CruisingWalter

Here's the video. So much food and yet we didn't eat everything. We're planning to hit the meals we missed in April for Scarlet Lady Food Part II - OMG There's More?!? 😂 https://youtu.be/pBolzKvXjMU

Wha?!?!? I missed that one. Now I have another one to add to my list for April. Thanks!

So freakin' good in the Test Kitchen. 🙂 But On The Rocks makes a great one as well.

Premium internet was fine for live streaming from the ship. I did two one hour TikToks at sea and had zero issues. So I would expect Zoom or Google Meets to work. If you're looking at the Sweet Aft Suite, I would avoid that and go with the Cheeky Corner Suite instead. Those Sweet Aft Suites look like they don't get much airflow based on what we saw from our Cheeky Corner. Don't go to Deck 14, don't go higher than Deck 13 as others have mentioned with the gym and the pool deck on 15. On any cruise ship you always want cabins above and below you. Deck 14 is a no-go with the Virgin ships. 🙂

As others say, it depends on what you drink and how much you drink. You buy the Bar Tab in $300 increments of use it or lose it. I think most folks would be fine with a $300 Bar Tab for the cabin for 5 nights or less and $600 for 7 nights or longer. If you still have money left on the final night and you can carry liquor on your travels home, you can purchase bottles of wine or liquor from the bars.

Immediately go to The Dock and start enjoying those tapas and a nice cocktail to get the cruise started right. We didn't do the big sailaway party because we were in Gunbae for dinner when sailaway happened. It was the perfect place to watch Miami sailaway. It happened to rain on our cruise so the PJ party was moved to the Roundabout and we didn't go but our friends said it was way too crowded in there so they left. The big thing we're doing differently on our second (and third) VV cruises is booking dinner much later on embarkation day. Because we board much later in the afternoon than all the other cruise lines, we were not nearly as hungry when we went to Gunbae. Those tapas at The Dock are just so ridiculously good. So we'll be booking dinner more like 8 or maybe even 9:00pm on Embarkation day.

First off, TOTALLY worth it. We paid $99/pp on our December Symphony OTS cruise and it was far and away the best meal of the cruise. The only thing I didn't particularly like was the venue where it was served, the Solarium Bistro. We had our own private table with the really nice chairs, but nothing really separating us from the buffet that was happening all around us. But the meal itself, just unreal and the chef was just awesome. I'll be posting a full food review from our Symphony cruise this week and that meal will be the highlight. 🙂

Just know if you do get it, it may not actually be Chops Grille. It's could be the Chops menu in the MDR and if it is, I can tell you it's not worth it. We did that in December with The Key package on Symphony where our embarkation "Chops Lunch" was served in the MDR. We also ate in Chops a few nights later. What we ate in the MDR was nowhere close to what was served in Chops, nor was it worth it. I would probably go to Park Cafe for the lunch or the Windjammer. Just my two cents. 🙂

Avoid NSA if it's still there. 1 - it's not a good show. 2 - the actress tries very hard to being overtly sexual. It doesn't work, it's a bad show. The Diva show is AWESOME! We had so much fun there. One of the crew members described the ship as a Summer Camp for Adults. I think that's a great way to describe the vibe on board. Just come as you are, have an open mind and relax. And tell your daughter not to look at a certain shelf in the gift shop when you guys are around if she gets embarrassed easily. 😆

The cruise line is not risque in any way, shape or form. VV is very similar to Celebrity with its casual luxe vibe. It's a very laid back, super cool ship with easily the best food at sea. You may never want to go back to the 'old way' of nickel and dime cruising. So much included, and the food is so freaking good. VV is unlike any other cruise line out there and that's a good thing. We have cruised 8 lines so far and enjoy them all. At the moment, VV Is our favorite of the bunch. 🙂

You can definitely order a bottle from the bars and yes you can request glassware from your room stewards. If you're in a Suite you'll have the full bar, cocktail tools and glassware in your cabin.

That's why you avoid those sites and use the ones with the good information. When you've been cruising for 20 years+ you learn which sites to trust. 🙂

I have seen plenty of scooters on Carnival. Have had to move very quickly to get out of the way a few who were none to pleased with my 'slow walking.' 😄

Google is your best friend. 🙂 Google Princess Cruises Ship Class and you should get the full list. Same with all the other cruise lines.

