CruisingWalter

The Den was converted to the WPT Poker room. I have no idea if anyone actually uses that space it was an odd idea and not very well executed.

From what we've heard, the phone call will still be required. It's not a placeholder like the MNVV that any TA can convert to a sailing. All subject to change of course....

Our Sailors on the Scarlet Transatlantic were told new indoor spaces for the Rockstars are coming when the ship comes out of drydock. That's the biggest complaint from Rockstars that come from other cruise lines. Other than the items in the cabin and Richard's Rooftop (when you can actually use it) there is not a lot separating the "Rockstars" from the "Sailors." They're looking for an indoor lounge and possibly a separate restaurant.

Well that is quite interesting. After reading this I poked around a January 2025 sailing for Scarlet Lady and sure enough, absolutely no Sea Terraces can be booked on Deck 13. XL Sea Terrace, Sea Terrace or Central Sea Terrace. Cheeky Corner and Sweet Aft Suites are the only cabins available on Deck 13 to be booked at this time. Well that will be interesting to see if it's the entire deck that goes away or just the front section where the XL Sea Terraces are.

The earliest we've walked off the ship is 7:30. We self disembark directly to the Brightline train back to Orlando.

Arrival times and disembarkment times are always estimated. Cruise lines can never give you a definitive time you will exit the ship. Weather, port conditions and other ships arriving at the same time can cause delays. 8am is the time they expect to be able to open the gangway. But that can be off by up to an hour. Ship has to be secured, all security operations and gangway have to be ready, the ship has to be cleared by the local officials and then the gangway can open for operation. As noted above, Sailor Services is simply going to tell you 8am is the scheduled arrival time. They cannot give you any further information than that because each port arrival is different.

As long as there is space onboard the following sailing I think they can still use the MNVV. But I would inquire about that on the first day. Sometimes the bookings are closed about a week prior to the cruise. Here in the states technically they can sell a cruise up to almost 48 hours prior to sailing, but most cruise lines close them out sooner.

That sounds like it's going to be the plan, but your TA can make the call for you is my understanding. Also keep in mind that the bookings will open one week early for the Front of the Line so you won't be calling with the general public to get those rooms. It should not be that bad, especially if your TA takes care of it.

Takes up to 72 hours to get a response.

Yes this is normal. You will be able to select any Sea Terrace when the time comes. This was a note I received from VV. It's the same for Rockstars and Mega Rockstars, it shows the based level of the category. Note that you, or your TA will have to call VV to convert the deposit to a booking. The booking will note that this is a Limited View Sea Terrace Lock it-in Rate. Please ignore this. When the time comes to book a real voyage, and for example, the Sailor picked a Sea Terrace deposit, at that point, the Sailor can choose which type of Sea Terrace category for their voyage.

It's still available this morning as an option on the form.

My Sailors on the Scarlet Transatlantic said they were told that Scarlet is going to get some new indoor Suite lounges and possibly a restaurant. That's the number one complaint I get from Rockstars and Mega Rockstars. Richard's Rooftop is near useless when it's windy and besides that there's not a whole lot of incentive for Rockstars. Especially if you're not going to Bimini. The included Bar is nice, the Rockstar Agent is nice, but there is no indoor lounge or restaurant specific to the Suite guests. Folks are used to The Retreat, The Haven, The Yacht Club and soon The Sanctuary on Princess. So much is included with VV, there's not much to distinguish the "Suite Experience" from the rest of the Sailors. Now if those crewmembers were correct, it looks like VV will be making a distinction. And since Brilliant is a year away from launch, we have to expect that the same changes would be made to her as well. But this is all rumor until Scarlet comes out of drydock in October.

One - this would have been a great reason to use a travel advisor, especially a Top 100 or Gold Certified First Mate. Many of them were up at 3am booking Brilliant cruises when the inventory came online. Everything was available for the first hour or so. The Panama Canal suites went first. Sadly there are travel agents and agencies who go in and put down deposits on as many suites as they can to block them out from everyone else. Then they can offer them 'exclusively.' If they don't sell them by final payment date, they will be released back into inventory. I've complained about this to VV multiple times because there are VERY limited suites on the Ladyships. Allowing agents to simply grab and prevent people who actually want to book these cabins is wrong. But as of now, they continue to allow agents to do this. It's especially prevalent in the Caribbean where you'll see a standard sailing with all of the Cheeky Corner Suites gone because those are the most popular. For the most part they're just being held by TAs to resell them. To be fair, all cruise lines allow agents to put down deposits on pretty much any cabin on any cruise ship to hold them until final payment, but with the Ladyships there is such limited inventory because there are only 3, soon to be 4 of them. On the flip side of that, there are approx. 100k agents in North America alone who sell VV. So it is entirely possible that those suites were actually sold because there's only 2 LA voyages. Mexican Riviera and California Coastal. 3 counting the reposition up to Vancouver. I would keep an eye on a future itinerary release because I would expect Brilliant Lady to come back to LA for about 4 weeks in Sept/Oct 2026 before she goes back through the Canal for the winter season in Miami. I'm hoping they have 1 Hawaii run. That would be a fun ship for the LA to Hawaii cruise.

Actually that's normal although most cruise lines have automatic triggers that change the rates on the fly. Not sure why VV had to make it so obvious by taking down the website. But normally when inventory hits a certain threshold on a specific category, the rate adjusts automatically so it's a seamless thing. No need to 'close the store and reopen.'

I have a friend who booked 30 minutes before they took it offline. Saved about $1500. 🙂