Entire Cruise Season Cancelled Due To Ongoing Red Sea Concerns

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Virgin Voyages has announced that it has cancelled the entire Australia and Asia Pacific cruise season for ship Resilient Lady in 2024/25 due to the ongoing tensions in the Red Sea.

Resilient Lady Cruise Ship

While several cruise lines have cancelled individual sailings or a small handful of cruise options, Virgin Voyages is the first to cancel an entire cruise season.

Now, once Resilient Lady completes her summer Mediterranean season, she will instead cross the Atlantic and cruise the Caribbean for the 2024/25 winter period.

The cruise line is still considering a return to the Australia and Asia Pacific region in future, once the repositioning sailings to reach that part of the world are safer.

Based on the regional and government advice we have received, we remain very concerned about potential escalations in the Red Sea over the next 12 months.

This significant and ongoing conflict puts unacceptable risks for safe passage through the region for our Sailors, crew and vessel. As a result, we have been left with no choice but to cancel our 2024/25 voyage season plans for Resilient Lady, impacting the late 2024 and early 2025 repositioning voyages between Europe and Australia  and a second sailing season in Australian waters.

Virgin Voyages statement

The cruise ship is currently in Australia and will depart on 27th March, making a journey to the Mediterranean via the revised route around the western coast of Africa.

Itineraries for the new Caribbean season haven’t yet been confirmed but will depart from San Juan in Puerto Rico, and it’s expected that sailings of between 7 and 11 nights will be made available.

Any guests who were booked onto the original winter 2024/25 cruises on the ship will be given the chance to transfer their booking to a new one, or receive a full refund. Details will be sent to guests or their travel agents.

These guests will also be given priority for bookings on future cruises around Australia and Asia Pacific once they become available again.

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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.

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2 thoughts on “Entire Cruise Season Cancelled Due To Ongoing Red Sea Concerns”

  1. | Reply

    TBH, Virgin’s Southern Hemisphere season has been a disaster – they misjudged the demand v itineraries leading to wholesale cancellations of trip, especially longer ones

    They also priced themselves at the top end of a market that traditionally looks for Princess-style value

    I did the Athens to Sydney cruise that brought Resilient Lady down to the region, and while I mostly loved it, I could see that the Australian cruisers weren’t really on board with the Virgin approach

    Virgin works out to be really pretty expensive even though all the inclusions are great. Some if them, like the Test Kitchen, are one-hit-wonders though

    I believe Virgin are “using” the Red Sea problem as an excuse rather than admit that their Far South venture has been a failure

  2. | Reply

    Hi Jenni
    Just. Read your comments regarding Virgin cancelling all voyages crossing the Red Sea for the full season.
    Have you heard anything about the Cunard Queen Ann sailing the red see on its maiden voyage next January.
    Regards/ Richard.
    .

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