cantgetin

We're still waiting for VV fall 2024....but I've already looked at Celebrity and other lines to be sure that if VV doesn't do what I want at a price I'm happy with there are other things out there.

Tom McAlpin has spent most of his career in at least 3 cruise lines. He has worked for Royal, was CFO at Disney Cruise Lines, and then worked for Residence or World (a line where you buy your cabin, sort of like a condo) before coming to VV. I don't know who else is supposedly "running things."

Have you been to any of these ports before? We've been to Tortola on DCL snd loved it. That said, we love our sea days on VV, and it sounds like these basically are one port after another. I'd probably look at cost and how the dates fit into my schedule. You can get lots of hints about VV here--feel free to ask questions. I'd suggest looking at some "Where's Walter Travels" YouTube videos. We loved DCL, but VV is our "new favorite." However, it is very different than other lines. That's part of what we love.

Agreed, things can change. But Princess just canceled a Japan cruise because a company wanted to charter the ship. They gave 100% of amount paid refunded or rolled to another cruise + $50 OBC if you rolled it to another cruise. That's approximately nothing. VV is doing way better than that.

Read the fine print on the travel insurance included with your credit card. On my premium travel card it says that the claim has to be made within 7 days of the incident. On most of my trips, I wouldn't even be home by that point. I don't consider that a negative--it is a good thing if I ever need it. But I do compare the cost or full travel insurance and medical only travel insurance as my "at home" medical coverage doesn't work outside the US. I've had times when the difference was $10 and times when it was $100.....I could deal with a lost suitcase or even the cost of a full vacation,( not happily) but no way I could deal with a major medical issue out of pocket.

It is true that a number of crew members were scheduled to disembark, but we are personally aware of about 10 sailors who made arrangements to disembark and Sailor Services told me it was nearly 100 sailors who got off. There was another huge changeover of crew when the ship arrived in Miami. I was up at about 5 am and saw a long line of crew seeming to be there for. a check i process. The nice thing was that several months later, many of the crew we'd gotten to know during that first voyage were back on the ship.

Similar to what we have seen. We had a delayed disembarkation as all "sailors" had to wait until a medical disembarkation was completed. We also saw a number of passengers choose to disembark at a port after a single rough day at sea. This was the transatlantic and they were concerned that the rest of the voyage would be rough. Their loss--the rest was lovely, and there was one rough day out of the 14.

I would say this is typical of many lines. We did a 4/3 B2B on Disney some years ago and were honestly shocked at the difference. This was after many longer DCL cruises, and the only reason for the B2B rather than 7 nights was flight availability.

VV has been far more generous than most lines when cruises had to be canceled.

I think age and length of cruise are both related to the atmosphere on the cruise.

All flights are "difficult" on ship arrival days. The earliest you can get off the ship with self disembarkation (carrying all your own luggage) is listed as 7:30, but in reality is usually between 7 and 7:30. Suggestion on flights--try FLL if MIA isn't any good. Or, depending on availability, enjoy a nice breakfast and a later flight. Or spend the night in Miami and take one of those crack of dawn flights the next day. Check Southwest, which doesn't show up on most search engines.

Certainly interesting

We had probably the closest sea terrace to the midship elevators on our last cruise--no noise issues at all. What you can do is to call you travel agent and ask whether you can be moved to a different sea terrace cabin, bid on another cabin like a central sea terrace or XL (no guarantee that you'd be assigned away from elevators though and you might lose your hammock with an XL), or....if you didn't use an agent, call VV and ask about moving now. If the answer to those is "no," when you check at the terminal, there is a desk where you can inquire about moving or upgrades. Finally, you can try the room where you are assigned and if there is a problem, go to Sailor Services on the ship and they will usually move you if they have a room available. And then you can report back to us as to whether there were issues or not. I'd probably go with the last option--try it and inquire at Sailor Services if there is an issue. We had no noise issues at all during our multiple cruises.

At least she gave you an honest answer and didn't try to make up something. Totally agree that they need to get their act together and let potential and booked passengers know what is happening,

Basic rule--believe little of what shoreside sailor services says. The best of them when they don't know an answer, escalates the call to someone who should know. Most of them make something up, sometimes based on bits and pieces they do know. For instance, when a cruise is full, does it disappear from the web site, or does it just show up as not available for booking? I don't know the answer to that, but I'm very sure that all Brilliant cruises are not full!

I've been on both VV TAs and have 2 more booked. THe difference seemed to be that it was less of a party ship than the shorter cruises. THe age stats were very minimally different, but they young people on board were able to work on line. And while there was plenty of fun, it wasn't as rowdy as shorter cruises. There were more active vloggers in April than in Oct 2022.There were people filming in October, but it was't intrusive or "watch me film myself chewing." It was more "this is the ship, this is one minute of an activity." In April, it was "look out because I'm filming and I can't watch where I'm going." Likely it was a couple of invasive filmers.

Yup, working on that now. It becomes worse (I think) when your cruise buddy has a graduate degree in film production because in her opinion everything has to be perfect while in mine, this is dragging out way too long and needs to be finished!

If you consider it wasting money (as I do), we are not the people who should book it. I don't need. a suites on a ship that is bigger than my daughter's condo. On the other hand, if you need/want that much space and the associated perks, go for it.

But you can check that out before you decide to cancel and rebook.

I'm in the old group and never had a noise problem on the VV ships. Yup, on other lines it can be an issue. On VV never and cabin noise issues and the shows, music events, parties are loud if you are in that area, but the sound doesn't travel around the ship. If you don't like the music on The Dock (or anywhere else) the sound doesn't follow you when you go elsewhere.

Hope you drink a lot! Hint--it you are into the really good stuff that would exceed your "per drink" allowance, the bar in the casino does half pours, which keeps it within your limit. As far as I know, the casino bar is the only one that does this,

Enjoy your suite....there are a lot of perks that are not always easy to find out about. Some of the balconies are beyond belief, but unless you are using them for a gathering....they are almost silly for 2 people.

I guess I don't understand how the minimum bid for an upgrade that probably doesn't exist has to do with the level of customer service. The department that sets the fares, including upgrade bid amounts, is trying to get the most money they can for each person booked...that's their job. If you feel that the minimum bid is too high, then don't bid. The bids to go from an inside or window to a sea terrace or XL are usually very modest, and the listed minimums are per cabin, not per person. The minimum bit + what was paid for the cabin the person is in is still less than the cost of the suite would have been had it been available and purchased initially. If no one bids, perhaps because the minimum bid is "too high," any available suites will be available at the terminal...I don't know if that price is the same or less than an advance bid. What frustrates me is the system that allows TAs to reserve cabins including suites for up to 30 days without a name attached. This makes it very difficult for people who are interested to book a suite. But then, I'm not likely to pay the asking price for a suite anyhow, so guess it doesn't matter.

We've basically gotten our needs met after several VV cruises. In fact, we are in the process of getting one, possibly to become a series of videos up. I'm appreciating the effort in the process!

Good....she looked much improved when she left Miami, but wasn't perfect.