CruisingWalter

Well, the MSC Representatives will never say this publicly, but yes, this is how they run the company. My TA has been told this multiple times. "Well, we can't do anything directly, we'll have to get approval from our headquarters first, we'll get back to you" in response to our questions about the service or problems onboard. If MSC representatives are saying this to my TA, then I have to take their word for it. They definitely know how to build ships and they're using the freight company money to do so. That's how they kept building and ordering more ships during the pandemic while others scaled back. They made massive profits during the pandemic and made smart business decision to keep building. But quantity does not translate to quality. I'm much more used to the ships themselves being much more empowered to make decisions. Such as our recent experience on Sky Princess when a meal went sideways and they comped the meal but then went much further to ensure the rest of our cruise was a pleasant one. No need to check with HQ in Miami, just a ship based decision made by the dining captain with daily follow-up for the rest of the cruise. We've had similar experiences on the other 8 cruise lines we've sailed. The difference in management on MSC is pretty stark. If MSC can get the hotel and F&B management to match the quality of their ships, they will be amazing.

Nope, MUST be a receipt showing the exact item in question. I've been waiting since the first week in December to get one from VV. My advice, don't buy anything onboard, it's not worth the hassle if you have an issue.

OMG don't get me started with Starboard services. You MUST have a receipt to do a return through them. I've been going through Sailor Services to get one because that folio from the ship isn't good enough for them. I purchased one of those Red Ahoy red Valiant Lady ships during Thanksgiving. The bar code sticker on the bottom clearly says "Valiant." The ship is Resilient, There is only one place I could have purchased that ship. But starboard is requiring the receipt from Virgin Voyages, the Folio and the photos of the Bar Code Sticker and the Ship are not enough for them. I even wrote to John Diorio to say "What the heck?" It's not his department but how stupid is that situation?

You'll see people mention that they are holding back a certain amount of reservations. That number seems to be getting smaller based on the Holiday and New Year's feedback we've received. On our Thanksgiving cruise on Valiant it was pretty easy to walk up to most any restaurant around 8 or 8:30 except the Wake and get a seat. Feedback we received from the December and Holiday sailings is that some restaurants were overbooked even before guests got onboard. Your TA might be able to get some reservations for you even before you board, but your best bet is to get to the restaurants when you first board the ship and try for reservations. But with that sailing, you are probably not sailing full so you probably won't have all that much difficulty making reservations onboard or walking up a little later in the evening. As mentioned above, the Galley has some pretty good dinner specials now, though I still don't understand why the Ramen and Panini stations are closed for dinner.

Yes, that is correct, we were just there for Christmas/New Years and it's a part of France. Euros everywhere, no USD taken that we could see. There should be a bank in your local area that does the exchange. We were planning to do a "Death In Paradise" tour but the official tour did not run on Saturdays, the day we visited. So we did a tour of the Botanical Gardens in Deshaies, which is where the show is filmed. One location from the series is at the Gardens and we did see Catherine's Bar but did not have time to stop. But we did get a quick stop in front of the Police Station and the iconic church. Guadeloupe was one of four new Caribbean ports for us over our Christmas/New Year's cruise with Dominica, Grenada and St. Barts being the other three. Of the four, I have no need to go back to St. Barts, but the others I will gladly visit again.

We will most likely try a Yacht Club sailing at some point, but we're in no rush to do so. The drop in quality between May on the Seaside and December on Seashore was noticeable. When we have so many other choices to cruise, at the moment we're spending our money elsewhere.

It's the micromanagement of the cruise line that I'm referring to. Literally every decision onboard the ship has to be approved by Italy HQ. Every decision by the North American offices in Miami have to be approved by Italy HQ. Management onboard the ships are not empowered to make financial decisions for guests as they are on other cruise lines. They are running the management of the cruise line like the shipping company. Not how they treat the customers. However, their hotel operations are severely lacking vs. all other cruise lines. They know how to build ships and build a lot of them, but customer service is subpar at best. It was better on our original MSC Seaside sailing, but this Seashore sailing was a whole different experience.

Hopefully that's a good one for you. Celebrity has been a great cruise line. And if you have not sailed Virgin Voyages yet, you really should give that a go. We've done three so far, including an 8-night Thanksgiving Cruise with a group of 30 folks. 26 of them had never been on a VV cruise and the two things that stood out, beyond the amazing food and zero children. The ship was sold out but never felt like it. There's so much open space and there are no major gathering spots so everyone is spread out. The lack of barkers and sales pressure. Nobody trying to sell you a drinks package, a dining package, a WiFi package because there's no need. All the meals are included. You're spotted a starter Bar Tab. and the WiFi is included, along with soft drinks and gratuities. In fact there are no photographers onboard either. They were also surprised at how chill and relaxed VV is. The vloggers all concentrate on the Scarlet Night party (awesome!) and The Manor nightclub so folks think it's a big party ship when in reality, it's a very chill, mellow cruise line. If you can swing it, that 8 night Eastern Caribbean Antilles is their best itinerary from Miami, but if not, hop on one of their 5 nighters. Good luck on Celebrity! We're about to sail Oceania for Christmas/New Year's.

