Rogueperson

6 hours ago, little britain said:

I’ve got DBE under addons. And $100 and $300 bar tab ✅ 

EXCELLENT!!!!

 

I don't know if you read it here, but they almost only gave my wife only Blue Extras because I think last month, they changed it so anyone from here on out who does the application only gets Blue Extras for the matching.  They turned around and back tracked and said she was eligible for deep blue extras after all probably because I applied back last year and was already approved.  If  you have that in your addons, you'll get all the benefits.  How long is your cruise?

 

You'll find that in general, drinks are cheaper on Virgin than Royal.  A simple mixed drink like Vodka Tonic is like 13 plus tip on Royal, but on Virgin, it was $7.00.  No tip added.  They do have more expensive drinks, but I found the average was about 10 bucks per drink.  It was difficult spending $800.00 over the course of 14 nights, but we did it.  

3 hours ago, little britain said:

Hey! Just settling down for a good read! 
Thanks for the mention about both needing to apply for DBE - I’m just filling it in for DH.

I must admit I find the app very frustrating. There is no way to see what OBC you have it your loyalty number ? Or am I being thick? 

 

FYI, you probably will not get DBE.  Just Blue Extras.  Its something, but not as good.  DBE is where you each get an additional $100 Bar tab.  That did appear under addons.

5 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

I may be in or near that demographic if you're going with that where I think you are, but it wasn't a problem when I did a cruise with them last year(I was certainly aware of it before I booked the trip).  Because it's not in your face or forced at any point in the cruise, the "open social stances" are there if you want to seek them out and completely missing if you don't.  I knew of shows\events that might not be my brand of humor or entertainment and ...I just didn't do those things. And thats the genius of how they run things.

 

You are not in the demographic i’m describing solely by the fact that you said “it wasn’t a problem”.  Our beliefs may not align, but thats beside the point.  There are

people who will feel that the “normal” cruise atmosphere is missing and therefore hate this solely because of this.  Its the same people who complained about a cruise line because no one spoke English in Spain and no one told them this (yes, I’ve read this review before)

 

As great as this cruise was, there was a small subset of people who i heard complain how this cruise was the worse cruise they been on.  I can’t understand how, but they were there.  And if you disagree with them…. wow.

There is something I missed.

 

What Virgin has done here is elevate the core cruise experience.  The food is better, the service is better.  Food access is better.  Activities are better.

 

They did it by addressing the other end.  They made their employees happier.  And as a result, they gave us a better experience.  As we have happier passengers, we connect better it seems.  I met so many wonderful people on this cruise.

 

I didn’t see anything i needed to call out.  

 

My next cruise is back on Royal Caribbean on Vision of the Seas in January.  I’m going to feel a little disappointed after this amazing experience.  Hopefully, I might be able to do a Virgin cruise in fall 2025 but I hope to do a west bound transatlantic on whatever is doing in the fall of 2026.

Here are my final thoughts about Virgin Voyages.   I will start after Disney. I think Disney does not need to be reviewed. All I can say is that it’s expensive overall.

 

It took a while to get settled back at home as work was insane for me.

 

Embarkation:

I got to the port a little bit late. I was about 30 minutes behind my scheduled embarkation time.  I noticed that check-in was much simpler than other cruise lines I’ve been on.   we got to the agent. She’s just checked passport and gave us our band.  next, we went through quick security and then onto the ship.

 

The Ship:

in my opinion, the ship lacks a lot of the bells and whistles that Royal Caribbean has. You would think that’s a detriment, but it really isn’t.  The ship is beautiful, but not overbearing.  Royal Caribbean has things like waterslides, carousels, ifly, bumper cars, zip lines, Flow Riders, skate rinks and much much more.  Carnival had a roller coaster.  NCL has a go-kart track!!!  This is all impressive but overall, not necessary.  Those are novelties which become irrelevant .  But that’s what Virgin doesn’t have.  

 

What Virgin does have, are solid meeting places.  I had no issues finding a place to sit and relax.  There are so many areas you could go and just kick up your feet.

At first, I felt the design of the ship was a little clunky, but I eventually got the hang of it.  It does initially feel like the ship dead ends but I realize that there is a main path from one end to another and it only dead ends when you branch off the main path like test kitchen and extra virgin.

 

I’m also amazed that there was always seating in the galley, even during peak dining hours.  

also, the ship has the coolest bathrooms.

 

Public space:

I felt every one of the bars on the ship felt unique. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It would mean that if I wanted a specific drink, I would have to go to a specific bar as opposed to any bar.

