Reply To: Virgin Voyages Master Thread (do NOT post referral codes – use other thread)

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Oliver14 wrote:

Just returned from the Incredible Med cruise on Valiant Lady. Overall my review is very mixed, and personally I wouldn’t rush back to book another VV cruise.
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Paying cash for our cruises and cabin type would have been $5-6k for two people, which honestly I wouldn’t dream of paying, on reflection. Getting it on Virgin Points made it a worthwhile experience, but for this sort of money, far better holiday/hotel options are available, in more exciting destinations.

I have to agree with you on most of your points. While we enjoyed our 2 weeks on Resilient, the thought of spending upwards of £8k plus flights and spending money on an equivalent 2 weeks in the future is a complete non-starter.

Very similar feelings about the XL – given we got bid upgraded for £250 to one of the bum rooms with a 3/4 non-glass terrace I wouldn’t necessarily spend any more money on the XL. The bigger bathroom was OK but ultimately still didn’t offer that much extra functionality, outside of 2 people wanting to have a bit more privacy while using the shower and toilet at the same time.

You’ve just reminded me about the DIABOLICALLY BAD comms at various points on the cruise, highlights included:

– Had DBE, no useful info about early boarding, had to find out about it on forums
– At the end of our first week with a change of cabin, we were told our cabin steward would be in touch around all the arrangements for moving rooms. Didn’t hear a single thing and just left our bags in the room and hoped for the best
– Process at Sip for registering for the 2nd week wasn’t outlined at all. We spent a few mins looking like plums trying to work out what it was, including being asked to step away from a cordon where people were being let in to register their wristbands, and then trying to go in the exit, because we had no idea what the process was. Eventually we spoke to someone who said someone would be with us in a minute and to find a seat somewhere. Eventually someone holding a clipboard who we’d already walked past about 5 times ticked our names off on a sheet of paper and walked off, which apparently was the correct start to the process.
– At the end of the cruise we didn’t get the information about disembark and bags until we got back to the room after 11pm having headed out quite late (maybe 3 or 4?) and gone straight to dinner, which stated bags should be left outside rooms before 10pm! We just walked off the ship with them which was no real hardship but was just another example of the sort of thing that was going on
– When we got off the ship the process for the transfer bus wasn’t very well handled either. We said we were on the 9am and the lady said to sit down in a section which we did. No one actually called us where we were sat and it was up to us to work out/guess which people had just wandered out to the buses that could have been on the 9am. Once we were on the bus, they had to manually take names after we’d all got on, to work out who was on there and who was missing. Some people weren’t on the list and others on the list were missing, but we just took off. I can only assume the coaches were lightly loaded so it didn’t matter, but it was a lasting memory of how chaotic and disorganised some parts of the cruise were, which could be tightened up really easily with some process in place.

I hate to focus on the negatives, but there’s enough fluff around from various travel pros, bloggers, influencers, etc.. to go on about the positives!

On the upside the staff were almost universally a real treat and super friendly, although it felt like the happenings cast in the first week who offboarded in the 2nd week were a more seasoned bunch than their replacements.