cantgetin

I walked in just for a quick look and laugh. Yes, Logo shop typically had customers.

My daughter took them home and made necklaces out of them.

You will each want one on the app when you board. Prior to that, it didn't make any difference to us and the things we were doing,

Historically, your MNVV certificate is restored with all benefits attached, and you get more in future cruise credits than you have paid as a deposit toward the cruise that got canceled. Whether those generous credits will continue is a big guess.

Don't leave money behind....treat your "new best friends" to a round, or you used to be able to buy an unopened bottle from a bar. I was recently informed that this is no longer possible, but that the restaurants will sell you an unopened bottle to take back to your room or take home with you. Sure, the price on the ship is a lot higher than from the store back home, but if you are getting it on the tab that would obviously be lost, why not?

Supposedly coming in 2024, but we've heard that before. We started with the status match, and now qualify as Sea Rovers based on number of cruises. We've certainly enjoyed the perks of the Deep Blue Extras. I hope that whatever they ultimately present will include credit for both number of cruises and number of nights. I don't like programs where the guy who cruises for 3 nights gets the same "credit" as those of us who won't do anything less than a week and preferably more. IMHO, there are still too many people cruising on less than advertised fares available to anyone, but I guess they need those to generate numbers. And certainly their accounting department has figures on how much they are "making" on various types of sailors.

Sailors staying in a Mega RockStar Quarter can revel in exclusive access to complimentary drinks and bottles of wine around the ship - with reasonable limits, of course. This includes both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks (up to $25) and two (2) bottles of wine per day per cabin (up to $90). THe above is a cut and paste from the VV site. The issue is that there are drinks that cost more than $25, so would be billed in addition to your mega rockstar BUT if you go to the casino bar, you can order these as "Half pours" which keeps them below the $25 limit. If I paid for a mega suite, I wouldn't want to see pesky charges for drinks! Thus, the casino bar half pour trick. It is simply a way to get around the "reasonable limits" if you like really high end products.

I agree with everything you said about VV. If the early marketing had been better, I likely would have tried VV 6-12 months earlier than I did. I also found the recent JLo ads to be a turn off had I not already known the product. The need to walk a fine line between not turning off the 20-30 age group while at the same time attracting the older crowd. I think their average age of 43 is older than they anticipated. Bottom line, they have a good product.....they just need to continue spreading the word.

I've waited so long now that I'd actually like to wait till the next time I'm on the ship. That way we can check out the new menu in RD, etc. before deciding whether to extend our list. It isn't that much longer.

Yes, but 25 years ago the mouse introduced a new, family oriented line....and suddenly Royal and NCL made major family oriented changes. THey'd probably insist that those changes were planned all along, and how much of a threat was a line that only had 2 medium sized ships? I think that some of the VV features represent a similar challenge, but due to covid and other issues, the launch has been much slower. Every cruiser who makes a choice for VV is indirectly making a choice against other lines. They don't have as much control as they think. They also need to remember that it is a lot more difficult to recruit a new customer than to keep an existing one. Virgin doesn't have an easy road to attracting new customers, has not done a good job of positioning the brand with some of their ads, etc. But they have done a great job of rebooking sailors who give them one try.

Exactly. They don't start boarding until the cabins are cleaned and ready. And disembarkation morning fits whatever your plans are. You can do a self-disembarkation between 7 and 7:30am or you can have a leisurely brunch and disembark at 10:30n for your afternoon flight. And you don't have to be out of your cabin till 10:45, so you can leave your stuff in the cabin rather than dragging it to breakfast. Sure, the crew will start working on the cabins of those who leave early, but there is no pressure to get out.

No, but the shower in your cabin will be much better than the ones in the tubs on Disney.This ship is made for grown ups. The ceilings are high enough and there is both a wand and a rainfall shower head. There are a couple of showers on the pool deck by the hot tubs, but those are for rinse off in swim suits.

