CruisingWalter

You'll see people mention that they are holding back a certain amount of reservations. That number seems to be getting smaller based on the Holiday and New Year's feedback we've received. On our Thanksgiving cruise on Valiant it was pretty easy to walk up to most any restaurant around 8 or 8:30 except the Wake and get a seat. Feedback we received from the December and Holiday sailings is that some restaurants were overbooked even before guests got onboard. Your TA might be able to get some reservations for you even before you board, but your best bet is to get to the restaurants when you first board the ship and try for reservations. But with that sailing, you are probably not sailing full so you probably won't have all that much difficulty making reservations onboard or walking up a little later in the evening. As mentioned above, the Galley has some pretty good dinner specials now, though I still don't understand why the Ramen and Panini stations are closed for dinner.

Yes, that is correct, we were just there for Christmas/New Years and it's a part of France. Euros everywhere, no USD taken that we could see. There should be a bank in your local area that does the exchange. We were planning to do a "Death In Paradise" tour but the official tour did not run on Saturdays, the day we visited. So we did a tour of the Botanical Gardens in Deshaies, which is where the show is filmed. One location from the series is at the Gardens and we did see Catherine's Bar but did not have time to stop. But we did get a quick stop in front of the Police Station and the iconic church. Guadeloupe was one of four new Caribbean ports for us over our Christmas/New Year's cruise with Dominica, Grenada and St. Barts being the other three. Of the four, I have no need to go back to St. Barts, but the others I will gladly visit again.

We will most likely try a Yacht Club sailing at some point, but we're in no rush to do so. The drop in quality between May on the Seaside and December on Seashore was noticeable. When we have so many other choices to cruise, at the moment we're spending our money elsewhere.

It's the micromanagement of the cruise line that I'm referring to. Literally every decision onboard the ship has to be approved by Italy HQ. Every decision by the North American offices in Miami have to be approved by Italy HQ. Management onboard the ships are not empowered to make financial decisions for guests as they are on other cruise lines. They are running the management of the cruise line like the shipping company. Not how they treat the customers. However, their hotel operations are severely lacking vs. all other cruise lines. They know how to build ships and build a lot of them, but customer service is subpar at best. It was better on our original MSC Seaside sailing, but this Seashore sailing was a whole different experience.

Hopefully that's a good one for you. Celebrity has been a great cruise line. And if you have not sailed Virgin Voyages yet, you really should give that a go. We've done three so far, including an 8-night Thanksgiving Cruise with a group of 30 folks. 26 of them had never been on a VV cruise and the two things that stood out, beyond the amazing food and zero children. The ship was sold out but never felt like it. There's so much open space and there are no major gathering spots so everyone is spread out. The lack of barkers and sales pressure. Nobody trying to sell you a drinks package, a dining package, a WiFi package because there's no need. All the meals are included. You're spotted a starter Bar Tab. and the WiFi is included, along with soft drinks and gratuities. In fact there are no photographers onboard either. They were also surprised at how chill and relaxed VV is. The vloggers all concentrate on the Scarlet Night party (awesome!) and The Manor nightclub so folks think it's a big party ship when in reality, it's a very chill, mellow cruise line. If you can swing it, that 8 night Eastern Caribbean Antilles is their best itinerary from Miami, but if not, hop on one of their 5 nighters. Good luck on Celebrity! We're about to sail Oceania for Christmas/New Year's.

There's no confirmation yet that the ship is chartered. Negotiations to charter an entire ship usually take months. It's a long long contract that is customized for each charter. Cruise lines will always put cruises up for sale when they are ready in case the charter doesn't work out. My understanding is that many charter contracts fall by the wayside because the two sides can't come to an agreement. I don't think many companies realize the costs involved in chartering an entire ship. It's much more expensive than if you simply booked all the cabins. And it oftentimes involved unique menus, unique entertainment, etc... It's not just a standard cruise line sailing, so much goes into it.

Charters are available for booking for all cruise lines at any time. It's part of the cruise contract for every cruise line. All cruise lines can, and do, pull sailings for full ship charters. I've had Royal Caribbean and NCL both pull sailings for charters long after sales have started and somewhat close to sailing. And of course we all remember what VV did with Valiant Lady's launch...

We noticed that the July 13 - 27, 2025 Barcelona to Lisbon to Portsmouth disappeared from the itineraries. Reaching out to our TA it appears the booking has been 'paused for review.' Could either be a charter negotiation or they are having to alter the itinerary. We will have to wait to see if / when the sailing reappears. Just an FYI if any of you have already booked on that cruise before the pause.

