cantgetin

It is easier than it sounds. FOr advance reservations you can use the app beginning at midnight , contact your TA with a list of what you want and what is OK if you can't get what you want; they can book thru their portal, or wait till the next morning and call Sailor Services who can do it with you on the phone, We have never boarded without satisfactory dinner reservations for each night. We have changed our plans after boarding or several nights into the cruse. In fairness, our most full cruise was just a bit under 2000. Most of the entertainment we were able to book at some point during the cruise or go standby. Most of the shows are repeated, sometimes as much as 3 times depending on length of cruise. DO be aware that any show may be canceled due to rough seas, illness of a performer, etc. You can book excursions in advance and pay with credit card or wait till after boarding and use onboard credit. After boarding, on decks 6 and 7 there will be people booking spa, excursions, dinner, etc. You just need to find the right person to book what you want or do it yourself on the app.

The only thing VV has said is that supposedly their program will be "better" than Deep Blue Extras. Worth another cruise just to qualify? That's a lot of money to get a few hundred in perks. What you currently get is $100 bar tab (used to be a bottle of champagne), $10 per day credit at Grounds Club (specialty coffee and tea), premium wifi (cost $10 per day of cruise to purchase). priority boarding, a cocktail party invitation, some laundry, and probably some little things I forgot. Bottom line, value is $100 + $20 per day of cruise. The laundry would cost $30, we love having it on long cruises. The rest is basically fluff. It would take a lot of perks to equal the cost of a cruise!

There were 2000 passengers on the sailing before ours who were required to disembark early and another 2000 on my cruise who had their embarkation times changed from 1:30 to 2:45 or later depending on what their original time was. We were given less than 2 weeks notice on this. There was a huge mess at the terminal and the worst embarkation we've seen. We got an incredible run around at the terminal as the VV employees didn't seem to know what they were supposed to be doing. All was fine when we finally got to the second floor. After boarding, sections of the ship were closed off; that was not an issue. In addition, we were told that crew was required to disembark that morning and be off the ship for a few hours, meaning they were not able to get ready for the new cruisers. Is it the end of the world? No. Was it a pain trying to arrange late check out from hotel, re-arrange transportation to the terminal, etc and then deal with the absolute mess at the terminal--yes.

I totally agree, tacocat. I am an older woman who spent my career in what was then a heavily male dominated field (although that is changing). Only 15% of my grad school class was female but a post-doc fellowship slotted me into a top position almost from the beginning. I can't see what JLo adds to VV at all, unless Tom and Richard just like having a meal with her. And she must be in trouble as I've recently seen her dong ads for other companies as well. However, the last time I was in LA, there was a huge billboard with her name on it. Not sure I want to see the 4th quarter 2024 schedule prices that are rumored to be coming out tomorrow. Dump her and take $100 off the cruise fare!

Reservations open at midnight 45 days before your cruise. If you download the app, each time you open it you will see the number of days remaining. The restaurants don't open until 6:00, so your 5:30 preference will only be available at the locations that do not require reservations. If you want a sit down, restaurant dinner, you'll have to be flexible enough to accept 6:00. If you can't get a 6pm reservation, grab 6:15 or the closest thing available. Then go to the restaurant and tell them that you are a little early--we've always been seated right away! One suggestion....VV boards later than most other lines--do you have a boarding time yet? You can do the on line check in on the app and get that now. You might want to eat later on the first night as you will be either eating before you board or be having a late lunch (like 2:30-3) after boarding. No lunch reservations, just go to The Galley, Pizza Place, Dock, or Social Club based on what you want to eat.

This is so bad that it is almost enough to make me not want to cruise VV again. In fairness, we were two of the 4000 passengers who were "inconvenienced" when she changed her filming dates to a date that interfered with our cruise, causing me to not have warm feelings toward her. I understand that there was quite a bit of negativity reported to VV about that and am somewhat surprised that VV has been reported to have renewed her contract. The concept of an AI phone call to invite someone to cruise is really no different than the Mickey Mouse calls that DCL has done for years. So much for VV being different.

