CruisingWalter

Carnival has the e-muster now. We did that last March, easy peasy.

You MUST report to the Muster Station, that's from the Coast Guard. You can watch the video in your room, then report to the muster station. If you refuse to do so, they can escort you off the ship.

Razzle Dazzle has the best bacon on the ship which is ironic considering it's branded as a vegan/vegetarian restaurant. 🙂 Great breakfasts there, The Wake will be more upscale.

We did The Wake as the final night dinner and Razzle Dazzle as the walk off brunch. That was a great way to end the cruise. 🙂

Neither of those stories have anything to do with Celebrity Cruise Lines. "Those" people have been on Celebrity long before now. Before the pandemic I was at the World Class Bar on either Equinox or Reflection as a man berated the bartender for not making the drink he DEMANDED right now. It was a drink not included on the WCB menu. He didn't care, "I'm TOP LEVEL (whatever that level is on Celebrity)" and he demanded that as a top level suite guest he can order any drink from any bar. It was stupid, he was stupid and stormed off to 'get someone who can fix this situation.' As for the guy with the robe, that would have been some nearly naked folks who were just waking up on lounge chairs by the pool when we last sailed Equinox, I think in 2018, Clearly waking up from really tying one on the night before as us early morning walkers were walking the track. Yep, those folks have been on Celebrity all along, you just didn't have the pleasure of seeing them until now.

In our experience, yes, especially Razzle Dazzle as it has a faster menu. But those flags on the tables might help. If they ever switch to app based ordering or table tablet ordering like NCL, that will greatly improve the system. I'm planning to test out the Galley for breakfast during our April Scarlet Lady cruise to see if it's any different.

Is your complaint more with Celebrity Cruises service for the 'quality of people onboard'? I'm not sure what you would expect on a cruise that holds 2000 - 4000 people but you're going to find partiers, drunks, big eaters and like on every single cruise ship. We've sailed 8 different cruise lines, the people who sail each cruise line are basically the same. And there are many new people who are finding cruising since the pandemic. MANY new people finding cruising since the pandemic. Celebrity still seems to be the same Celebrity it always has been. Casual Luxe with a very similar vibe as Virgin Voyages. Still great service, food and ships. We've sailed NCL, Carnival, Princess, Virgin and Royal since the restart. Will be on Celebrity again soon. Pretty much the same crowd of folks across the board. Of course more adults only on Princess and VV, but pretty much the same crowd of folks on any of those ships.

The Bar Tab promo ONLY applies to 2023 sailings. Nothing for 2024 sailings at this time. "All Sea Terrace and below categories are eligible for this offer, which ends on March 31st, 2023. Sailors on any 2023 voyage receive a free $300 Bar Tab per cabin — or $600 for voyages that are 7+ days."

The $600 in value refers to all the onboard inclusions. WiFi, Meals, Gratuities, Soft Drinks and Exercise Classes. It's been part of their marketing since the beginning. The "$600 In Value" is your clue this is not an add-on.

There's no restriction on multiple dinners as I showed in my episode on YouTube. In one evening we ate at Guy's Pig and Anchor and ChiBang in the same evening. 🙂 As long as there is space, they will seat you at as many restaurants as you'd like to attend in one evening. I can't answer the question on room service unfortunately, the only time we've used that recently was on the Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady and and that is a wholly different experience than Carnival. 🙂

Daily Gratuity is approx. $18 per person, per day. MedallionNet WiFi is approx $15 per device, per day or a total of $33/day for Gratuity and WiFi per person $60-$33 = $27 per person, per day for the Plus Beverage Package. The package includes drinks up to $15 and includes specialty coffees in addition to juices and alcohol. You also get the desserts which on the Sky Princess meant two gelatos each day if you wanted them (and you do) 🙂 For many people $27/day per person works out in their favor for the drinks package. If that doesn't work out in your favor, then skip the Plus.

And of course on a cruise ship there are upwards of 1000 cameras so in a sense he is correct, someone IS watching at all times. 🙂

One device at a time. Have to log off one device before connecting to the second.

One Way cruises will get you to more places than round trips. But if you really want to go to Alaska with Princess, do a Cruise Tour. That's what we did. Fairbanks, Denali, Copper River for 7 days then a 7 day cruise on Sapphire Princess at the time that ended up in Vancouver. We're so thankful we worked with an amazing TA who suggested that option. Princess owns their own lodges and hotels so it was literally a 'cruise experience' from the moment we touched down in Fairbanks. Princess met us at the baggage claim, took our bags and we just went on the bus. 3 days in Fairbanks (we added a day), train ride for 2 days in Denali (AMAZING), 2 days in Copper River (Best Salmon EVER), and then we met the ship in Whittier. We never touched our luggage anywhere along the way, Princess moved it from place to place just like on the cruise ships. We even separated our luggage so we had one piece that went with us on land and Princess held the rest of our luggage just for the ship. Spending time on land really gave us a sense of the Alaskan frontier. Once on the ship, we did Harv and Marv's Whale Watching in Juneau, Temsco Helicopter tour to a glacier in Skagway, (it was supposed to be to a dog sled camp in the mountains, but the clouds were too low), and then we had a bush pilot plane scheduled for Ketchikan but again, the clouds were too low for safe flying. In Vancouver my wife added 2 more days in a hotel so we could explore the city, it was awesome. If you're going to do round trip on just the ship, look for 10 or 14 day itineraries so you get more time to see more areas. You might even look at sister company Holland America that has some really nice 14 and even 28 day itineraries.

