cantgetin

The hammock is not a chair other than in a few cabins where the attachments will not allow a standard hammock. The bathrooms, other than the accessible bathrooms do have a large shelf under the sink, The accessible cabins are missing this shelf in order to allow a wheelchair to get close enough to the sink!

This was our experience in Miami less than 6 months ago. Podium with woman handing out the ribbon wrist bands, this got us immediate entrance to the terminal, and a special like, separate from the timed lines. We boarded right after the suites and Splash of Romance. And we were in the cabin less than 15 minutes from entering the terminal. In Barcelona, there was a man looking us up on his tablet to determine whether we could enter the terminal, but we did not get the ribbon band until the check in desk, at which point we got both the ribbon and the red band. It was essentially the same procedure with minimal variations. Also, in Barcelona there was essentially no waiting in the terminal, although this may all be different now as the ship is using Terminal A rather than the WTC terminal. We entered, went thru security, then to check in....then we waited until boarding started (we were allowed to enter at 1:00 but boarding didn't start till 1:30. We were in our room by 1:40. The timed lines were outside the terminal....but again, our next BCN cruise will be using a different terminal, so things may be different.

VV has a bit of a bizarre (in my opinion) policy. A gold Tier travel agent can "hold" a limited number of cabins, including rockstar suites for 30 days while attempting to sell them. If they do not sell in that time, they revert to VV's inventory, but there is nothing stopping another agent from grabbing them. That's why suites seem to be gone for ages and then suddenly show up. True, there is a rare person who reserves a suite and then cancels or upgrades to a higher level suite. I guess it is a way for top level agents to have time to contact clients about their wants for upcoming cruises, but most lines allow this sort of thing for 24-72 hours if at all. Others require that a name be attached, then the reservation returns to inventory if there is no payment in 24 hours. Hey, VV wants to be different....but different is not aways better. My own agent has posted stuff like "I have this available for 3 more days at this cost, grab it now or you won't see this pricing again even if the cabin is available." Gotta give an agent credit for doing all they can within the rules, but sometimes the rules don't make sense.

To date, very few cruises have sailed "sold out." Getting about 2000 on board seems to be the norm recently. We looked at adding another 2024 cruise when they announced the fall lineup. Nope, not at those prices.

Double? THe cruise that I paid $2100 for is currently selling for over $9000. A newbie could shave a little off with the MNVV, but it is even too late for the PIF 10%. One good thing--if for any reason people who booked long ago can't cruise, they should have no difficulty reselling their bookings! I could sell my cruise for what I paid for both the cruise and the air and they buyer would still be getting a great deal!

We were able to do my favorite "trick" for flights. I cruised the April 23 Miami to BCN, so bought a round trip flight from BCN to home with the second leg for this cruise. As you noted, also Premium Economy. We were in Swiss last time, Lufthansa this time (same company operating under different names). The round trip is far cheaper than a one way ticket. And, as you noted, the premium economy is well worth the cost on a long haul flight. Ours is a few hours longer since we will fly from the west coast. Booked a hotel on Chase points a LONG time ago. At that point it was a lot less than sites like hotels.com. I checked last night. Probably since we are not near that sports facilities, the cost has actually come down, but we still paid $5 less than the current listing if I translate points to dollars. It is a hotel we've used before--nothing fancy, but comfortable and none of the hassles with AirBnB canceling people or advising them of "broken elevators," etc. to try to get them to cancel Thanks for the links to the Happenings Cast. Carlos is supposed to be great.

There was nothing wrong with our Galley breakfast on our first cruise, but we had plenty of time and it wasn't really what we wanted. RD was a little more crowded than normal on our last disembarkation day, but it was still lovely to sit, have a chance to say good bye to some of the crew who had been so wonderful, etc. You are correct that room service is not available. I would highly recommend scheduling brunch as soon as you can! FWIW, on our cruise, RD on Bimini day was a bit disorganized. It was a different crew than we'd seen before...the bacon was done badly, the server didn't have a clue what he was doing, etc. I don't know if this was a training crew or where they came from, but I won't do RD on Bimini day again. We've been told that the RD crew is responsible for lunch on Bimini, so they are busy getting things off the ship, getting set up for lunch on the island, etc.

I think they are figuring out how to handle various holidays, which to recognize vs. which to ignore, etc. Last year on Valiant, there was nothing before or after 10/31 with a rather small recognition of Halloween on the day, but they learned by our actions on the previous cruise that people wanted to make a big deal of a pseudo holiday. But those who are offended by a Halloween celebration are not likely to be cruising Virgin at any time. Christmas is always tricky--they have to figure out whether doing a non-religious celebration will offend anyone. Should they just do a "winter" themed celebration? Should they add some green baubles to their red theme and not specify what is being celebrated? It is easier to celebrate the octopus wedding and stay away from any potentially sensitive areas, but that might also be offensive to some,

Lat year, we disembarked on October 30, but the FB group did a costume night and the crew seemed to love it. This year, I'll be cruising over Halloween, and the schedule shows 3 large Halloween themed events as well as "scary" or "spooky" themes applied to other activities that are typically part of the lineup. Sorry, never cruise over Christmas, but I'd expect at least some holiday themed alterations to normal events.

