Raiders4Life32

LMAO at people criticizing this guy's opinion on a website with the word "Critic" in it. Not all of us us are VV fanboys/fangirls and just offer our own opinion based on previous experience. I tried TK 2 years ago on our voyage and felt the same way he did. It was my least favorite meal of the entire time on board. I'm hoping on next week's voyage that it's improved, but not holding my breath. 

Topless sunbathing up on The Perch on the top deck. 

I am an expert in this area as I now own 4 of these hammocks since sailing VV previously. The one you want from Yellow Leaf is called the "Chair Hammock". 

https://www.yellowleafhammocks.com/collections#hanging-chair-hammocks

I've grown up on cruise ships with my family (I'm 48 now) and always took the bridge/engine room tours growing up. I remember when I was 10 or 11....my parents booked us a cruise on Royal Caribbean's Song of Norway. On the first at-sea-day, my dad and I took the bridge tour. Obviously it was a different era, but I remember the captain putting me in his pilot seat and allowed me to physically steer the ship. If I turned left, the ship responded....LOL. He also let me honk the horn of the ship while we were underway. Obviously this will never occur again, but those were some fun times on cruise ships.

We are doing MRS in a month on Scarlet Lady. My best friend is celebrating his 50th Birthday and he reserved the Massive MRS Suite. My wife and I are just down the hall in the Fab Suite. We sailed in the same exact cabin about 2 years ago and loved the experience. I didn't do a bridge tour last time and would be highly interested in doing this. I'll make sure to request it when we get on board....thanks for the insight!

I brought my drone on my last NCL cruise to Mexico out of Los Angeles. I simply put it inside my backpack and carried it on. The security didn't blink an eye. The key was removing the propellers beforehand and storing them in my checked in luggage. This made it nearly impossible to identify what it was going through the x-ray machine and they just ignored it. I never flew it from the ship and only flew it in port.

The VV app just started to function properly once again and I was able to make dinner reservations for our group. 

Appreciate your responses...thanks! 

Today is officially 60 days until our Feb 2nd Cruise on Scarlet Lady. We are mega rockstars on our upcoming cruise and dining reservations are supposed to be available. However, whenever I go into the VV App it glitches. The app asks me for a time and party size, but when I click on the available restaurants it does not allow me to make a reservation and it reads "No Bookings Needed". It shows this for all restaurants, even the ones I know from previous cruises that I do indeed need a "booking" like Test Kitchen, Extra Virgin, The Wake, etc. Any ideas of what I could be doing wrong or is this par for the course for the Virgin Voyages app?

I watched this program with my kids and it's 90% of the reason we booked one of the newer NCL ships (Bliss). Once they saw the go-cart track, they went crazy and wanted to go on one of these shps. This is a fantastic program and one for all true cruise ship addicts to check out. 

Have a great sailing! My parents are also on this voyage with you. 

Saint Greg....I love your style! You and I would get along great on one of these cruises. This thread has kept me entertained for a few days....keep em coming bro.

Long Beach port is exclusively the LA port for Carnival Cruises. Carnival bought the old Spruce Goose dome/hanger and converted it to a cruise port years ago. There is only room for one ship to dock at a time.  Most days, there is a Carnival ship docking there between the weekend and 7 day itineraries. The other space for mooring is permanently reserved for the Queen Mary. There just isn't room for anymore ships. 

If I were sailing out of San Pedro, I'd just stay in one of the nice hotels along the waterfront in Long Beach. In the morning for boarding, it's a quick 10 minute ride across the bridges to the San Pedro. Just my $.02...

No TA cruises for our family, but we sailed on the MS Skyward in 1984 out of Miami on an Eastern Caribbean 7 day. We also used to sail on the MS Southward out of Los Angeles on the weekend cruises all the time. These were older smaller ships, but we always had a fantastic time. As a teen I used to love playing pickup basketball on the top aft deck on the Southward.  

I was wondering the same thing. We just booked this cruise a few days ago. When I informed my 11 year old daughter about this cruise, her first reaction was, “…but what about Halloween and trick or treating?!?!” Halloween will be the embarkation day so I am wondering how much they’ll actually be able to organize as this day is usually hectic for the staff. 

Those are some incredible pictures and thanks for sharing! Iceland has now made it's way on to my bucket list after seeing that scenery. I hope your next crossing to Greenland goes smoothly....

My parents (Neil and Jo Anne) are on this same voyage and are part of the "80" that stayed on through Dover to complete the journey to New York eventually. If you play trivia or gamble in the casino, there is no way you would not know my mom JoAnne.  She is a character and highly involved in the daily trivia contests. 

I hope you are enjoying your voyage now that you are healthy and recovered from your bout with Covid!

