It’s an unfortunate fact of life that some companies really don’t care very much about what their customers think. As long as they’re making money, they’ll keep the status quo. That’s especially true when complaints are for relatively minor things.
Happily though, there are some companies that really do listen to their customer base and take what they say into consideration. Virgin Voyages appears to be one of them.
Joe and I mentioned before that, for years, we weren’t really fans of cruising. It’s not as of we hadn’t tried. I mean we had cruised a half dozen or so times in the past 25ish years, on 2 or 3 different brands of ships. But none of them ever really gave us that “spark” that made us feel like cruising was for us.
Then Virgin said they were starting a cruise line that would be like no other. The way they described it actually had us intrigued and interested in going. That was something no other cruise line had ever managed to do.
Finally, our July, 2022 cruise happened, and OMG, y’all….we went in wanting to love Virgin Voyages, and we did! We really did! (here’s why) Of course, there were plenty of things about the cruise that Virgin Voyages never tells you, but you’re going to find that everywhere.
Besides, we got a picture with Richard Branson when we got there!
One of the things that caught our (well, MY) interest from very early on was the promise of a hammock on most balconies. Travel friends, I have wanted a hammock for pretty much my entire life. To have one on the balcony of our cabin? To lie in whenever we want? OMG, it was amazeballs!
PC: Virgin Holidays
Now, the caveat was that MOST cabins with a balcony had a hammock, but not ALL. Because of the configurations of the ship, there were 41 of the forwardmost cabins that had balconies, but no hammocks. Specifically:
DECK 9:
9366 A AND Z
9370 A AND Z
9374 A AND Z
DECK 10:
10354 A AND Z
10358 A AND Z
10362 A AND Z
10366 A AND Z
10370 A AND Z
DECK 11:
11286 Z
11346 A AND Z
11350 A AND Z
11354 A AND Z
11358 A AND Z
11362 A AND Z
11366 A AND Z
11368 A AND Z
DECK 12:
12338 A AND Z
12342 A AND Z
12346 A AND Z
12350 A AND Z
12354 A AND Z
The list apparently hasn’t really made it to the masses. I know this because if you look on various Virgin Voyages message boards around the internet “I’m in Cabin #XXXX. Does my balcony have a hammock?” has become one of THE most-asked questions on the message boards.
Well, guess what?
I guess enough people in those cabins complained about their lack of hammocks because Virgin Voyages apparently has made a fix. They still can’t put hammocks in those cabins (word on the street is hammocks need two suitable mounting points, which, due to facilities/infrastructure/pipework, wasn’t possible on the balconies in question). But they’ve now added these hanging chairs, along with a cushion that you can add to it:
PC: Laura W.
The person who took the pictures, Laura W., just got off the Scarlet Lady; she said the new hanging chairs are very soft and comfy. And even though they’re chained on the bottom, they still have a little “give” to them so you can swing.
So there you go…customers talked, and Virgin Voyages listened. Good on them!
*** Many thanks to Laura W. for sharing her photos with us!
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
