CruisingWalter

Gold Certified First Mate means you've completed all of their training that takes more than a 'few hours' but you don't necessarily have to have completed a cruise. But it does mean that you understand the product better than most. As for the 'secret society' that has nothing to do with being a TA but having sailed early and often. We were scheduled to be on one of the very first sailings but then... well we all know that story. The best TAs are the ones who don't focus on any one cruise line, but have a wide breadth of knowledge across the cruise industry. If they focus their companies on just a few select offerings, they will always steer you to those instead of finding the best vacations for you no matter who that travel partner happens to be. I would sail a lot more on VV if they had a more varied set of itineraries from Miami. It's nice when we have the two ships and I'm looking forward to our Valiant Thanksgiving. We'll be with a nice group of about 30 or so folks, most of us meeting for the first time. But when it's just one ship... Great cruise line and has definitely shaken things up, but hoping the itineraries get refreshed once Brilliant has properly launched.

The one rule with all travel, and especially cruise travel, pay zero attention to the percentage off. Only pay attention to the bottom line. Royal Caribbean is the most famous for this with their drinks packages going from say 50% to 75% off during Black Friday but the bottom line price can increase by $5. How does that happen? They simply raise the base price, then increase the percentage off. The marketing hope is that you only pay attention to the package going from 50 to 75% off and you didn't pay attention to realize the base rate also increased. Same with cruise fares and all cruise lines play the same game. Generally Black Friday sales are more about the add-ons than the cruise fares themselves. But if you're planning to 'take advantage' of any supposed sales in the near future, track the actual cruise fare or the add-on rate. Then when the 'sale' happens check to see if the cruise fare has actually gone down, no matter what the percentage of savings is.

That's not how it works. If you paid for a Central Sea Terrace, you get a $600 Bar Tab even for a solo traveler. Is your cruise 6 nights or less? Then it's a $300 Bar Tab for the cabin. $600 for 7 nights or longer. If you were only getting half because of being a Solo then your Sailor Loot would have been $50 as well. Cabin perks are for the cabin, whether it's one or two people. As I mentioned previously, we've never paid a travel agency fee in our almost 20 years of cruising and hopefully never will. The good ones take care of their clients so they build a long term relationship so the billing naturally takes care of itself.

Upon request, our TA stays up and books dinners and excursions when the bookings open. Usually around 11:30p ET.

Good TAs don't charge any fees. They are paid commission on the back end after travel. However charging research and other fees is a growing trend in the industry, most prevalent in situations like yours with a major travel entity selling cruises 'as part of their offerings.' We've been cruising nearly 20 years and have never paid a travel agent fee.

The port itself already exists. It's the major expansion to the larger cruise ships that is new. The construction is primarily happening off site with modular construction. Once the pieces arrive on site, they will go together pretty quickly. Slated to open in early 2024. https://www.cruisehive.com/new-cruise-terminal-construction-begins-near-barcelona/103505

It's an educated guess based on the fact that the new port will be able to accommodate the largest ships in the world, including the Oasis of the Seas and the World Europa. Oasis OTS currently home ports in Barcelona during the summer months. With the closure of the first pier to move the ships away from the city, it makes sense that once the new port is open, they will shift the larger cruise ships to that port. The Gross Tonnage (GT) of the ships will be the deciding factor. At 110,000 the VV ships are actually quite small in today's cruising world, but is still a rather large ship. Venice recently moved the cruise ships out and other European ports have been discussing moving ships out. The move to Tarrogona would not be unprecedented for European cruise ports

Be happy you're still in Barcelona. Those sailing in the summer and beyond 2024 should start expecting that new port to come into play. The one that's an hour drive away from Barcelona. Once that is completed I fully expect Barcelona to close their port to all cruise ships above a certain size, probably above 80,000GT, and move all the traffic to that new port.

From the beginning you could walk up during slow times, we have since our first VV cruise. It's during the busy times they much prefer you use a server and since they added the flags and the dual service system, it's much more improved.

We had a VV Rep on one of our YouTube livestreams a few months ago and she made it clear that VV was underpriced during the 'introductory phase' to get people to try out the cruise line. A normal course of business and at the time they were not concerned at all about the profit margin, just get people on the ships to show what they are all about. She also made it clear to expect that the cruise fares would be 'corrected' in the near future, certainly by 2024, to get them more in line with the quality provided. She also referenced that the investors wanted to see the pricing more in line with the service provided. This was months before the new investors were announced. You can't give away all your restaurants, serve higher quality food than most other cruise lines, and keep undercharging. Something has to give eventually. From the beginning VV has followed the Disney model which Tom brought with him from DCL. Absolute best pricing is on the day fares are released with a slow and steady increase as we get closer to sailing. I've mentioned in previous posts that our Thanksgiving cruise on Valiant next month was more than double the original fare when it finally sold out. We're seeing more cruise lines introduce this model, like Princess announced last week. Now we can expect that the introductory price will be higher than it has in the past and the end pricing will be higher than it has been in the past. VV is riding the 'best cruise line awards' that have been bestowed by many cruise trades including CC. That big discount that hit in August was an absolute fluke and something that we may not see again for a while. It's not just the new CEO making these changes, the changes have been in the works for some time now to course correct the fares. Even an MNVV with only $300 off the cruise fare is not all that much of a savings when it comes to the new pricing structure for certain itineraries. Now it's just a matter of how much will the market bear on the pricing changes? When I first saw the Disney Wish pricing for 3 and 4 night cruises I thought they were insane. But the market has proved me wrong. 🙂

It has very sporadic hours so that may be why it's not shown. Our first sailing on Scarlet we never found it open, but we did on our second sailing. You have to look in the schedule every day to see if it's open and if so, what hours. The poke bowls are better than the bao buns for me.

