Advantages: Great Value Disadvantages: On this occasion booking/ticket admin stressful
...closely at excellent reviews of Virgin Holidays by fellow Ciao members going back to 2000. It is fair to say that some of what follows revisits/mirrors areas, experiences, and issues previously highlighted by others in some cases as long ago as 2000. I hope to complement all this excellent material, and importantly provide something of an update based on our recent experience.
Why did we go for it? After all we had decided that we were not going ... ...carried a ‘bargain’ ad from Virgin Holidays…. the ‘May Sale’ offer of 7 nights at a 3* named hotel in Barbados including Virgin-Atlantic flights from Manchester or Gatwick, all for the princely sum of £399 each. An opportunity too good to miss with family commitments dictating the first week in June as the time to go.
Coping with Virgin Holidays booking, invoicing, ticketing process required on this occasion, patience, fortitude, perseverance, persistence, ...
wanlan 24.07.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Get to see loads in a fairly short time Disadvantages: Tiring, living out of a suitcase some of the time
...not the 2004 one - Virgin honored the price quoted without hesitation. Pre-allocated seats were arranged on the aircraft and we were offered a number of excursions through the Virgin brochure. We decided to book the San Francisco City Tour and Alcatraz visit for the day after our arrival. This proved to be a good move as this tour is normally booked up. We took travel insurance through Thomas Cook (you can normally negotiate a discount on this if ... ...on time and all the Virgin staff are great. Food and drink was good quality but not particularly plentiful. However, if you ask you will get more without any bother. Legroom was OK, we booked right at the back in one of the rows with just 2 seats so we could sit as a couple, the in-flight entertainment was excellent on the way out (new aircraft) and only good on the way back (not so new) – overall the flights were very good. SAN FRANCISCO
Hire Car: ...
aldonald 03.05.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: All inclusive is the best way on a gulet cruise Disadvantages: more niggles than disadvantages
...returned twice. We went with Virgin Sun in October 1999 which was their first year offering gulet cruises.
Gulets are traditional wooden boats with accommodation for up to 16 people. they sail around the exquisite coast of Turkey stopping in idyllic bays and occasionally in larger ports. A gulet holiday is special for several reasons: sailing is is the most relaxing way to travel, dress is very casual - shorts T-shirts, swimwear or nothing, shoes ... ...you about our experience with Virgin covering the flights, and reps and how the holiday compared with the brochure description and previous gulet cruises.
FLIGHTS
The flights both ways in the ‘big yellow banana’ were very good. There were no delays at all which made a refreshing change. I was very impressed with all aspects of the flight and the way Virgin made the flight actually part of the holiday. In fact I would go as far to say ...
Freespirit 23.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
...holiday brochures, we settled on Virgin Sun as they appeared to offer us what we wanted (2 weeks in Mallorca, H/B and less than 1 hour from the airport), at the price we wanted (about £1000 budget), with the facilties we wanted (kids club, near the beach and resort, family oriented hotel).
The holiday started off with an argument - at check in at Manchester Airport, we were told that the changing bag for my baby daughter was not hand luggage and ... ...from the centre of the resort.
The return flight was just as good as the outbound.
All in all - an excellent holiday with an excellent tour operator. So much so, that as soon as we got back we were planning the 2001 jolly with Virgin Sun! ...
sdwatson 12.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: A variety of experiences Disadvantages: You get very tired
...at a reasonable price.
Virgin provided excellent service throughout and their reps were generally helpful, although as always they try to get you to go on their trips. There were a variety of hotel packages available as well as different combinations of resorts. We went for the cheapest. One final piece of advice take plenty to read. American television is just so bad, the most interesting channel was ‘the weather channel’. ...
martinprice 26.06.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
...We had always known that Virgin Holidays had a very good reputation and never really saw any bad reviews about the company. We therefore decided that we would spoil ourselves and have a Virgin holiday and wedding combined. Rather than book through a travel agency, we thought we would book direct with Virgin Holidays. And that is where the trouble began. BOOKING A HOLIDAY THROUGH VIRGIN RESERVATIONS
==============================================
... ...whole occasion. We telephoned Virgin Reservations and booked the holiday.
We requested:-
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A booking for four adults, giving their full names etc; 2 centre self catering holiday; full holiday insurance; car hire; airport hotel
We received a few days later:-
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An invoice from Virgin stating only my husband's name and confirming that the three remaining passengers' names were TBA. They had been given this information ...
matthewsmum 07.11.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Helpful service, free evenings, good standards, nice planes, cool freebies Disadvantages: cramped on flight but better than other airlines
We booked through Virgin on advice from friends who had already flown countless times and were very happy with the delivery of tickets and information. So a breakdown of the holiday:
We were able to check in our luggage the night before departure as we live close to Gatwick. If you are staying in a hotel overnight you can take advantage of the service too… this saved us loads of hassle in the morning and meant we were in the lower seat numbers ... ...We also were given a virgin bag on board the plane which contained loads of goodies including socks, pens, notepads, balm – plus lots of other goodies. Great fun.
On the flight out we had one of the newer planes – the video screens tilt in the headrests so you can always see the screen properly. The stewardesses who were constantly coming round giving you drinks, ice creams, food passed out the headphone. The service was amazingly friendly ...
Lorii 27.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Caring company, brilliant destinations Disadvantages: Use only Virgin Atlantic which is a major disadvantage if flying from Manchester
Being a member of Virgin Holiday Club you may think I am a bit biased when writing this report but this is not the case, I can assure you, ( see my report on Virgin Atlantic Airways) ~~o0o~~
In writing this opinion my remarks DO NOT INCLUDE Virgin Atlantic Airways which are a different part of the Virgin Empire, I am merely talking about Virgin Holidays only..