There's no confirmation yet that the ship is chartered. Negotiations to charter an entire ship usually take months. It's a long long contract that is customized for each charter. Cruise lines will always put cruises up for sale when they are ready in case the charter doesn't work out. My understanding is that many charter contracts fall by the wayside because the two sides can't come to an agreement. I don't think many companies realize the costs involved in chartering an entire ship. It's much more expensive than if you simply booked all the cabins. And it oftentimes involved unique menus, unique entertainment, etc... It's not just a standard cruise line sailing, so much goes into it.

Charters are available for booking for all cruise lines at any time. It's part of the cruise contract for every cruise line. All cruise lines can, and do, pull sailings for full ship charters. I've had Royal Caribbean and NCL both pull sailings for charters long after sales have started and somewhat close to sailing. And of course we all remember what VV did with Valiant Lady's launch...

We noticed that the July 13 - 27, 2025 Barcelona to Lisbon to Portsmouth disappeared from the itineraries. Reaching out to our TA it appears the booking has been 'paused for review.' Could either be a charter negotiation or they are having to alter the itinerary. We will have to wait to see if / when the sailing reappears. Just an FYI if any of you have already booked on that cruise before the pause.

First off, sorry for all of this run around. Sailor Services on the public side are a whole different experience than Sailor Services on the TA side. With VV, and really any cruise line, you really want a TA precisely for when things go sideways. They have a different group of folks they work with in addition to a direct connection at each cruise line. You're not alone with VV having experiences like this reading these forums. While you cannot transfer your booking to a TA at this time because you're paid in full, a Gold Tier or Top 100 Independent TA could still help to escalate your situation if you reach out to them. No we cannot recommend TAs in these forums because this forum is owned by a very large travel entity. Again my apologies for this terrible customer service, but hopefully you'll find a TA who can reach out to VV on your behalf.

No, it's paid in full so it can no longer be transferred.

I always recommend it as a first night restaurant. Fun way to meet some of your fellow Sailors. But on a 4 night or less, I would skip it altogether.

No, that's not supposed to happen and in our three times to Gunbae, this has never happened. Everyone gets their own dipping sauces. Next time insist they bring you your own.

As others have noted, a sort of schedule will appear about a month before your sailing, but nothing is finalized until the day of. Our schedule on Valiant Lady was changing daily so you had to keep up with it to see if the events you were wanting to do were still happening.

I forgot about that, the Happenings team was hanging out in Sip while we were doing High Tea. A few came over to hang with us, they were awesome, especially the Spark and Glow.

There are zero instructions for the passengers, so nobody knows to hit the button more than one time. Nothing in the information in the room, no simple instructions with the keypads, nothing. We were the only couple pressing the button twice, the other passengers would look at us like we were nuts when we did it. It was a complete fail on our cruise and was marginally better on the Seaside.

The entire ship is a communal space to meet others. But if you want specific locations... The Dock on the back of Deck 7. Social Club on Deck 7. On the Rocks on Deck 6. Sips Champagne Lounge Deck 6 Grounds Club on Deck 7 Those are all spaces that are generally great spaces to sit and meet with fellow Sailors, at least on our 3 sailings. Gunbae is the go-to for shared dining and the venue I recommend all my friends start with. It's a great space to meet your fellow sailors. For the other venues, unless it is requested by fellow Sailors, there will not be shared dining anywhere else. It's not like pre-pandemic where people were automatically seated with others. You have to request this and if there are not enough solo sailors requesting to be seated with 'strangers' it's not going to happen. Razzle Dazzle has multiple communal tables that might allow you to sit with others, but in most of the restaurants, you're going to need other solo sailors to give the 'ok' to sit with others. That happens quite often on any cruise ship when venues are changed last minute due to weather. You just have to ask a crew member where the event moved to. This happened to us on Princess and Carnival this past year as well. Each time the first person we asked didn't know where the new venue was, but they called a supervisor and off we went to the correct location.

I tell folks Gunbae is a great "first night" dinner. You get to meet some new folks on the ship and it's a great ice breaker for the cruise.

Oh man I'm looking forward to seeing them next month. They're coming back across the pond for the Icon of the Seas inaugural sailing. I was joking with them that i actually get to sail on her before they do! I don't think that's ever happened. I'm looking forward to another great meal with them and Stef. Might try to teach them how to make homemade pasta! 🙂

That was crazy. It was like a cruise ship came out of nowhere as we were approaching and that was 1:30pm. I supposed they had to "eat that night in the name of safety." But what do they know? They're just cruise ship captains, meteorologists, port authorities, pilots and others who have many years of training. I'm sure they made the wrong call according to many 'who know better' who have never steered a rowboat in their lives. 🙂

Oh yeah, The Cruise Spotter on TikTok has that footage. I think it was the Celebration though it might have been the smaller one, it needed a tug at the front and back to spin her around in the turning basin and then help push her into the berth. Two other ships had the tugs following along just in case.

Personally for the quality of the service and every restaurant being included along with the WiFi and Soft Drinks, I'm taking VV over MSC moving forward. I really want to like MSC, but there's just no effort on customer service including F&B.

The dipping sauces did nothing for the pork belly on the Valiant cruise. It was just grey, flavorless meat that was not enjoyable. I would not recommend it to anyone going to Gunbae.