cantgetin

There is no way for you to know.....they always take bids "just in case" and sometimes they come thru.

Actually now has $700 bar tab as qualified for status match.

My experience with taxi drivers in Barcelona is that they speak as much English as they want to in a given situation. That story isn't worth repeating.....the bus drivers arranged by VV may be different as they are used to having an English speaking tour guide on board for excursions.

Wrong--a bar tab can only be spent on drinks (alcoholic or non). You would need Loot or a credit card for a tattoo. If you have leftover money on your bar tab, you can spend it on a couple bottles of your favorite wine or liquor FROM A BAR, and of course will be subject to customs regulations. If you buy at the duty free ship, it is charged as loot. You can also buy drinks for any friends you make on the ship. The idea of the bar tab is that you have that much money to spend on alcohol, non-alcoholic drinks, smoothies, cold pressed juices, specialty tea and coffee for anyone you choose. It isn't like a drink package on other lines where it is only for you--you can share it with anyone. So, if you aren't drinking up your tab, share it with someone who booked before this free offer was available (like me on my next cruise), with anyone you meet on the ship, or buy a couple bottles of something to take home...or both. Our last booking included a bottle of Moet that we didn't really want--it went home to become an engagement gift for a friend.

For all the complaints I've read about it, the bar tab is one of the best features on VV. I've encountered a few people who have obviously had too much, but I've never seen an ugly drunk on VV, likely because no one is trying t max out a package.

You can make reservations for up to 8 people at the 45 day point. You need to link the cruisers on the app, then you will be asked who you are including in your reservation. It is very easy to do group reservations as long as you are linked. HOWEVER....tell everyone not to cancel. We've had situations where someone tries to cancel themselves from an event or dinner and cancels the entire group! If someone wants to cancel, just keep the reservation until you board, then go to sailor services and let them help you cancel just the people who don't want whatever while keeping the reservations for the others. You can do the linking now so you are all set at 45 days.

My cruise partner has accessibility issues and we are in the process of making our first ever YouTube video which will deal with accessibility issues on VV as we found some good information but some totally incorrect info on line prior to cruising. DO NOT believe what shoreside tells you! Most cruise lines have the portable lift available on board. Policies differ on how you arrange to have it brought to the pool for use.

My experience exactly

You will need a 2023 booking to apply for the status match. After that, if you do more bookings, it should show up automatically.

Right now, any decent travel agent who knows VV should be able to get you at least $600 'Loot" and $300 bar tab on cruises 6 nights or less, $600 on cruises 7 nights or more. There are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks and the bartenders can make almost any drink as "virgin" if requested. At Test Kitchen there are several drink pairings, one of which is "non-alcoholic." You can also use your bar tab for specialty coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cold pressed juices (juices from concentrate are part of the cruise fare), smoothies, etc. All loot and bar tab can be shared within the cabin by having the lead sailor check the box on the app that says he/she is covering expenses for the cabin. You can also share your bar tab with anyone else you choose simply by scanning your bracelet to buy their drink. Bar tab can be used only on beverages that have a cost (alcoholic or not), loot can be used on anything. Someone above mentioned the status match for Deep Blue Extras. That program is scheduled to end 12/31/2023, but might be extended. Have your agent enroll you if it is extended to 2024. It is a perks package for loyalty, but they will currently credit you for loyalty to any other line. Air thru VV stinks. It is always higher than what I can get on my own. Have you looked at prices on Southwest? THey do (or used to) serve San Juan....obviously I don't know what your home airport is. My suggestion is to purchase tickets as soon as they are released, Currently, SW is booking thru early March, 2024. I dont' know their next release date, but you can google it. You can look up their current fares and get an idea of what they will be. THey also include 2 checked bags at no charge. We have usually found SW to give us the best rates, but then, you will be flying from a different location, On our last Miami cruise, I booked the cruise and flights after SW release and airfare was $400 one way. This year, I booked it on the day the fares were released and it was $250...but has increased a lot since then! The airlines all know the dates the cruise ships come in and they kill you on those dates! Enjoy!

I'd be perfectly content with waiting till October to see the new offerings. I'm looking for something in the fall of 2024, but would just as soon wait till I'm on board again to see what has changed for the good or bad. I know my TA will have MNVVs available, but could still get my own while on board. From what I'm hearing, there have been quite a few changes, and wouldn't mind seeing what's different before plopping down more dollars.

I thought the "no kids" was cute, and liked the "now we're voyaging" specifically because it showed a much wider age range. I probably would have tried VV much sooner than I did if their early on ads hadn't made it look like a party ship for 20 somethings cruising on daddy's money. The real age range works great for me (I don't care as long as there aren't kids), and the behavior is certainly not all "party animals." That option exists, but so do many others. Now if we could just get rid of the few who smoke on balconies.....