First off I would suggest working with travel agent to help you pick the best cruise line / itinerary for your budget. They cost you nothing and can be of great assistance. If the others are willing to get passports, Virgin Voyages has a great selection of 4 and 5 night cruises from Miami that are almost all-inclusive and the cruise line is all-adults, 18+. Passports are required to sail on VV. While the pricing may appear higher than other cruise lines, those fares including all meals, WiFi, gratuities, soft drinks and group exercise classes. With all other cruise lines you will be paying extra for the WiFi, gratuities and soft drinks. If you want to go to the specialty dining restaurants on other cruise lines, you'll be paying $10 - $100+ per person per meal. And if you book a cruise with VV by Feb 28, they are throwing in a $300 Bar Tab for under 7 night cruises. So even some of your paid drinks will be covered. The food is the best at sea right now and the service from the crew is exemplary. Next I would look at Celebrity. Lovely ships, great crew and beautiful pools. They're food is quite good as well and they have my favorite buffet selection at sea. It can be very eclectic at times, especially at lunch and dinner. Plus they have the fried toast for breakfast and it's the only place I've found that. Princess and HAL are also lovely cruise lines with a very laid back adult vibe. Princess has some of our favorite pools and their staff is always amazing. We're headed out on the Sky Princess next week. Celebrity, Princess and HAL have their own versions of 'all inclusive packages' that may include WiFi, gratuities, drinks packages and dining packages. These are added in addition to the base cruise fare. For more activities and 'fun on board' you would look at Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Know that Carnival shorter cruises are often on their smaller, older ships whereas Royal Caribbean runs their Voyager, Freedom and even at least one of their Oasis class ships on 4 or 5 night runs. So you might have larger ships with more activities and 'things to do' onboard RCCL short cruise. Royal and Carnival also have add-on packages for drinks and Royal has a dining package as well. Again, I would suggest working with a TA to help you navigate the cruise lines, itineraries, ports and onboard packages for you and your family. Good luck and I hope you all have an amazing time!

Except on Virgin Voyages. Passports required for all VV cruises no matter where they sail from. And some Panama Canal cruises require passports, even closed-loop from Florida. There was an article recently about that biting some passengers who were left behind at the terminal because they did not have passports.

Useful when the ship is at sea and it's quite windy. They are nice, we have the Shark Bands from *. Especially for the bottom of the towel to keep it from flipping around onto your legs. Clips are great to hold the top of the towel, but the bands on the both ends of the towel are really nice. Not entirely necessary though.

As others have noted, you can talk to the host or hostess at the restaurants when you get onboard to see if you can change your reservation. You can also walk up earlier if you'd like. 6:30 is a good time to walk up as 7 - 8:30 seems to be prime time for most of the restaurants.

Find one that does. MANY TAs are working with Virgin because they are among the best to work with for the travel agents. One of the few cruise lines that actually encourages people to book through a travel agent. I've heard stories from friends who have had TAs who 'won't book a specific cruise line for whatever reason. That's not a good travel agent. A travel agent works for YOU to get YOU the vacation you want. Not just the ones they're willing to book. Find another TA who books VV and other things you might be missing out on. 🙂

Welcome to VV. We've sailed 8 cruise lines so far and I would put VV in the same vibe as Celebrity, only Celebrity has much better pools. VV's pools are very small and mainly for lounging or dancing and there is very little seating around the pools compared to other cruise lines. The biggest thing about VV is that it's almost all-inclusive so you're not having to pay for 'better food' or WiFi or even the soft drinks. Every night is like going to a specialty restaurant that you would typically pay $25 - $100+ on any other cruise line, but it's all included on VV. Here's my full food tour from Scarlet Lady. https://youtu.be/pBolzKvXjMU The cabins are a bit narrower and the bathrooms are quite small, but the ship itself is stunning. Almost every deck is single story so the ship feels much smaller than it really is. The top deck is mainly all sun deck but if you'd like to sit in a shaded area, the 'porch' areas on either side of Deck 7 are quite lovely. Sit on the opposite side of the ship from the sun and you'll find all sorts of nice seating out there that's not really well used. I think most people stay up top or go to The Dock on the back of deck 7. The main shows are very different from any other cruise line, but there are really awesome musicians throughout the ship each evening. I think anyone who enjoys Celebrity cruise lines would definitely find a lot to like about VV. Here's our overall review of VV that includes some comparisons to other cruise lines. https://youtu.be/-R0imB73ajg Now the one big difference between VV and everyone else is that you cannot choose your own cabin online. VV will automatically assign a cabin to you. VV has really leaned into travel agents and encourages sailors to book through them. TAs can select specific cabins on any deck as will the Sailor Services if you call in to VV. I'd say decks 9 through 13 would be good. If you want to avoid the DJ sets from the main pool, get a cabin more towards the aft or the front of the ship if you'd on Deck 13. Depending on how the wind is blowing, you still may hear some of the music from the deck sets, but they're not all that long. During Scarlet Night is when the music is the loudest. Overall I think you'll enjoy giving VV a try. Book before the end of February to take advantage of their free bar tabs and some TAs are currently running specials with extra sailor loot. It's a great time to book with VV!