We were able to get a late checkout of 1pm (rather than 11am) with no fee, staying later would have incurred a charge. The hotel we used did not offer a complimentary shuttle to the port, and their shuttle charge was higher than a Lyft or Uber. It all depends on where you are staying. I would suggest calling the hotel directly; calling a national number will only give generic information which might not apply to that specific location. As above, the shuttles generally run a continuous loop to airport and cruise port with departures about every 30 minutes. As more area hotels are becoming aware of the VV schedule, they are building in later cruise shuttle times. And just so you know, 1:30 is the earliest time. In fact, on cruises a few months down the road, the earliest time has been changed to 2pm. You are in great shape for boarding.

If you are booking next April, there is no point in worrying about spa charges now. We cruised in October 2022 and April 2023, and there was a price increase between those dates. As of April, most massages were in the $300 range. A woman's haircut was $129 (had been $99 perviously). Facial was $199. The good thing to remember is that these prices include the tip. We offered a tip at the haircut and were politely told that it was included in the price. Also, there is no way to tip other than cash, but I suspect crew has been told to not accept it. One of the questions on the evaluation is whether anyone pushed you for a tip or took a tip when offered.

As above, they can change this for you upon boarding. Even if that poses a problem, it won't be an issue when you arrive at the restaurant. If they see 5 and ask where the others are, just say that it will be only the two of you that evening. They will find a seat for you. Promise, it won't be an issue. I can't begin to tell you how many changes we made on my last cruise--no problem ever. The biggest "problem" was when we ran into some people we'd met earlier and asked if we could be seated together as we had reservations within 15 minutes of each other. THe response--"Give me just a minute." He returned probably 30 seconds later with a table number.

I kept my band in my pocket most of the time as I found it irritating. Being in the pocket was no hindrance. My cruise buddy removed it for sleep, so we made a point of keeping them in different locations so when knew which belonged to each of us. Yes, you should book dinner in advance. It is easier to change reservations than to start from nothing when talking to the people at restaurant entrances. Somewhere in the 35-40% range of reservations are held back till after boarding, so if you can't get the times you want in advance, you can change it once you board. We have only once been denied seating in 29 nights of cruising VV... and that was us trying to do a walk in for brunch at The Wake. THey graciously offered us the next day. Our fault, not theirs. We have always been able to get satisfactory dinner reservations. But do book SOMETHING for each night in advance. Emails--yup, way too many.

Not taken as criticism. I've cruised in suites on another line, and while the perks were nice, I wouldn't do it again for what that line was offering....and I honestly didn't see much that VV was giving much more for the increased cost. THanks for filling in some of the details.

From reports, the gym is more of an issue than The Galley. However, as a general rule, we like to have cabins on all sides of our location. That's why we don't take room assignments, we choose. You can do this thru your "first mate" (travel agent) or by calling VV. Yes, I'd move. You can get noisy neighbors anywhere, but why take the risk of noisy food carts, etc. even though I've never read any complaints about being below The Galley.

Thanks for posting the above for a comparison. Honestly, these prices for a Sea Terrace do not reflect what I've actually paid for my cruises so far or for the others I have booked. The notes say these prices are per sailor and showing them as already discounted. I've paid about this in a Sea Terrace for two of us...and on some cruises, I've paid less than the shown price. But fair, the few rockstar quotes I've seen were in the range of $7-8K for 2 people while I've paid under $3K for 2 on each of our cruises. If VV increases prices to $5K for 2 in a Sea Terrace, we may decide that the things we like of VV don't justify that cost! Of course, I've usually booked with MNVV, 10% off for PIF, etc. so I've never paid the base price.

Maybe...we were on a cruise confined to the Med area with no outside port (on another line) so VAT had to be charged on the ship at all times. They still closed the shops while in port.

Legally the shops have to be closed when the SHIP is in port. This applies to every line, every port that I'm aware of.

A suite (rockstar status) costs a whole lot more than $500 over a Sea Terrace. So, if you only want one day of "service," the cabana might be a better deal for you. I can't see doing either. I could do 3 cruises for the price of Rockstar status. Maybe I don't understand what all the "advantages" are. Yes, the huge balconies are amazing, but there are only 2 of us and I wouldn't be throwing a party or holding a meeting on board. We are very light drinkers, so wouldn't use the available bar items (or honestly even know how to), don't care for the happy hour champagne, and the other perks seem to depend on how good your "Rockstar agent" is. Yes, I know there are some advantages that are not generally advertised like being taken to all the "action spots" on Scarlet Night, ability to order restaurant food sent to your room, etc. I'd rather have 3 cruises. And with the current booking policies of "First Mates" being able to hold cabins without attaching names for up to 30 days, it is very hard to even see the price of a suite!

