jon81uk

That’s not quite the case. You can reserve restaurants from 45 days, but only a limited portion of the reservations are released in advance, the rest and all the shows and activities can be booked on board. Some low capacity fitness classes and activities will sell out very quickly, but the major shows aren’t so hard to get into and the standby line is available.

I find my values align closer to parts of Virgin (not necessarily VV as it’s only part-owned by the Virgin group) than many of the mega-corporations who run the larger cruise companies. Also there is a significant amount around sustainability and similar that makes Virgin Voyages and its values look much better than competitors.

At the main sailaway, I go to the party for the 30 minutes of free sparkling wine and the introduction to the cast. But on other nights the Dock on deck 7 or the Athletic Club on deck 15 and Perch on deck 16 all have great views.

It wasn’t that way on our last voyage in September 2023. We have DBE and when we logged on the only option was to connect to premium WiFi, it knows we have the benefit and therefore it was already enabled.

They do a brief introduction with all the Happenings cast members at the sailaway party.

Heartbeat is a fun club night with podium dancers (who also do UntitledDanceShowPartyThing) and some of the Happenings cast out on the dance floor. Cast and dancers start in red outfits and switch to white later. There are also a few other surprises (no spoilers). WeFancy is a club night with a theme of being your best self and expressing the fanciest version of you. The Happenings cast welcome you into the Temple of Fancy and do dance numbers in the centre of the dancefloor a few times and there are other surprises. BoomVang is just a club night with the DJ, no extra dancers or anything (as far as I remember anyway). Klub Rubiks (I think is only on Resilient Lady) is an 80s themed night, again the Happenings Cast come out at regular intervals to do dances and skits to 80s songs. There might also be some interesting moments with the diva. Studio 72 is a 70s themed club night, preceded by Circus Disco where some of the circus cast (from Duel Reality) do about 15 minutes of short performances before the dancefloor opens. There may also be the Happenings Cast in 70s outfits.

I’ve always found Sip (the champagne bar) to be a little quieter than the others. The Dock House in the evening can be pretty quiet too.

If you mean the grated potato sort like Ihop do, I’ve only seen that at Ihop and Denny’s. But as a Brit I prefer the McDonalds style hash browns anyway and the ones onboard are fine.

If you qualified for deep blue extras then you still have the benefits until the end of 2024. They will give you a new wristband.

Laundry is $30 for a huge bag, returned next day (can pay extra for same day). Free if you have deep blue extras. There are also single item cost options including for pressing and specialist cleaning.

Pretty sure Flight Night is either beer tasting or beer trivia. It’s something to do with beer. Around the World with the Diva in the Manor is first come, it’s a caberet type show so just find a seat yourself in the Manor before showtime.

Doesn’t make any difference. It’s a Ship Show is a show booking so you can have one at the same time as a dinner booking.

It will be the same with many companies, first line call centre staff don’t know the exact reason it has gone off sale, it will just look “sold out” to them. If it was actually cancelled and you are booked then you will have been told about it directly. It would be like asking the supermarket checkout person why they don’t have a particular item, they would just see it sold out but have no idea what is going on behind the scenes that caused it to come off sale. The travel advisory page is still there (the banner still shows for me too) and I would trust the text on that update over anything the call centre say. https://www.virginvoyages.com/travel-advisories/stories/resilient-lady-repositioning-update They promise an update before the end of February, it is probably worth waiting two weeks to see what happens.

the times of the main shows are unlikely to change much, but the specific show on each night might. What will happen between now and the cruise is all the other stuff filling in ike musicians and fitness classes.

It’s been that way for all of January and February. They also stopped mega rockstars getting it, as drinks are almost unlimited for mega anyway.

Due to the Red Sea issues they’ve taken everything for Resilient Lady from October off sale and there will be an update by the end of February. ”With the very likely continuation of this escalated regional conflict top-of-mind, and in an effort to minimize further disruptions to our passengers’ future vacation plans, Virgin Voyages is now conducting a full review of other geographically similar repositioning voyages and linked sailings. We will provide an update before the end of February on any further changes we will need to make.“ From https://www.virginvoyages.com/travel-advisories/stories/resilient-lady-repositioning-update

Looks like some potentially decent savings on drinks, but the dishes aren’t always the ones I would really want. Would have been nice to see some new food items as well.

It’s the same one hour show, it was on at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last August. https://amp.theguardian.com/stage/2023/aug/23/the-7-fingers-duel-reality-review-underbelly-circus-hub-on-the-meadows-edinburgh

For the April changes the Barcelona to Athens five night is needed to get the ship to Athens in time for the next cruise from Athens and avoids a further cancellation this May. If they cancelled the October Barcelona to Athens it wouldn’t get replaced with a five night, because the ship is in Athens and would either need to go to Cape Town and onwards again, or it would do something else entirely. It’s more likely they would try to bump people into Scarlet Lady instead as that ship is doing Mediterranean itineraries in October. Personally that would be the worst option for me as I’ve done the Scarlet Lady entertainment options and want the new stuff on Resilient again.

I think as these current changes are not the cruise lines fault, it’s war / terrorism that’s caused them to reroute round Australia they aren’t being as generous compared to the Brilliant Lady cancellations due to their ship not being ready.

As per the travel advisory everything for Resilient Lady has been taken off sale (so it appears as sold out even if it isn’t) while they work out what is going on due to the Red Sea troubles. They have said there will be an update by the end of February. I wouldn’t get too worried yet, but I am also holding off booking any flights or hotels connected to our October sailing until they do make a decision.

Yes many influencers do get free cruises and similar, but they are usually on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, not CruiseCritic forum.

It’s linked to ones that are. Resilient Lady is planned to go back to Australia in October. Before that it goes Portsmouth to Barcelona, then Barcelona to Athens. If they decide the risk to too high and Resilient Lady won’t make it back to Australia via the Panama Canal and Red Sea, then it might not need to go to Athens first and they could decide to do other voyages before either going round Africa or over to the Caribbean instead. So although the Portsmouth to Athens trips are geographically similar, they are linked to repositioning of Resilient Lady so they need to work out the final destination first before decided how to get there. That being said, Barcelona to Athens in October is probably more at risk of changes than the Portsmouth to Barcelona leg.

Also some get featured on this page https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/ourpicks/ I think some people just like the sense of community on these forums.

Sorry, not drinking water is weird 😂 how else do you avoid the hangover 🤣