They are two of the nicest people you will ever meet, they really do make cruising so much fun. We're excited to sail with them again in June on the Valiant Lady.

Wow, @Stockjock thank you so very much for your kind words! I try to be fair when it comes to the food reviews because food is so subjective. I hate it when people just label an entire ship or an entire cruise line as "good" or "bad" because even when you don't have the best overall food experience, there are always nice surprises. And man that affogado in Venchi was a HUGE surprise! 🙂 And honestly one of my favorite food experiences on the ship was that second MDR dinner that wasn't the best food at all, but our server was hilarious by just being honest. Her reactions when I asked about various dishes was priceless. And she pretty much told us straight up what to expect from each of our dishes and she was right. It was a weak meal, but joking about it with her made it a fun experience. We sailed MSC Seaside not long after that CDC report and honestly had no idea what to expect. We had a fun time accepting MSC for what it is and will be on her bigger sister the Seashore in December. Happy cruising everyone! 🙂

If you have not seen it yet, there is an Inked At Sea cruise coming up September 18-22, 2024 on Valiant Lady. Not sure if we can post a link here since it's technically promoting a TA / Group Cruise company, but if you google search Inked At Sea you'll find it. Thought that might be of interest to some folks here. Here's an article on the cruise.

Thank you so much for the kind recommendation!

Virgin follows the Disney model. Pricing is the absolute best when itineraries are released and the prices slowly go up each month. Our November cruise was 2.5x the original fare when it finally sold out. The specialty coffees will come out of your Bar Tab. The Bar Tab is only useable on drinks. If you get Sailor Loot from your TA you can use that on anything. All Gold Certified TAs should be able to offer at least $100 Sailor Loot if you book a Sea Terrace or above. We did a food tour/review on our first Scarlet Lady sailing that will show what some of the restaurants are like, but some of the menus have changed of late. https://youtu.be/pBolzKvXjMU And our good friends Ben & David have some fantastic ship tours of Scarlet and Valiant on YouTube as well to give you a sense of the overall layout and flow of the ships. Just go to their channel and Search those ship names. Boarding is much later than most other cruise lines, here in Florida it doesn't start until at least 1:30p. That means your stateroom will be ready so you can drop off your stuff as soon as you're onboard. If you want to make reservations for the shows, do so as soon as your phone is connected to the ship's WiFi. If you want to make last minute dinner reservations go directly to those restaurants after you drop your stuff off in the cabin. Our 'go-to' after dropping the stuff off in the cabin is to head to The Dock on the back of deck 7. Enjoy some tapas and a good cocktail to start the vacation right. Bingo with the Diva is one of our favorite events on the ship. If loud concerts bother your ears, bring ear plugs for the top deck portion of Scarlet Night. It's LOUD. Really fun but LOUD. A hidden food gem is the Sun Cafe up on Deck 16 for poke bowls. The hours can be sporadic so you'll need to check the daily schedule. Pizza is amazing, we tend to grab one a few hours after our Test Kitchen dinner because that is a light dinner. And depending on your loyalty on those other cruise lines, you should status match. If you're at a high enough level you'll get Deep Blue Extras. Best perk is guaranteed early boarding, you'll be boarding with the first group no matter what time your check in says.

There have been a ton of those emails going out, no explanation why. But I will say their back end billing and credit card payment system has been an absolute mess for months now.

Yep that's the one. We're signed up for a Group Cruise to take advantage of the extra amenities. I'm curious to see if there will be any 4th of July fireworks that will be visible from the ship. 🙂 If I recall correctly, Klawock is going to be a single ship pier but it might be set up for two. Either way, it's definitely starting out small. I'm really looking forward to the zip line experience in Ice Strait Point.

TAs can book dinners and shore excursions for you when they're open for sale. Sailor Loot can only be used onboard. Popular shore excursions sell out quickly because VV has limited availability compared to the other cruise lines. If there is something you really want to do, book it as soon as they are open.

Not odd or poor practice at all. The payment processing system is fully automated, no human intervention. When a refund is issued, the system automatically starts with the primary form of payment. In this case, it was the TA's credit card that made the first payment for the cruise. That was credited with a refund and then the rest of the refund was credited to the second form of payment. It's the same process for most every cruise line, primary card refunded first, secondary card refunded second and so on. This is why I prefer to work with TAs who purchase the MNVVs for their clients using the client's own credit cards. You never run into an issue like this because the money is all from one source, not two.

If you have your Sailor Confirmation from your TA, that shows exactly how much Loot you have in the Add-Ons section. You should also see it in the confirmation you received directly from VV. Because Sailor Loot is only available for use onboard the ship, any Bonus Loot generally appears in your account shortly before sailing or once onboard the ship.

Razzle Dazzle has been our 'go to' of late for debarkation breakfast / brunch.

Season 8 is now filming with Ashley Jensen stepping in as the new DI. 🙂 https://britishperioddramas.com/news/shetland-season-8-filming-scotland-2023-phyllis-logan/

Good thing we work with one of those. 🙂 Though with so many travel partners, their logo list would get a bit messy on a website. 😅

I appreciate all the input!