cantgetin

ALL the rooms are ready when boarding begins. That's another amazing change from other lines. On our last cruise we had the 1:30 terminal arrival time. We were in our cabin by 1:45 and our luggage arrived by the time we had dropped our carry ons and used the bathroom. We opened the door to go to lunch and found the suitcases! As a suite guest, you will initially be directed to a lounge where you can meet with the concierge providers (they have a different name on VV, I think it is Rockstar Host). THey will serve champagne and make any additional reservations that you may want before you go up to your cabin, The reason for the late boarding is that VV does not rush you off the ship on the last day. THe last time to get off is 10:45, meaning that you have time to get up in the morning and enjoy breakfast before you have to vacate your cabin....but late disembarkation means that we have the later boarding as well.

Loved the waffles in RD

Amazing! My first thought when someone posted about "compensation" was that the incident, as reported last night, was in no way VV's fault. This is FAR more than I've seen on any other line. Very generous. I would also add that there is nothing unsafe about the VV ships. I have a friend who was afraid to sail because she might "fall" overboard, so I took a series of photos showing the railings in relation to my height. The only way to go overboard "accidentally" would require some very foolish actions on the part of the individual(s) involved.

Don't worry about the app....it is usually wrong until you board the ship. I take screen shots of the website to prove it in case there is an issue.

It seems to be varying depending on (?) which agent your TA deals with or whatever. On this and another site, there are people saying that they were able to rebook and get the bar tab as well as the MNVV, as well as others saying they couldn't get it. I know my TA said it wasn't possible on my October 2023 cruise....we'll see what they say for 2024.

Noodles was open in the evening on our TA cruise in October, in addition to those mentioned above. We also had lunch specials on sea days during that cruise. We got into the habit of checking out the lunch special and then deciding whether to do one of the brunch restaurants or THe Galley.. The specials did not appear anywhere--not on the app, and the servers didn't mention them. You had to walk around to the various stations and look. THere was almost always a lunch special at the burger joint, and some days there were special varieties of tacos, noodles, and salads (although you can do a customized salad every day, so not sure why that was so special.)

TA is gong to deal with it tomorrow...I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks for the info....can't say I like it, but....good to know.

You can just go and watch the show--a lot of people do. There were two entry lines, one for people buying cards and one for people watching.

People who are racing bid on the horses....auction starts at $150. THey then get a session with "the artist" to decorate their seahorse and bring it back on race day for the gambling race. THey do the "spin the wheel" thing which tells how many spaces you move and another system where you can win an extra spin, go back spaces, etc. Ultimately the owner of the winning seahorse gets the pot of whatever people bid to get their horse less 10% casino charge. THe spectators are just there to watch. THey are not involved in any bidding. Truth, I don't get it....but if you are into gambling, guess it is fun...THe auction prices are $150-$500.

5 am, you are limited to the 24 hour breakfast place in THe Galley. Stuff starts to open up at 6 and 7. By 7, you gave all the Galley breakfast stations and Grounds Club.

Several stations open--noodles, salads, burgers (this is where the specials are served, but many are not burger related, deserts, all day breakfast. Close at 10:30p.

I'm waiting to hear from my TA....My 2023 cruise went up, so will stay as is. My 2024 cruise went down by $72 and will include the bar tab (at least there is one tiny line on the web site that implies it will)...so the real question is whether it will layer on top of my rebooking on board . TA will check it out and let me know.

I've experienced this at RD as well, but it is relatively easy to determine whether those at the next table want to talk or be left alone. Maybe I was lucky because I didn't find the tables at The Wake to be close....or maybe my cruises weren't as full as some....

It might not make sense for your booking, but the price I'm seeing for the April 2024 cruise is LOWER than the price I booked at. Thus, I need to compare all benefits included, and it might make sense for me.

I'm confused. The Wake will seat solo diners at a table for 2. I did it when my cruise partner was still asleep! Did you set up a group in advance for The Wake and then it turned out to be not such a good group? They don't normally ask if you want to join other diners. The only restaurant that makes groups is Gumbae. We've had good and slightly awkward groups there, but that was due to a language issue....

Similarly to the above, I'd do Razzle Dazzle and THe Wake for breakfast/brunch. The Wake serves a filet mignon beginning at noon if that is of interest. I'd skip Test Kitchen as we didn't like it. We had done Korean BBQ in Tokyo, and found it slightly different but also very good on the ship. My travel companion favors Pink Agave while my top choice is Extra Virgin. In fairness, you can get good Italian in most cities, so for something different, I'd do Gumbae and Pink Agave. ALL the restaurants have good food, but you basically can only choose 2 for dinner and one or 2 for breakfast/brunch. On embarkation day, try The Dock for lunch. The brunch restaurants will not be open.

I'm checking with my TA. The price on line for my 2024 cruise is currently lower than what I booked at. The question is whether that will layer on top of my rebooking while on board benefits...and the page I was on said nothing about the bar tab being extended. TA has put out an "emergencies only" request for the weekend and says back in the office on Monday morning, so I should hear then.

I have a guess, but it is just a guess. Early on when discussing the loyalty program, they were issuing some sort of points or credits based on when you booked and your status. They also talked about offering some additional credits in certain time frames. This has been taken down from the web site. I'm guessing that what you are seeing is related to that program which is not currently operational.

