This is mostly just a rant, but after several sailings with Virgin Voyages, it honestly feels like the experience has declined quite a bit recently.
We ran into issue after issue throughout this cruise, and what frustrated us most wasn’t even the problems themselves, but how poorly they were handled.
Some of the problems we dealt with:
Our cabin AC barely worked. Engineering came once, insisted nothing was wrong, and then refused to return even after the deck manager agreed there was clearly an issue. We even offered to stay in the room so we could demonstrate the problem, but were told the engineers “don’t speak directly with sailors” and wouldn’t come back. So we spent the voyage with ineffective air conditioning.
The shower drain was clogged almost the entire trip. We reported it, but nobody ever came to fix it. The shower technically worked if you rushed before the water pooled too much.
Premium WiFi was surprisingly bad. It feels like even the old complimentary WiFi used to perform better than this.
One night our cabin door completely stopped working. Sailor Services came up, tried new wearables, then another crew member implied it was somehow our fault for attempting to unlock the door too many times. The Sailor Services staff member standing there even confirmed we hadn’t done anything unusual. Eventually they rebooted the lock remotely and got it working again, but warned us it could happen again because of a faulty battery they wouldn’t replace until after disembarkation.
Later we discovered we couldn’t charge purchases to our account. Sailor Services initially insisted nothing was wrong until we physically showed them the error message at a bar. Only then did they replace the wearables.
We asked if we could provide feedback to a manager and were told the only option was coming back at 6 AM the next morning. That’s not exactly how most people want to spend vacation time.
Laundry collection was another mess. We left the bag out in the afternoon, returned late at night, and it was still sitting there untouched. Sailor Services claimed it had already been collected and struggled to understand that the bag was physically still outside the cabin.
Balcony lights now apparently shut off automatically at 10 PM. We were told to bring a flashlight from port next time if we wanted to read outside at night, which honestly felt absurd.
We also discovered we were incorrectly charged for complimentary coffee multiple times. Staff acknowledged it was likely a system bug and promised it was corrected, but the charges kept appearing and we eventually stopped bothering to fight it.
Virgin Voyages used to be our favorite cruise line because everything felt modern, smooth, and genuinely customer focused. This trip felt completely different. Every issue turned into finger-pointing between departments, excuses, or staff acting dismissive instead of trying to solve the problem.
We already have another VV sailing booked in a few weeks, but at this point we’ve decided it will probably be our last. We’re considering trying alternatives like MSC Yacht Club or Celebrity instead.
Honestly, I’d rather pay higher prices and keep the level of service VV originally became known for instead of watching them cut corners while the experience declines.
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