CruisingWalter

14 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

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

Takes up to 72 hours to get a response.

14 hours ago, aviators99 said:

nd they both say "Limited View", which is a non-starter for an Alaska cruise!  Could be just that's what they put for the placeholder, but it's pretty scary to me.

Yes this is normal. You will be able to select any Sea Terrace when the time comes. This was a note I received from VV. It's the same for Rockstars and Mega Rockstars, it shows the based level of the category.  Note that you, or your TA will have to call VV to convert the deposit to a booking. 

The booking will note that this is a Limited View Sea Terrace Lock it-in Rate. Please ignore this. When the time comes to book a real voyage, and for example, the Sailor picked a Sea Terrace deposit, at that point, the Sailor can choose which type of Sea Terrace category for their voyage.

14 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

The Mega Rock Star offer sold out quickly....even without an itinerary!

It's still available this morning as an option on the form. 

5 hours ago, Lustate said:

It has been rumoured for a while now that a new suite type is coming out so maybe they have not released them yet, and will be more coming down the line when they confirm them on scarlet after the dry dock and on brilliant?

My Sailors on the Scarlet Transatlantic said they were told that Scarlet is going to get some new indoor Suite lounges and possibly a restaurant. That's the number one complaint I get from Rockstars and Mega Rockstars. Richard's Rooftop is near useless when it's windy and besides that there's not a whole lot of incentive for Rockstars. Especially if you're not going to Bimini.

The included Bar is nice, the Rockstar Agent is nice, but there is no indoor lounge or restaurant specific to the Suite guests. Folks are used to The Retreat, The Haven, The Yacht Club and soon The Sanctuary on Princess. So much is included with VV, there's not much to distinguish the "Suite Experience" from the rest of the Sailors. Now if those crewmembers were correct, it looks like VV will be making a distinction. And since Brilliant is a year away from launch, we have to expect that the same changes would be made to her as well. 

But this is all rumor until Scarlet comes out of drydock in October. 

One - this would have been a great reason to use a travel advisor, especially a Top 100 or Gold Certified First Mate. Many of them were up at 3am booking Brilliant cruises when the inventory came online. Everything was available for the first hour or so. The Panama Canal suites went first.

Sadly there are travel agents and agencies who go in and put down deposits on as many suites as they can to block them out from everyone else.  Then they can offer them 'exclusively.' If they don't sell them by final payment date, they will be released back into inventory.

I've complained about this to VV multiple times because there are VERY limited suites on the Ladyships. Allowing agents to simply grab and prevent people who actually want to book these cabins is wrong. But as of now, they continue to allow agents to do this. It's especially prevalent in the Caribbean where you'll see a standard sailing with all of the Cheeky Corner Suites gone because those are the most popular. For the most part they're just being held by TAs to resell them. 

To be fair, all cruise lines allow agents to put down deposits on pretty much any cabin on any cruise ship to hold them until final payment, but with the Ladyships there is such limited inventory because there are only 3, soon to be 4 of them. 

On the flip side of that, there are approx. 100k agents in North America alone who sell VV. So it is entirely possible that those suites were actually sold because there's only 2 LA voyages. Mexican Riviera and California Coastal. 3 counting the reposition up to Vancouver.

I would keep an eye on a future itinerary release because I would expect Brilliant Lady to come back to LA for about 4 weeks in Sept/Oct 2026 before she goes back through the Canal for the winter season in Miami. I'm hoping they have 1 Hawaii run. That would be a fun ship for the LA to Hawaii cruise.

9 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

 Cant say Im thrilled they took the opportunity to jack the price up after they saw the initial demand.

Actually that's normal although most cruise lines have automatic triggers that change the rates on the fly. Not sure why VV had to make it so obvious by taking down the website.  But normally when inventory hits a certain threshold on a specific category, the rate adjusts automatically so it's a seamless thing.  No need to 'close the store and reopen.' 

15 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

And boy did they reprice it. Very glad I put a hold on earlier!