I went to Costa Maya a few years ago while on a NCL cruise and it was highly forgettable.  It's like a fake port, fake Mexico, like something you would see at Epcot Center or Disney. The town was only built to give cruise ships a place to dock, but there was nothing authentic about the port itself unless shopping at Diamonds International is your kinda thing. On our Virgin Voyage this past May, we just stayed on the ship and treated it like an at-sea day. If Virgin doesn't switch up their ports out of Miami, I don't think we would rush to go back for another cruise and we absolutely loved the ship itself. I think they are truly missing an opportunity to take control of the premium West Coast cruise market here. 

5 hours ago, drewdawg199 said:

spoke to the Tom McAlpin, the CEO, last night onboard, specifically asked him about west coast.  He said there are no good ports on the west coast (I tend to agree), so it didn't sound like they were even considering it anytime soon.  I also asked about Cuba, he said if the Gov't opens up Cuba, they will be there the next day.

Costa Maya and Puerto Playa are not the greatest ports either. I love the resort in Bimini, but the other ports are time-wasters with not a ton to do. I'd take Cabo San Lucas over those ports anyday.  

Add me to the West Coast request list.  They could just do Cabo and back for a 4-5 day and it would sell out.  All we have is garbage Carnival ships out of L.A. at the moment.

We received our bands at check-in as well.  I'd rather have it done this way because it's one less thing to pack and worry about.  

10 hours ago, CustomerCare said:

We have been really disappointed so far with the complete lack of comms and guidance for our cruise next Friday.  We understood we would have access to an agent to help us before the cruise which we have received zero details for or contact.  We have received no notice of advanced booking windows for suite passengers and we still don't know boarding times etc for the ship.  We have been on the app today and seen there is no availability at the speciality restaurants and the slots available fail when you try to book them.

 

Is this lack of engagement normal with Virgin Cruises as this is diabolical compared to all other cruise lines I have cruised with?  Im left dreading the cruise now and feeling like I have been upsold this suite features which are non existent (the invisible rock star agent!)

We just got off Scarlet Lady a week ago and also sailed as Mega Rockstars.  We were contacted about 1-2 weeks out to arrange our transportation to/from the ship.  We made dinner reservations on the app, but as others have said, as soon as you board and arrive at your suite, your Roadie will be there to book any/all things you would like.  He almost seemed disappointed that we had already booked everything on our own through the app.  Any time slot were available for us for any restaurant or show....you will have no issue at all.  We like to eat late at 8:30/9:00 and we were often some of the only people in the entire restaurant for these time slots.  We could have easily walked up to any restaurant without a reservation at this time.  He also asked for anything special you would like in the room.  I requested a bottle of Buffalo Trace, extra water/ice for the cabin to be placed everyday without us asking and a few other items.  

As far as boarding time, nobody boards before about 2pm.  We strategically planned to arrive at the port at 1:30pm to minimize waiting around in the lounge for boarding.  This was the perfect time to show up because as soon as we got our wristbands, showed our negative COVID tests and checked in, boarding began and we were some of the first to board.  We skipped the champaigne party in The Manor and went straight to our suite where we were instantly greeted by our Roadie. Luggage showed up about a half hour later.  It was truly seemless and easy. 

Just like you, I found it sort of odd that they didn't contact us beforehand in advance, but once on board, all my concerns were alleviated.  You are going to have an incredible time!!!!  Enjoy...

16 hours ago, godzukihop said:

Can any recent VV cruisers share their procedure. I was told today we need a negative Covid test no older than 48 hours at embarkation, but the person on the phone was not 100% sure if they offered testing at the port. Walgreens is talking about booking an appointment on line, just not sure if there is an easier way.

I just sailed on Scarlet Lady out of Miami a week ago.  They now offer two options....port testing where you wait 20-30 minutes for a result OR arrive with a lab produced PCR Test within 48 hours of sailing.  Most people seemed to show up with a lab produced PCR Test so boarding was a breeze.  Even for the people who chose to get tested at the Port, the waiting time seemed to be minimal.  Hope that helps you.....and enjoy your voyage!

1 hour ago, barbiecruiser27 said:

Last night we dined at the wake. Our favorite!! The filet, lamb, clam chowder, and twice baked potatoes can’t be beat!! We plan to dine here night 4 again it’s so amazing. We also dined during sail away and had the best view from our table. We did lunch at the galley upon boarding. Everything was amazing. The food on this ship is no joke!! We spent most of our evening in the casino since we had already seen the untitled dance party on our last cruise. The occupancy on board is 650! Insane feels like we own the ship. 
 

As far as the Walgreens test. I scheduled maybe a week in advance for a Monday test in my town. I did the Rapid NAAT and testing was done at the pharmacy drive thru. Very easy and worth avoiding port testing for sure. 
 

I’ll be sharing a more thorough review once back but wanted to give a brief update!

Crazy that there are only 650 people on board a ship that size!  How are the app and Wifi working so far?  I've read a lot of people previously complain about issues with both of those things.  

I have had Noro twice in my life as well.  One time after eating at a cheap Vegas $10 buffet while in college and the other on board a Holland America cruise in my 20's.  Completely agree with your assessment....miserable feeling for several days and couldn't eat anything solid for about a week each time.