CruisingWalter

You don't need lunch when you eat one of these. 🙂 I'll get it sort of early and then go for the salad bar or the poke bowl around 2pm ish.

They took the sailing down for an hour to reprice it. It's back with limited availability.

The biggest negative coming from Celebrity / Princess is the pool. It's not really a pool, more of a lounging water feature. Celebrity and Princess both have really nice pools and Celebrity has the stunning Solarium pools. VV decided their clientele doesn't care much for a pool but would rather have more sundecks. VV's food will generally compare with the specialty dining on Princess/Celebrity. But you have to be quick with your dining reservations if you want to score your reservations. VV's dining problem is that there isn't enough seating for everyone who wants to dine at restaurants each evening. They are working on some pop up concepts now to alleviate the crush on the main restaurants. A great reason to use a TA for VV they can score your dining reservations much easier than you will through the app. Love the retro arcade, it's free. Private Karaoke is hilarious, you need to give that try in The Groupie. Pizza is on par with and sometimes better than Princess. Celebrity's crew is super outgoing, Princess' cruise is a little bit more reserved while the VV crew is incredibly laid back. Their not fishing for tips so their service is not 'over the top.' It's really good service and mostly friendly service, but not over the top because nobody is trying to stand out and get your tips. @cantgetin shared my food review and it's still pretty accurate though we don't go to The Wake for dinner any longer. I have found better steaks at Extra Virgin and Pink Agave the last few times we've been on Scarlet and Valiant. The Wake can sometimes be an unnecessarily long meal as well. If you like Celebrity / Princess you should really enjoy yourself on VV. 🙂

The pricing for the MerMaidens is high and they were expected to be high. The rest of the pricing is about what I would expect. It was amazing to watch the Rockstar inventory disappear on the Panama Canal sailing. That was quick. People are EXCITED!

It's in the Burger Bar each breakfast, you honestly can't miss it if you walk by, SUPER thick toast and yummy burger. The syrup really makes it for me. 🙂

Royal Caribbean is the one cruise line we recommend set time dining. They really don't do "my time dining" well at all. I've seen massive lines on multiple ships for the my time experience. I honestly don't understand why it's so hard. Carnival actually does it best with their Hub app. You simply tell the dining room you're ready for dinner and the app will notify you when your table is ready. No need to wait in line, we were usually enjoying a lounge or some music while waiting for our table. I've never understood why Royal hasn't incorporated something like this into their app.

Most amazing burger on the ship. I get one each cruise. You can't do more than one. 🙂

For this year's three cruises it looks like he'll only be there for a day if that. The three Celebration Cruises overlap this year and he's scheduled to be on each ship for the first day. I would say "no it's not worth the extra cost" for this year's Celebration cruises. Last year had a lot more going on, this time it looks like just a photo op with Richard if you're lucky to spot him. I'd spend the money on a longer itinerary if you're looking at VV. The new Valiant Lady Winter 2025-2026 itineraries from San Juan are awesome.

Basically you're going to put down a 'placeholder' deposit to go to the front of the line when the Seattle itinerary goes on sale this summer. You can purchase the Placeholder starting on May 8 according to the information released by Virgin Voyages.

We know the first 3 MerMaiden dates. Sept 5-10, 2025 from NYC Oct 17-25, 2025 from Miami April 7-12, 2026 from Los Angeles Seattle is May 2026 TBD.

Did anyone have a full Alaska Season on their bingo card? I certainly didn't. I figured a few trips to Alaska but never a full season. That's going to be wild.

Yep the Broadway Cruise, one of the many Sixthman Charter cruises. That company is owned by NCL hence every sailing is on one of their ships. They have a charter cruise for pretty much every musical taste.

TikTok is an excellent source of information if you follow the right people. And if you follow the Cruise Spotter you'll have FOMO daily. 🙂

For us it's Hairspray. But all great shows. 🙂

Many RCCL ships have one Broadway show and up to 2 more Original Shows that are Broadway style and often Broadway caliber. You can usually find which show is on which ship by simply going to the ship's page on their website. I know Hairspray has been on Symphony, Cats on Oasis, Grease on Harmony.