jon81uk

Yeah I don’t think it’s worth you switching just to gain two days. Also if you haven’t been on Resilient Lady before it’s worth it as there is different entertainment compared to the other ships.

$500 per cabin towards changing travel arrangements was offered but we didn’t make a claim as don’t have any costs yet. No other incentive other than the fact it’s a longer cruise. We are still in a rockstar suite but changed type as what we had was no longer available.

It’s not luck, most sea terrace cabins have them, but some XL terrace rooms are so far forward there isn’t enough attachment points for them to have hammocks. So if you book regular sea terrace it’s almost certainly going to have one.

Resilient Lady is oversold. We have switched to Scarlet, but we didn’t have flights booked yet so it’s no issue.

Diner & Dash counter (or order from your table) at The Galley food court. See the menu here https://vvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/the-galley-breakfast-follow-vvinsider.pdf

Even on a port day? I find that if we go off the ship in the daytime, we might have wine or beer with dinner, a cocktail in the evening and then simple mixed drinks in the club. But then I guess that’s still 3-4 drinks each on a port day, and 5-6 on a sea day, but most of them are under $10 a drink. Most of the bands will play covers, but not really a tribute, just a band playing someone else’s songs.

Music on VV may not be bland, but depends on your tastes and which artists they have booked. There is always at least one band and one busker style performer. The band might play blues or funk, or could be rock covers or something else. The busker might do original songs on a solo guitar. For club nights it varies between 90s/00s music at the PJ party, more funky pop/dance at Heartbeat and disco at Studio 72. House/well spirits are $9 and there is no gratuity added, cocktails $13-17 and beer $7-10 if that gives an idea.

Hopefully you’ve considered where you are you flying from and what what happen if your flight is delayed or cancelled of course, flying in the same day even though I’m only in the UK is something I don’t want to risk.

Yes you can drop luggage early, but you might find it easier to ask your hotel to hold it if the hotel is nearer sites you want to see. From what I’ve read they often run early for the later arrival times so you should be fine arriving to the port for around 3pm even with a 4pm slot.

You responded to the post stating that Virgin was the first cruise line to have a show made for a cruise ship go on and tour and you stated that was false. But it’s actually true, the show made in collaboration for VV for their ships did go on to tour.

That wasn’t false though, the show was made by 7 Fingers specifically for Virgin Voyages, it was designed for VV. The credits for the touring version state “Originally produced and created with Virgin Voyages”. 7 Fingers have gone on to tour the show, therefore making it the first show designed for a cruise ship to go on to tour.

I’ve not done any other cruise line, but I don’t think the cabins on VV feel small, except maybe the bathroom. XL rooms have a larger bathroom, but the cabin overall feels similar to others.

The VV ships are the same no matter where they are, everyone speaks in English, they are an American cruise line. As others have said there are almost no announcements, it’s all done via app notifications.

Someone asked about this as a fifty-something recently and there are some good responses here.

I think doors opening 30 minutes before is plenty. It’s people choosing to line up an hour before the show despite being asked not to that makes the lines. If they arrived five minutes before doors open it wouldn’t be as much of an issue. I don’t think the old reservation system worked well either, often shows were sold out in the app but maybe a third of the seats were empty when the show started. I would probably allow one reservation for each show once per trip but also stop scanning the reservations fifteen minutes before and switch to first come at that point. So doors open 30 min minutes before for those who reserved and they make it very clear you need to be there 15 minutes before show time or the reservation is useless. Also as they have been doing now have staff in the Red Room making people move down the row and fill every available seat.

The Pizza Place closes at 2am so it’s great for a late night meal after going to the club. The Dock and Dock House are good for late afternoon snacks, especially if you’ve been in port and want something. Most of the Galley food is more “functional”, the burgers aren’t anything special and a turkey & Swiss or pastrami sandwich is pretty much the same anywhere. The choose your own salad is good, but again similar to on land. So if you are on a sea day it’s good to get lunch, but not worth making special time for.

We did it last September, there was a fun food market tasting thing in the Galley around 5-6pm, each counter had a small plate item to try. I assume that will be the Asian market this time. there are also extra paid for drink tasting and food making classes. Plus the Seven Seas Sippers drinks you can collect stamps to try and win a cruise.

I had the lamb and it’s pretty good lamp chop. My husband had the shrimp and it’s a small portion, it’s interesting as it’s like pasta made from shrimp, but it’s not fulfilling.

Yes I find it’s better to order individual meats too as we want the marinated beef but the platter stuff isn’t. Also agree it’s easy to fill up just on appetisers and bibimbap.

I love the Korean fried chicken (dakgangjeong) which by default is spicy but you can ask for no sauce or on the side. Also the seafood pancake is nice (but one is enough for the table to share). Then bibimbap (rice and veggies) is nice and the server add the spicy sauce at the table so you can decide how spicy. For mains the marinated beef (kalbi) is fantastic, pork belly OK but needs the dipping sauces and the shrimp are good. Don’t need more rice if you have a bibimbap, but there is the option to order fried rice on the side. dessert is soft serve ice cream. i don’t taste any significant black pepper on it. The kalbi beef is more sweet, soy sauce and brown sugar. As above other dishes use chilli spicy sauce (gochujang) but you can get it on the side.

If you like dancing to 90s/2000s music like Britney Spears and Spice Girls it’s a fun party. It’s normally outside on deck 15 so can be possible to stay on the quieter edges if you wish. There will be a brief “show” from the diva drag queen and the hostess at some point around 11.30 to midnight. There will be a wide range of people so I doubt anyone should feel out of place, as long as you know to expect loud music.

On Scarlet last month most people in line half hour before for popular shows like Duel Reality got in, the box office staff made sure every single seat was filled and moved some groups around to ensure there wasn’t gaps. For less popular stuff like Untitled there was no issue and a line didn’t form.

We generally leave luggage with the hotel for the morning, explore the area near the hotel and then get an Uber/Lyft to the terminal.

Apparenty there is a bus provided by the port now. https://www.virginvoyages.com/help-and-support/search?text=What can I do in Miami if I get to the terminal early?

For some reason now they had ramen closed at 3pm so it didn’t do dinner at all. But yes on my recent cruise burgers were now to midnight instead of 10pm, they also now had cookies and limited desserts to midnight.