ociana

Nice! Was it just listed in your access keys when you logged on? I gave up being patient yesterday and called to get my bookings taken care of. The rep had to put me on hold while she reached out to a different team (not sure why we couldn't just call them directly) that was responsible for the FVC credits. After a three hour call we got everything but the free cruises taken care of from our two cancellations. I again wish there was more self service for this, but at least that step is done.

As much as I am impatient beyond belief now that I have my rebooking strategy ready to go, they said to be patient and wait...so I am. My hubby's credit process was done in less than an hour, and submitted after mine, and mine has been over a week. Does it stress me out? Yup. Do I worry our planned rebookings and free cruises will get filled before get there? Yep. Do I know that their customer service team is doing the best they can taking abuse and anger from others? Certainly, which is why I am waiting for my turn. I encourage others to do the same.

Ah yes, that makes sense for you. For us, we had a B2B that we applied sea blazer and FCC credits from our 2021 sailing of $600 per cruise and booked a sea terrace XL so our FCC between both cruises is just over $8k total. That will cover both of our 2023 bookings' remaining balances and leave enough to both book cabins on the same cruise in December that reuses those credits and allows us to take our adult children along...plus the freebies that we are going to use on Valiant for a similar B2B transatlantic. Overall, the cancellation works out benefitting us financially but takes away some ports we really wanted to check out and adds another round of coordinating logistics for me. Anyone try adding a sailor loot referral code when they do their rebookings? Technically I think that should work but am curious if anyone has confirmed success with it.

Just to be clear about the year, you have to make the booking and apply the FCC to a voyage within 1 year from your original voyage sail date but you do not need to book a ship that actually sails by that date. I asked specifically about this because our cruise booking next year sails 3 days after the one we had this year.

I agree! For all the younger generation targeting, the customer service and sales structure continues to rely on the telephone game and travel agents. I am in my early 40s and I would so prefer to do things online myself without having to work with someone on the phone. Let me choose my cabin, see my account history and available credits, apply credits when booking and all the other things...pretty please.

Ugh, I was so looking forward to our B2B this fall. Time to figure out the best way to work out the logistics.

That would be great! I have 4 bookings that I would be happy to share here.

Oh thank you for the details of the rules! My booking was made 2/9/22 - I think that means I will need to be the referrer for either of you (or others reading this). I have multiple bookings currently and am waiting to figure out how to fix the link (it sends you to a different one right now) but will post here again and tag you both once I get that solved.

Can you share how to correct them? I want to share mine but have multiples also. If it helps, I know how to edit a url 🙂

We are booked on the same one. If you don't mind sharing your name with me I can call and add it for us to the existing booking.

You are also quoted on their webpage https://www.virginvoyages.com/cruise-reviews The order of tiles change, so you may need to hit "load more" to see it. I am quoted in there as well!

Kids games are perfect for drunk adults! We watched a group on our cruise playing a sloppy drunk game of hungry hungry hippos that was so entertaining it drew a crowd.

Open up google maps on your phone and it will show you your GPS position. We did that when we cruised right past Havana to identify the large buildings we could see through the view finder on deck. Did you know there are view finders on deck? If not, go track them down!

That reminds me! On our cruise the absolute cheapest and strongest drinks were at the bar in the first building you walk into off the tram in Bimini. Like 5 bucks a pop for my gin and soda with extremely long pours when you chat up the bartender. You may want to try there for some cheap drinks that day.

I did a lot of digging into this to pick the right room for our upcoming B2B and can confirm that the three Sea Terrace XL cabins at the forward end of deck 8 are the steel railings. The decks are much larger, so that can be a good tradeoff for some folks. I believe they all have hammocks, but if you message Virgin on Facebook and ask about a specific cabin they will reply within a few days to say if there is a hammock. I know that doesn't answer for deck 12, but if others come by looking for similar info I wanted to add it.

Normally that would be the makings of a solid nightmare, but in your case it was a great time!

OMG @sid_9169 you are amazing! If I had a way to buy your next drink today I would. That is exactly the cabin we hoped it was.

Oh, which cabin is that without carpet? I wonder if it is for accessibility. If the cabins are all opened up, I would LOVE a shot of 8358A - especially the balcony setup on it. We picked it with an educated guess that it is the balcony that is at the switch between the metal framed ones and the glass ones that has a little jut out but are not 100% sure we chose right.

Thanks for all the B2B details @sid_9169, we are doing one later this year and plan to get out at the port where we switch since we will be in Lisbon. No cabin change, so am hoping that is a painless option for us. I was out camping during this first leg of your cruise, so a few quick comments on the previous 35 pages of amazingness. There is actually history to the stealing of salt and pepper shakers from Virgin. They were stolen on the airline for a while and instead of trying to crack down, they encouraged it because it made for good advertising value. https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/03/29/richard-branson-hails-salt-pepper-pots-virgin-atlantics-secret-advertising-weapon We did the same walk to Joe's shack at Bimini last year and that conch salad was phenomenal. We brought home a conch shell from the big ole graveyard and named her Conchita...she's huge, but tiny in her soul. We noticed that drinks served at the bar inside The Dock tended to have the cheapest prices, maybe try that one? Your trick to entering Richard's Rooftop works great, except that when you are short like me you get a bruise when reaching for the handle! Looking forward to this next leg of the journey.

My hubby has a shellfish allergy and they cooked shrimp last on the grill, after he was done getting his servings of meat from the grill. The other couples seated with us totally understood and were fine with it.

Good morning Sid and happy travels! The extra sailor loot should actually be more because you are a sea blazer. You get $125 on top of each $300 purchased forever - have them fix it on board. I very emphatically recommend trying an almond croissant at Atelier Monnier Brickell while in Miami. Their other pastries are lovely too, but the memory of that one has me drooling even now.

I am so excited to be following along with your second VV adventure @sid_9169! Your trip last year is what convinced me to try them out and we loved it so much we have a B2B booked later this year and two booked next year. Looking forward to hearing about the B2B experience and to see if there are any updates to the menus or entertainment since last year. One new addition I heard about is an art scavenger hunt around the ship, which is something added just after I suggested it in my feedback to them. Hope this last day of work is going smoothly for you.

Just noticed this foodie forum and thought I would jump into this conversation because my hubby and I have found that Virgin Voyages is our new cruise food favorite by a HUGE margin. For context, we have cruised on Princess and NCL multiple times each between 2003 and 2019. After our last trip on NCL we were basically throwing in the towel on cruising because of the combination of food quality and staff happiness levels being so low that they were consistently having a negative impact on our vacations. Itching for a post Covid trip and seeing positive things about the food on Virgin I twisted my hubby's arm into trying again with this new cruise line. We did a 5 night out of Miami on the Scarlet Lady in October 2021. For those who do not know, all restaurants are included in the cruise fare with just 1 or 2 items on some menus that have an upcharge (like a tomahawk steak). Our worst meal on Virgin was better than our best meal ever on NCL...that is how significant the food quality difference was to us. We are looking forward to our next cruise with them this fall, but not the corresponding pant size increase.

Pre-show there are staff that chat with the audience to confirm interest in participation and ask some "research" questions. Everyone else is left alone. Also, if you want to be sure to be left alone you can see the show from the balcony level. That's where we went to watch and I am glad we did.