We book with Virgin Holidays most years to Florida and generally enjoy the whole Virgin ... ...due to our experiences with Virgin Atantic Northern based Operations at Manchester Airport.... ~~o0o~~
Virgin tend to make a point of making sure their clients are better looked after, the airport greeting is usually very well organised and there are reps all over the airport at various strategic points waiting to guide you to the baggage carousel, car hire desks or transportation pick up points for non driving Virgins, it is appreciated that you ...
Dalesman 19.08.2000 (01.08.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Friendly, Not too pushy, Helpful Disadvantages: None
...We decided to go with Virgin because we had heard good things about them. They certainly didn't disappoint. They bettered our expectations by some way. Everything they did for us made us feel special.
We had arranged to fly to San Francisco, stay for a week, drive to Las Vegas where we'd stay for 5 nights and then fly to Hawaii for 10 nights where we would get married 2 days before we flew back.
This was obviously a holiday of a lifetime and one ... ...was the usual top notch Virgin seat TVs.
Our hotel room in San Francisco was upgraded by Virgin as we were on our honeymoon and it was unbelievable. We found ourselves with a roof garden and a large room with kitchen. Much more than we had bargained for. The reps in San Francisco were friendly and helpful without being too pushy. We had to cancel one trip as my wife was ill and they refunded all our money with no fuss at all.
We had sorted the ...
BlueAngel 09.11.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Good hotel and booking Disadvantages: Poor flights
...took our first holiday with Virgin to Florida. The administration and hotel in Sarasota were fine but the flights with Virgin Atlantic were not. Why oh why was it necessary to be at Manchester Airport 3 hours before the flight left(ditto at Orlando)? Surely in these days of telephones and emails it must be possible to reduce this figure to an hour at most. The outgoing flight was 4.5 hours late leaving and the return flight 1.5 hours. The result ...
AJS-llan 29.09.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Good service, perfect on flight entertainment, easy check in Disadvantages: can't think of anything
...were there. Our experience with Virgin Holidays was five star from booking to coming back home.
Booking: I booked the holidays on the internet and it was very easy. Website has a very good layout and easy to use. Resort description was very truthful and staring was appropriate. Virgin does a lot of deals in low season and for the same dates and same resort we saved more than £200 by booking with Virgin instead of BA Holidays. Ah, web exclusive deals ... ...the expectations given by the Virgin Holidays, The rep (Maria) was very sweet and helpful. She was going through the same introduction and explanations every day because of Virgin's daily arrivals but she managed to smile and have a chit chat with everybody as well.
Check in and chill out: This is another great service that Virgin gives. It means, you don't have to queue for luggages, they come to your hotel the same day of your flight in the morning, ...
Agape_ 01.11.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Great holidays, airline and hotels Disadvantages: Terrible telephone sales staff - shame as it's the traveller's first point of contact.
Having travelled with Virgin more than once before, I am aware of their impressive list of Hotels and services offered to customers. I obtained a brochure and started to chose hotels for a holiday in Florida. Thinking it would be cheaper and easier to book direct with them, I made my first call to check availability and to get a quote. The first person I spoke was rude, kept me on hold for what seemed like ages and appeared to not care less whether ... ...of my dates or hotels were available.
I changed the dates and called back, the next person was also rude and told me the hotels were still not available. I looked for alternative hotels and called again. At last! Someone who was polite and prepared to offer discount! I got her name and direct number. Called her back a few days later with credit card in hand; only to meet with a complete attitude change from her and instantly felt like I was being ...
Zahra 15.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: Great accomodation at resonable prices Disadvantages: They dont do direct flights from Scotland
We travelled to barbados with Virgin Holidays back in September 2000 and without doubt, its been the best holiday we have ever had.
We were trawling through about 5 million holiday brochures trying to find the perfect hotel to get married at. We were looking at so many companies but found a hotel that caught our eye in the Virgin brochure and this was a Virgin Flagship hotel only available through Virgin so we had no choice but to go with them as ... ...plan.
The flight with Virgin Atlantic was brilliant ( see seperate review ) and on arrival we were taken to our hotel on a bus that had seen better days to be honest but we just had a laugh about it, you're in Barbados after all !!!
The hotel we stayed in was the Escape Hotel and Spa although the Spa area wasn't built at that time. I loved it, it was right on the beach, the food was amazing and i would highly recommend it. The Virgin rep was a ...
Nicola_G 19.10.2004 (20.10.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: GOOD REPUTATION, SLIGHTLY MORE LEG ROOM THAN CHEAPER AIRLINES Disadvantages: NONE
...we decided to fly with Virgin Atlantic, having flown with First Choice for the previous two trips. If you are staiying in Orlando, one of the advantages of Virgin is that they fly to Orlando Airport as opposed to the cheaper flights landing at Sanford which is approximately an hours drive from Orlando. After a 9 or more hour flight the sooner you reach your final destination the better. We flew from Gatwick and check in went very smoothly, you can ... ...holiday through Jetsave who use Virgin Flights and if we go in the future, we will definitely use them again. We found that Jetsaves prices were favourable to booking direct with Virgin, maybe because we have teenagers who are given a discounted price through Jetsave as they were classed as adults by Virgin Holidays. ...
SBROWN487 10.05.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
Advantages: can use Tesco clubcard deal vouchers Disadvantages: too many!
...to a minivan. The local Virgin Holidays manager promised to pay in full for the upgrade. This didnt happen and now we are back in the UK they are refusing to honour the promise. We're $500+ out of pocket.
In fact they say its our fault for not booking a larger car!! Apparently 5 people should be able to live for 14 days with "3 or 4 small bags". We had 2 large, 1 medium, 1 small suitcases and a holdall. ie not even a suitcase per person.
Their ...
RichieBranson 20.05.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Virgin Holidays
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