CruisingWalter

If all goes smoothly on arrival, you should be able to start walking off at or about 7am if you have Self Disembark.

With VV it's quite expensive for back to backs plus it's all just Western Caribbean, that's boring. With real 10 - 14 night itineraries the ships can go deeper into the Caribbean like to the ABC islands and beyond. Look at the Celebrity 10 - 14 night itineraries.

Bella = Guarantee Fantastica = Stateroom Selection Aurea = Spa category. There are Spa amenities that come with the Aurea category that do not come with the Bella or Fantastica category. The cabins are identical, but usually the interior decor is a little different to set them apart from everyone else. If you want the Aurea cabin you have to pay for it. It's the same across all cruise lines. Aqua Class cabins are identical to Verandas on Celebrity. Cloud 9 Spa cabins are the same as standard Balconies on Carnival. The cruise lines partition out specific cabins to be part of a different class with a different set of amenities than the standard cabin. For MSC it's Aurea.

We've sailed 9 cruise lines so far including NCL. MSC is its own cruise line and the biggest thing to understand is that when you pay far less compared to other cruise lines you cannot expect the same level of experiences across the ships. Something will have to give and most notably coming from NCL will be the entertainment. The shows are entertaining on MSC but they are nowhere near the level of NCL or Royal Caribbean who invest millions in their theaters and shows. The pools are much deeper, larger and generally more plentiful than NCL. We found both the MDR and Buffet better on the MSC Seaside than the NCL ships we've sailed so far. NCL has amazing specialty dining but their MDR and Buffet tend to be pretty weak. As others have noted the "Experiences" are confusing at first but they're actually very straightforward. Just MSC being 'cute' with their stateroom category labeling. Bella = Guarantee. No stateroom selection, you book categories only. Fantastica = Stateroom selection, you can pick your stateroom (the majority of the ship) Aurea = Spa Category. Yacht Club = Ship within a Ship with 24 hour butler and amenities. I did an overview of the MSC Seaside from our sailing in May / June that might help you prepare for the MSC experience. It's a good cruise line with great value, but if you go in with the mindset expecting it to be 'like NCL' or 'like Royal Caribbean' you will be disappointed.

The booking engine will keep that cabin on 'hold' for a short period of time, but usually within the hour the cabin opens back up. TA and Agent booking engines work differently than the public websites for all cruise lines. That can lead to the very situation you describe when someone cancels. You see it online, but the agents can't actually access it for whatever reason. I've seen folks post about similar situations across Cruise Critic. We've sailed 9 cruise lines so far so we're in a bunch of these forums. If the MSC agents can't change it, perhaps talk to your TA to see if they can get it changed through their contacts. They have both a direct line to call MSC agents and they should have a specific MSC rep to contact. Our TA has been able to 'make some things happen' when the 800 call centers can't. Not all the time, but on occasion it works out. Regardless of your cabin, you're on a cruise ship being tended to 24 hours a day, have an amazing time! 🙂

I don't know how Scarlet Lady does it, but most cruise ships have spotters on the back of the ship for these very reasons. Optical illusions can play hell with a 1000' long, 13+ story tall structure, especially in the darkness. There was a human failure somewhere here because that was flat calm in the turning basin. Pure and simple human error in lining up that ship.

And for those of us who live in Florida and want to beat the morning traffic home, the fact that so many people spend their last morning a bit more leisurely means we can walk into Razzle Dazzle around 6:30a (or whatever time they open) and be on our way about 45 minutes later. 🙂

Depending on the cruise, sometimes the cruise lines will hold back cabins for the bidding process. Other times they are getting a waitlist together on the hope that those in lower suites will upgrade to the higher suites. And lastly they are setting up a waitlist so if someone cancels, they can fill a higher level cabin rather than let it go empty. This is how every single cruise line works now with the bidding process. Your chances of getting a suite wholly depend on how full the ship is and how high your bid is compared to the others if your cabin of choice opens up.

Because it's been over 100 degrees in Miami for the past few weeks. Probably crew members running in the darkness. We've been pegged at around 103 for the better part of two weeks here at our home in the Orlando area.

What I absolutely do not understand is why she was still executing her turn while backing up. She typically executes the full turn/spin in the turning basin and then backs in when she is lined up. Almost as if someone was trying to shave a few minutes off unnecessarily. I will say that was a remarkable job by the Port Miami team to get the ship not only fixed up but to also get the paint and lettering touched up was beautiful. Well done by that team.

