FFMilesJunkie

We were on the cruise before this one. We ate at Vegera right on the main port area. Less than 5 minute walk to the night tender (if they aren’t docked). Group of 9 of us dined so got a sampler of most of the apps and had 2 whole fishes. It was one of the best meals we had in Greece.

I think I would much prefer the tender. The overnight tender drops you right down next to all the action in the old port. That pier requires a shuttle to get back and forth. We enjoyed dinner last week in Mykonos little Venice and made the 5 minute walk to the tender. Then 5 minute tender to the ship. Easy peasy.

The promo credits usually don't show in the app until you are on board. Have your TA send you a copy of the invoice from their portal. It will show everything in pdf form so you can have a backup copy to show sailor services should something not match. Also, TA's that purchase OBC for you tend not to do it until a few weeks before the cruise, so be sure to get a "final" invoice that shows everything a few days before the sailing.

The Scarlet Lady TA doubled in price a couple days ago. This past weekend was looking at prices in the $2,400 range and now they are close to $5,000 😭

She's on her shakedown cruise right now with VV Friends and Family on board. Mermaiden in 3 days!!

Love the Flagship Lounge. Always get to the airport early to enjoy the Flagship and Qantas Lounges. The choice of champagne in the Qantas First Lounge is really nice. My own little pub crawl before a flight out of LAX.

Was there a charge for any of the entertainment on Scarlet or Valiant? I'm on the Resilient next month and I see the new show "Another Rose" in the lineup every evening at 7:15 - 9pm and they are charging $75 for premium seating, $65 for booth seating and $55 for balcony seating. The Red Room shows are free (Miss Behave, Festival Stage: Tape Face, Persephone, and Mind Mangler)

Veuve was just taken off the Premium Plus list. Now only showing Pommery Rose. Maybe it’s an oversight. Strange they would only have a rose. https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/Beverage_Package_Flyer_04_23.pdf

You need to call your travel agent or Virgin and give them your friends booking number. They can create a “travel with” link which will get you both a welcome bottle of sparkling wine and it will allow you to book things together on the app like dining and show reservations. It used to give you $50 OBC but that program is over.

The wine list on board is not bad. We found that the basic formula they use is wines by the glass = about 1/2 the retail price of the bottle and wines by the bottle were about a 100% markup (which is not bad compared to most restaurants on land). For example, they were pouring a Paul Hobbs Bonanza Cab in the Wake for $12 per glass. This wines sells for about $20-25 per bottle in a shop. We bought one of our favorite Stone Street Cabs for around $85 when it sells in a shop for about $40. They also had a Rosso di Montalcino (one of my favorite baby brunello) for around $40 per bottle in Extra Virgin.

The Brilliant Lady summer schedule was never posted. Her homeport was never announced. There is speculation it will be Lisbon based on the TA that was posted, but we have not been told yet. European sailing are struggling this year for all lines due to flight prices. The difference is that the established lines have been selling 2023 sailings for several years and VV has only had them on sale for about 18 months and early on there were not a lot of people who wanted to invest big money into a European cruise without knowing much about the cruise line. Now that VV is establishing a very loyal following and getting tremendous positive reviews, we are seeing stronger bookings in Europe. I would not be surprised if the Brilliant Lady spends the summer 2024 season in the Caribbean. I think VV needs 1 more year to get their European sales up before sending 3 ships there; and there is soooo much demand for Caribbean this summer and not enough ships to meet that demand. VV probably wishes they had 2 ships in the Caribbean this summer and build off this tremendous momentum they have with all these sold out Spring sailings. Personally, I'd like to see the Brilliant Lady base out of Miami with 10-11 night cruises to Southern Caribbean (with a stop at Bimini on the way home). San Juan just presents another barrier for people who want the convenience of a South Florida departure. Easier flight and hotel options.

We did this on Scarlet. You just pay for the drinks you order (we had a couple Aperol Spritz) and are given a limited appetizer menu to order from (yummy meatballs!). It does not count as a restaurant visit.

If you booked a solo voyage this summer in the Med, time to call your TA or VV and get it re-priced. Solo fares are back!! This can be combined with Bar Tab and MNVV. Huge savings for those who booked under the 200% single supplement. Bookings are a little soft in Europe this year due to high airfare prices so plenty of Sea Terraces to fill with solos.

The only tricky part is if you booked your placeholder pre Dec 2022 before the Bar Tab promo. Those bookings don't include the Bar Tab so the rep has to apply the current promo. If you (or your TA) doesn't tell them then you will just get whatever promo was running when you originally booked the placeholder. The other thing about MNVV is that you can only make 1 change after you convert it to a full booking so if you reprice, I'm pretty sure they count that as your 1 change. Of course like anything with VV, Your Miles May Vary 😆

That's not correct. MNVV can definitely be combined with the $300/$600 Bar tab. I'm sailing in a couple months on a Greek Island Glow itinerary and I have $600 OBC from MNVV + $600 Bar Tab from it being a 7+ night sailing. If you booked your MNVV before the Bar Tab was included, then your travel agent will need to ask Virgin to change the promo on the booking. It's really easy and the Virgin reps are happy to do it. But you have to ask, because they will just book whatever promo was on the original placeholder.

The 2024 sailings were not part of the wave offer, so the discounts never applied. They are now included, so the 45% discount is in most cases deeper than the original discount. Most of the bookings I've looked at for 2024 have dropped in price with the new promo.

It should be eligible. MNVV placeholders are allowed 1 change. Good luck!

Many 2024 bookings now qualify for the Bar Tab and the 45% off second sailor. Many I looked at today are cheaper and also have the bar tab. Time to call and reprice. A lot of happy sailors today! Nice to get an email from a travel agent that says your cruise is cheaper and also includes a $600 Bar Tab… and it’s not an April Fools joke!

It's my understanding the the J-Lo send off is for everyone not just the 200 who spent the extra money. Not everyone will be excited about J-Lo but I have a feeling most won't be too upset taking a 1 hour delay for the special send off and sail away with a pretty popular celebrity in south Florida.

J-Lo is only on for the pre-sail away. There are special events on board for this cruise but it shouldn't affect anything except for the delayed departures. Those who want to experience most of the special events are paying $500 per person extra for the TedTalks and special dinners. It might end up freeing up some space for restaurants and shows since those 200 people will not be booking anything else on board.

You must have high standards for champagne, because I think most consider Moet & Chandon Imperial to be pretty good champagne and a nice benefit for Rock Stars. It's hard to find it under $50 per bottle at a wine shop. They sell it on board close to $100 per bottle.

The “$600 in value with every voyage” has been part of their marketing from the beginning and is not referring to the bar tab promo. It’s referring to the included gratuities, essential bevs, wifi, specialty dining, etc. If you add up what you would pay on other cruise lines those benefits, they come up with the $600 in value. The bar tab promo is a whole other value add for 2023.

Pretty much all of the voyages are only coming from Bimini the night before so unless there is something that goes awry like a rescue at sea or bad weather, the ship tends to be docked at terminal V at the crack of dawn or earlier.

The Bar Tab promo was extended through at least the end of March, so the title is fine. It's still $300 for sailings under 7 days and $600 for 7+ days.

March is going to be a challenging month for VV. The good news, the ships are almost full on all sailings, the bad news, the ships are almost full on all sailings and that will expose some stress points for VV. Don't want people to end up having to eat pizza or breakfast at the diner every night because the restaurants are overwhelmed. If they can pull this off and maintain the excellent customer service and keep raking in those placeholder on board bookings, then that's a great sign for VV moving forward.