cantgetin

Essentially the same. On our 14 day TransAtlantic crossing, we had 2 additional entertainers and several stations at The Galley had additional special items that changed each day, but that was a special thing for this longer cruise. If you did 6 or 8 nights from Barcelona, you can expect mostly the same stuff from Miami with possibly a change or two in entertainment.

Since covid testing is no longer required to board, the only way you'll know is if you test yourself or you get sick on board and are tested. There is no testing at the terminal any more unless you fail your health screen and are taken to "medical" to see whether you can cruise or not. This is an area of the terminal prior to boarding. I would strongly suggest travel insurance purchased privately, not thru the cruise line. THe reason I go private is that I can get a lot better coverage for the same or less money. Purchased thru the cruise line will not cover your airfare or anything not purchased thru the line, and generally doesn't include much medical coverage. The reason to get insurance in general is that you, a travel companion, or a family member not cruising could get any sort of injury or illness, while the old VV policy covered only covid. So if you got the flu, you wouldn't be covered under the VV covid policy....and I don't even know if that policy is still in effect.

Things might have changed since October, but I was definitely able to book my disembarkation time 2 days into the cruise. It is in the app under "shore things," and i sort of stumbled across it as I wasn't booking any other shore things. I had to go to the date, and then the ability to select the time opened up. Both The Wake and THe Galley have "decent food" as you noted. Service at The Wake is a little slower/more relaxed than at RD, and the food seemed a little heavier. You won't be on the ship when lunch is served, so you'll have to plan on breakfast on the last day. It is really a matter of what you want. We knew that we liked RD so that was our last morning choice. We had a later flight, so were in no hurry to get up in the morning or rush off the ship. Both RD and The Wake serve lunch on normal days, and the menu at The Wake includes steak starting at noon.

If you book thru an agent, they will be able to see all the discounts and perks associated with your booking.

Embarkation is listed under "shore things," so you can book when those open up for you...but if you already know when you want to get off, that shouldn't interfere with booking breakfast on the last day. We preferred Razzle Dazzle for breakfast, The waffles and bacon were really good, and we quickly had a favorite server. The chocolate scones would have benefitted from being warmed up before serving, but weren't bad. We tried some other things, but these were definitely our favorites. The Wake is good on a sea day when you feel more like relaxing over a long breakfast, but RD felt better on the last day for getting up and on our way. Personal opinion, as always.

OK, i didn't read the luggage tags. I had actually left mine on (a fluke), but my travel companion took hers off. No big deal. We will know for next time.

According to the rep who did my res, it isn't supposed to be. You are supposed to be able to book the whole cruise at 45 days out, but he said they'd had multiple complaints about the app not working for our cruise date and that he had personally sent 2 tickets to IT already. As to what to do on your last night....it likely depends on how full your cruise is. I'm guessing you have one more night than they have restaurants. What I would do is to make a reservation for the last night wherever you can get in and then shuffle around your reservations if you want to. We ended up really liking some of the restaurants that we hadn't expected to, so did some shuffling on our 14 night cruise--no problem. The other thing to remember is that you can only make a specified number of reservations at each restaurant (number depends on length of cruise) IN ADVANCE, but once you are on the ship, you can make as many as you wish wherever you wish. I would also book my last morning breakfast fairly quickly after boarding (you'll already have selected your disembarkation time). That is something that will fill up, but most people won't think about it on the first day!

Loot can be used on anything--excursions, spa, shopping, alcohol, or whatever you buy after you board. Bar tab is limited to beverages (alcoholic or non). If you have leftover bar tab, you can buy a bottle of wine to bring home or treat your new best friends to a round. Same if you have leftover loot, but in that case you can buy anything. We had more loot than we needed on our last cruise, but we came home with some shirts and other goodies, my travel companion got her hair cut at the spa, and we got a few cocktails along the way. We did not have a bar tab. Loot is free money--gettin loot attached to a rebooking on board doesn't change the going rate on the booking.