One of my favorite places was the arcade. All the games were set the free play.  however, some of the games were not working right. For example, the game that I kept playing that Daytona game, the steering wheel was very loose and there was no sound. gearshift on that game was also not working. I doubt they would actually be able to repair the game, but I asked someone to see if they cannot, at least, turn the sound on because there was no sound. That never happened.

 

One thing I noticed was that seating was not really an issue.  there is almost always someplace to just sit down and chill. I had no problem finding a place to play a game which generally needs a bigger table.  This ship had plenty of space for that.

 

Activities.

 

Virgin seems to take classic cruise activities and punched them up a couple notches.  Trivia is transformed to more like a game show.  In fact, the happenings team seems to inject energy into trivia, which I’ve never seen before.  

 

Even though i missed most of the trivia, I saw it often from the arcade.  

 

They had things like party games.  Beer pong!!!  It may have something to do with the demographics or the Happenings crew but they got participation in easily.  

 

The game library was impressive.  What’s even more impressive is they keep track of games with lost pieces.  On shorter cruises, these games may not have much value with so much going on, but long cruises like our transatlantic, it was awesome.

 

Parties. 

 

I always thought carnival was the party ship. Carnival can’t hold a candle to the energy that’s on the ship.  My experience is that the longer the cruise, the older and more sedate the crowd However, this cruise seemed to buck that trend.  This crowd did not feel sedate.  I was told that compared to the shorter runs, it is.  I can’t imagine.

 

Entertainment.

Royal Caribbean has a larger entertainment budget.  however, what Virgin does with what they have is incredible.  What they lack in resources they make up with ingenuity.  As I mentioned before the red room which is the theater is modular and can be reconfigured however they want.  The shows are smaller in scale.  At first, I felt their venues were too small to service the passenger base, but on longer cruises, they run shows multiple times to allow everyone to partake.  The only issue is that its hard to figure out if the show is a repeat or not.  Especially the headliners.

 

Also, the shows are also not standard.  Many of the shows are interactive. For example, the untitled dance party and the rock show were very interactive while Ships in the Night was a standard stage show.  I enjoyed every one of them immensely.  Not sure if I’ve just been on Royal so much and got desensitized to it or Virgin’s shows are just a breath of fresh air as novelty.

 

Crew.

The paid gratuity makes a huge difference.  The crew here feels much happier.  I don’t feel “processed” here like I do on other cruises.  It takes lot more on other ships to build a rapport with the crew than here.  This is just my perception as it’s harder with me in general.  The Happenings team is amazing.  They really feel like they’re trying to show you a good time and they are good at stirring up the energy.

 

Demographics.

 

I normally don’t even mention the demographics in general. However, there is a sense of openness in this that I have never seen in any other cruise line you wouldn’t think it would make a difference, but it really does. That little tidbit fosters a connection between other passengers and makes a cruise so much better. However, This cruise is not for the close minded. There is a certain demographic that would find this cruise unbearable.

 

Food.  

 

You all saw all my pictures of my food. I am pleased to say that most of the dishes tasted as good as it looked. Each restaurant is distinct and its own theme. Some are better than others, but even the worst restaurant on the ship was amazing.  On all my other cruises on Celebrity, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Princess, the food on the ship feels light somehow.  It does fill me up in the same fashion.  It doesn’t feel the same as a restaurant on land.  On Virgin, food feels just like on a restaurant on land.

The availability of the food is also way better than Royal.  24 hour breakfast.  Good Burgers and Pizza available until 2am.  You seriously will not starve on the ship.  

 

I usually will review every restaurant in a live review. However, for this cruise and this cruise line that’s just a waste of space. It’s all good.  really really good.  For those of us who remember, cruising on the good old days, this is the service and food experience.  I posted food and menu pics.  I added opinions throughout this live thread.  It does not need repeating.

 

Ports.

 

Funchal.  

i’m not sure if it’s because it’s the first land I’ve seen in nine days, but Funchal is beautiful.  I am so used to the Caribbean islands that this island is just a breath of fresh air. In my mind, the closest approximation is Bermuda, but even Bermuda can’t hold a candle to this flame.  I feel like this is the first island I’ve been to that has a full infrastructure.  Also, I didn’t feel like I was being taken advantage of as a tourist. I found a lot of prices here were better than home.

 

Malaga.

 

Another port that I absolutely love. This place has so much history and culture.  Another absolutely beautiful port.  The only issue i have is that it was very crowded.  We did share the port with Oasis.

