jon81uk

Usually there is slight themes to them like Heartbeat, Studio 72 etc. But again the one the other night that was just listed as club night is unusual because it’s the transatlantic.

This is unique to the transatlantic, on most other itineraries the Manor will be open every night (unless in port overnight). Whereas on a 14 night trip they know people won’t have the stamina to stay out every night. Heartbeat is on tonight which is one of my favourite club nights!

Third menu is coming in July this year for food month and will then become permanent. Not clear yet whether a menu will be removed.

Although I do think with the no reservations for shows they are getting every single seat filled, whereas before the Red Room often had a lot of empty seats despite the app saying it was “sold out”.

Sea is definitely more rocky this evening

Bit rocky today but not terrible

Generally on embarkation day most of the casual dining places like Galley stations and The Dock open at 1.30pm as soon as people board. Brunch stops at 10am. So for those doing I expect b2b you’ll need to wait til 1.30pm to get lunch.

Got Ship Eats delivered this morning and our four portions of drip coffee came in flasks with plastic cups to pour it into. The half and half was in paper cups. But also each flask does almost two cups, so the four portions is actually closer to eight coffees with milk!

Thats unusual as we’ve always had the drip coffee delivered in small flasks and only speciality coffee like americano come in paper cups. How many servings did you order?

It will appear in the schedule in the app about a week before the cruise. I don’t think it’s possible to find out earlier.

Are you sure it was book and not just add to agenda?

I expect it depends on the layout of the port and stuff like how walkable it on whether they run a shuttle or not. On VV we’ve had shuttles at Mykonos, Ibiza and Funchal (this isn’t an overnight stop).

In Ibiza we returned to the ship at 3-4am, the shuttle bus even ran all night.

I’ve done the same and used the purple one. I also only wore the blue one for the first few days for the drink party and the boarding .

those who have deep blue extras and therefore get the early boarding get a plain blue non-removable wristband to designate they have the priority boarding. This applies to anyone who has deep blue, sea blazer, rover or other. the keepsake band for sea blazer is just a keepsake.

Back on my first few VV cruises the VHS workout was always first come anyway. I was surprised last year when they wanted to scan my band!

It’s usually at The Perch (but may be in On the Rocks if bad weather). There is sangria or sparkling wine and glasses are constantly topped up so you will get plenty. Usually the solo guitarist is playing. The Splash of Romance party is the same.

You can now book brunch in the app, same as dinner. This changed about 6-12 months ago. Before that it was book onboard. I’ve already got my reservation for brunch on Monday

No it only applies to the one booking it is bought for. You can’t carry it forward even if doing B2B. Only way round it slightly would be to buy bottles and store them for the next leg of the b2b. Or you buy one for the seven night and more for the 14 night.

If you cruised twice before the end of 2023 then you get the deep blue perks until the end of 2025. At present it’s not known what will happen in 2026 and whether people will get downgraded if they haven’t done four cruises by then. oh for people who didn’t qualify in 2023 its that you get the deep blue benefits on the fifth cruise, you need four to gain them. For blue extras it’s two to gain them on the third. So for you about to do a third and if you don’t do any more, it could mean you don’t get deep blue in 2026 if they choose to downgrade.

Will be onboard this time too, our seventh Virgin voyage and second transatlantic as did the westbound in October 2022

I think the problem comparison is when someone allows their trip to be ruined by it and constantly things “this isn’t as good as it was on X” or “X did it this way and that was better” or “I’d be much happier with a drinks package”. comparing things is fine, but allowing the comparison to ruin the thing you are currently doing is counter-productive.

There are solo meet ups to go and meet others who want people to meet up with. But generally we’ve got chatting to people at the PJ party and similar events, at dinner as the tables are still fairly close together, at Gunbae as it’s a shared table and just generally on the ship.

I’ve personally not had a problem booking for four, but only done it once in a standard cabin and once as rockstar (so earlier at 60 days). The major thing to remember when booking 45 days out is less than half the reservations are available to book, the others are held back to book onboard. Therefore you’ll likely be able to move things around once on the ship.

Yep you can link the bookings (or get TA to do it) and will then be able to book others for meals. Also linking will give a bottle of sparkling wine for each cabin.