McGarrett5oh

One of the best and most complete live reports I’ve read on Cruise Critic. Thank you!

Is laundry provided (without cost) for Sky Suite Retreat cabins? Thanks!

We live in the Tampa Bay area and up until last night (9/27/22), we were in the dead center of the path of the Hurricane Ian. So, a couple of days ago I called Virgin to see what our options were to cancel. We had bought their "Voyage Protection" insurance (really pretty inexpensive comparatively) when we booked directly on their website a couple of months ago and it includes coverage for: "a documented weather condition preventing You from getting to the point of departure for Your Trip" When we originally spoke with a Virgin Voyages "Crew Member" on the phone, they confirmed that this is a coverage and that if we wanted to take advantage of it, we would need to cancel at least 48 hours before departure and then file with AON Affinity Insurance, who issues the policy. I decided to call AON afterwards to confirm what Virgin Voyages told me. AON did confirm everything. I asked what we would need to submit (which is done online and looks straight forward). They said we would need to submit: Advisory Proof of the Hurricane (newspaper or other media) Cancellation Invoice from Virgin Trip Itinerary And it would takes about 30 days and we would get 100% of Fare back (less the cost of the insurance). Any cancelled shore excursions or bar tabs would be refunded by Virgin. So yesterday (72 hours before departure), I called Virgin to either cancel, or see if I could just reschedule the cruise. I explored the cancel option first with the Crew Member, who at first, was confused about the AON coverage allowing us to cancel due to the "documented weather event". I will give him a pass on that because, after considering the options of cancelling and waiting on the refund from AON, what we really wanted to do was take a cruise! We asked about moving our reservation to the same 5-day Dominican Daze scheduled for November 11th, 2022. The crew member couldn't have been nicer and informative and we made the change, rebooking us and we just needed to pay the difference between the promotional fare we booked for the original cruise and the promotional fare in place for November. It cost us an additional $222 total (regular Sea Terrace cabin), however, it also included their November "Free $300 bar tab" promotion, so we will net a less expensive cruise (as we would have bought the tab)! We received email confirmation of the change and the app was updated showing the new cruise dates before I hung up. The only thing we had to do was rebook our dinner reservations for the new dates on the app. So, bottom line, the experience with Virgin Voyages and AON Affinity Insurance could not have been better. It was easy, hassle free and very positive.

Reading this thread and focused on whether one is “assigned” to either Luminae or Blu, we are in an Aquaclass Sky Suite in the Retreat on the Beyond and wonder if anyone knows which restaurant we would be “assigned” to - meaning no need to make a reservation. Thanks.

Did you follow a specific hiking path and if so, could you share sometime. Great photos. Thank you!

We are booked in a Prima 2 bedroom Haven cabin next September with our son & daughter-in-law. While the video does make the cabin look sparse and I wonder about storage and we don’t have a previous Haven 2 bedroom cabin to compare it to, a couple of thoughts: 1. What appealed to us was the REAL private 2nd bed and bath for them, the larger balcony and the Haven amenities. I couldn’t find a better deal for 2 cabins in the Haven and really didn’t want to share a bath and/or have the living room sofa fold out each evening in one of the other “reasonable” Haven options that can accommodate 4. 2. From our past cruise experiences, OUR particular lifestyle with our adult kids is spending more time on the balcony and around the ship than sitting inside the cabin. Mornings and evenings we’ll each have our own personal space until we meet up to go about our day. 3. I would imagine NCL will respond to feedback from their guests in this type cabin over the next many cruises and make the adjustments they can, short of moving walls (e.g. trying to get that coffee bar or granite shelf installed that previous posts have mentioned) Anyway, that’s just my perspective. Sea you soon!

I may have heard there is a catch below each of the infinity pools since there is no traditional railing should someone in the pool try to go to “Infinity & Beyond” 🥹

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced today it will hold an investor and analyst event on Thursday, October 6th at 10 a.m. Eastern Time in New York aboard the Company’s newest ship, Norwegian Prima. The event will be simultaneously live streamed to all interested parties via the Company’s Investor Relations website. https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28254-norwegian-cruise-line-holdings-to-hold-investor-event-in-new-york.html

Thanks for the great reports. What was the explanation for cutting Kiel short?

Thanks for the review! We too are taking this Virgin Voyages booked excursion. We wonder if you could add any more detail such as where you had lunch and what other stops you made in town? Also how long they gave you up on the mountain top? Thank you.

At the Bimini Beach Club, Virgin offers a 1-Hour Painting Workshop. Has anyone tried this and can offer a review? Thank you.

We're booked on the 9/30/22 cruise and looking forward to it especially after reading all the positive reviews around the interweb. Sure there are could-a-shouldas but it sure seems like VV is on the right path. We've been receiving the VV emails since they launched and their message finally had some impact on us. That said, it took some digging & research to still get past the "party on Garth" initial impressions to be able to see that there is alot more there there. We're in our 60s but also consider ourselves to be only 40ish. 🤸‍♀️🤪 If you're thinking about giving Sir Richard's Navy a whirl, here are two YouTube Videos that helped us get over the hump. Walter has really good cruising videos for Scarlet Lady and many other ships. Great resource! https://www.youtube.com/c/WheresWalterTV This one is good tour once you get past the Spa (IMHO):