_tacocat_

this is the website for scarlet- follow this link. if you just use the spark part, you'll get nowhere: https://spark-aws.virginvoyages.com/api/v1/ext/ddp/5a3193a0af8e4c3fb714386b/2023-01-29#events

nutrition and exercise workshop - never been, but i'd expect a commercial. rice rice baby is a leftover from their november food & drink month that has stuck around. there is an upcharge- maybe $25? can't remember from the schedule and haven't done it. i believe they teach you to make sushi, but you can't eat it because of food safety/handling rules. i also think that one comes with sparkling wine. most charged events around the ship have freeflowing bubbles, including a paint and sip, shot for shot cocktail/photography class, plate snap eat food presentation/photography class, 50 shades of play class with dr a, and a few others that are escaping me right now. they're usually between $25-$35/pp. i have yet to see the couples massage workshop actually end up happening on 10 voyages to-date. it's supposedly a workshop that teaches you how to massage your partner.

forgot to add, but that website also has more information about what most of the events are if you click on them.

ship show and miss behave are currently only on valiant lady. the "spark" page is a web version of what gets fed into the lineup on your app. you may have totally wasted your time, as they load a straw man schedule in and change it a zillion times through boarding (and sometimes throughout the voyage!). if you generally pick the same-ish time for dinner every night, you should be able to catch whatever shows. if there are fitness classes, know that spin, yoga and HIIT classes are usually in the 7-10am area and the foam roller and evening yoga classes are usually in the 5-7pm area. Note that scarlet does not have bungee classes, despite the fact that they still show up in the pre-voyage as you get closer to your departure date. here is scarlet for 1/29. you can toggle the days using the calendar. https://spark-aws.virginvoyages.com/api/v1/ext/ddp/5a3193a0af8e4c3fb714386b/2023-01-29#events

st louis

yep, there's also a posture workshop that is essentially a 1 hour pitch for $200 insoles with a "special deal" only available onboard. in general, anything in the shops, spa or salon that doesn't have a fee will be a sales pitch. they also have history of certain jewelers, a virgin brand talk (we thought it would be little nuggets of history in their journey, but it was just the worker at the logo store reading things off an index card!). the blend the rules thing is at the duty free liquor shop. it's a charge, and you do a whiskey tasting, then you can apply the amount charged to a bottle in the store. rise and shine is actually a thing with the happenings cast. on sea days, they grab a pot of coffee/tea, sit in the roundabout and basically have a coffee chat about what's happening on the voyage, what people have liked, if anyone has any questions, etc. if you're sailing on scarlet, don't skip loteria gigante! it's kind of mexican bingo, and includes a BUNCH of margarita, and there are prizes!

the shows depend on both the itinerary length & the number of passengers onboard. i sailed in the beginning of december on an 8 night on valiant with 2200 people, and there were a TON of chances to see any of the shows and do whatever activities onboard. same itinerary last week? duel reality was cancelled one nights, so they only had 2 showings on one night of the voyage, i think bingo was only 1 night, miss behave and ship show may have had 2 or 3 showings each throughout the week, red room was used as a movie screening room to watch jurassic park one night instead of having a show, i think NSA ended up getting cancelled 1 of the 3 showings, didn't have much in the way of shipboard activities during port days like they usually do, etc. dare i say, this was the first sailing out of 10 that i've felt legitimately bored on on VV (a couple days and a few nights with truly nothing going on!) the only one i wouldn't sleep on early-in-the-voyage showings of is duel reality. if seas are rough or performers get injured, they'll cancel it. i think you're better off trying to knock that one out early in the voyage. that way if it gets cancelled early on, you still have ample opportunity to see it!

seems to depend on the actual sailing. we've had st louis brut, st louis rose and a prosecco (forget the brand) as the house sparkling wine. they only had the rose at most bars last week, which made for a kind of weird aperol spritz haha. they have moet at the rockstar rooftop champagne hour.

if you're basing your dinner reservations on the lineup in the app pre-voyage, don't get totally stuck to your agenda, as the lineup will change based on pax load, performers' injuries/health, new shows, special events, whatever. it's dumb that they bother to slot things in this early, so people plan around them, and then everything changes once you get onboard. it'd be better if they just had general descriptions of what the events are vs. the actual schedule.

this is super annoying, and i've noticed the same (TA and group booking websites show full suite availability, but VV's shows sold out). i wonder if VV will put a stop to this because a TON of suites in almost every category except massive have become vacant about a week before my last 3-4 voyages. yeah, they can get ancillary revenue via UG bids that go through, but you'd think they'd want the actual fare for those premium rooms!

You can arrange it, but it’s $$$$ because you’re basically paying a several-hour chauffeur minimum and only using like 1 hour max

it's only via the app, and i want to say its like 100 or 120 days (but am totally pulling that out of thin air)

they're not - they seem to have replaced the seedlip NA spirit with three spirits brand, and they're featuring those for 1 hr/day. they taste like absolute ass - seedlip was much better. we were also told that you could only get one free drink per person for the entire voyage, but they were so bad we're not going to try to test that.

I’ve taken spin, yoga, and the roll out and recover on various voyages. Some instructors are better than others, but overall pretty good! the roll out and recover class was a stretching/foam roller class, so good but soooo painful at times hahaha

you can "cancel" a booking, but you only get whatever you've paid already back as future voyage credit - NOT a refund. AFAIK, VV does not have fares that are refundable beyond the 7-day window after booking.

all reservations are done via the phone app, or you can call sailor services for them to make them for you.

i've heard the breakeven for them is 750... so hopefully quite a while! they do seem to get busier on holiday/summer voyages, but they pull back on the event schedule when there are not that many people onboard (presumably so they don't do a show that only 4 people show up to!)

they are magnetic (as are all the walls). vv does ask that you not decorate the doors, but a handful of people still do.

not on this one, but holy crap were they out in full force when i was on VL in the beginning of december!!!

i think the age is to be expected when you get on itineraries that long. not many people of working age have the vacation time to burn on 2+ weeks for 1 vacay unless it's the only one they do that year. if only the wifi worked the whole time on the TA, i'd SO be down to work remotely a few days here and there!!!

apparently you can order them via ship eats on valiant if you call. there's some unpublished package of juice and a hammock for i think $180? haven't gotten that desperate to burn sailor loot at this point, but might do that the last night if needed haha

no more inkies on valiant 😞 they have weird little purple bath toy boats, but no purple inkies!!!

no ipads/other electronics, but i have noticed that valiant's shops are way more sparse than scarlet's. the sundries store is half empty (doesn't even have shelves on most of the long wall!) and the logo store is lacking a lot of stuff that scarlet had.

Just left and won $50 on a free $8 I had at the casino!

Ryder? Maybe something worse? Rose was tolerable when ice cold out of the fridge, white was a somehow a sweet and over Oaked sauv blanc, and the cab tasted like wood chips. I’m all for a cheap wine every now and then but dear god that was bad.