cantgetin

I typed a long explanation of the senile old lady and then realized no one cared. I did not mean to imply that this was the clientele on all Celebrity cruises, but we did have an issue with one who should not have been cruising alone.

I agree that crew being able to eat in passenger areas or attend shows while passengers are being told there are no seats is an issue. It seems that when ships were sailing at 800 passengers, allowing crew to eat in passenger areas any time they had "off" hours was not a problem. However, as the ships are now sailing at nearly full, it is an issue. From what crew has told me, they now have limited hours when they are allowed to eat in guest areas, usually late in the evening. They do have a very nice crew mess (according to them, much better than on other lines), but they like the ability to "party" in guest areas. I suspect VV may be stopping this totally as it really is becoming a significant problem.

Ballpark, 18 months. Reality--when they have completed negotiations for port schedules, etc. My suggestion would be to contact a travel agent who specializes in VV, and has cruised it multiple times....that person can let you know a few days before bookings are released and might even have some additional perks for you. For instance, while on board, anyone can purchase up to 8 future cruise certificates which ARE transferable. The current deal is that this gives you a $300 discount on the cruise and $600 in "loot" (onboard credit). My TA always purchases 8 of these when she cruises, knowing that she can sell them to her clients. If she has hosted an on line seminar recently, she might have additional benefits available. Don't book on your own.....there are too many good reasons to use an agent when booking VV. I'm NOT in the travel business, but I know good service when I see it. VV on the phone has issues. An agent can avoid this. And a good agent can be worth her weight in gold.

To each his own...we loved breakfast in RD. The "fairy toast" was weird; I thought it was a VV thing, but later learned that it is a very common dish in Australia! We expected The Wake to be our favorite, but ended up preferring Extra Virgin and Pink Agave for dinner....but in fairness, each place other than Test Kitchen was good. On the other hand, there are people who love Test Kitchen......wish I could get the coconut desert without having to do the dinner!

There is no perfect line.....there is a right line for each person or family at a particular time in their life. VV is still a work in progress. There were huge changes made in the entertainment between our first and second bookings. The food on Celebrity was good as was the entertainment, but there were some things that weren't great. The food on Virgin was the overall best I've had on any line. THe entertainment was not my favorite, but I could have guessed that before booking. On the other hand, the daytime activities were good, etc. Bottom line, overall, we were delighted with VV and got off our first cruise with 3 more booked. We love the "almost all included" and the bar tab concept....and the NO KIDS and, frankly, no senile old ladies cruising solo and latching on to me! That sounds horrible, but it did contribute to our issues with Celebrity. There is also a huge difference between a 3 night cruise and a 14 night cruise....and everything in between...

There is no perfect line.....there is a right line for each person or family at a particular time in their life. VV is still a work in progress. There were huge changes made in the entertainment between our first and second bookings. The food on Celebrity was good as was the entertainment, but there were some things that weren't great. The food on Virgin was the overall best I've had on any line. THe entertainment was not my favorite, but I could have guessed that before booking. On the other hand, the daytime activities were good, etc. Bottom line, overall, we were delighted with VV and got off our first cruise with 3 more booked. We love the "almost all included" and the bar tab concept....and the NO KIDS and, frankly, no senile old ladies cruising solo and latching on to me! That sounds horrible, but it did contribute to our issues with Celebrity. There is also a huge difference between a 3 night cruise and a 14 night cruise....and everything in between...

Yes, I knew port was busy today. We stayed on Valiant Lady until 10:30 (we were not in any hurry to get on our way as we had an early afternoon flight)....and hit no traffic at all at any point.

Just curious, how early were you trying to leave? One of the nice things about the VV time schedule is that when we've chosen a later departure time, most of the traffic from other cruise lines has already departed.

Interesting....we are familiar with the boarding process, but have never seen it start early. Yes, the boarding process on VV is as smooth and easy as it can get. Good for you to get on board early, but for others, I wouldn't plan on it. VV says to not show up more than 30 minutes before your scheduled time; we've seen that to be pretty accurate.

If there is something you don't like on the regular menu, you can substitute the same course from the vegetarian menu. The coconut chocolate desert it wonderful (we shared). Personal choice--I wouldn't eat B again. I'd do A with a couple vege substitutions.

My point was that people need to understand that the ships are safe. There are railings everywhere--good, high railings. I agree that the fact that a young woman died is the most important issue, but those who have or are considering booking cruises need to know that Virgin and all other major cruise lines put safety first.

I'm guessing you had DBE or another status that allowed you to board early. In my experience, boarding runs on time or just a few minutes early.

We board in 2 weeks....can't wait.

I wonder why they list VV at 2860 when the cruise line lists capacity at 2770. Bottom line, VV leaves last, so no problems there! And you can watch the others depart. The ships have been a lot more full recently than 4-6 months ago. On our upcoming cruise, VV took it off the website (along with 4 other spring cruises) supposedly because they felt they were as full as they wanted to be for those sailings.

