neverendingcruising

What are they cutting back on? We have an upcoming sailing and would like to know in advance if there any changes from our voyages last year.

It must be a different style of hammock to fit since it would already be tight on the current balconies and these balconies will be smaller.

That guy is super annoying, ended up asking YouTube to not show me his videos anymore. There has always been speculation that VV will go public or sell so I don't think this would be earth shattering if true. Maybe something will be announced on the 1st that he knows about or maybe he's just hedging his bets in case they announce a sale this week?

Afternoon Tea has come off our bar tab on previous voyages.

Where did you see it is supported? Would like to be able to work on our next cruise and if they claim it works I want to hold them to it!

My work VPN did not work (Cisco AnyConnect) and when I asked about it they said they don't support VPN. My personal VPN did work though (Tailscale). I suspect it is related to whether you can go over https vs more traditional methods like IPsec. When I did get connected it broke the app, which makes sense since it probably needs to talk to the ship instead of the internet while onboard.

Razzle Dazzle books all dining when you are first boarding, after that book at the restaurant host stand or in app. Sailor services does not make dining reservations but they may message a restaurant for you. Brunch and breakfast are bookable prior to boarding now.

This is in fact why they go to Turkey, to avoid taxes. When we sailed last year there were no taxes charged while in Bodrum.

If you status matched in 2023 then you have DBE through 2025.

Port charge refunds should definitely be cash, that's not right to make it loot. I do wonder if the French are being problematic with environmental requirements. That seems to be a thing in a few countries lately and countries that Virgin is now avoiding.

We haven't done a GTY on Virgin, however from other threads it appears to be a day or two before sailing.

One of their main tech suppliers was put out of business by Carnival so that might explain the slowness to update/fix.

You can request a steamer from your cabin host, I don't recall the brand but it worked fine.

6 total hot tubs if you include Richard's rooftop. Two on 16 aft, 2 on 15 midship, 2 on 16 forward (Richard's). There's also the thimble sized one at the spa on 5

I know Grof Walk is $50, I think the others are similar maybe slightly less.

My wife's favorite wine is a variety of Belglos that is only available at the Wake so we started going there for a pre-dinner beverage. After a couple of visits the sommelier came out and told us he'd be happy to bring a glass or bottle to any of the restaurants so we didn't have to bother going to both places. On the other end of that spectrum, the Dock told us they didn't have a whiskey I had at Sip the previous night and had no idea if it was anywhere in the ship.

It certainly was not an option in 2022 when we arrived back at World Trade Center, now that they are at the main port maybe it's an option?

Flew in on Southwest and walked at least 15 minutes to get to the one place they pick up. Signage was abysmal and took forever for the driver to arrive despite the "5 minutes" advertised in the app. If I had to do it again I would have taken a cab.

The benefits of Sea Rover were only advertised through 2024, I think we will always retain that designation for bragging rights.

We did the Delos tour through Virgin and wouldn't do it again, even not through a cruise line. We thought for sure the ferry was going sink because one was out of service so they jammed everyone in one boat. Once arriving on the island it was absolute chaos. After finding our guide we walked for what felt like forever through a wild crowd of people, especially very large groups that just trampled everyone else. Our guide was incredibly monotone and boring, no energy whatsoever and there was absolutely zero shade. We have done many excursions through Virgin and a lot of have been great, we just didn't think Delos was great at all.

We were able to chat through the Virgin app on our last cruise, however it wasn't very reliable. A lot of times no notification of a new message if you weren't actively in the app. Honestly it seemed kind of pointless since everyone gets free WiFi. I guess maybe if you didn't want to give out your number or become instant FB friends with other sailors it might be useful?

Drinks are not free at the PJ party, however the Grog Walk final stop is there so I could see that as confusing with a group of people being handed a drink.

Starlink has been on their ships for awhile now so maybe they are just finally announcing it? We had Starlink on Resilient this past summer and on Valiant in December out of Miami

Yes, if you were late picking a time this could be normal. They don't let people on the ship until 1:30 at the earliest. Conversely, you don't have to be off the ship until 10:30

We have done a couple of really fantastic excursions through Virgin and at least one that was just meh. We don't tend to do a lot of organized excursions and just go our own way. I will say, if you get the opportunity to do the truffle hunting excursion in Marina De Carra it is probably one of the best things we have done on land if you are remotely into truffles.