Have your Travel Agent call into Princess and have the time changed.

Yep, 'just those 6.' That's more sit down options than many other ships out there, but of course on other ships you have to pay extra for the restaurant experience. 🙂 The Wake and Razzle Dazzle have breakfast & brunch, I recommend those for port days instead of joining the mass of people at The Galley. I could eat at The Wake every evening of a VV cruise and be perfectly happy. There are many menu choices at each restaurant so the opportunity to eat more than once at them without having to pay each time is a nice change from other cruise lines.

Definitely not normal. We did not have that experience nor have our friends who have sailed Virgin Voyages (repeatedly) reported that experience. They are normally on top of the cabins daily. As for The Galley, it works really well when the Galley is slower and you can simply walk up to the food stations to get what you want. When it's busy, the restaurant style service breaks down, it's been a topic of many discussions here and something I always warn first timers about. NCL has the process down with their iPads on each table allowing the guest to order and the servers simply bring the food. Virgin's process of flagging down a waiter, placing the order and then hoping your food comes out sometime soon does not work when The Galley is busy. It would be much better to put the food ordering in the app and let the servers bring us the food so we can place the orders much more efficiently. The addition of the flags to the tables is nice, but Virgin just has to look at NCL's Food Republic and the new Food Halls on Prima/Viva to see a clear example of how this can be done. My advice, avoid The Galley during the peak service times, usually breakfast on a port day, and visit The Wake or Razzle Dazzle for breakfast. You'll have a much better experience.

The Galley is 24 hours and will have coffee. It's not the best coffee in the world, but it's better than most cruise ship 24 hour coffee. Coffee Grounds 1 and 2 are awesome when they are open. For late night coffee, the Sips Champagne bar makes amazing hand pulled espresso and cappuccino.

Cruise lines are required to either wait for you OR get you to the next port if the ship has to leave. It's an either / or, they are not required to hold the ship and wait for you if it will impact the ship's arrival time to the next port. The ship will absolutely leave if you're not back on time. I've seen ships wait 30 minutes quite often, but after that, it's up to the captain whether he's going to wait. A really good third party tour operator is Shore Excursions Group. They vet the operators and offer a return to ship guarantee that will also get you to the next port if the ship leaves. As for the DR, there are quite a few options there from adventure/zip lining to beach days. The last time we were there we actually made it a ship day so we could enjoy the pool on Scarlet Lady. It was a fantastic day. 🙂

Just the traffic really. When you come in that late you unfortunately can run into traffic. I was watching the Ben and David episode when they embarked Scarlet Lady in Miami and they took over 60 minutes when they got within sight of Port Miami until they were able to park their car. We tend to show up more like 11:30a just to get there. Take the Bayside shuttle and relax there while we wait for 1:30.

Total waste of money, do not purchase them. They're not even a cabana, they're just a crappy hut with some sticks. Save the $500 and spend it on something else, anything else. Your My Next Virgin Voyage purchase for example. 🙂

That full bar is yours to use as much as you want. The only time you will be charged is if you want to restock anything that's not a soft drink. We had a Cheeky Corner Suite and brought a few bitters with us and had our Rock Star Agent bring up some lemons, limes, simple syrup and other things. You have the full cocktail set as well. I have a full Scarlet Lady playlist that includes our cabin tour, food review and here's a quick Cocktail Party we had in our friend's cabin. They had the Cheeky Corner on the other side. https://youtu.be/B4I6YJtueuo

The Wagyu in Gunbae does seem like a waste just because it's so thin an the way they prepare it, you're not really going to notice the difference. But that Tomahawk steak... If you have extra Sailor Loot when you visit The Wake, I will say that is one thing that was amazing. We were there on our final night of the sailing and our friends still had over $100 in Sailor Loot, so the husband ordered it. It was amazeballs. Now should you spend money on it, like you said no need to spend a dime on those ships. But if you have extra Sailor Loot and you're looking to treat yourself, that is a worthy treat.

If that's what they are actually serving during every single night for 90 minutes during the free happy hour, it was ok. Not a champagne I would order, but I'm rather surprised VV would spend that much on a free happy hour each evening. Even for the Rock Star guests.

Specialty dining is always going to be better than the 'included' dining. Especially on Celebrity, Princess and NCL. We had a ton of OBC on the Symphony OTS this past December and did specialty dining every night but one. That was great food, but only because we paid for it. But for included food from a mainstream cruise line, nobody can touch VV.