First off, sorry for all of this run around. Sailor Services on the public side are a whole different experience than Sailor Services on the TA side. With VV, and really any cruise line, you really want a TA precisely for when things go sideways. They have a different group of folks they work with in addition to a direct connection at each cruise line. You're not alone with VV having experiences like this reading these forums. While you cannot transfer your booking to a TA at this time because you're paid in full, a Gold Tier or Top 100 Independent TA could still help to escalate your situation if you reach out to them. No we cannot recommend TAs in these forums because this forum is owned by a very large travel entity. Again my apologies for this terrible customer service, but hopefully you'll find a TA who can reach out to VV on your behalf.

No, it's paid in full so it can no longer be transferred.

I always recommend it as a first night restaurant. Fun way to meet some of your fellow Sailors. But on a 4 night or less, I would skip it altogether.

No, that's not supposed to happen and in our three times to Gunbae, this has never happened. Everyone gets their own dipping sauces. Next time insist they bring you your own.

As others have noted, a sort of schedule will appear about a month before your sailing, but nothing is finalized until the day of. Our schedule on Valiant Lady was changing daily so you had to keep up with it to see if the events you were wanting to do were still happening.

I forgot about that, the Happenings team was hanging out in Sip while we were doing High Tea. A few came over to hang with us, they were awesome, especially the Spark and Glow.

There are zero instructions for the passengers, so nobody knows to hit the button more than one time. Nothing in the information in the room, no simple instructions with the keypads, nothing. We were the only couple pressing the button twice, the other passengers would look at us like we were nuts when we did it. It was a complete fail on our cruise and was marginally better on the Seaside.

The entire ship is a communal space to meet others. But if you want specific locations... The Dock on the back of Deck 7. Social Club on Deck 7. On the Rocks on Deck 6. Sips Champagne Lounge Deck 6 Grounds Club on Deck 7 Those are all spaces that are generally great spaces to sit and meet with fellow Sailors, at least on our 3 sailings. Gunbae is the go-to for shared dining and the venue I recommend all my friends start with. It's a great space to meet your fellow sailors. For the other venues, unless it is requested by fellow Sailors, there will not be shared dining anywhere else. It's not like pre-pandemic where people were automatically seated with others. You have to request this and if there are not enough solo sailors requesting to be seated with 'strangers' it's not going to happen. Razzle Dazzle has multiple communal tables that might allow you to sit with others, but in most of the restaurants, you're going to need other solo sailors to give the 'ok' to sit with others. That happens quite often on any cruise ship when venues are changed last minute due to weather. You just have to ask a crew member where the event moved to. This happened to us on Princess and Carnival this past year as well. Each time the first person we asked didn't know where the new venue was, but they called a supervisor and off we went to the correct location.

I tell folks Gunbae is a great "first night" dinner. You get to meet some new folks on the ship and it's a great ice breaker for the cruise.

Oh man I'm looking forward to seeing them next month. They're coming back across the pond for the Icon of the Seas inaugural sailing. I was joking with them that i actually get to sail on her before they do! I don't think that's ever happened. I'm looking forward to another great meal with them and Stef. Might try to teach them how to make homemade pasta! 🙂

That was crazy. It was like a cruise ship came out of nowhere as we were approaching and that was 1:30pm. I supposed they had to "eat that night in the name of safety." But what do they know? They're just cruise ship captains, meteorologists, port authorities, pilots and others who have many years of training. I'm sure they made the wrong call according to many 'who know better' who have never steered a rowboat in their lives. 🙂

Oh yeah, The Cruise Spotter on TikTok has that footage. I think it was the Celebration though it might have been the smaller one, it needed a tug at the front and back to spin her around in the turning basin and then help push her into the berth. Two other ships had the tugs following along just in case.

Personally for the quality of the service and every restaurant being included along with the WiFi and Soft Drinks, I'm taking VV over MSC moving forward. I really want to like MSC, but there's just no effort on customer service including F&B.

The dipping sauces did nothing for the pork belly on the Valiant cruise. It was just grey, flavorless meat that was not enjoyable. I would not recommend it to anyone going to Gunbae.