Reservations are not "needed" for breakfast/brunch, but we have been denied seating at brunch when they were "full." In fairness, it was a few minutes after noon, and the last possible seating is at 1pm. To guarantee seating, you do need a reservation. Walk ups are accepted on a space available basis. The policy on crew eating in the restaurants has changed. When the ships were sailing with under 1000 guests, the crew was permitted to eat in the restaurants any time they were not on duty. Now, as many cruises go out with 1800 or more guests, they are restricted as to when they are allowed in the restaurants, always on a walk up basis where they will be turned away if a venue is more full than anticipated, and usually they can only get in on a port day when sailors are still enjoying land activities (like on overnight stays). They can eat in The Galley any time. The person who told me this was not terribly happy about losing their previous dining options, but fully understanding that the guest experience had to take priority. And she admitted that they have a good crew mess, far better than other lines, but that it gets tiresome after a while. I agree that a table of crew members eating at the same time telling customers that there is no availability is wrong, but I think that has largely been corrected as the ships have become more full.

If true, this is a problem that needs to be managed by not booking more passengers than the crew can handle. If they can only staff for 1800, then don't book 2000. If true, the blame does not belong with the crew; it belongs with the corporate structure. A crew member on VV told us that she earns three times as much on VV as she did on her previous line where she was tipped by passengers. If that's true, VV should have no trouble hiring people away from other lines and then training them in the "virgin" way.

I have to agree with your assessment of most of the entertainment. We were on a somewhat strange cruise as much of the entertainment crew was leaving at the end and the new crew was on board "training" with the old, and then taking over the shows at the end. Not fair to make the comparison, I guess, but the crew that was ending their contract was FAR better than the incoming. I don't remember if we left "Around the World" or just talked about it. We did leave "Ship Show" early. THey did have NSA on our cruise--we couldn't get reservations and found out after the fact that people were not showing up and the place was half empty. We skipped the dance party thingy and most of Scarlet Night for the same reason you did--my cruise partner has a mobility impairment and the rollator was just going to be in the way. We had a magician and a memory guy on our cruise, each did 2 different shows. Those were good. Food--best I've had on any line. A few specialty restaurants on other lines were better, but they were also the top in terms of cost. Crew--friendliest on any line. We had a couple minor server mistakes (they tried to give us food that belonged at another table once), but minor. Cost....I shopped around and layered on some discounts. We paid under $100 pp per day in a Sea Terrace. That's about half of what I priced similar cruises at on 3 other lines. And yes, we are booked again. The HA assist disembarkation was SO bad that I wrote a snail mail letter addressed to Tom McAlpin. 4 months later, I received an email with a copy of their HA info (as if we didn't read that on line before we booked). Not only did I point out the problem, but I also suggested a very simple solution. Yeah...write you policies but don't listen to the people who are trying to live with parts of them! The "not funny" thing is that NOTHING in the email addressed the concern that we voiced. One thing I made clear was that we were NOT in the worst situation of many of the people needing assistance as the rollator has a seat which my companion could use. The ship crew took people off the ship in wheelchairs and literally dumped them at the end of the gangway with no place to sit and we waited 25 minutes for anyone from terminal assistance to show up with a chair. There was a man literally leaning on his wife for support! When our turn came, I told them to go first as they were in much worse shape than my friend was as she did have a seat. At one point, there were 5 pairs lined up waiting for a chair from the gangway to terminal exit. However, HA assist for embarkation was fine as the terminal assist people took her from the entrance, thru the gangway to the ship's entrance, and she can handle it from there with the rollator and braces. It is the terminal and gangway that need help.

Just a couple comments on the above...on our Valiant cruise, ALL the restaurants were open every night from 6 till a last seating time of something like 9:30. As to cost, I would suggest shopping carefully and repricing when any new specials come out. We were in a Sea Terrace (balcony) cabin for $96 per person per night, and on top of that had some "loot." (onboard credit). We took advantage of the special at the time of booking, early booking discount, and paid in full before 6 month discount. Our upcoming cruise is actually a tiny bit less on a per diem basis as we added a rebooking on board discount! I do realize that many sailings cost $300 per person per night, and we may never see the low rates we were able to nail again. We have 2 cruises booked in 2023, and our TA was already able to rebook one of them to get us a lower fare. There is also a Florida Resident discount which we do not qualify for.

The boarding system works very well, whether you have DBE or not. The only time you will find yourself standing in line is if you arrive more than 30 minutes before your scheduled "port arrival" time. In that case, you will be sent to.a queue arranged by arrival times...and you stand there until the people with earlier times have all been taken care of. It is possible that you'll get to board a LITTLE earlier than your arrival time, but that depends on how fully booked the ship is and how late your scheduled time happens to be. As noted above, DBE waives the scheduled time.

The boarding system works very well, whether you have DBE or not. The only time you will find yourself standing in line is if you arrive more than 30 minutes before your scheduled "port arrival" time. In that case, you will be sent to.a queue arranged by arrival times...and you stand there until the people with earlier times have all been taken care of. It is possible that you'll get to board a LITTLE earlier than your arrival time, but that depends on how fully booked the ship is and how late your scheduled time happens to be. As noted above, DBE waives the scheduled time.