TheDarkestBlue

Oh No! Can't get in! 😅 lol Following! Have a great trip you guys 🙂 always wanted to do a ta so very curious 🌎

Hi! I found it helpful to go into the app settings and force a stop, clear cache, and then bring the app back up again.

Just curious, did you book a guarantee? I would hate to be moved from a cabin I've chosen, I hope it gets straightened out and you have a fantastic time! I've never sailed across the Atlantic before, but it's on my bucket list even though my husband thinks it would be a very long, boring, journey, LOL, I think I would love it 🙂

No worries fellow person from South Jersey! LBI native also going in a few weeks 🙂 have a great time! Go Birds! 🦅

You're right Walter, I'm on a 5-day, so that's what the deal is, thanks for straightening that out 🙂 For me, whether the $25 comes out of the front end or the back end of the deal is no matter. As long as I get what I need, and feel that I've been treated fairly. If I sail on Virgin again, I'll probably do things differently, thanks for the heads up. I've been cruising longer than you, and I'm not worried about it, not sure why you keep bringing 20 years up? 🤔

Hi! 🙂 I did try to use a VV travel agent, had trouble finding one, not sure if I missed it, but I never found a good resource. Could you tell me where to look for next time? I know about the existence of the MNVVs and wonder how much they charge to sell them to you? If the cruise goes well, I may buy some on my upcoming trip. Hoping to find soap at Gunbae 😜 This year is the first time I ever paid a fee to a travel agent. My long time one retired, she used to get me perks and 5 to 10% of the price of the cruise, in the form of a check, when I returned home. Her company didn't deal with Virgin anyway. I'm not sure if I had the best places to look for a gold VV first mate, but I did try. I was aware of the program, even watched an hour-long vid of first mates putting other first mates through the booking process on screen, nothing special, though I did get to see how much they were going to make in commission. Have almost always booked my own excursions directly with people on the ground, not through the ship or any third party like Viator. I love to do the research, I eat that 💩 up 😋 Also, I always book my own air, and play the frequent flyer mileage game - just this year took my family from Newark to French Polynesia for 35k miles each way, 70k total per person, so 25,000 ff miles for me, is important. I forgot to mention that my credit card will pay me two times the price of the cruise in frequent flyer miles, so that will bring me up to just under 30k ff miles. Since 2018 I've also managed to fly the family in business class, to Rome, twice, on frequent flyer miles. For this trip, I also got $300 in bar tab and $100 in loot - the promotion was a $600 bar tab per cabin, but because I am one person staying in a Central Sea Terrace, it's half. With all the nickel and diming going on these days, I'm okay with 25 bucks that I knew ahead of time would be charged to me. In the bigger scheme of things it's a drop in the bucket, or ocean LOL 🌊

Hi @AlyssaJames sorry, was responding to this below regarding the closure of the whole cruise terminal. I've left from Barcelona four times myself, and if it was an hour away I might not be that interested. 8 hours ago Where have you found that information? Or is it a guess? - Actually, I can't find anything in this article that says that Barcelona will close down the whole cruise terminal. Where do you read that?

United Cruises charged the same price, I got almost 25,000 reward miles and $100 OBC for the $24.99, I'm good.

I didn't see anything about closing down the whole cruise terminal? 🤔 It seems they will be repurposing a good amount of it though - from the above article The move will create more than 13,600 square meters of public spaces for urban residents, according to a press release. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/10/13/cruise-passengers-in-barcelona-will-no-longer-be-able-to-stop-in-the-city-centre#:~:text=Barcelona's north wharf will be,last ship on 2 October. Barcelona’s north wharf will be transformed into new public spaces Around 340 cruises and ferries per year will be diverted from Barcelona Nord wharf, located in the World Trade Centre, which welcomed its last ship on 2 October. This will free up 630 metres of quay line, which will be developed into 13,600 square metres of “new public spaces”, according to the Port of Barcelona. Residents can expect to access the space from next autumn, following the 37th America’s Cup sailing race.

Not a guess ✌ https://www.insider.com/barcelona-cruise-ship-port-ban-north-terminal-adossat-wharf-2023-10

When I went to do my dining reservations, I noticed something that I hadn't heard about before, I was able to see the time slots that were already taken so I could plan my dining times. I brought up the app on my tablet and phone around 11:30pm, with the goal of seeing what changes might occur between then and the midnight mark - maybe I could jump on early. At about 20 minutes to midnight, clicked the "Book Dining" link, which brought me to the "Eateries" page - list of restaurants, each now populated with little red rectangle time slots in 15 minute intervals, I could search through the time slots that were left over from the Rockstars making their RSVPs at an earlier date. I used that information to come up with a plan for each day, and just after midnight the booking button at the bottom of the page became live, I was able to move right through and book everything, at the times we wanted, including brunches. At that point, the events line-up also became live, I was able to add Bingo with the Diva and various dance parties to my agenda. There were several other events (like Dual Reality) laid out on the timeline there so you could see what days/hours they occurred on. You are unable to book these ahead, must be done on board - same with the spa services. I appreciate all the help and answers to my crazy questions that you guys have given! 🙂

Maybe someone else can tell you how many reservations you can make? I was able to get both brunch and dinner reservations for Razzle Dazzle. Since we are on a 5 day, we're skipping The Wake for dinner, and have brunch there on disembarkation day.

I was just out on a Scarlet Night scouting mission, and I see that all the holiday clothing is starting to drop. Easier to find something now, as I have nothing red except a bathing suit. Hoping to score some holiday jammies, too 🎅🏻 do you guys think it would be okay to hang some battery operated LED Christmas lights inside the cabin? I've got some of those magnetic hooks that I was thinking about using. Sorry to go off topic!