On my cruise in October, the app only let us book the dinner for the first night, but I called VV and was able to book for the entire cruise. My plan was to only book the first few nights, but the rep on the phone suggested booking all "because they fill up." In reality, we had NO difficulty rescheduling dinner after boarding (when we had access to the entertainment schedule) or when we changed our minds. We also were only denied a walk in once; that was a brunch at The Wake. ALWAYS got dinner walk ins with little or no wait (10 minutes max). We did several dinner walk ins when we wanted to change the restaurant or wanted to eat earlier than we'd booked.

Interesting. On Valiant, we got a physical paper in our room the day before detailing how disembarkation would work, including luggage. But yes, out in the hall by 10 pm or you're taking it off yourself. The one thing that is very different is that they ask you to keep your embarkation tags ON the luggage that you place in the hall; if you've already removed them, the crew will retag them. It would have been better to let us know that when we boarded! The info was also on the app, but much easier to have it all. Essentially all the servers know how many are on the cruise. But, as above, you can look that the ipad that the crew member is using to check you in and read upside down. You can even sometimes get a shoreside crew member to tell you how many are booked if you call in advance to do something else. They are sometimes a little vague--I was told that they were at "about 50% with a goal of 65%" for my cruise. It turned out that we cruised at about 51%.

You can tell them that you don't need help--I should have been more forceful with that. They only "help" if you are having the bags delivered to the ship (and ultimately to your cabin door by VV crew). As long as you are "carry on only," you don't need to porters at all. The porters take your luggage from your Uber/car/whatever, put an ID tag showing your room on them, and take them to a luggage cart which is then loaded onto the ship. The VV crew then take them from the luggage cart to your cabin Door. On the reverse, they take your bags from the luggage hold area to your transportation waiting place (Uber pick up area). In Barcelona, we had 2 options at drop off. We could give them to the porter curbside who went thru the process or take them about 10 yards to a VV luggage check in station who did exactly the same thing.

My cruise was one of a few where you got an extra $200 if you booked a specific cruise on board rather than a placeholder..so $800 in total loot. Note to those who look at doing a cancel and rebook to get the "free" bar tab offer...the price of my cruise had increased, as of yesterday, to more than the cost of buying the bar tab. YMMV.

My cruise was one of a few where you got an extra $200 if you booked a specific cruise on board rather than a placeholder..so $800 in total loot. Note to those who look at doing a cancel and rebook to get the "free" bar tab offer...the price of my cruise had increased, as of yesterday, to more than the cost of buying the bar tab. YMMV.

On my sailing, they had trivia, an arcade tournament, and lots of other activities during the day. It might depend on the length of the cruise and how port intensive it is though. Mine was a long sailing with many sea days.

I repriced my booking today. If I were to cancel and rebook in order to get the new promotion, it would cost me more than the price of the drink package! In fairness, I thought I got a very good deal when I booked. It is a better deal for me to keep what I have and consider paying for adding a drink package, either now ($50 bonus) or wait for a higher bonus. I'm not saying this would be the result for everyone, but my "first mate" (travel agent" did warn me several days ago that most people were seeing price increases of anywhere from $100 to more than the cost of purchasing the drink packages.

Lots of parking at terminal V. I've never seen the parking structure anywhere close to filled.

Interesting...our Deep Blue sometimes took 24 hours to be adjusted, but it always was. I did make sure to check the account on the app prior to disembarkation. In every case, the charge showed up and then was adjusted off. Also, likely because it was a 14 night cruise, several outlets in The Galley had special "of the day" dishes on sea days. There was always something special at the burger place, and often at the taco, salad, and noodle places. Occasionally some of the sit down restaurants had additional items as well. THe specials were not on the app; you had to walk around and see the signs on the outlets or ask the server what the specials were. We got into the habit of taking a stroll around The Galley at lunch time before deciding whether to sit there or do a walk in brunch/lunch at one of the restaurants. I believe that the specials happen rarely on shorter cruises, but we were aware of them before our long cruise...so they have happened previously. I totally agree that once you got a server in The galley, things were smooth. Sometimes you waited 30 seconds for a server, and on one occasion 15 minutes (before I got up and found a supervisor). We found the Ship Show food to be pretty bad--beef tartare and chicken that you couldn't cut with the knife provided. We did walk in at a restaurant after the show as we literally didn't eat two bites at the show. With the other food being so good, we couldn't understand how this was so bad....but we joked that "there's always pizza."