 

Valencia

 

Out of the three port of calls, this was my least favorite. But that does not mean this was a bad port. I had an annoying excursion which deterred a little bit, but Valencia is a working town. It wasn’t as spectacular as Malaga or Funchal, but it was still very interesting.

 

Barcelona

 

I count this as a port of call because I did an excursion and explore the city. Barcelona is just plain awe inspiring.  The architecture is amazing. The entire city is like a museum almost and this was planned by their planners.

 

The bad thing is that theft is a huge deal in the city. I’ve heard of at least 4 to 5 incidents that occurred either debarkation day or soon after debarkation day to passengers on our cruise.  they were all victims of theft in one form or another at least three happen at the airport on the same day, possibly by the same group of people.  I know this is anecdotal but I’ve never seen any kind of report of crime on other Facebook groups for my cruises to this level.

 

Debarkation

 

Debarkation is so dependent on custom agents.  I don’t fault virgin in this aspect for what I heard. There was one agent in the beginning when we left the ship there were three but one wasn’t actually processing passengers.

 

Bottom Line.

 

I am happy to announce that Royal Caribbean has been soundly knocked off its throne as my favorite cruise line.  There were little issues that arose, but most of those were small quibbles like I couldn’t get a doughnut.  

 

Overall, it knocked my best cruise off its throne as well.  My 2014/2015 NYE cruise is no longer topping the charts as best cruise.  This one now stands as best unweighted cruise.  My Carnival Pride wedding cruise still reigns supreme, but thatcould never be beaten.

 

Unfortunately Virgin only has three ships at the moment with a fourth coming out next year.  this means their schedule is limited and if the schedule doesn’t work, I can’t cruise with them.  That is Royal Caribbean’s only saving grace.

 

So this ends my first Virgin and TransAtlantic Cruise.

 

There unfortunately was one casualty.



 

I lost my Kindle somewhere between my hotel in Orlando and the Ship.  I checked with the ship and the car rental with no luck.  I emailed the hotel, but i doubt it is there.  Its gone.

16 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Another cruiser posted some photos of the helicopter....we were asleep.

 

I stole those photos, but won't post them since they weren't my pics.  They were awesome pics.

I'm not sure if the coffee credit works on the disembarkation day.  I was charged for 2 coffees.  I sent a message to Sailor Services but the thread was closed as "resolved", but i have no idea how it was resolved as I still paid for it on my balance.  I opened another chat, and never knew how that ended up because I left the ship.  It was only $6.00 total and I didn't feel it warranted me waiting in line for Sailor Services when previous that was sufficient.

Also, many of the restaurants have "specials".  You kinda need to ask what's not on the menu.

From what I heard, they took the guy off the Deck 16 running track.  I was on this cruise and surprisingly awake when they did it, though I did not seek out a way to view the helicopters.  It was done in like 30 minutes, I was surprised how fast they did it.

2 minutes ago, little britain said:

Interesting! We lose our Virgin virginess in August! 

 

Check out my live thread 😛 its in my signature.  I linked them all there because I saw @laurieal do it in hers.  What a wonderful idea!!!  Have I done that many.  And if you're like me, you'll start rereading our adventures in Greenland!

6 hours ago, perfect match said:

 

 

 

@Rogueperson I have enjoyed your input here, too. I think that once I’m rested up from my own post cruise tiredness I’m going to have to head over to the Virgin Voyages board and check out

your review.

 

 

I’ll give you a short run down.  I LOVE Royal Caribbean.  She reigned as favorite cruise line for years, especially coming from behind as worst cruise i ever had.  But Virgin just knocked it out of the park.  I’ve been on NCL, Royal, Celebrity, Princess and Carnival.  Loved them all but yeah, Virgin just killed.

2 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

 

I normally get the premium wifi as a perk with Deep Blue Extra and the speed/quality is usually excellent, however I recently did a 4 day Caribbean sailing without any perks, and the regular free wifi. It was only good enough for basic surfing and email. Many of my apps had a hard time loading, so when in port, I turned off airplane mode and used the cell connections on shore.

 

why didn’t you get you DBE benefit?

24 minutes ago, psu8284 said:

I will be sailing VV Scarlet Lady later this month.  Interested to hear how the wifi and internet experience has been.  I do some stock and option trading and would rather keep that option open for myself while cruising.   Any feedback on speed, reliability, sea days?

