CruisingWalter

That 'fantastic offer' is available to anyone. It's called a 'My Next Virgin Voyage' certificate that you buy onboard the ship. VV is one of the few cruise lines that you can turn that placeholder voyage around to anyone else. So the TA simply purchased that MNVV onboard for $300 and then resold it to you having you pay the full deposit to make up for their $300 purchase. Hopefully they also gave you an additional $300 off the cruise fare from the publicly advertised prices for your cabin. That's part of the deal too. There are quite a few TAs who purchase these MNVVs to resell. Be sure to purchase at least one for yourself while onboard, it's only $300 out of your pocket that goes towards your deposit, $300 off the cruise fare and the $600 OBC. You can purchase up to 10 of these onboard, but you must sail within 2 years. So in effect, when you purchase an MNVV onboard yourself, you pay $600 less than the advertised price at the time you book your next cruise. The Bar Tab just happens to be the public special VV is running right now, they've been running that since before Christmas. $300 for 6 nights or less, $600 for 7 nights or longer on all voyages. VV allows you to combine the current offer with an MNVV As for VV, the cruise line is for those of all ages who are young at heart. "Summer Camp for Adults" is how the Gamer described it on our first sailing and it's honestly true. Unlike any other cruise line out there, so casual and relaxed. If they had a larger pool it would be the perfect cruise line for us, but so many others simply don't care that it's a lounge pool. We've sailed Scarlet Lady twice and will be on Valiant Lady for Thanksgiving. One of my favorite things was discovering The Groupie on my first cruise and laughing more than I have laughed in a long time. One thing you might find a bit lacking will be the Shore Things. VV really goes deep into sustainability, environmental support, animal welfare and supporting smaller local operators. Because of some stringent criteria, their shore things are much more limited than what the other cruise lines offer. We have honestly not purchased any Shore Things yet and have gone with third party operations. It's admirable what VV is doing, but it does limit your options somewhat if you want to book excursions through the cruise line.

MSC corrected the CDC issues almost immediately after the inspection. We sailed on Seaside a few weeks ago and had an awesome time onboard. It was our 9th cruise line in nearly 20 years of cruising and we would gladly sail MSC again. It wasn't perfect by any means and when you pay less for a cruise, you have to set expectations properly. MSC has absolutely nothing to do with the fire suppression panels failing inspection, that's the 3rd party manufacturer who has those panels installed in over 40 cruise ships currently operating. On the fire panels, you're completely off base unless you're going to criticize every cruise line that has them installed for not trusting their 3rd party supplier.

You were fortunate. Plenty of other accounts of internet being spotty on TransAtlantic crossings and the ships will generally warn guests that internet could be spotty.

I'm saying making a straight "Call over WiFi" from my phone did not work on Scarlet Lady. I had to use an app to make the call. On the other ships I could simply use my phone in airplane mode and make the calls over WiFi.

I've been working remotely on cruise ships for the past year. The only issue I had on VV was calls over WiFi. I could not make them with my Android phone. I've been able to make straight calls over WiFi on Royal Caribbean, Princess and MSC no problems, but for whatever reason VV didn't like it. Video chats and calls using WhatsApp or other tools was just fine. I love setting up in the Galley because they literally have it set up like your local coffee shop with outlets and USB outlets everywhere. Your Internet coverage will be spotty at times out in the Atlantic but Starlink has been filling in the gaps rapidly so it's getting much better. "Reliable Internet" for 2-3 hours per day is do-able but never guaranteed on a cruise ship.

I would have no problems booking VV that far out and in fact we have booked cruises pretty far out in the past. Not sure which financial stories you're seeing, there was one fairly recently about a potential fund raising campaign for them, but as far as we can tell, they're solid right now. As with any other cruise, get third party, independent travel insurance to cover you in the event of cancellation.

1000% I would book a cruise knowing that he's on the ship. And if A Woman Named Carlos is the Diva, double the reason to book that cruise. 🙂

On The Rocks is such a great venue at night. I really hope to see Slam Adams again on one of our voyages, but every group that plays in that venue is simply amazing.

