Chrish2

I'm rather miffed about this change. It feels tacky and does not fit into the positioning of line.

Previous years have had a book by and sail by date. This seems just to have a sail by date. I can see how this streamlines the process but makes me wonder what the timings for any renewal will be for next year. Definitely think the alignment to the calendar year is to do with a contract for the administration via the app.

Marketing leaflet for the 3rd leg (only) is on first mates site which sort of contradicts what we have heard so far.

Any hints yet of launch price for the three voyages announced? Have a MNVV credit and considering the 5 night one.

Noticed the bar was offering Cruise Monkeys (vloggers) a range of drinks beyond Champagne https://www.youtube.com/@CruiseMonkeys in their trip a few months ago. They didn't spell it out but I did wonder if the deal had changed at the time. Maybe this is a formalisation of an informal policy.

Receipts are in the app whist onboard. I've always screen shotted these to help keep track. I would assume VV operate an electronic journal and the folio details should be sufficient to recall a given receipt on it. You might have better luck emailing the ship rather than sailor services as they may have easier access to the electronic journal (and accessing it more frequently than a random customer service agent on land).

My understanding is the door must be shut for the AC to operate. To ensure the door is shut the copy says "locked" so there is no mistake, not half closed, not nearly closed "closed and locked" is very clear. I think if you look you can see the magnetic sensor in the door. The whole thing if fine, there should NEVER be a need to operate the AC whilst the door is open given it won't be able to cool/warm the air of the cabin to the target temperature.

Phone up and make sure your cabins are linked under the “celebrate together” promotion. This is better than doing it yourself by adding a contact. After a few days you will see this in the app under “me” > “add-ins”. On your second day onboard you will both get a bottle of bubbles delivered to your rooms. If you already can see this in the app then it’s already done. Check under “messenger” > “contacts”.

Wasn’t circles intended to be a marketing scheme separate from the TA side intended to bring in group bookings? Are TAs creating group bookings to give customers an OBS boost and claiming the free cabin for themselves?

But they do bring staff on during turn around day, or they did last year. When I was on a back to back in Miami in 2022 they had a sizeable team of day staff that boarded to help clean. They are all dressed in the usual Virgin staff uniform but had masks and lanyards on. They mostly supported with prepping rooms. By the time boarding of new passengers happened later in the day they had mostly disappeared. I assume this is how they can have such a late final disembarkation time.

The quote seems a little unclear. Does P&O Cruises have the highest occupancy it has had over the last 10 years for its entire fleet or just for European sailings? Also what time frame is it? Just August? Well that would be easy due to the shift to support more families, it's pure focus on the UK market and school holidays all come into it. To me it sounds a big positive sound bite but when you dig into it there does not seem to be much substance to understand if this is long term (what about the other 11 months, what if you look at all geo locations.

Lots of people focusing on these comments and assume prices will go up, quality will go down. That’s not quite how I read the comments the new CEO has made. There are a whole world of options they have For example just thinking about Miami departures * on turn around day they have staff come on board to help with cleaning cabins. If you change your mix of itineraries to have slightly more longer sailings you increase profit per person per night by not having that cost as frequently. Does it diminish the product or lower quality? No * they current have transfers sorted for rockstars but how many people outside terminal v are making the same identical trip to the airport? Adding paid for ground transport for regular non-rockstars like transfer to the airport would improve the experience for travellers and increase profit * likewise they can look at growing how much you book through them. I know they varied their terms earlier in the year permitting them to sell flights and hotels. Whilst TAs can do this VV don’t seem interested yet in that side of things. * There are some interesting things they could do within the Virgin group to bring UK customers, which the virgin brand (and ship offering) really hits home for, to their sailings.

I kept an eye on some prices for MNVV in the past for sea terrace. I look at the final price on the summary page just under “Voyage total” and in big red text. This to be is the “true selling price”, it includes all “auto” promotional available to everyone, is inclusive of taxes, and frankly is what mr public currently pays. What I spotted was this voyage total slowly increase (might jump a bit more if the sea terrace sells out and you have to take central or xl). Then once high enough they bring in the lock it in rate. This returns the price back to earlier times but with slightly different conditions. Of course on earlier dates can get the pay in full discount. Once the lock it in rates appear there usually is a $300 premium negating the $300 discount MNVV gives. Interestingly when working out prices after the “voyage total” (e.g. 10% sailing club, 10%pay in full, $300 MNVV) I’ve always been charged less than I worked out. I always phone to book as usually doing back to back needing cabin selection or have multiple cabins and wanting them be next to each other. They have also been maintaining fare price per night relatively steady. What has changed is how they dish out free promo money. Most of this was originally sailor loot. At some point they started to make it quasi all inclusive with the free bar tab on every booking. This seems to have stopped the “but no drinks package” feedback and worked well for booking. At the same time they have dialled back sailor loot ($100 Jlo, $50/$50 sail with friends, $200 during red hot booking month etc). The only big sailor loot for new bookings is the MNVV and that’s been boosted to $600 sailor loot. I can’t see that returning back to $300, it doesn’t explain well, and customers are not dumb, they know $300 spent onboard only costs VV cost price of goods. They cracked something interesting in 2022 with a true no solo supplement but I think it interacted with other offers too well. Subsequent solo offers haven’t been that good but I can see this might be an area they may continue to experiment with. This might well be where they target offers.

Update: maybe what I said was out of date https://www.immihelp.com/carrying-currency-to-from-india-when-traveling-to-india/ suggests 25,000 IRN (around 300 USD) can be exported ... but I really would want to do more research if I was you.

The Indian rupee is a closed currency. You wont be able to buy it outside the country and if you do acquire some when visiting it is strictly illegal to then export any as a non-resident. Definitely worth doing some research, maybe check one of the other boards for cruise lines that visits frequently for info and even consult with a guide book.