I have a friend who booked 30 minutes before they took it offline. Saved about $1500. 🙂

On 5/7/2024 at 11:54 AM, Tralfaz1138 said:

Out of curiosity, is it something they can make after breakfast?  I'll still certainly get one, but it seems heavy for me for my normal breakfast.  I guess if they serve it "up till 11am" I could do an early lunch...

You don't need lunch when you eat one of these. 🙂  I'll get it sort of early and then go for the salad bar or the poke bowl around 2pm ish.

59 minutes ago, chefchick said:

Just went to the site….i couldn’t find anything on the Panama Canal cruises….are they sold out completely already?

They took the sailing down for an hour to reprice it. It's back with limited availability.  

The biggest negative coming from Celebrity / Princess is the pool.  It's not really a pool, more of a lounging water feature. Celebrity and Princess both have really nice pools and Celebrity has the stunning Solarium pools. VV decided their clientele doesn't care much for a pool but would rather have more sundecks.

VV's food will generally compare with the specialty dining on Princess/Celebrity.  But you have to be quick with your dining reservations if you want to score your reservations. VV's dining problem is that there isn't enough seating for everyone who wants to dine at restaurants each evening. They are working on some pop up concepts now to alleviate the crush on the main restaurants. A great reason to use a TA for VV they can score your dining reservations much easier than you will through the app.

Love the retro arcade, it's free. Private Karaoke is hilarious, you need to give that try in The Groupie. Pizza is on par with and sometimes better than Princess. Celebrity's crew is super outgoing, Princess' cruise is a little bit more reserved while the VV crew is incredibly laid back. Their not fishing for tips so their service is not 'over the top.' It's really good service and mostly friendly service, but not over the top because nobody is trying to stand out and get your tips.

@cantgetin shared my food review and it's still pretty accurate though we don't go to The Wake for dinner any longer. I have found better steaks at Extra Virgin and Pink Agave the last few times we've been on Scarlet and Valiant. The Wake can sometimes be an unnecessarily long meal as well. 

If you like Celebrity / Princess you should really enjoy yourself on VV. 🙂  

The pricing for the MerMaidens is high and they were expected to be high.

The rest of the pricing is about what I would expect. It was amazing to watch the Rockstar inventory disappear on the Panama Canal sailing. That was quick.  People are EXCITED! 

19 hours ago, Tralfaz1138 said:

Yeah, I was on a cruise for 15 nights and never ran across this burger (and I'm a huge french toast fan).  I will definitely try it on my upcoming cruise.

It's in the Burger Bar each breakfast, you honestly can't miss it if you walk by, SUPER thick toast and yummy burger. The syrup really makes it for me. 🙂

Royal Caribbean is the one cruise line we recommend set time dining. They really don't do "my time dining" well at all. I've seen massive lines on multiple ships for the my time experience. I honestly don't understand why it's so hard. Carnival actually does it best with their Hub app. You simply tell the dining room you're ready for dinner and the app will notify you when your table is ready. No need to wait in line, we were usually enjoying a lounge or some music while waiting for our table.  I've never understood why Royal hasn't incorporated something like this into their app. 

On 5/3/2024 at 5:43 PM, Cloud9 Bob said:

Ever partake in the French Toast Hamburger?

Most amazing burger on the ship. I get one each cruise. You can't do more than one. 🙂

For this year's three cruises it looks like he'll only be there for a day if that. The three Celebration Cruises overlap this year and he's scheduled to be on each ship for the first day.  I would say "no it's not worth the extra cost" for this year's Celebration cruises.  Last year had a lot more going on, this time it looks like just a photo op with Richard if you're lucky to spot him. I'd spend the money on a longer itinerary if you're looking at VV. The new Valiant Lady Winter 2025-2026 itineraries from San Juan are awesome.

5 minutes ago, chefchick said:

Can you expand on that a little more?  Living in Seattle, I would love to take advantage of that.

Basically you're going to put down a 'placeholder' deposit to go to the front of the line when the Seattle itinerary goes on sale this summer. You can purchase the Placeholder starting on May 8 according to the information released by Virgin Voyages. 