And that's the best attitude. You're on a cruise ship being waited on 24 hours a day. How bad can it be? Have an AMAZING time on your cruise! 🙂

So if I get this straight, you're upset with MSC for an accident that happened at 3:30am resulting in one person being killed and the Port channel being closed until about 3:30pm. You're upset because MSC did not provide good service during an unexpected event that kept the ships out of the port beyond their control. I have friends who were sailing NCL that same day. They were waiting in the terminal as well, with very few updates from NCL but it was incredibly easy to keep up with what was happening on their phones. Social Media, local news, etc... so incredibly easy to know and understand why the ships are out there. Heck the Port of Miami has a live webcam that was showing the salvage operation in the pier in real time to retrieve the yacht where one person died. THAT's why the ships were not permitted into the channel, there was a salvage barge raising the yacht to clear the channel. You would have known this by simply scanning social media or the local news with your phone. My friends were watching the port webcam along with many other passengers around them. NCL did not offer any food beyond the vending machines so you know what my friends did? Ordered pizza themselves for them and a bunch of others hanging around them. Yes, they ordered their own food and made the best of the situation rather than wait and complain that NCL wasn't taking care of them. What else could they do, there was literally nothing any cruise line could do to make the salvage operation or police investigation go any faster. Judging any cruise line by this very unique situation and then blaming them for lack of whatever is misguided. We've sailed 9 cruise lines so far and all of them are awesome and all of them are annoying. But I would never discount any cruise line because they didn't appease me during a very difficult terminal situation.

On our recent Seaside 7 night cruise it was all over the place at night. Some men wearing basketball shorts and tank tops at night and women wearing shorts to men and women looking like they stepped out of a fashion magazine. And on the 70's themed night, there were some absolutely incredible outfits. For me it's jeans or dress jeans at night with either a polo or button down shirt each evening. I gave up with 'fancy dress' years ago, I'm on a cruise I really don't want to bring dress clothes. 🙂

Nope. Some TAs stopped carrying MSC when all the negative reviews started dropping, and I understand their commissions are not all that great. Makes sense when you look at the pricing. But there are plenty of TAs out there still supporting MSC. We got away from the 'big box' TAs and moved to more personalized experiences now.

In my experience, Airfare tends to be higher, sometimes much higher, through VV than what you can book independently. Your travel agent should be able to compare VV Air vs independent flights easily for you. So many non-alcoholic options including some of the best mocktails at sea. My wife said the mock bloody mary she received at the Wake was the best bloody mary she's ever had period. Fresh pressed juice, all the soda he can drink, excellent coffee from the Grounds Club and much more, he'll be well taken care of with and without the Bar Tab. The Bar Tab credits are not from your travel agent, they are from Virgin Voyages. Right now $300 Bar Tab for 6 nights or less, $600 for 7 nights or longer for anyone via the website. That's for the cabin, both of you will share that and you can buy drinks for others if you'd like. That's why the Bar Tab is my favorite 'drink package' at sea. You don't run afoul of the 'drink police' if you try to buy a drink for someone else. It's openly encourage because it's literally a tab you have to spend at the bar, coffee shop and the fresh juice stand. Some travel agents are offering included Sailor Loot which is another awesome reason to book with TAs. We have a full playlist on our YouTube channel from our first sailing with Scarlet Lady that might help to better understand VV and how it compares / differs to everyone else. The food alone is worth the price of admission. And the San Juan itineraries are the best in the Caribbean for VV. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8wFV2tZMxXq3Lbmd6VbXJdMNQEzc8SqH

The ship is slightly modified so she can fit through the Panama Canal, but otherwise you should expect more of the same from VV. They have purposely made all four of their ships more or less identical so you don't waste time trying to 'figure out the new ship.' San Juan has the best Caribbean itineraries for VV other than the 8 Night Eastern Antilles when there are two ships in Miami. With the ship already starting that deep in the Caribbean she has so many more interesting ports than the 5/4 loops out of Miami, which honestly get boring after a while. VV, NCL VIVA and Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas will all be home ported in San Juan starting in January thanks to the $400+M in new improvements happening down there. When the new terminals & piers are finished and the original pier and terminal are renovated, they will be able to house at least 8 ships per day. The new terminal/pier are being built specifically for home porting new ships. I'm not sure if that will all be done by January, but that's the plan announced back in 2022. I'm excited for Brilliant Lady sailing out of San Juan, we have a bunch of friends already booked including the Miami to San Juan holiday sailing. I'm not sure if we'll make it for the first season, but definitely plan to sail from San Juan sooner than later. Here's one of the articles from last year about the $400M+ investment. https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/puerto-rico-to-launch-425-million-san-juan-cruise-port-upgrade And here's a guide from the San Juan tourism site: https://sanjuanpuertorico.com/cruises/

cruisemapper is a great resource to find out how many ships and potentially how many people will be port during your stop.