THat must have been long ago....my daughter is 32 and her first passports were 5 years. However, there was the hair dye incident that lasted 10 years. My fav was when the customs officer looked at her and said "What's that?" She replied, "A mistake."

THe flip side of VV's late disembarkation times is the late embarkation times. As above, you can drop luggage and take the complimentary shuttle to Bayside (an area with shopping, restaurants, etc.) and return at your scheduled time. THe good news is that check is is NORMALLY very quick after your scheduled time.

There are often groups on other social media sites devoted to each cruise. They might be able to tell you who they used. As above, we are not allowed to name TAs on the CruiseCritic site.

There are great TAs and not nearly as good TAs. I won't deal with a TA that hasn't cruised the line I'm interested in and preferably the ship I'm interested in, the more recently the better. I won't deal with a huge firm--I want to know the name of my TA and when they do a great job for me, they'll get my repeat business. I'm pretty well versed with cruising. We are just under 50 cruises over the last 28 years and have done at least 6 lines. We've found that our preferences have changed over the years. For instance, when my daughter was 7-college, we did a.lot of DCL. Now, I won't book DCL--too expensive and too many kids. And all our favorite crew members have moved on. We joke that VV is our "new favorite." If your TA isn't giving you the service that you want or need, find a different TA. I have one who is so service oriented that I haven't seen anything like it since the days 25 years ago when you picked up a packet with everything you needed at an office. My TA has me send her my flight numbers and hotel info, then loads everything into an app...so one place, at my fingertips, I have the schedule for each day, phone numbers, addresses, notification of flight changes, etc. and I can access it from my computer or phone. She tracks when my 180 day in advance payment is due to be sure it is paid 2 weeks before that, and tracks fare changes on my cruises so we can grab any new bargains that might come out, We've saved twice on VV. Once it was "only" $130, the other time it was almost $400 + $600 in bar tab!

Great deal if it works for you to get the Lock it in rate. I just read a post on another social media site that says the 4th quarter of 2024 will be released along with the "new deals" when the current special expires on 6/30/23. I don't know how people supposedly get this info as my agent claims to know nothing. I'm a little afraid to see the new rates as our next two cruise have more than doubled in price from the deals that we got. Admittedly, I shop carefully and get the best deal I can find, but all the good shopping in the world can't compensate for rates that more than double!

The problem is that we never know what the next offer will be, but there has always been one. In at least one case, an offer ended and a new one didn't appear for about a week. That's rare. For our 2024 booking, the offer that came out after our onboard booking was better in than the offer we got. Fortunately our TA was able to cancel and rebook, saving us $400 and adding the $600 bar tab! (same cabin, kept MNVV benefits). And no one knows what's happening with the loyalty program 2024. Supposedly the new VV program will start, but we've heard that several times already.

Note--I believe that to use the MNVV, whether as a certificate for later or to rebook during the cruise, you must book a Sea Terrace or above. That's not usually a problem as the Sea Terrace is the most common category on the ship representing 1100 of the 1400 cabins. This number includes the limited view Sea Terrace, which is not eligible for the MNVV. I'm sure one of the agents here will correct me if I am wrong,

Unlike other lines, you don't lose anything by using a first mate. The only thing that you don't "control" is that your payments must be made either on line or thru your agent, so even this is not a loss of "control." But if you enjoy waiting on hold and the joy of dealing with shoreside, go for it. VV is all about doing things your way.

The advantage of booking on board is a $300 discount + $600 in loot on top of whatever the current special might be. The nice thing about the MNVV program is that it is transferrable. Many agents (first mates) who travel on VV regularly purchase the max number of certificates and then resell them to their clients. This is totally allowed by VV. So, if you book thru an agent who has some MNVV certificates available, you can book now. And if that agent has done an online sales program within a particular period, they will have some extra loot available. If you haven't already done so, apply for the loyalty match program using your status on NCL; you'll get a nice collection of perks for your sailings in 2023.