Lots of people have app issues on a very regular basis. I noticed that VV has changed some of their booking pages on the website. These seemed to be working fine before the changes, although they do give a more detailed look at what you get with your cruise. So why is IT playing around with an already functional website rather than fixing the app that has a history of not working over the past 2 years? Glad you got your reservations,.

I have no idea why it is not on the website. It had limited hours, but was definitely there on each of our cruises. It is on the app for my upcoming cruise.

I didn't realize it was THAT high now....but we got it for $2100 USD. I just looked--the same category (Sea Terrace) that we booked is now over $9K. Could shave off a bit with the MNVV and PIF TODAY (that PIF discount goes away tomorrow!), but still, YIKES!

Well, I have it easier....I use a "first mate" (VV speak for travel agent) who evaluates the bookings of all her clients each time a VV price change comes out. VV does make it easier than other lines in that their prices don't change daily. If she sees a better deal, she will contact the client and deal with it. but... In most cases, it is a cancel and rebook. It is not instant, and you do risk losing your cabin during the few minutes that the transition is in progress An MNVV can be transferred twice, so yes, a cancel and rebook does count as one of the transfers. This is not a problem provided you don't exceed the limit of 2 transfers. The difference is a refund to the pay source you used (if you have only made a down payment on the first booking, that down payment will be applied to the new booking in full and the balance due will reflect the lower price Any additional loot will depend on the current booking. Yes, you will lose all perks associated with the original booking and pick up any new ones associated with the new booking. For example. I had a booking made about a year ago. It later came up with a lower price. We had MNVV and a bottle of bubbly. My agent did the "cancel and rebook" as this was the only option to get the new deal. We were able to re-use the MNVV, so kept that $600 in loot and the $300 discount from the certificate. We got an additional $396 off the cruise price AND added a $600 bar tab. We did lose our bottle of bubbly. We later had a $100 loot credit added because our TA got 10 cabins booked on that cruise, qualifying each of us for a "circle" credit. We also kept our deep blue extras, and we did not lose our cabin (which we had selected specifically). VV does not do "re-faring" like some lines do. They require a cancel and rebook. You don't need to price check every day or week, but VV does post when their current "special" is ending. That means new pricing will appear sometime in the few days after that date. That's the time to look. When a special ends, you never know what will come next or what cruises will be exempt from any new deal. It is rare to see as much of a discount as we picked up, but stuff happens. Other things that come and go have been stuff like 10% for loyalty people (this came out after we'd already saved our $396 and the price has again increased--the deal we now have is better than another rebooking). THe 10% off for paying in full more than 180 days in advance is always out there. FL resident discounts appear on some cruises if you qualify.....

I've had 2 cruises with price drops such that I chose to "cancel and rebook" to get the drop. One was not much: I traded a $135 discount for the loss of a bottle of bubbly. The second time, I saved almost $400 AND added the $600 bar tab. That was a "no brainer," In each case, these were well before PIF date. Recently the cost of my upcoming cruise dropped.....I paid a total of $2400; the price rose to over $4K, and is now booking for $3400....so a discount from the high price, but still well above the early booking,

Update--TA called VV, charge was removed. No explanation other than it is happening to many people,

Any level on Castaway Club gets you Sea Rover (unless it has changed). And Sea Rover status gets you the Deep Blue Extras perks package! A crew member told me that they love converting Disney cruisers to VV.

My upcoming cruise has been PIF for more than 6 months. I just got an email from VV that I owe them $2.54. My TA has been notified and is trying to figure it out. On the one hand, I don't care about $2.54. On the other hand, there was NO explanation, and it will cost them more in billing and bookkeeping than they'll get, Per FB group, others on the same cruise have received bills ranging from $0.70 to $2.54. My thoughts...could be that terminal A has higher port feea than WTC port? Don't know...waiting to hear from TA.

On our last cruise trip, Melia offered to hold our cruise luggage in their secure room so we didn't have to take it to our room! That was super helpful. I had already packed my "cruise embarkation clothes" in my carry on just in case the luggage didn't arrive (which it did, but always having and extra outfit in the carry on makes sense to me.) This makes me guess that they will hold luggage for an early arrival. However, their complimentary shuttle doesn't start till after noon. They will allow an early check in IF your room is ready. We've never asked about late check out. We never arrive before noon as we are unable to get a direct flight to Barcelona....we have choices of many different layover spots in both the US and Europe.....we opt to do the long haul first, knowing that if the worst were to happen, we'd have a lot more options if we were in Europe already. Best Western runs a morning shuttle but not evening--so you have transportation TO the airport as most of the time you'll need to arrive in the morning. This makes them a good place for the day after a cruise as it is often difficult to get a late enough flight out on disembarkation day if returning to the US. We were surprised on our last trip to find that NO food places would deliver to that hotel; no worries, the on site restaurant had burgers and fries. After 2 weeks of cruise food, we didn't need another fancy dinner! Another hint--there is a charge if you have them carry it to your room but not if you go down to the restaurant /bar and pick it up there! We do as the above poster suggested--take a late afternoon/early evening flight out (I generally don't take the last flight of the day, again...building in those options) which gets us to our switch city in the morning. With the layover and 1 1/2 to 2 hour flight to BCN, it is late afternoon by the time we arrive. This also, again, gives us options of later flights into BCN should something get messed up. Then we stay up as long as possible, hopefully having gotten some sleep on the plane. We set multiple alarms and request a wake up call for the next morning "just in case" and we are basically time adjusted and ready to go when we wake up. No, we don't sleep late, but I don't do a 7am wake up either. I'm normally up before the 10 am alarm. I've never asked for a late check out at Melia....it would be nice, but has never worked for us at other hotels (the front desk has approved it but forgot to tell housekeeping....after the third knock on the door, we gave up). So, at Melia, we just go down to the large, comfortable lobby and chill out for an hour or so before getting a taxi to the port. It is about a 25 minute drive and our fare last time was 22 Euros (cheaper than the on line info said it would be!)

