Virgin Voyages cancels 2024/25 Australia season and Dubai cruise on Red Sea concerns

Virgin Voyages has cancelled its 2024/25 Australian cruise season, along with its two scheduled cruises from Dubai on the outward and inward repositioning cruises, due to security concerns in the Red Sea.

Resilient Lady was due to sail in Australian waters for the 2024/25 summer season and would have featured a Dubai to Singapore cruise as part of her repositioning in November, just as she did last year, but those cruises have now been cancelled.

Virgin Voyages signaled earlier this year that it was considering planning future Australian cruise seasons on expectations that the security crisis in the Red Sea will not be resolved in the near-term.

Houthi militia in Yemen have been attacking ships in the Red Sea, which is a busy waterway leading from the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal, for access to the Mediterranean. 

Although no cruise ships have been targeted, cruise lines have begun rerouting ships around South Africa instead, but for some cruise lines such as Virgin Voyages, they would prefer to increase capacity in markets like North America and Europe, rather than sail the additional 3,000 nautical miles around Africa. 

“On the heels of these recent changes and 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,” Virgin Voyages said in a statement.

“This significant and ongoing conflict puts unacceptable risks for safe passage through the region for our Sailors, crew and vessel (Resilient Lady). 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,” the statement added.

Resilient Lady will now complete her Mediterranean sailing season on October 20th, 2024 and divert to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a new Caribbean season offering 7, 8, 10 and 11-night voyages visiting St. Maarten, St. Vincent, Colombia, and Dominica.

“Virgin Voyages was embraced by the Australia and New Zealand markets with a warm welcome and celebrated an extremely successful inaugural season – the love was mutual. To say that we are disappointed to have come to this tough conclusion is an understatement,” the company added.

“We are currently working through options to return to Australia and the Asia Pacific region once regional repositioning opportunities become more tenable. We will share updates on future itineraries across the fleet as soon as possible, and in the event that we return for the 25’ season, existing booked Sailors will have priority to move onto these sailings.”

Impacted passengers will have the option to rebook another voyage or opt for a full refund given the change in plans.