Disney is the cruise line I compare VV the most. Many of the senior management, including the original CEO came from DCL. The level of attention to service and food is the most notable similarity. Now the thing about a Disney cruise is being so much less stressful than going to the parks and you get much more quality 'face time' with the characters. At the parks you're in a line, take the picture, move on. On the ships, you see the characters every single day and they have the time to interact with you. The video of Dr. Strange and Thor playing Boggle with guests is still one of the most fun things I've seen from those cruises. And Belle meeting up with a very special little fan every single morning to chat. You can't get those quality interactions in the parks. Now does VV's current product warrant the pricing changes? That's completely up to the consumer. Celebrity & Princess both offer many more varied itineraries thanks to having so many ships. Especially in the Caribbean, VV is rather boring repeating the same old, same old constantly. Those new 7-night itineraries for 2025 are just... boring.... and in the middle of July. I would do the 8-night Eastern Caribbean Antilles again in the winter but not those 7-night offerings in July at those prices. In Europe and the Med, VV does have some really interesting itineraries, but with one or two ships in the area, they are limited in the itineraries they can present. Celebrity and Princess both offer a great product at a lower cost, even with Princess Plus/Premier added, you can often sail on Princess at a lower cost. Premier includes 2 Specialty Dining meals so that's the most comparable to VV. Celebrity's onboard package is overpriced for what you get so you would have to compare ala carte pricing vs. VV to see if it's a good deal for you. We had an amazing time on the Sky Princess last year and are really looking forward to our sailing on Sun Princess next October. With so many dining and entertainment venues, that is truly going to be a big change for that cruise line. This is what VV is now going to be competing against. There are approx. 75 new cruise ships coming out over the next 4-5 years. Everyone else has big shiny new toys coming out at lower costs. It's going to get much more crowded in this space and VV might have to decide if they want to convert to a true 'luxury cruise line' at some point in the future to take advantage of their limited inventory. Perhaps start sending one of the ladyships on more exotic itineraries and possibly around the world ala Azamara and Oceania who also have smaller fleets. We'll actually be on the Oceania Sirena this coming Friday for Christmas/New Years. Only 650 pax. Should be quite the different experience. 🙂

I know someone who was part of a large church group on that very sailing and said they all had a lovely time. Of course none of them have ever sailed VV, but all said they enjoyed the food throughout the ship and the service. I guess if you've never been on VV you don't know. I would have a hard time turning down a free cruise, perhaps book the Rotterdam when she's back in the Florida to see what the newest ship is all about. We're planning to sail her in 24 or 25 to see what she's all about and possibly join a Group on the Nieuw Amsterdam for a Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego Panama Canal crossing. It's all about managing expectations. I would never recommend anyone come off a VV cruise and directly onto an MSC cruise 10 days later like we did, but after that initial 'culture shock' we had a good time. Except the disembarkation that was an utter cluster, but we did come in 8 hours late and about 80% of the ship decided to go "Express Self-Disembark."

As @cantgetin mentioned, you'll find some food and other reviews on my YouTube channel along with a lot of TikToks as well. You'll see all the restaurants in my review, excellent food for the most part. Some misses but that's true of every cruise line. No massive MDR, it's all restaurants plus The Galley. In The Galley you can simply sit down and place an order. Lots of folks are bringing their 'bad habits' from standard cruise lines and queueing up at the stations. There is literally no need to do that, wait staff will take your order and bring the food to you. Note that the Ramen and Panini stations and probably the Taco station will be closed for dinner. Dine and Dash, the breakfast joint, is your 24 hour food spot. Ramen being closed for dinner and not serving into late night is the head scratcher for me. Ramen is a known late late night food. I've always been curious why they don't keep that open till 1 or 2am like the Burger Bar. The trick about the Restaurants is that you must get reservations when they open up. 60 days out for Rock Star Suites, 45 days out for Sailors. The app can be very wonky so work with a good travel advisor who can make those reservations for you in the booking engine. Typically they have about 40% of reservations held back until you board the ship, but I just heard from a friend who was on Scarlet Lady this past week and they overbooked everything. Pizza is usually awesome, the Poke Bowls from the Sun Cafe on Deck 16 are often missed by Sailors because it has erratic hours. No crowds anywhere except when you get into the shows and of course that tiny tiny pool and small pool deck area. We sailed with a group of 28 folks, mostly Virgins, on a sold-out Valiant Lady for 8 nights for Thanksgiving. The comments we hear the most was "this doesn't feel like a sold out ship. When you're on Carnival or Royal, you KNOW the ship is sold out." In fact one couple said "I don't know how we'll ever go back to Carnival after this" and they were probably the most reluctant to book the cruise. They only came along because their son convinced them to join us. The biggest surprise for many, and it was true of our Group, is the Social Club. A big, fun space full of board games, trivia, game challenges and puzzling at all hours with Karaoke at night. That area is hopping all day and all night with folks just enjoying games and puzzles Casino is fully non-smoking with one room off to the side for smoking. There are very limited smoking areas outside. Get a Sea Terrace at the minimum for your first cruise. After 18 nights with the hammock, you'll never want to leave your balcony. 🙂