Thanks for the info

In Barcelona, there were two options--we could hand off our luggage to porters or take it to a VV luggage check in desk with people wearing VV uniforms. Is there anything similar for embarkation in Miami? Our October cruise disembarked in Miami, and I was seriously unhappy with the aggressiveness of the porters who I had not even asked for help. Yes, I am well aware that they work for the port and that a tip is "expected" despite their union salaries. I won't say that I like a tip for about 2 minutes of work (tag my bag and put it on the cart), but I liked their behavior a lot less. And no, small enough bags to do as carry on will not be on option. So back to original question--does VV have a luggage kiosk/desk/person where we can hand off our luggage?

Thanks for the info! Does the additional loot count if you are booking with a previously made rebooking while on board (and your first mate qualifies) or only if you are a new booking with the appropriate first mate?

That's a good selling point for travel insurance with good medical coverage. MANY insurance policies will not cover anything outside the US. I've heard that "we're young" logic, but I saw a teen fall and have a compound fracture on a DCL ship. Sorry for those injured, but it can happen anywhere...even on a ship that isn't moving!

THe porters at Miami were the most aggressive I've ever encountered. They are union employees of the terminal and make a very good salary, but if you want your bags to get on the ship in good condition, I'd recommend a tip! No one expected tips at BCN, although we did generously tip a very helpful man at the airport. We did not tip at the cruise terminal there. Question--is checking luggage at a VV desk an option at Miami or is the curbside porter the only option? We used the porters in Miami, but both options were available at Barcelona. There was a desk operated by VV employees with a short line for luggage check in. No, it isn't that I'm too cheap to tip; it is that I really didn't like the way they treated us at Miami.

On the disembarkation day, I would strongly recommend a reservation if you want to eat somewhere other than The Galley. Seating at the restaurants ends much earlier than on normal days; you'll be able to see the times on the app. We had a 10:45 disembark time; about 10:15 they started announcing that everyone needed to make their way to the exit and get off. It was a bit interesting, because per the written schedule, everyone needed to be off by 10:30, but the app had a 10:45 which we had selected. In reality, they wanted everyone off at 10:30. That is also the "out of your cabin" time--no need to drag carry ons to breakfast like on other lines. You will encounter the elevator waits like on other lines--we did the "go up to get down" number. Bottom line, if you can't get a breakfast reservation, there is always The Galley...but you can also book that last day reservation as soon as you are on board! I guess it might also depend on how full your sailing is. And all of the above is just my experience. Your situation may differ.

The car park is right across the road from the terminal. You can pull up to the luggage drop and unload luggage, then park....or you can park first and wheel your luggage over. We had a 1:30 time (it is technically a terminal arrival time, not boarding time. We were able to go thru security at about 1:05, maybe 2 cabins ahead of us, and right to check in. No shoes off or anything, just scan carry ons and walk thru metal detector. We told them our room number and they did need to see our passports (yes, they had been scanned into the system). They looked us up in their computer by room number, and presumably verified names and passport photos. Got our wrist bands and our ribbon band for admission to the Deep Blue Extras party (we found this so annoying that we cut it off and carried it to the party...that's all it is used for). Then we had to wait a very short time until boarding opened at 1:30. When the person scanned my bracelet, he said that he needed another security photo of me (guess my selfie didn't cut it), which he took in about 3 seconds. I can't tell you the exact time we got to our cabin, but we were there at 1:40, having dropped carry ons and opened the door to head to lunch...and our luggage was there.. We hauled the bags in and started our cruise.

Supposedly (per recent reports) the ordering and food delivery system in The Galley has become more consistent. During our October cruise, several of the stations in The Galley had hours extending till about 10:30...so not really late, but decent. Not sure what you mean about managing flux in passenger loads. They are trying hard to get all of their sailings booked as much as possible. Their typical sailings are now around 50% or a bit higher, compared to about 35% during the summer. Special cruises tend to book higher, some over 80% capacity.