On the Rocks has great musicians or singers every evening, and the musicians throughout the ships have been awesome. One sailing we had Slam Adams blues guitarist who was just amazing. Our most recent cruise had a Latin trio who were amazeballs. The House Band is awesome as they will play all sorts of sets from modern rock to Irish folk music. You'll find guitarists outside on The Dock from time to time, the Dock House as well as the Roundabout. Music is peppered throughout the ship throughout the days. What you don't have on VV is the sheer number of venues you might have on an RCCL ship, especially the Oasis Class ships. These are much smaller, mid-sized ships and they did not chop in a lot of venues that bleed into each other. What you will appreciate is that all the venues have near perfect concert sound and you'll see that there is an audio tech at every performance tweaking the sound during the set. I spoke to one of them during a set and he explained that actual concert designers were consulted in the construction of all the music venues. So the audio design is near perfect and some of the best sound I've heard on any cruise ship. Even Scarlet Night on the upper deck has the sound quality of a really good outdoor concert. I do recommend folks bring ear plugs for that portion of the show because it is LOUD. So much fun but LOUD. 🙂

That's pretty much it right there. All the musical entertainment throughout the ship is great. Duel Reality is the most 'safe' show along with Untitled Dance Party Thing. The Diva shows are so much fun, but if you want to avoid sexual innuendo stay away from those.

To me it almost makes the brand look desperate. Like they're having trouble filling the ships so let's launch a gimmick to get people to notice us. It's really bad. The commercial is fabulous, a lot of fun, but the actual AI feature, meh. 🙂

It's been on the 'main account' both times we sailed on Scarlet Lady in 2022 and 2023. I'm not sure it was ever split between the sailors but both sailors can use the same bar tab.

The buffet coffee is ok when it's working in the buffet. On Sky Princess the machines kept requiring maintenance and nobody was doing it. Either the beans were out, the water wasn't working or whatever it was, the machines often had a red X on them. If it's an older ship still using the syrup it's awful. Honestly the best 'free' coffee I've found of the 9 cruise lines we've sailed so far have been Celebrity and MSC and the room service coffee on Virgin Voyages. Otherwise it's the paid coffee for me.

We have friends who are booked on the Dec. 30 Holiday sailing from Miami to San Juan and then the MerMaiden in San Juan. BUT they didn't realize there's a day off in between the two. Apparently VV is throwing a big party in San Juan for local officials and media so they actually have to exit the ship in San Juan, stay the night, then return to the ship the next day. 🙂

But the real early risers should not have a long line at IC either. 🙂 When getting coffee say between 8am and 2pm especially, I avoid IC and find the alternatives like Princess Live or Coffee and Cones. 🙂

Coffee and Cones was my "go-to" specialty coffee joint on Crown Princess. Anything other than International Cafe during the day.

Yes, but I will say on the Sky Princess recently I received better coffee from the Princess Live! bar than International Cafe. The lines were shorter too because I don't think many folks realized that was open in the mornings.

You made a great choice! VV is an awesome cruise line and these itineraries are much more interesting than the 5/4 nights on Scarlet from Miami.

That's the one I would do first only because we're huge fans of "Death in Paradise" and would love to do a tour that stops in filming locations. But honestly those are the best Caribbean itineraries for VV outside the 8 night on Valiant from Miami. You can't go wrong with either and I would seriously consider a back to back on those two sailings.

Not too many folks will recommend those cabanas because for the price, you're not getting a whole lot. Especially when you compare the cabanas on other cruise private islands. Those sticks are not very useful and it's not as well kept as other cabana areas. Well it's not even a cabana area really, it's just the back of the beach. The trash problem comes because the beach club is used daily by other cruise lines as well when VV is not there and clearly there is not enough staff to reset that area daily. It's one set of cabanas we would never rent because at $500 they are so overpriced. $200 maybe, but even there they are such a poor design. I'd much rather spend the money towards most anything else than those cabanas.

The actual Jen AI is horrendous. I tried it out just to see how it works. The scenes are bad, she sounds like the microphone is on the floor 30 feet from her in the manor entrance and the stitching is incredibly poor and clunky. As someone who spent 30 years in video/film production and marketing and has created projects that include video stitching, this is just horrible. The commercial is 1000% better than the actual application.

The pool deck was not above us, the Asian Market restaurants were. We heard nothing from above.

The terminal itself will not open until boarding begins around 1:30. You will wait outside in designated lines per your boarding time. You can show up early, say 11am to drop off your checked luggage and take a free VV supplied shuttle to the Bayside Marketplace to hang out until your boarding time. Your carry luggage has to stay with you.

As others have noted, you have to change to a cruise 90 days out. Your TA is not going to get a conference call with MSC to discuss because there is nothing to discuss unfortunately. The policy is what it is. Your TA should have a direct contact with MSC, usually something like a business development manager or a regional sales representative. The best you can hope for is they plead your case to them and that person throws in some On board credit. Don't count on it, but that's about the best possible outcome. But your original deposit is lost unless your new cruise is 90 days from the original sail date per the MSC rules.

We've been cruising almost 20 years, have used a TA from the beginning and continue to do so. They just make life so much easier. And in the case of VV, they can select specific cabins for us from the get go. Recently our TA has been able to offer an additional $100 OBC with the bookings too and that has been sweet. 🙂