DCGuy64

Yeah, could be. (Although the Viva is probably too new to need a dry dock already). I noticed that they offer alternative sailings, but the one for ours omits the one port that was the basis for our entire sailing (Longyearbyen in Norway). Of course, we all know that ports can and do get skipped for various reasons, but the itinerary is always an important aspect of cruising for us.

Yeah, this is a bummer for us, we were booked on the Star for June 9-25, 2025. Time to find another cruise to replace it with! The letter I got said it was due to charters, I wonder if that applies to all of those cancellations.

Yikes! Just for kicks, I did a sample booking for early October 2024. The Eurostars costs a whopping $421 a night! No, thanks. We do love Barcelona, but there are definitely cheaper options out there.

We haven't cruised with as many lines as you have, but based on what I understand about VV, their model of doing things differently is one of the things I find most attractive about them. No constant hard-selling of spa treatments, excursions, art auctions, future cruises, jewelry, photography, etc. Most everything included, even sodas and sparkling water, all the restaurants, the list goes on and on. Our cruise is not until January 2025, but I'm already looking forward to it. We still cruise with the traditional concept, too, but it'll be nice to try something different. For one thing, my wife is vegetarian, and Virgin seems to do an outstanding job of accommodating her dietary needs.

Since you quoted me in your reply, (although I wasn't responding to you in mine), I'll just say this: we have never been on a Virgin Voyages cruise. I literally only booked the very first one about 2 weeks ago. We're newbies to Virgin. I don't have a dog in this fight, so to speak. I'm keeping an open mind. I simply get tired of people accusing a company of "lying" when it comes down to someone's interpretation of things. Accusing someone of lying is a serious thing to me. If you don't have the evidence to back a charge like that up, you should be called out for it. It sounds more like a case of feeling that Virgin hasn't lived up to some of its promises, but that again is open to interpretation. Fortunately, someone who has tired of one line has many others to choose from.

It just seemed strange. It reminded me a bit of an ad I once saw for Zipcar: "Cars for people who don't want one." 🤣

Understood, but I suppose when someone tells me he had a $300 bar tab, my first thought isn't "oh, he must mean mocktails and coffee." 😉

I guess you and I have different definitions of lying, then. I would submit that nearly everything you wrote represents an opinion of the cruise line. A negative opinion isn't a lie. It sounds like you didn't have a good experience with VV, and you're certainly entitled to feel disappointed or let down. But I guess I don't see how being disappointed equals being lied to. Like I said, I guess we have different definitions. It's interesting to me because I have been watching a lot of video reviews of VV, and they're almost universally positive. Same goes for the vast majority of people who review them on here. I think your negative experience is unrepresentative of the company as a whole. We just booked our first cruise with VV following a conversation with some friends of ours. They couldn't stop talking about what an amazing and unforgettable experience they had.

Well, that assumes you believe they're lying. I don't.

Perhaps the OP is travelling with someone who *does* drink and was hoping to snag that deal not for himself, but for his companion. But it still seemed odd to me.

Why did you want to bag the $300 bonus bar tab if you don't drink?

Our cruise just went up by about $400, so I'm glad we booked when we did.

Hi, and thanks so much for your reply. Your answer is very reassuring. I took the earlier post to mean that beds in the XL cabins couldn't be converted at all. Now it seems it's only if there's a 3rd person in the cabin. It should just be the two of us, although I am trying to convince my sister and BIL to join us on the cruise, they will have their own cabin. I hope you can see that my confusion was due to an honest misunderstanding about that, I wasn't trying to be argumentative or challenge your view. Thanks again.

What would you have had them say instead? "We lost money on the Aussie market, so we're out of here?" I can't remember the last time a corporation said something like that.

It was from a thread on here, posted February 2 by another CC poster. In the first paragraph, @WatermelonSugarHigh writes "The suitcases fit under the bed nicely, and there is a large storage drawer under the small sofa that converts to a single bed. Our cabin steward informed us that this configuration for three pax can not be converted back to sofa seating during the day." That's what led me to believe that the beds in the XL Sea Terraces can't be converted to/from a sofa.

Thanks, I'm glad to know that. I appreciate your response.

And so are the prices, LOL. (I looked at booking an XL but the extra cost didn't seem justified to me. I'm also interested in having the bed made as a sofa during the day, and it appears that can't be done in the XL cabins, from what I've read on here.)

Yeah, sounds annoying, for sure. It just wasn't obvious from the first post. People often book cruises years in advance, so I didn't know. (Ours isn't until January 2025, so I'm not going to stress about it)

Can you define "very small"? I've watched 5-6 videos on YouTube of the ship we're booked on (Resilient Lady) and the bathrooms look fine to me. For context's sake, I'm 5'4" and my wife is just a bit shorter than I. Thanks in advance!

Notwithstanding what @WatermelonSugarHigh said (sounds like it's a case of a bad cabin steward), are they *supposed* to do that for you, upon request? Or has VV discontinued this service altogether? We would like to have the sofa bed to use during the daytime, if possible. Thanks.

How soon is your sister and BIL's sailing? Much of the stuff on the app can't be reserved until a couple of months before the cruise.

The post I referred to said Bar Tab was going away, which implied that they're doing away with it entirely. That's different from a promo, hence my confusion. Thanks!

We booked a Sea Terrace that came with a $200 bar tab, and then, thanks to the Delta Skymiles offer, that was doubled to $400. That should plenty for us!

Can you elaborate on this?

We love our TA, he does all our cruise bookings for us. Thanks for the tip on having the TA book dinner reservations. We'll definitely be doing that.