CastleCritic

Im there with you, if a person is bothered with the possibility of seeing something they might not agree with, Virgin probably isn't for you. I knew what I was getting myself into. But the "be yourself" aspects aren't really in your face, at all. Some male crew in very short shorts at embarkation is what I would call the 'worst' thing that I saw all trip (and I mean that in the most productive way,,,what someone chooses to wear is in the same category as other things they do...you be you). I didn't see the Diva...even once (granted that was largely because I had dinner reservations booked for the same time as sailaway Im sure the Diva was there for that). I didn't go to any shows that weren't my brand of humor or entertainment. I did my thing other people did theirs, we all had fun. There were all sorts on the ship to be sure, including the YouTubers Ben and David. I think we had about 3/4 full ship but other than a tender return there was never a line for anything. I have plans to go back with the new ship in 2026 to Panama and probably Alaska too.

If you haven't looked again, check now, I was playing around with the Panama cruise and started to see a few suites pop up (they look expensive to me but Im not a suite cruiser) and it looks like some have appeared on other sailings as well.

Hardly an expert in this space but I imagine its one of two things. I have a feeling it was financial, maybe they felt it would cannibalize passengers for the other ships when they weren't getting the load factor they needed to be profitable on those ships already. I assume they have enough cash on hand to finish out the fitting/hiring process for the ship so it shouldn't be that. Or they couldn't get the port slots they wanted for the itineraries they had in mind consistently.

I believe they are still using the AMAWaterways ships this year (that relationship is ending) so the ship part will be just fine. Cant speak for their excursions.

I got mine back the next day last year on a cruise out of Athens. I waited until the last day before you had to pay for same day as Im sure a lot of people did

good to see, Im on the sailing after this weeks and was slightly curious why she was still in that dry dock this morning.

I thought that might be the case with the number of people who had been in the galley at about 9, but I walked right off the ship, certainly took a lot longer to get an elevator up from deck 4(?) to 10 on embarkation day.

Still thats going to be what? 3-4 months of bookings, thats a LOT of phone calls that also have to be made and answered ....And I dont have an agent. Its not like I want the mermaiden or anything, but after seeing them jack up the prices as soon as the east coast started to book this week... Hopefully they release more details well before the date this all starts.

That was the case, but when I got off in Athens last year the room attendant was knocking on the door every 5-10min after 9:30 even though the 'do not disturb' light was on. Pretty sure they made the "you don't have to go home but you cant stay here" announcement at 10, in either case it happened right as I walked out of the cabin.

As the dude said “that’s like your opinion man”. You can’t please everyone but there is plenty of info out there about virgin and how they are different. If they didn’t look into it and expected royal or carnival. That’s on them. And yes I’ve done enough European river cruises to chuckle at those people. Though to be fair everyone in the cruise experience bubble does speak English so that’s what they come to expect I guess. But your comment reminds me of a YouTuber whose main complaint about a new ship was that the broadway shows weren’t ready yet. And that they should haven’t have started cruising without them.

I may be in or near that demographic if you're going with that where I think you are, but it wasn't a problem when I did a cruise with them last year(I was certainly aware of it before I booked the trip). Because it's not in your face or forced at any point in the cruise, the "open social stances" are there if you want to seek them out and completely missing if you don't. I knew of shows\events that might not be my brand of humor or entertainment and ...I just didn't do those things. And thats the genius of how they run things. If you are going to have your entire day/cruise ruined by somethings being possible...then Virgin isn't for you no. And yes I felt like the crew was happy, in fact I had dinner at Gunbae with the lead singer in one of the shows and she had nothing but good things to say about them, as did the waiter who generally brought me tangerine juice out on the stern.

I have no artifact of what time I put the form in but I got the response at 3est, so 26ish hours maybe? I do agree that it noting that the room was "lock in rate" was a little disconcerting after almost ending up on the wrong side of the Panama Canal massive price change because I didn't like the automatic room assignments I was getting and wasn't willing to accept a Guarantee room. Hopefully they DON'T require us to call them in the end to convert or thats going to be a headache for everyone involved.

Talking to my mother about maybe bringing her along with me to Alaska, Making the bed split properly into two completely separate beds rather than the L shaped version they have on the other ships.

Unscientific count on an online site says there are at least 300 central sea terraces alone still available for the Panama sailing. All the suites were sold when I looked at it at 9am est yesterday.

