jon81uk

1 hour ago, kaysha2004 said:

I'm on a Virgin cruise right now. The times for all aboard are not consistent with the 30 minutes before departure time, as has been my previous experience.  Our Amsterdam port aboard is 4:30 p.m. but we don't leave till 6:00 p.m.  Last week's cruise was different for each port.  I wouldn't count on a pattern with Virgin anymore.  They seem to be inconsistent with a lot of things these days.

The Amsterdam issue is because the ship stays on UK time, so it leave Amsterdam 6pm Amsterdam time, which is 5pm Ship (UK) time hence all-aboard is 4.30pm ship (UK) time. 
 

so it is consistent that all-aboard is 30 minutes before, but there is confusion as itinerary pages show port times in local time not ship time.

1 hour ago, CruisingWalter said:

That's not offered for any of the suites on VV. You might get that on other lines, but not VV. If you want the restaurant menu, you go to the restaurant. 

Although not strictly listed as a defined benefit, multiple people report that mega rockstar means your agent will fetch food from any restaurant. It’s reliably happened enough for VV Insider to show it as a mega benefit https://vvinsider.com/guides-and-faqs/guide/mega-rockstar-suites/

The official website does state “Mega RockStar Agent

You’ll have a RockStar Agent personally dedicated to you and your needs. So no matter the ask, you’ve got an agent at your (RockStar) service.” 
so they should be doing any reasonable request for you. 
 

I think the OP would have been right to complain whilst onboard and got a different agent or an improvement in service.

Only in suites. Not regular rooms.

55 minutes ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

As someone that actually sailed on VV 5 times, I can tell you the Galley is an awful choice for dinner. Most food options are closed/not available for dinner. They do have a "special" every night to eat there. but the ambience is absolutely not there. It is exactly like dining at a buffet for dinner on a "regular" cruise line, which I also don't recommend. We tried it once, and ended up leaving and going to Gunbae as walk-ins (had to wait but got seated). 

 

The only time dinner at the Galley was fun was when they had Asian Night Market nights on sea days during our last cruise.

Although can also depend on what you are trying to get out of the cruise, for the celebration voyage last week we prioritised shows and talks and combined with having done all the restaurants on previous trips

so we had two nights eating in the Galley, plus a meal at The Wake, Pink Agave and Another Rose. In the Galley I had Beef Wellington with roast root vegetables and truffle mash potato one night and sweet chilli Asian chicken plus lamb korma another night.

Did you raise your concerns with your agent not getting you what you asked for with the rockstar manager? Feels like both the getting food sent to the room and supplying the Woodford would have been easy fixes.

17 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

Gunbae (I never ate at Gunbae but the reservations were always available)

Oddly for our upcoming cruise Gunbae was the hardest one to find an advance reservation for! But I think that’s also because it can be a long meal so I don’t want to go there late in the evening.

1 hour ago, ryarger said:

I double checked and it was Caribbean but while the video was this week, the sailing was Dec. ‘22.

 

It was definitely the Galley that had the bacon, but she had to ask to get it.

Valiant Lady was in the UK March/April 2022, it’s possible they still had stock in the freezer from earlier in the year.

10 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

not easy to get reservations for dinner at the Wake, Extra Virgin, and Pink Agave.

I’ve not had a cruise without being able to get into them. Not sure what exactly I’m doing right but between advance bookings and on the cruise bookings I’ve got a reservation. So everyone’s experience varies.

8 hours ago, ryarger said:

 

I saw a video of someone on VL in just the past month who asked for English bacon and got it.

 

They also had baked beans and grilled tomatoes which are very British as part of breakfast.

Valiant Lady has been operating out of Miami for at least 9 months, are you sure it’s a recent video? I think they did have some back bacon when it was in the UK two years ago but I doubt they do in the Caribbean. I’ve not noticed it on any of their ship in the last two years. 
 

Baked beans and roasted tomato are listed on the menu for the diner counter https://vvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-galley-breakfast-follow-vvinsider.pdf

9 hours ago, babalooo said:

I didn't think you could do a sit down brunch on disembarkation day. Do you know if this standard on even the shorter cruises?

Yep they do breakfast/ brunch in The wake and Razzle Dazzle on disembarkation day 0630-0930. It’s last reservation at 0930 to give you time to get to your disembark slot which can be as late as 10.30.

Pretty sure it’s still three per restaurant for cruises over seven nights and as many brunch as you want. Disembarkation day brunch can only be booked onboard.

Generally 2-3 visits at each restaurant is plenty, I find only Extra Virgin and Pink Agave are more repeatable. The Wake gets repetitive and Test Kitchen you might need to ask the host stand which menu of the rotation is being served.

33 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

I've not heard of this with Rockstars, just the regular sailors at 45 days.

I’ve had the same as the above poster of reservations actually opening on the app at 57-58 days instead of 60. The prime 7-8pm slots were already taken by those who called up by that point!

33 minutes ago, little britain said:

Tea bags are PGTips and plenty of skimmed milk. 
 

 

for a comparison with RCI…

 

In addition to the free tea there is also loose leaf tea for $5. You pictured the free desserts but you can also pay for afternoon tea (which includes the loose leaf tea) at Sip. I’ve never bothered with the paid-for afternoon tea because there is plenty of great free food.

17 hours ago, Drunken Crab said:

Where does the DBE show on the app?  We are DBE, but we are cruising on a casino comp.  I'd like to get on a few hours earlier but don't want to get sent back to the parking lot for 3 hours if they kick me out due to being on a comp cruise!

