Cruising89143

I just read that Virgin has once again pushed delivery of their fourth vessel out until 2025/26. This is not the first time that they have pushed this vessel back for delivery. I don’t think the demand is there. IMHO they are going to need to allow kids on some of their vessels if they want to fill them on a consistent basis. Personally, I have cruised enough over the last 37 years to know that Virgin holds little appeal to us. Especially their standard balcony staterooms. Looks like they went shopping at IKEA. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ship-operations/when-brilliant-lady-joining-virgin-voyages-it-will-be-while

Really enjoying your review. We had booked MSC YC a total of five times but Covid got in the way each time. We will try again one day. MSC has placed a team out west so I’m hoping for a west coast ship in the near future.

I remember this topic and the photo well. This was a good number of years ago. A heated thread to say the least.

Sounds just like my first cruise back in 1986 except there was no buffet. All meals were taken in the MDR. All three meals had set times and if you were more than fifteen minutes late, too bad. The doors were shut. No such thing as room service. We did have a midnight buffet but we were not ones who wanted to dine again at midnight. The majority of our entertainment was a few dancers and the cruise director singing. Glad to see that cruising has changed/progressed. 🙂

OP, glad that you received your room assignment. Enjoy your cruise. The Quantum situation is the first time that I have heard of guests showing up and not having a stateroom assignment. There was a thread on the RCI board about this. Seems to be that guest staterooms were needed at the last minute for crew with Covid that need to be quarantined. Not sure if that was the case but I have always known the cruise lines to extend guests generous offers to move to a different sail date in order to take care of the overbooking situation.

Not a myth at all. Have received this offer on both RCI and Celebrity.

Tampa it is. https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/12/margaritaville-at-sea-adds-second-ship-to-sail-from-tampa/

Good Morning America just had a piece on this story. They interviewed the one couple that was not allowed to board. Also, named the cruise line and ship. Not the kind of attention that any cruise line would want.

I think our D+ pins ended up in the same place as our previous pins. The trash.

We booked the over the water cabana cabins just after the Oasis entered service. I think it was around $200.00 and I thought that was crazy. The lunch served was mediocre at best. No way would we pay those prices today. Simply not worth it for us.

I have never found the reserved seating that great in the main theater. Ice skating was much better.

We retired at ages 56 and 59. This was during the beginning of Covid. Once things settled down we cruised a total of ten times in 2022. We found out that was too much. Became boring to us. 🙂 This year we only cruised twice. Right now we only have two booked for 2024 but one cruise is a 14 night TA. We have been trying to get back to Europe for three plus years. Unfortunately Covid caused us to put things on hold. We go back and forth between Celebrity and RCI. We enjoy each for different reasons but both are great cruise lines. We don’t care about reaching a certain status or we would have stayed strictly with RCI to reach their top tier years ago. So in the end, we thought that we would end up cruising more in retirement years but this year was a normal cruise year. Will be interesting to see where we end up next year. 🙂

Happy Birthday.

IMHO on any class lower than an Oasis or Quantum a JS is the highest that we usually go. Suite perks lack compared to price. No Coastal Kitchen or WiFi.

Finally got caught up. Loving your review and the outstanding photos.

Just dropped today from Peter Knego.

It has been reported that the ship was sold. New owners are unknown but it’s being reported in multiple places that she is heading to a yard to be recycled. The ship is now 41 years of age. She has served well.

Both RCI and X are getting a little crazy with their specialty dining prices but as long as people pay, they will continue to rise. What will be the breaking point?

This!

GP, enjoy your cruises and Happy Anniversary. Will be following along.

Last year on RCI we were in a GS sailing out of Miami on the Symphony and when we arrived at the terminal we were escorted to the suites only area. Key holders were directed to a standard seating area. We boarded first. I would assume that X will board Retreat guests first as well.

This is why we seldom book above a JS unless it’s a ship that has full suite benefits. Just not worth it. I usually put in a low bid for RU and sometimes we get it. If not, a JS works fine. Celebrity recently made a few changes on the Sky suite but they still receive entrance to Luminae, Premium Wi-Fi, Premium Drink package and the Retreat. Sky suites lost butler service, OBC and gratuities.

I think that this will move over to Celebrity as well once RCI works out any bugs. RCG wants to increase onboard spending and this will help.

She is a sweetheart. She used to be on RCI. Met her on the Allure when it was a brand new ship. She was over the GR desk.

I sent mine in in March with expedited service. Took seven weeks. I recently read that they are moving faster now on turning around renewals,