Well certainly Im aware of other travel industries doing that (literally had to change what airport Im flying out of to get to London in the fall because I could get 1 ticket for $1600 but the next was $2700 for the same flight/class). Yes I think its their wonky web site that doesnt help, I was still playing with it after I got my cabin and it first just refused to show pricing for rooms and then the whole thing suddenly went into an error state. Heck it took me awhile to even find the sailing in the first place because it wasn't on the default list when you clicked the button off the home page

Finally found an online agent site that shows available cabins, theres still 100s of rooms left (no suites) so maybe there is hope they will reprice at least back down to where it started the day. Cant say Im thrilled they took the opportunity to jack the price up after they saw the initial demand.

Royal Carribean getting into the game with the Icon of the Lakes class of river cruise ship. I dunno that last one there was a stretch of the Danube that felt wide and deep enough for all those ships in the Iron Gates area of Serbia (of course you'd have the problem of getting them past the locks further east)

AMAWaterways doesn't have a set dining time, i.e. you dont have to be there when they open (though most everyone shows up within about 30min) But there is certainly a limit to how late you could feasibly come and still expect to be fed.

I filled out the form earlier on the web site and haven't seen anything yet.

Yikes yes looks like everything went up about $500 per person (at least for me viewing it as a solo). I started looking when I got on and it was only really offering partial view sea terrace on deck 8 (not sure I want to listen to the manor every night on a 16 day cruise)and sea terraces on deck14. I finally got it to spit out a deck13 dead midship and I took it. for $6200 solo (plus another $700 taxes). That seemed like way high at the time. I tried to put....something...I forget what...on hold and the page 404d both times. Showing $7558 for the same room now. I guess I can trash any thoughts of needing to watch for a lower price any time soon,

My name has already been thrown out there as an AMA cruise, but yeah, I've done at this point 5 cruises with AMA with another planned for next year. As you have seen yes people basically book with one company, are happy with them and then stick with them. One plus of AMA is that the excursions are included, no extra $$ required (Viking does have included an optional excursions for a fee). I have seen 1 maybe 2 exceptions to this on AMA but it's the general rule. And yes I will plug AMAMagna if you can on the Danube, size matters.

Well my experience is going to be somewhat unique owing to the 2021'ness of it. We only had 5 people go (and there were only 40 on the ship). We left the ship about 9:30 on the bus with another I want to say about a dozen AMA passengers who had decided to get BACK on the ship and go back up the river. They tagged along with us to the palace of justice where the famous WWII trials happened then we dropped them off at the train station so they could explore before heading back to the ship. Then we drove around several "Germany of the 1940's administration" sites stopping at the zeppelin grounds, you know all the videos you see of 100s of thousands of people in an area listening to speeches? there. It's now been (as pretty much all the buildings had been) greatly repurposed and partially demolished but there is a lot of history there. A few hours later we were dropped in the town square in Pilsen to get lunch and then a small amount of tour before heading on to Prague arriving about 5 and then had a short orientation walk of the hotel area and how to get to "old town". I ended up with personal tour as the only one who wanted to do the "active walker" tour. I really enjoyed that tour, Standing on the square with a guide who was my age who was a teenager during the fall of communism just talking about differences in life experiences. Walking through what at that time was still small crowds and then ending up at the castle (and then staying there on my own for a few more hours. There was a LOT less structure to this extension than the others I have done (St Malo in France, Romania). That was the extent of the planned activity, we had an entire day to find things that interested us on our own. I ended up just kind of messing around and then trying to do the national museum right before it closed (greatly underestimating how big it was, it's a really good museum. There is a good bit you can do, I suggest a YouTube channel called "honest guide" (if you search for it as honest guide Prague it will probably be better) that shows a lot of the things you can do (and some of the less great things of the town, and tourist traps and scams). I would definitely go back.

They definitely do Nuremberg to Prague with a stop in Pilsen on the way, normally this then is followed by 3 nights in Prague,I did that in 2021 with AMA. Pretty sure they do the reverse (since we ran into a group in Prague that was about to head to a ship the next day). only AMA will advise if they will let you tag along.

No problem, the only issue is that I think both of us think a lot alike and there was a good bit of overlap in excursion choice too, If you have any further questions feel free to ask.

Never been there on viking but looking at satellite photos there are pictures of rafted Viking ships on both sides of the chain bridge right next to the tram route.