That's the most important statement of your entire post. MSC IS priced so they are too good to pass up, cheaper than Carnival very often. With that low cost comes a tradeoff. You pay more, sometimes a LOT more for Royal Caribbean because you are paying for the bumper cars, the flowrider, ice rink and everything else with your cruise fare. You can't pay a lot less and then expect the same level of amenities. Something has to give. We've cruised 9 different cruise lines and the worst thing you can do is expect any cruise line to be 'just like X.' Every cruise line is unique and every cruise line so far has been a great value for what we paid. The shows are free but they are not to the same level as Royal Caribbean. You're paying less so you don't get the millions invested into original shows like Royal Caribbean, NCL and Princess. They're entertaining, but not the same level. Buffet in some respects is better than Royal Caribbean but can have less variety. MDR was far superior to Royal Caribbean on MSC during our recent Seaside sailing, our first with MSC. Specialty dining is about even. I much prefer Ocean Cay to CocoCay because I like the natural feel of it and we had an overnight which was just amazeballs. You might want to read the review I posted on here as someone brand new to MSC, who has been cruising for 20 years and sailed having read all the negativity about the ships and that 67 CDC score. It might help to allay some of your fears and set your expectations properly for MSC.

And here's a satellite image from Google with a circle around the entrance. 🙂

As pointed out above. Garage G is literally right next to the terminal. You drive all the way around it, the entrance is on the back after you go past the terminal. Stay in the far left lane. The entrance is between the "M" and the "C" of "North American Way" in the image provided by CineGraphic.

That's true for every single cruise line. 😅 And actually many cruise lines have the lift already in place with at least one of the pools. that's what we've seen on Princess, Celebrity and others. If you need any help with the video, ping me. Always happy to lend some help. 🙂

Gotta love it when a social media team is able to smoothly slide into another brand's thread.... 😅

One of our friends and fellow content creators recently filmed a scene onboard the Scarlet Lady showing the portable pool chair lift in operation. Because it's not permanently mounted at the pool, many folks may not realize there is an accessible lift that can be brought out by the crew. Wanted to share because accessibility onboard the ship is not something we talk about all that often in this thread. Actually a very cool operation and nice to see that it's available. Now I wish they would install a step for the rest of us so we don't have to make that huge step up from the deck. 🙂

From what we've been reading, the focus of the company has been on the launch of the ships. Getting them ready on time and having successful launches. In particular ensuring everything is on track with BL. With the complexity of global port scheduling I'm ok if they take their time and get it right. I'd really like to see expanded Caribbean itineraries from Miami moving forward. The same loop of 4/5 when there is one ship in port is getting old. I've even sent emails to the "Contact Us" on VV's website asking if they can sprinkle in some 7's, 10's and 14's from time to time just to shake it up and give us something other than the same continual loops. The BL itineraries are honestly the best in the Caribbean for VV other than the 8 night Eastern Antilles when there are two ships in Miami.

No because they will have four ships for the first time. And we will have one ship that can go through the Panama Canal opening the West Coast. From what my TA told me, VV was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Valiant and Scarlet in Miami together. I was told VV is taking a good long look at how to maximize their brand globally. And if you look at other cruise lines, there are limited schedules after Dec. 2024 so everyone in the cruise industry is rethinking their ship deployments. Celebrity just suddenly pulled Beyond from the Med and moved her to year round Caribbean, probably as an answer to VV. It's getting increasingly difficult to get port schedules together because the cruising world is getting crowded. Berths are secured 2 to 3 years in advance. VV is new to the game so they don't have the longstanding relationships of the other major players. It's probably there are itineraries they are trying to negotiate space or looking at ports that are growing with more space. I've read some articles in the past about port scheduling and it's a job I would not wish on anyone. It's easy to whiteboard new itineraries all day long. It's a much different matter for the negotiators who have to deal with hundreds of calls and meetings to try to make those ports happen. 🙂 From what I've read and heard from others, mid to late August sounds like when we'll start to see itineraries show up.