One day is not enough to see Barcelona, or to barely get a taste of it. It really depends on how much vacation time and money you have. We've been to BCN several times, so seeing the city is less of a priority. For our next cruise, we will fly in the day before, stay at a hotel near the airport which has a complimentary shuttle, and go to sleep..but after a 14 hour trip, that's what we need. If I only had one day to see the city, I'd do the HOHO bus. There are three different "loops" and the maps will show you what each visits and the various intersection points. There is a narration so you will get a bit of understanding of where you are and what you are seeing. If I had 5 days, I'd do things differently....If your question is whether Barcelona is worth a visit--definitely. But what can work into your schedule and budget are things I can't answer. In general, our logic is that if we are spending the time and effort on flying somewhere, we may as well stay as long as we can and enjoy the place.

It greatly depends on the cruise line. I made the mistake of doing those that "assigned" you--you have no choice and there was a "deviation" charge for each request you made (non-stop flight, departure in a given time period), On other lines, Princess for example, we were able to view the flights they offered along with the prices and choose what we wanted. BUT the problem still remained that we were booking thru a third party, rather than directly with the airline. If there was a problem, if the airline canceled the flight or whatever, we had to go back to that third party whereas if you booked thru an airline and they cancel you, they will rebook you on something that will work for you at no additional. charge. So even when the cruise line gave us a choice, it wasn't as good as booking on our own. We've also seen "book thru the cruise line" prices that were higher than booking on our own! Another cruise line stunt was "if you book air thru us, you have to stay at one of our participating hotels." Bottom line, shop on your own first, then see what, if anything, the cruise line can do for you and decide.

Currently, the entire loyalty program, whether thru status match or sailings on VV, only lasts till the end of 2024. It has already been extended at least 3 times, so no one knows what might happen after that.

The other thing to consider is that the prices on VV for beverages, spa, etc. already include the tips....so that drink on another line that lists the price at $10 is really charging you $11.80-12, while on VV, the charge is really $10. The only exception is if the ship is in port or not yet in international waters and the area where it is located has a tax (which they are then obligated to charge sailors),

Bar tab will be used first. If you've already spent your bar tab, it will roll over to loot, then to credit card. You BOOK it on the app, but pay it at Sip, Also, you are welcome to attend without doing the high tea if you don't want the food and stuff. We stumbled onto this on our first cruise, before all the bar tabs. There is a separate seating area for people who aren't getting the food. The Charmer came over and did his magic bit, then took our room numbers for an invitation to a "secret" event. It was actually fun....someone made a run to the Grounds Club and came back with water, tea bags, sweeteners, etc....and we enjoyed the tea only without MORE food. All people I hadn't met before.

If you book thru a Gold Tier travel agent, they often have MNVV certificates that they will sell you at cost. The price of the certificate goes toward your down payment. In addition, you get $300 off the price of the cruise as well as $600 in "loot" (onboard credit). In addition, Gold Tier agents may have specials available that will give even a bit more loot. In addition, if you have loyalty status on another likne, be sure that you sign up for the status match on VV. This will give you a nice package of perks including $10 per day credit in THe Grounds Club, priority boarding, premium wifi, etc. As above, all snacks and pastries are included as are almost all food items with the exception of a very few restaurant items that have an upcharge. Hard to predit fares--we have 2 current bookings--each has nearly doubled in price from what we paid. In one case, the cost went down; my TA was able to cancel and rebook, getting us a $400 savings plus the now offered $600 bar tab....but since then, the cost has markedly increased. To learn more about VV, I'd highly suggest the You Tube videos by "Where's Walter Travels." He has several--VV in general, food, etc. Here's a liknk to the generic VV one. All ships are enough the same to learn what you'll want to know!

The only way there is music in your cabin is if you turn it on. You might be bothered with music on your balcony if your neighbors are rude and are running one of their devices loudly; we were far more bothered by their various types of smoke. We had no problem finding quiet hang out spots around the ship. VV is certainly not like DCL, where you literally walk from one music zone to the next....whether live or recorded.