Well, good luck to him. I'm not a travel professional. I just think that, in general, it is better to not put all your eggs in one basket.

He's not going to switch, but like most agents, he is free to book clients with other lines. There are lines that pay higher commissions than Princess. I worked with an agent who was number one with another cruise line for many years. He still books with that line, but post Covid, he jumped on the VV bandwagon. Of course, he kept as many of his loyal clients as possible by continuing to book whatever line they wished while actively promoting VV. At one point, he was number 1 with Virgin (may still be or may be waiting for new rankings). I have a friend who ranked in the top 10 of Virgin "first mates." He says his life would be easier if he could stick to Disney and Virgin, but books all likes because that's what clients want. I just think that Don could make his future more secure by booking more cruises outside of Princess....not leaving them, but expanding his clientele and his expertise.

Interesting....when we boarded in BCN, they were not allowing any waiting in the terminal area. People who showed up early, even if only by a few minutes, were sent to the plaza next door or the coffee shop just beyond that. Another option was the hotel lobby that was just a few minutes away. Obviously, it might have gotten crowded later as we had an early arrival time. Disembarkation in Barcelona was great as well. Very organized and several awning type tents set up for shade as we waited for taxis to drive up. There were plenty of taxis, but the issue was that as they drove up, it would take a couple minutes to load each one. We waited about 10 minutes--no big deal.

We have always been in our cabin within 15 minutes of our time, even though they were calling it a "terminal arrival time" rather than check in time. In Miami, there were crowds of people lined up outside; we had priority boarding, so avoided most of that once we got our Sailing Club bracelet, but were then lined up inside. No one sat down either downstairs or upstairs as there was no seating downstairs and as soon as we were allowed up we checked in and boarded. The set up in Barcelona made more sense. There, we went thru security at the entrance to the terminal at 1pm (the designated 30 minutes before our 1:30 time), then to check in, and then to a waiting area until 1:30 when boarding started. And we boarded within minutes of 1:30, as soon as the crew member got the word to start boarding....and were in the cabin with luggage gy 1:45

Don was also livid about a meeting Princess held for TAs. They didn't discuss the issues the TAs were promised, and instead did basic "how to book on our app for new agents" class. I suggested he look at other lines.

The logo shop looks like Valiant did in May. The clothing is displayed better, hard to say whether it is the same sort f stuff.

Fairy Toast is actually a common dish in Australia (I thought it was something VV invented!) But I'm with you that some items were more to be photographed than eaten...like the watermelon berry thing. So sorry to lose the green tea cheesecake.

We were able to cancel and rebook to get a new promotion. I've never heard of them just adding a promotion that came along later. We do not have the bar tab on our upcoming cruise which we booked a year ago. The only way we could get it would be to cancel and rebook, but the price has increased to the point that this doesn't make sense. If you used a TA, contact them and get their response--but I don't think it will work. Doesn't hurt to ask, I guess. You probably got some sort of promotion on your existing booking, so do compare the current booking cost vs. your cost,

We already have the cruise booked, but nice to know some of what's happening.

VV has popped up today with ads regarding Halloween events on three ships.

The Galley has some stations open till 10:30pm --sweets, salads, etc. It is a good place to grab some late night munchies to eat then or take back to the cabin for later! This in addition to all of Walter's tips!

I've done a few of the group classes--none required any equipment that wasn't supplied. This included the classes in The Manor and those in the gym. I'm a long way from a fitness nut, so hard to evaluate the classes. I found them to be "go at your own level" and very comfortable to do, rather than some at local on land gyms where I felt "too old," "too out of shape" or whatever. Yes, I realize that my feelings are on me. But on the ship, I did not feel out of place.

Dining starts at 6, so you can eat at 6 and potentially catch an 8:00 show, but if the shows are at 7th that night, you won't be thru eating. Our experience was that most shows were 8 and 10/10:30. There were sometimes comedians, etc. at 9. We found 6 too early to eat, and ended up going with a 7-8 dining time and catch the later shows.