Just that you might end up with one that doesn't have a hammock due the shape of the balcony and you may have one of the steel balconies instead of glass. I have to be honest, we have never bid for an upgrade since that practice started because there's generally a reason why we picked that specific cabin in that specific location. 🙂

In general you will run your entire cruise via Ship Time, not local time. 7am arrival, expect to be cleared and off the ship between 7:30 and 8:00a pending any weather or issues docking. You should be back on board the ship at least 30 minutes before All Aboard. If 6pm is the departure time, all aboard is going to be 5:30 most likely. Again, ship time.

If you've never done an all access tour, I think they're fun to do but $160 to tour the ship feels high. I'd much rather put that towards the Chef's Table dinner than tour the ship personally. If it was $99 or less that might be a bit more worth it especially if you have more than one person doing it.

Definitely find a good travel agent to assist. We've been cruising almost 20 years and always book through a travel agent. For the first few cruises they were invaluable in helping us pick the right ships and cruise lines. Cruise Critic does not allow us to recommend TAs because they are part of a major travel company. All inclusive doesn't really exist in cruising unless you step up to the premium lines like Viking. The most all-inclusive of a mainstream cruise line is Virgin Voyages with all meals, WiFi, Gratuities and soft drinks included in the cruise fare. All other mainstream cruise lines have varying degrees of add-on packages that may or may not be worth it. We've sailed 8 different cruise lines so far, it'll be 9 or 10 after this year. All of them are great, all of them have annoying traits. But we have yet to have a bad cruise. Celebrity, Princess, Holland America and certainly Virgin skew more adult with Virgin being 18+ adults-only cruising. All four are more about a laid-back, casual luxe experience vs. being active all day. Royal Caribbean, NCL, Carnival and Disney are more family centric with an emphasis on things to do for the kids and the entire family. However, all four are great for adults-only as well. If food is a high priority, right now nobody at sea beats Virgin Voyages. Not only are all the meals included in your cruise fare, you're going to a restaurant each evening that would cost you anywhere from $25-$100+ pp on any other cruise line. After VV I would recommend Disney, Celebrity and Princess for overall food and NCL for some of the best specialty dining at sea. If 'things to do' is a high priority, the Royal Quantum and Oasis Class ships certainly fill that bill. The new Carnival Mardi Gras and Celebration are wonderful ships as are the NCL Breakaway class and up. If shows and entertainment are a high priority, the Royal Oasis Class ships have an insane amount of entertainment between the broadway / original shows in the theater, water shows in the back, ice shows and all the music venues throughout the ship. I especially loved the jazz club on Symphony. Princess has outstanding original shows in the theater. NCL has fantastic shows, usually broadway shows as well. Holland America has some amazing music venues for the evenings. If pools are a high priority, Celebrity has some of the nicest pools at sea, especially their solarium pools. Princess and Holland America are right behind those two. NCL and Virgin have the worst pools if you're someone who like to swim before they get crowded. All the cruise lines except Carnival and Royal Caribbean have some form of an 'inclusive package' you can add on. Those two cruise lines have more ala carte packages you can combine to get somewhat inclusive. For most folks, they overpay for drinks packages but prefer the convenience of 'not having to think about drinks' instead of considering the hundreds of dollars they're throwing away. 🙂 But the most important thing for your first cruise is to get yourself set up with the right cruise ship for your first cruise. That's more important than the cruise line. It's about the ship itself and your expectations. Find a good TA and let them help you. They're 100% free so why not use their knowledge to assist?

You just have to do the math. You can search any cruise line + bar menus and you'll get images of the menus and the associated pricing of the drinks. If you drink specialty coffees like lattes and cappuccinos do the same for those. Now estimate how many drinks you and your partner might drink per day and what types of drinks you might have. Look at the menus and do the math. Does it match or exceed the price of the drinks package? If so then it might be worth it. If you're not close then no, it's not worth it. When we sailed the Carnival Mardi Gras this past March the drinks package was actually reasonable at around $51/day pp. But we opted not to get it and simply buy drinks ala carte. We spent less than $300 on all drinks for a 1 week cruise, and that was without even trying to 'save.' When we sail Royal Caribbean we'll often get the Refreshment package which includes all soft drinks and the specialty coffees then pay for the alcohol ala carte. The only cruise line we regularly get the drinks package is on NCL with their 'Free At Sea' program. The drinks package is 'free' and we just have to pay the gratuities which is about $300 per cabin for a one week cruise. That is right in line with what we will spend on a cruise. The Princess Plus package is also a good consideration because it's $60/day pp but that includes your WiFi and Gratuities. Figure Gratuities are around $16-$18/day, WiFi is going to be about $15/day so that's around $27/day pp for drinks. That's very reasonable because you're going to pay for gratuities and most folks are going to get WiFi these days. Doing the math for your particular drinking style is the way to figure it all. If you're interested in how the Carnival drink package broke down vs. paying for it ala carte, here's the full breakdown. https://youtu.be/iX2OJTAy_QU