 

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

 

I think this is totally dependent upon usage onboard and where the ship is, but we had NO issues with the internet on this run.  As i said in another earlier post, this was the best internet I've ever had on a cruise. However, I was using the Premium wifi.  It would have been 340 for my entire cruise if I did not have DBE.  This cost would allow for 2 devices to be logged in at the same time.  The regular wifi was a little glitchy.  I posted speeds on both earlier in my live thread.

 

Anecdotally, I've been told premium is usually stable like this.

14 hours ago, scaught said:

My AT&T Plan includes free canada and mexico, and it has that $10/day unlimited international day pass thing. Considering it just works when I get to the location and don't have to deal with sim swapping or anything it's great for me. It worked in Barcelona when we were there, and I can't imagine trying to do Tokyo without it.

 

I have AT&T, but I don't believe my plan includes Canada or Mexico.  I have to double check.

This was an oversight on my part absolutely.  My wife has T-Mobile and she had limited data as it didn't really work very well, but it worked.  But unfortunately, a lot of the information was on my phone, which was locked unless i found a wifi.

 

I know for next time now.  Its one thing to not have data while on an excursion, which is fine, as I will eventually get back to the ship.  Its another to depend on a unreliable wifi infrastructure in a different country.  The ship wifi was wonderful, and I don't think I've ever said that before in conjunction with a cruise ship.  The best I had prior to this was "it was adequate, it did what it needed to do"

Another plus on Virgin.

I have landed and I am almost home.  I will do a comprehensive review in a day or two.  Very tired.

 

I should add that Global Entry rocks.  Dulles was slammed.  But Global Entry had 10 people in line and it processed in 5 minutes.

 

 

Oh, here’s a pic of the box thing they were using.  This one’s a British airway one, but you get the gist.  I tried to get the TAP one but I was on the moving walkway.

 

 

 

The one thing this airport seems to lack is seating.  Despite Barcelona’s crappy wifi, they had plenty of seats.  It feels like the seats near the gates feel i adequate.

 

 

Good evening from Lisbon.

 

 

 

I think i’m still on cruise schedule because i ate too much food here.  Lots of new foods here and as airport food goes, its pretty good.

 

 

 

 

The wifi here is difficult prior to the log on page.  It lags like crazy.  But once you actually get the “you connected”, it stabilizes.

 

Going to the bathroom, this amused me.  

 

 

I swear i am not looking to take bathroom pics.  But this amuses me.

 

I got an Iberia ham sandwich that had i think brie in it.  It was damn good.

 

 

So funny story.  I hate my sandwich and decided to get the traditional Portuguese dishes.  I’m pretty sure traditional maybe in quotes.  @FionaMG can let me know.

 

So i wanted the duck rice, but they were out so i settled for the codfish.  I didn’t get a pic.  It was ok.  But my wife pointed out the bag my sandwich was in and asked if i was done.  I said yes, but then realized I only ate 1/2 of it.  

 

So i spent a 14 night cruise mostly donutless.  But what do I find at McDonalds on all places?!?!?

 

 

This amazes me.  Its a mediocre donut.  Come on, its McDonalds, but I don’t know anywhere else in the states where Mcdonalds sells donuts.

 

But overall, this airport is NICE.  This is the food court and they have like a mall attached to it.  We didn’t explore it as we wanted to find our gate and well, it was beyond passport control (so thats what you meant FionaMG).

 

 

Also, this is for @FionaMG.  I know i tagged you twice here.

 

Observation.  

I originally thought I would fly out disembarkation day.

I would have taken this route which takes off at 11:25.  only 35 minutes before noon that all cruise lines recommend to book after so not so bad.

 

But doing the math backwards.  Boarding is at 10:25 (had this flight been on time.

15 minutes to walk through airport.  Granted this airport is huge.  10:10 I mentioned it  earlier that it took an hour and 15 minutes to check bags and go to through security.  That puts time at 8:55. Its a half hour from port to airport.  8:25.

 

 Now, i won’t add the hour i stood in line for a cab but if the cruise has transport to the airport.  it would start boarding at probably 7:55 (30 minutes before departure) to load.  you would need to be at port side at 7:55-8:25.    So if your ship comes in late or something happens, noon flights are cutting it close as it is.

 

So moral of the story, get later flights after a cruise.  Thats a lot of stress AFTER your vacation.

TAP airlines.  Totally new to me.  I’m anxious as I don’t know their protocols and of course, the language barrier.