We know the first 3 MerMaiden dates. 

Sept 5-10, 2025 from NYC

Oct 17-25, 2025 from Miami

April 7-12, 2026 from Los Angeles

Seattle is May 2026 TBD. 

Did anyone have a full Alaska Season on their bingo card?  I certainly didn't. I figured a few trips to Alaska but never a full season. That's going to be wild.

16 hours ago, George C said:

I believe there is a charter filled with broadway artist , lots of music charters we annually do a 70’s music charter on celebrity. It sells our really quick did it last 6 years.

Yep the Broadway Cruise, one of the many Sixthman Charter cruises. That company is owned by NCL hence every sailing is on one of their ships. They have a charter cruise for pretty much every musical taste. 

16 hours ago, island lady said:

Keep in mind Tic Tock may not be a reliable source.  😉 

TikTok is an excellent source of information if you follow the right people. And if you follow the Cruise Spotter you'll have FOMO daily.  🙂 

12 hours ago, nelblu said:

And the best Mamma Mia on Allure.

For us it's Hairspray. But all great shows. 🙂 

1 hour ago, deltahog said:

1) Are there cruises that have MORE than one Broadway show?  Different shows on different nights?  If so, what ships, and how do I find those?

Many RCCL ships have one Broadway show and up to 2 more Original Shows that are Broadway style and often Broadway caliber. You can usually find which show is on which ship by simply going to the ship's page on their website. I know Hairspray has been on Symphony, Cats on Oasis, Grease on Harmony.  

On 4/23/2024 at 9:22 AM, cantgetin said:

You can buy it on board in another person's name (you'll need all their info, credit card number, etc.).

To my knowledge you cannot do this any longer. When they first started they allowed TAs to do this, but on the slide. It was never allowed, they just looked the other way for a long time. But last year when I purchased a bunch they told me it had to be the Sailor's credit card who was sitting there making the purchases. 

On 4/28/2024 at 4:00 PM, Oren said:

Looks like the cruise lines hold the port terminal position and then that gives them flexibility to finalize their itinerary 2-3 years in advance which makes sense. 

That's exactly how it works Port slots are negotiated and purchased up to 5 years in advance, sometimes more. It's big money for the ports. Cruise lines can change the ships listed so long as they are a size that the port can support, but buying those slots is big business. I would never want that job. 

14 hours ago, AandBmom said:

This is all very helpful so far everyone. What is the crowd like? I just got off a bliss Cruise where I found everybody to be very outgoing and social but that's a very unique demographic. Are people like that on virgin?

I find the VV crowd to be very social. The entire ship is set up for socialization in the sense that there are literally chairs and loungers almost everywhere on the ship.  It's a very chill ship during the day where you can hang with folks out by the (very tiny) pool. Or partake in the activities during the day.

One Sailor said it was like being in Summer Camp for Adults on our first voyage featured in the video link above from @cantgetin. That's kind of how it feels. Without the constraints of kids running around and 'being careful of conversation' around the little ones, there's a sense of freedom to just be you and have fun. 

The biggest differences from the other lines are the mega-yacht feel of the ship, many inclusions so you're not having pay for a ton of extras, nobody upselling a drinks/dinner package, no photographers. Because all of the decks are essentially single story, the ship feels a lot smaller than it really is. You don't have that sense of scale with the multi story atrium or promenade or central feature of so many cruise ships that's more akin to a mall or Las Vegas resort. The ladyships are quite intimate and I think that leads to more social interaction. 

Food is always subjective and since I produced that original video, The Wake is now a brunch only meal for us. We went to dinner there twice since we did that original video and it was underwhelming. Razzle Dazzle and Pink Agave are our two tops picks now and on a good night, Extra Virgin is amazing.  We've really enjoyed Dine and Dash special dinner items the last few times we've been on the ships such as the butter chicken. 

I have met folks from 18 to 80+ on the ships. If you are young at heart, you should really give VV a go.