If you have it then it’s under add-ons on the me tab.

All of the menu items are American style with streaky bacon, chicken sausage, pancakes etc and it’s American English used in the descriptions. Biggest thing is the currency is USD.

But as above you can tell it’s an international design team.

8 minutes ago, Tralfaz1138 said:

My wife and I will be on Resilient for our 2nd time in a couple of weeks and I doubt we'll go to Another Rose.  It's a great show and I highly recommend seeing it, but I don't know that it's worth $100 to see it again even with our MNVV sailor loot.  Perhaps if we have loot leftover and it's still scheduled for the last night. 

I’ve seen Another Rose twice now and agree with this, if we didn’t have loot to spend I probably wouldn’t book it for a third time. You pretty much get value from all the drinks, but it’s a lot of drinks within two hours. Also the weird gap in the middle of the show when they move the floor tables around just annoyed me this time. It is some of the best food in the ship though, they need more Indian food!

34 minutes ago, Kordy said:

Is steak & eggs in The Wake easily available every day, as a walk-in, for a quick breakfast?  The Wake is typically a bookable restaurant with limited space... and a proper sit-down experience which takes time and is not best suited for breakfast.  I mean, I never thought of it as a straight forward breakfast option!

It’s available every day for brunch/breakfast. Whether they will allow you in as a walk up depends how busy it is. How quick it comes out depends on how busy it is and the quality of your server. But we’ve had a two course brunch/breakfast at The Wake in about 45 minutes with coffee, juice, pastry, main and dessert. Oh the menu only lists the paid-for drinks, the free from-concentrate juice is still available in The Wake and Razzle Dazzle.

1 hour ago, Kordy said:

 

If you are on Resilient now, can you tell me if they offer a full English breakfast as an option, during breakfast time?  if so, how is the quality?

Take a look at the menu for the Galley food court https://vvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-galley-breakfast-follow-vvinsider.pdf

The diner counter has some of the items, but they are all American style, streaky bacon and chicken sausage. 
 

Razzle Dazzle has a breakfast plate on the menu

https://vvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/razzle-dazzle-brunch-follow-vvinsider.pdf

But it’s served with vegan sausage patty and the bacon is candied with a lot of pepper.

Personally my go-to breakfasts are pancakes in the Galley, waffle in Razzle Dazzle or steak and eggs in The Wake.

2 hours ago, Tralfaz1138 said:

It would be interesting to see how this works in this specific case.  It seems like the Seriously Suite is maybe 25% larger than a sea terrace which would make the math work regarding them adding 20 suites since they would just swap 25 sea terraces for the new suites.  So everything from the hallway section with the door into the cabin to the balcony has to be swapped out.  The location of the bathroom fixtures is a bit different so how that all gets lined up with the plumbing in the ship would have to be adjusted.  But it's only 20 cabins, so if the cabin itself is just a modular "drop in" the rest could probably done relatively quickly.

Seriously Suite is the same as 1.5 sea terraces. Brilliant suite is two sea terraces wide. Can count the balcony doors to see.

You will likely be waiting at least three hours. Boarding starts for rockstars at 1.30pm, then priority and then others start around 2pm. If they are running early you might be called about 3-3.30pm.

Get your hotel to store the luggage and reschedule the pick up for later on then use the spare time at the hotel pool or exploring Miami. We always head over from the hotel no earlier than 12.30pm after exploring for the morning.

For a 4.30 time you could turn up at 3-3.30 and they will likely be running early. Then get booking dining as soon as onboard and you’ll be fine. Maybe plan to see shows at 8pm and then dinner at 9.15.

34 minutes ago, csr10236 said:

Ohhhh I have American Express! Where do I go to see what cruises can be redeemed for points? 

Starts from 115k points for five nights to 280k for a two week transatlantic 

https://www.virgin.com/virgin-red/spend-virgin-points?category=Travel

35 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

We are totally new to VV and haven't even had our 1st cruise with them yet (booked for January 2025), but it's funny that people often bash The Galley. For starters, it seems like a superior concept to the usual buffets onboard most ships. But also, we see TONS of people eating at the buffet on every other ship. So what's the problem? Are people OK with buffets on every line except Virgin? I don't get it.

The main menu in the Galley is very lunch focused and originally quite fixed. They’ve now added multiple dinner special dishes which does help, but if you look at the printed menu below it doesn’t really feel like a dinner offering. But the specials of beef wellington, butter chicken curry, Greek lamb, Asian chicken etc 

help give dinner variety.

https://vvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-galley-dinner-follow-vvinsider.pdf
 

The lunch menu is much better with sandwiches, tacos, noodles etc all available as well as some daily specials https://vvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-galley-lunch-follow-vvinsider.pdf

1 hour ago, ClemMovieRunner said:

 

I hope you don't mind me asking but what do VV do in lieu of luggage tags? What's their disembarkation system (sounds like they don't really have one...)?

Luggage tags are applied when dropping off your luggage, the port staff write your cabin number on then apply the tag. I’ve never had any issues with this.

For disembarkation you should select a time in the app but there is nothing to enforce this and it’s not notified very early on. So many people just try to disembark at 10.00-10.30 leading to queues. Whereas if people selected the time and stuck to it so it’s more spread out there wouldn’t be issues. 

Brunch/breakfast on the departure day can only be booked onboard. All other days will have some reservations available in advance.