My carry on bag that works on many other airlines (i won’t say plane as i’ve been on airbus 320s before) was “too big”.  Dude came around with a box with the cat language “if it fits, it sits.”. So had to check at gate, but i don’t think they charged me.  At bag check, we were told our carry ons which we’ve taken on airbuses before was too big and had to be checked.  I had only planned on checking 1 of two odd my carry on garment bags.  I think it was too long.  My carryon was too thick.  He didn’t charge me either.  I seriously lucked out because they charge 110 euros for additional bags after allowance.  My ticket allowed one checked bag each.

 

Also, they board the plane back first!!!  GENIUS!!!

Obligatory wing photo.

 

 



And we are on the plane and onward to Lisbon.  Still plenty of time for our connection.

 


Couple of things i noticed on this leg and with Tap in general.

Beverages not included.  They will give you a small cup of water, but you must buy your drink.  I kind of like this.

Also, no in flight entertainment to speak of.  It’s old school.

THIS surprises me especially because this is just a two hour hop.

 



POWER SUPPLY!!!

I hope the next leg has it because I will be set if that’s the case.

So far, I am impresses with TAP.

Look at the leg room.  I’m not a tall guy at 5’7.  

 



Thats a good 6 1/2 inches between my knees and the front of the chair.  Maybe more with that pocket as its hanging open and possibly distorts the measure by another 1/2 inch or more in its favor. 

We ended up at a restaurant in the arena they converted to a mall near our hotel.

Restaurant.

 



Menu

 

 

 




My wife said iberia ham was a local favorite.  I didn’t want to spend 28 euros for an app so i settled for an iberian ham croquet.

 



next was the clams with spicy sauce and wine from Malaga.  This was amazingly delicious.

 



I got the meat Paella which is a spanish rice dish.

 



Wife got seafood Paella. 

 



Night time is pretty here too

 



So this ends my Barcelona day.

I was having such bad wifi at the hotel and airport.  I could not even post reliably.  Pics would not load, so I waited until now to post.  Lisbon’s airport wifi is way better and stable.

 

Recap of Yesterday.

Once all the crap passed and we were fed, we ended up on the Hop on, Hop off bus.  This like a low key affordable option to tour many cities.  I had never done it before.  You board a double decker bus.  They give you a set of analog headphones.  You plug it in and listen to the recorded program.  Its not interactive, but you get the info and see the sites.  My only issue was the “free wifi” they offer did not work well.  The router would not even reach the upper deck.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Barcelona is absolutely stunning.  I love this place.  I need to find a way to mitigate the language and data barrier.  Someone said easy sim.  I will have to research.

 

12 hours ago, little britain said:

Well; that didn’t end well… we had checked in our cases and we were sitting reading before going through security at BCN when some lowlife stole my handbag 👜 containing our Passports, boarding passes, my glasses, driving licence & credit cards - all gone 😭 
Not allowed on flight back home. 
DH caught the guy who did the distraction whilst his accomplice nicked my brand new Kate Spade bag, helped by some nearby lads who just happened to be Swiss Police on holiday! 
Now the trauma of getting new passports etc so we can get home. 
Stopped credit cards immediately but they have tried to use them already in the city centre so police know exactly where they are in the city.

hopefully they can match up security cameras footage at the airport with street camera at the two venues where they tried to use them and identify them. 
 

I think I’m more gutted about losing the new handbag and my Pinnacle passport holder 

 

Takes about 48 hours to get a new emergency travel document so checked into hotel and had a very large glass of wine. Ok it was a bottle. 
 

LB

 

wow…. Good luck.  My miserableness pales in comparison.  I’ve been keenly aware of my surroundings because of many warnings of pick pockets and thieves.  That probably added to my anxiety overall.

18 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Do tell, what's the problem?

 

See my live thread.  This is Laurieal’s.  Not nearly as bad as Little Britain.

Quick update to my adventures.  Wifi is worse at Barcelona airport.  No way i can upload pics easily.  At least I’m here.

 

I had to go through security 3 times!!!  They say you have to separate electronics.  Usually its just my laptop.  They wanted every thing and in separate trays so yeah…

 

But I’m at the gate for my first leg.  Delayed by 20 minutes .  Worse news.  No gate assignment.  So I could be here, i could be across the terminal.  This place is huge.  But pretty nice.

 

58 minutes ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I could make a meal of the fried ancovies, cheese plate and some bread...would pass the tartare up though 😜 BTW have you downloaded Google Translate? You set the language, point the camera at a foreign menu and you instantly see it in English. Not always perfect, but it works pretty darn well.

 

Ooooh, google translate has offline mode!!