I do love the ships all decked out 🎄 and was thinking they are halfway there in the Christmas dept, needing only to add some green and shiny things ✨️ lol

I had to reload pages that went into the great white several times, because they kept timing out. Just before midnight I forced a stop on the app, and reloaded it just in case of any residual crap. I used both my phone and tablet at the same time, and though the selection process is super awkward. Something I did notice which helped, was around 20 minutes before midnight, the app populated with the remaining dinner times, I guess post Rockstar rsvps. So I used that to chart out what I wanted and see what was available, so when midnight came I was ready. Since we're going to be on in December, do they decorate the ship for the holidays? Wondering if there will be lots of elves around? 🧑🏻‍🎄

I was in at midnight during this week to make my reservations, got everything I wanted, and was able to make my brunch reservation for debarkation day at The Wake. Razzle Dazzle was also available for brunch that day, but had already set that up for an earlier date and dinner the first evening. @Wildcatllamas I just went on my app and was able to make reservations on departation day for two at Razzle Dazzle for every time slot from 7am to 9:30am, you might want to try again Got an email yesterday morning from Virgin saying that it was time to do my reservations, LOL, so glad for you guys giving me the heads up 😊 I poked around not long after I got the email, and there was very little left. I know they open up another portion of the reservations on embarkation day, but I do feel good knowing I've got that all sorted out.

Ah yes the spa! Lol that is an easy place to spend money I can't believe I forgot 🙌🙂 Just wanted to mention for you to be careful running in those hills! The three of us went up to an observation area just outside the airport, up in the hills, hoping to run into an astronomy group up there at their meeting place. The gate was locked, so we set up our equipment in a little piece of their driveway, at the end of the dead end road, in front of the gate. 10 minutes go by, our eyes have just adjusted to the dark so we can see the Milky Way, and suddenly dogs coming down on us! We were on a public street, we were on no individuals property, but literally scared the you know what out of us, as we threw the equipment into the rental car and closed the door just as the dogs got to us. They chased us all the way down the street, which we then saw a newly lit up property, with 6 ft tall cement walls, topped by broken glass and an iron gate. The street was completely dark when we drove up. Please be careful.

How much was it? I used $1200 OBC (combination from PG and TA) for our two PG excursions, for the three of us, in June. If something changed, I don't know what else you would use it for because there's really nothing besides some trinkets in the shop or some top shelf wine or liquor for which you could use it up on. What is the name of the paper that you're looking at and I will compare it to mine that I still have if you like? You must be getting to ready to leave soon Leanne! I hope you have a great trip and this is just a simple mistake somehow 🙂

Brazil must have been a bit crazy! I'm a little hesitant to go there (for more reasons than just the intensity) although my husband would love to. I found many restaurants in Portugal to be extremely loud, as the sound bounces off of all those hard surfaces. I went to many concerts when I was young, and maybe that's how my hearing became bothersome, as it didn't affect me back then much. I do have ringing in my ears now. Love the Clash 👍🏻

Thank you 🙂 as long as I have some place to retreat to, I think I'll be okay. It doesn't seem to bother me if I'm moving on the dance floor, it's kind of like the persistence of sound that gets to me. Black and white checkerboard floors and strobing lights 🙈

So you guys are saying that no matter where you turn, there is music? Even in the cabin? I live in a very quiet place and love music, though I'm not sure how I'm going to react to that. My kid listens to music doing homework and I can't figure it for anything. I have to be able to hear myself think. I hope it's not as overwhelming as it's beginning to sound.

I'm so glad to hear you say that, don't know that I could sit for 3 hours, got that from a YouTube video - they didn't really care for the food or the atmosphere in Test Kitchen and felt it just took too long. I think it looks interesting and can't wait to try it, though I do think I will be substituting the blue cheese for something else, LOL. Thanks for the hint about first day, not sure where we're going to eat yet, the pajama party is that night, right? Since the sun will begin setting at 5:30, the sail away will be looking at the lights of Miami Looking forward to Pink Agave, I hear they have an excellent steak there and will look for that drink. What is the Fresca Spiked? Appreciate the heads up about the cold pressed juices, I thought they would be available most of the day? Can you get them delivered to your room? Would I be able to store them in my cabin refrigerator?

Thank you for condensing all that information into a couple paragraphs! I want to have a plan when I get to doing the reservations a few nights from now. Hoping to get to Razzle Dazzles on the 1st sea day for brunch, and perhaps Test Kitchen that evening. I hear Test Kitchen can take up to 3 hours? Pretty psyched for the food, I do a lot of cooking and really appreciate the variety and approach to dining on the boat. Not much of a drinker these days, the odd glass of wine when out to dinner, so was happy to see all the mocktails and pressed juices available if I don't want to drink alcohol. All these artisanal mixed cocktails are very interesting to me, and I'd love to taste some of them, even though I'm a lightweight these days. Does anybody have favorites they can recommend? There are so many I don't even know where to begin? 🍹 Clearly, they want everyone to stay well hydrated 🫠

Awesome, thanks for all the help! 🙂

My rsvp day is approaching, plan to stay up and make my dinner/show reservations 🙂 What restaurants are open for lunch and do you need to reserve them? Is afternoon tea available every day? Does that come out of your bar tab or loot? We're thinking about having brunch before heading out in Bimini, is RD or the wake open then? What shows are rsvp-able on this 45 day mark? Spa treatments - they are available ahead of time to book, is it better to wait and do it on the boat, which is what I've done in the past, or is it really hard to get in? There are so many choices, does anybody have recommendations for things they have had done? Wanting to get a massage but wondering about some of the therapies. Thanks! 🧜‍♀️