Yes, but don't always believe what the shoreside people tell you. What it WAS on our cruise was first half of the week A, then on Thursday (I think) it changed to B. My suggestion....make a Test Kitchen reservation. After you board, go to the restaurant and verify what will be served when. If you didn't get the one you wanted, ask them to change your night..they can do it

Yes, laundry service is available. The bag is HUGE, about three times the size of some other lines. THe cost is $30, but if you qualify for the Deep Blue Extras status match, your first bag is free. We sent a load about 9 days into our 14 day cruise, which was perfect. It comes back the next day done and folded. Same day service costs more. There is no self serve laundry. The bag held all of our laundry for 2 people.

I discovered that when I watched another video, supposedly by a crew member....that said the police boarded approximately 1:30. As I said in my post, my info was coming from YouTubers who claimed to have been on board

The only place I felt out seating was perhaps "too close" was test kitchen. We were at the high counter once and at the tables the second time. We made friends with the couple at the next table. We found RD to be close, but not offensively so. Maybe we were just lucky in the tables we were assigned.

There is a YouTube by a female claiming that she and her fiance were lounging on one of the couches on deck 7 and the woman landed on her fiance's shins and ankles resulting in bruises. They answered police questions at 3am (the police boarded the ship shortly after 10pm) and they chose to disembark the following morning. True? False? I have no way to know. There are multiple reports as to the reason the woman went over the balcony....again, we have no way of knowing the truth. What I do know is that the balconies on VV are safe and there is no way for someone to fall off a balcony without using something, likely the balcony furniture, to climb up onto the railing.

Booking dinner is 45 days before embarkation. If you wait till 30 days, you'll find few choices.

Each bar has a separate menu. THis may help. https://profcruise.com/virgin-voyages-bar-menus-and-drink-prices/

Have you downloaded the app? First, any extras like loot of other goodies will be wrong on the app till after you board, but ours have always "magically" become correct after boarding. THey are right on the "my account" section of the web site. Dinner reservations are available 45 days before embarkation on the app. Shore excursions can be booked on the app. A limited activity schedule will appear on the app but cannot be booked until you are on board. You can do some or all of your online check in on the app (if something doesn't work, don't worry; you can add it at check in. For example, my passport entered fine, but it won't let my daughter's enter on our upcoming trip.....but it worked on our last trip. You can select an embarkation time; the available times will show up on the app. Rockstars (suite guests) can make all reservations earlier than above. I think their dinner res are 60 days out. DO NOT WORRY if you can't get the dinner reservations that you want. Make a reservation for each night if you can, then you can change them after you board, either on the app or by going to the restaurant. About 35% of reservations are saved until after boarding, so don't panic. Hint--your lunch on embarkation day will be late, so don't book an early dinner! If you used a travel agent, they can use their portal to make all your dinner reservations, Brunch reservations can only be made on board.

The short trip is also part of why they were originally staying at the island until after midnight. They found that most passengers were not interested in staying late. They supposedly had a bonfire with dancing and stuff, but there were complaints of "nothing to do," food not good, etc...so now the ship departs in plenty of time......

Sorry, but I have to disagree. We did our first VV sailing about 6 months ago. Prior to that we had cone 45+ cruises on at least 5 other lines. VV is our "new favorite." We got off the ship with 3 more booked. Yes, VV has a hard time launching the line due to covid issues, not really knowing who their passengers would be, etc. Their marketing is no longer geared to "20 year olds sailing on Daddy's money"; their average cruise age is 47 with a range of 18-90s. I think that surprised them! Our first cruise was approximately 50% booked. Our upcoming cruise has been taken down from the website, along with at least 4 other dates because VV has deemed them to be "sold out." We know that doesn't mean the max number of passengers are on board as some double rooms have only one passenger. Things I like about VV--best food on any line I've cruised at no additional charge (NO specialty restaurants). Wifi, brewed coffee and tea, soda, juices from concentrate , all gratuities, etc. included in cruise fare. The happiest, friendliest crew I've encountered, even better than DCL. NO kids. The hammock. The fact that I can find a seat by the pool even on a "full" cruise. Again, NO KIDS. No water slides, climbing walls, race cars, childcare programs, etc. which inflate my cruise fare even though I don't use them. Oh, I checked costs for the closest cruises I could find to my next VV on NCL, Celebrity, Princess, and DCL. The lowest price was double what I'm paying on VV for 2 of us in a balcony. Most of their cruises are now at 75% occupancy or above. They do offer casino rates, but they are no longer hading out free cruises to travel writers, TAs, etc. other than their program where if an individual TA does their training program, they get a discounted cruise in order to experience the product. If they don't do the training, they can't sell VV. This is different than other lines in that it isn't if someone in their agency trains. It is that the individual selling it has to have trained (or at least have an internal way to hide the booking under a different name/number. What I don't really like--the entertainment. in fairness, on my next cruise, only 2 of the shows from my previous cruise will be repeats, and one was the best show. I've been on cruises where the entertainment hasn't changed in 10 years! That tells me that either VV is "working on it," or they are premiering things that will be moving to the new ships. Have you sailed on VV or are you just repeating comments you might have heard or seen?

Essentially every magazine or website award I've seen is rigged, whether supposedly based on the voting of their readers or whatever. I've seen cruise lines send emails to their customers with a link for the voting site (I didn't get one from VV). They are popularity contests based on the voters at best....and involve an exchange of money at worst.