I just looked at my credit card statement, I don't remember what it was in Euros, but we paid $25.11 to get from the BCN terminal to the airport by taxi. One thing I do when traveling abroad is to print out (hard copy) a separate page for each place we are going--for example, I'll print out my hotel confirmation showing the name and address of the hotel or the same for the flight/airport, preferably showing the terminal as well. That way, I can have that one sheet of paper out for the driver and can confirm that he knows where it is or get help from the multi-lingual people at the terminal/hotel/airport/whatever before we get into the cab. Airport is pretty easy....but not always so easy going the other direction, Hotel to terminal is easy as the hotel staff will confirm with the driver, I heard a lot about the mess with the VV arranged shuttles, none of it good. It looks like you paid more than twice as much for a shuttle as I did for a cab and got not so good service. THe luggage nonsense sounds like a real problem-and it all could have been unloaded in less than the 15 minutes the discussion took! Interestingly, our service at the terminal in BCN was far better than at Miami. The terminal staff were very helpful on both of our cruises there.

Especially when your flight options are 7am or 1:30 pm

One positive is that with the size and the newer propulsion system, VV can use smaller, less busy ports than some other lines.

It is so weird......both of us qualify for DBE. I know the benefits are per cabins, but for our upcoming cruise, they showed it for both of us under the "add on" tab. Then they took it off me and left it on for my cruise buddy. It doesn't matter, but is a little odd that they can't seem to get anything "right" the first time. They also have added and removed a $100 loot on my April cruise twice! I never know what will be showing when I look! And I agree with Gretchen--your TA should have either done this for you or told you about it and how to do it.

What is really not fun is when the crew apps go down so they can't be used to order in the Galley, etc. We've had crew in restaurants and Galley taking orders on paper and not really knowing how to do it. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to last long. The stupid website is still a mess; fortunately IT talked me thru the usual problem, so I can fix things from my end at least some of the time.

I don't remember what people paid for transfers thru VV, but I do remember that our taxi was cheaper than transfers for 2 people and that there was a lot of on line complaining about the transfers.

Except we were told that last month as well.....they were supposedly coming out with the July 4 sale announcement.

VV calls the assigned times "Terminal Arrival times." Interestingly, this may be changing as on our previous cruises, it was 1:30. On our future cruises, the earliest time was 2pm. I called VV to ask as one cruise was nearly a year in advance, and was assured that this is now the earliest available time. The good thing is that check in has usually started before the terminal arrival time and boarding very shortly thereafter. For instance, we had a 1:30 time on our first cruise and were in our cabin by 1:45.

We've heard all sorts of rumors as to when the end of 2024 will be released. Each date has come and gone with no release. Bottom line is "when they get it finalized,"

10:45 is the latest disembark time to select on the app. At 10:30, they start with the announcements that everyone needs to be off. As above, RD and The Wake are open as well as The Galley. I believe the last seating time at RD was either 9 or 9:30; The Galley was a little later. And yes, the nice thing is that you do not need to be out of your cabin till 10:30. This means that there is no need to drag your luggage to breakfast. Go to breakfast at the location of your choice, then return to your cabin and grab your bags. As with other lines, you can place your larger luggage outside the cabin the night before. If choosing this option, do not remove the luggage tags that were used at embarkation; they will be used again at disembarkation

We did this tour....it was not well timed for us. There was nothing wrong with the tour other than the most boring guide in the world (I still remember his name!). Our problem was that this was toward the end of B2B med cruises that made different stops. We'd seen enough ruins to last a long time--we'd been to Ephesus (excellent), Pompeii, Mynkanos, Athens, etc.

I basically agree, but I think that some specific dates seem to have a more "over the top" group of sailors, and some casts are a bit different than others.

First, your TA should have told you about the status match program! You can do it yourself. Go to Virginvoyages.com and scroll down till you see "loyalty." There you will find the application as well as the list of what qualifies for the match. What I submitted was a screenshot of my status as shown on the other line's website, but you can use anything that documents your status. It is NOT a "like for like" match. It is rather that if you have a high enough status on any other line to qualify, you will get VV's "Deep Blue Extras" package. What this includes is also listed, but the short list is priority boarding, an invitation to a cocktail party (unlimited drinks for the hour or so), $100 in a bar tab free (no purchase required), $100 bonus on any purchased bar tab (rather than the current $50 bonus), one bag of laundry + 2 press or dry clean items, Free premium wifi, $10 credit per cabin per day at The Grounds Club (specialty coffee and tea) and probably some stuff I'm forgetting. Is it worth doing? On our 14 and 15 night cruises, the laundry alone was worth the minimal effort of signing up. Al benefits are per cabin, not per person. You will get an email confirming that you qualified and you will see "Deep Blue Extras" listed under "add ons" on the web site. It wakes about a week to process.