How full were the ships?  From the little information I was able to glean, it didn't sound like the sailings in Australia were sailing full.  Just curious for those who actually sailed the ships in Australia, were the ships sold our or sailing light? 

I was on the second sailing out of Melbourne and as soon as I boarded and saw the scarcity of passengers, I thought to myself and commented on that other site that I would be surprised if VV returned for a second season. They got their initial marketing wrong for the local market and have been struggling to recover since then. 

I do wonder how many of their sailors paid the full sticker price?

 

[CruisingWalter]

 

1 hour ago, wynkys said:

They got their initial marketing wrong for the local market and have been struggling to recover since then. 

I do wonder how many of their sailors paid the full sticker price?

That's been true of the entire brand from the get-go. Marketing was woefully off point from the get-go and every time they seem to be back on track, they shoot themselves in the foot with cancelled sailings and cancelled ships. 

 

I appreciate all the feedback from those of you who sailed in Australia.  It sounds like the season was marginally successful. 

[CineGraphic]

19 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

I appreciate all the feedback from those of you who sailed in Australia.  It sounds like the season was marginally successful. 

 

Let's face it. If they had done well in Australia, they would find a way to go back, but now in San Juan they can sell cabins for $3K instead of $600. They can't give the product away anymore.

[Suzi66]

9 hours ago, wynkys said:

I was on the second sailing out of Melbourne and as soon as I boarded and saw the scarcity of passengers, I thought to myself and commented on that other site that I would be surprised if VV returned for a second season. They got their initial marketing wrong for the local market and have been struggling to recover since then. 

I do wonder how many of their sailors paid the full sticker price?

 

I was on the second sailing out of Melbourne as well, and was surprised with how few passengers, but put it down to it being just before Christmas and such a short cruise.  We did it just to try Virgin and were so happy we then booked more for next season as we had 3 booked with Celebrity already for this season.

We were quite late booking as we didn't even realise they were coming to Australia until about a month beforehand and I wonder how many cruisers were the same.  Already had this seasons plans in place, and didn't know about Virgin coming until just before they got here, but were definitely planning on sailing on them next season.
I've been waxing lyrical about the food, just as someone as allergies and having GF and many other things covered easily where ever we ate, and suggesting that people try Virgin in future.  Well, that won't be happening next season.

[leck57]

11 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Honest question for those of you who sailed in Australia.  How full were the ships?  From the little information I was able to glean, it didn't sound like the sailings in Australia were sailing full.  Just curious for those who actually sailed the ships in Australia, were the ships sold our or sailing light? 

 

There were 2-3 full page adverts in the papers here around Xmas offering deals for Feb/March cruises. To spend that much money on advertising so close to the cruise indicates sales were not good.

Using the Red Sea problems as an excuse is just rubbish. As said above they would find a way if the area was profitable. The marketing was off the mark from the outset. 

[CruisingWalter]

9 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

 

Let's face it. If they had done well in Australia, they would find a way to go back, but now in San Juan they can sell cabins for $3K instead of $600. They can't give the product away anymore.

 

Well they were following the same model they did here in Miami. Give away cabins cheap, get people interested in the brand and then raise the pricing once they're hooked. But it sounds like that model didn't work. With only three ships, they need to send them to the most profitable locations. There's a reason why every cruise line has 4 or 5 ships in the Caribbean every winter. 

[CruisingWalter]

1 hour ago, leck57 said:

Using the Red Sea problems as an excuse is just rubbish. As said above they would find a way if the area was profitable. The marketing was off the mark from the outset.

 

With only 3 ships sailing, they need to send them to the most profitable markets. If Australia had been a spectacular success with the sailings, they would have been coming back. The itineraries didn't look great and as a few of you have said, their marketing was off point, which seems to be a pattern for them. Not sure who their marketing team is, but they rarely get it right. 

[windsor08]

I had to look. Could I find a substitute for my 6 night Fremantle to Melbourne cruise on Resilient Lady? A long way to fly, and very few 6 night itineraries. One out of  Portsmouth had possibilities, but there were no suites in my category available.

The email from VV talks of new Itinerary releases for the entire fleet very soon. Presumably this will happen before 27 March, when the will automatic refund occurs,  and maybe the new itineraries will have a touch of the Brilliant.

[The_Big_M]

16 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Honest question for those of you who sailed in Australia.  How full were the ships?  From the little information I was able to glean, it didn't sound like the sailings in Australia were sailing full.  Just curious for those who actually sailed the ships in Australia, were the ships sold our or sailing light? 

 

For the one I sailed a week ago, was completely full, and sold out a few weeks before sailing.

 

That said, mine was out of Sydney, which is the main hub for cruising, so those cruises were more popular. VV based most cruises out of Vic (and got government incentives to support that), but the trade-off was lower demand there.

 

Edited February 27 by The_Big_M

[wintrev]

7 hours ago, windsor08 said:

I had to look. Could I find a substitute for my 6 night Fremantle to Melbourne cruise on Resilient Lady? A long way to fly, and very few 6 night itineraries. One out of  Portsmouth had possibilities, but there were no suites in my category available.

The email from VV talks of new Itinerary releases for the entire fleet very soon. Presumably this will happen before 27 March, when the will automatic refund occurs,  and maybe the new itineraries will have a touch of the Brilliant.

If you want a refund you need to contact them.

i got two emails today - one saying that as I cancelled my cruise and it was after the 7 day window I would not be getting a refund - idiots!!!! !!

The second email was to say my refund had been processed (I rang them to cancel yesterday on receipt of the email from them confirming that THEY were cancelling the cruise) and would take between 7-10 business days.

Seems to me that Virgin are totally useless in all departments - NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!