ociana

It shows up on the web based schedule as running today for the current cruise. https://spark-aws.virginvoyages.com/api/v1/ext/ddp/5a3193a0af8e4c3fb714386b/2021-12-02#events

As a personal opinion, my husband and I very much disliked the show.  We love adult themed cabaret and shows, but the hostess had a presentation style that reminded me of sitting in a hotel conference room hearing about why I should buy a program to make money.  The audience who participated were fun, but the show desperately needed work to be entertaining as a whole package.

58 minutes ago, Lurdes777 said:

We only have 4 night cruise for new years. Since new years eve program is unknown at this point, which restaurants do you recommend we book for dinners for each of the 4 nights?  Please list your top 4!

The Wake - steak, roasted garlic and the side of mushrooms.

Test Kitchen - everything!

Pink Agave - the pork dish and try the cocktails

Gunbae - kimchi pork belly stew. I need to learn to make this and I considered ordering a second bowl for dessert.

From the reviews I have seen online, a lot of others would put Extra Virgin at the top of their list but that one just did not rank for us. We ordered all the things that were recommended, and there were some tasty standouts (meatballs and gnocchi) but the other meals were just that much better.  I will also note that we are adventurous eaters, so our tastes may not match yours. Read the menus to get a feel for what sounds most delicious to you.

51 minutes ago, Lurdes777 said:

Dear Ociana!  Thank you it is very helpful.  Sadly all suites were sold out before we booked. So I guess thats the reason why I don't have booking option yet on the app. I am particularly interested in New Year's eve celebration, do you think they will send out some details over email?  

 

Spa treatments also available 15 days out?

The spa treatments are available once on board, and I expect any details about new year's will show up on the schedule in the app during the week before sailing or once on board.  

I see you also mentioned a $100 bar tab credit. Since you are sailing in 2021, you actually get better than that as a Sea Blazer.  For every $300 in bar tab you purchase in advance of your sailing, you get an additional $150 added on for free.  This stays true for you indefinitely.  I recommend copy/pasting the language of the Sea Blazer promotion from https://www.virginvoyages.com/promotions-terms-and-conditions and saving it for future reference.  You do have to call them to get the bar tab added and then make sure to ask them to link it to everyone in your cabin that is sharing that tab. 

Congrats on your upcoming vacation! My sailing was in early November, so any advice here is subject to change as Virgin updates their process and app.

If you are in a rockstar suite, then you should be able to book at about 45 days in advance. In a regular room, you can book at 15 days out (midnight EST). Where you see the restaurants listed in the app there will be buttons with times showing that you can press to book them.

You will need a dinner reservation for any restaurant you want to eat at as a dinner meal, personally I recommend all but Razzle Dazzle - brunch there instead. They offer some walk up availability, but everything I have read is that it is limited.  Brunch and breakfast are offered at The Wake and Razzle Dazzle but you cannot book those until you are on the ship.

When you book your dining in the app, it locks in a 2 hour window of time and will not let you book if you have something else scheduled. Don't "book" tickets for the activities that are listed in the evening (like trivia) and you won't run into this issue. The tickets aren't actually used for those events anyway, just for shows and exercise classes.

Show and activity bookings that actually use the ticket become available as soon as you are on board the ship (connected to ship wifi and checked in). I recommend viewing the schedule in advance and making a plan so you can book right away when they are available. Things like the bungee class fill up fast.

The schedule for our cruise was continuously updated right until sailing and we noticed a few added things after we got on board. Another thread on this forum has a link where you can view the current schedule on your browser instead of the app, super handy! 

Final note, take a screenshot of all your advanced bookings before your trip. From my experience, there are still some technical difficulties with getting shore side data to sync up with ship side data...so things might disappear. We did see it all reappear by the next morning, so don't panic if something is missing the first day.

2 hours ago, sippican said:

Thanks for the great review.

 

I love the suggestions for a map of refill stations - how about a general map of the entire ship? 

The food was terrific!

 

Was your cabin serviced once, or twice daily?

The blasting music was a deal-breaker for us. Sailor services told us they had a number of complaints. We could hear the bass from our cabin 24/7.

We loved our one hammock also and had to take turns, lol!

Not sure I'd be committed to a cruise line if I felt the beds were uncomfortable. Did you leave them as a bed, or have them set up as sofas during the day?

 

Do you believe they will be able to maintain the same standard of service when sailing at full capacity?

 

How did the app work for you? Were you able to get your desired reservations for shows and dining?

Great questions! I think our cabin was serviced twice on sea days and once on port days, but just a guess. We did request ice multiple times but our tablet kept dying so we used post its. 

Our bed stayed a bed and the discomfort was actually less than our other cruises and just my hubby complained about it, I was fine. 

The app was hit and miss. Worked fine in advance of the trip and we booked all our dining at exactly 15 days out. Then when we checked in and waited to board we saw that all the dining reservations had vanished. I beelined for sailor services and they got us new bookings, then the next day they all showed back up so we had double. I took screenshots before canceling the extras. Many others had the same issue and there was a crowd at sailor services the first night getting it sorted out. Another app issue was that there were times it refused to load, but that only happened sometimes and it seemed worse if our phones were unsure what time it was (kept jumping to UTC). I work in IT and had enough understanding about app development to be compassionate about the situation and just roll with it.

The service standard is really a giant question mark to me. I do think they can handle it with full capacity, but I worry about other corners being cut in the future. Food quality, staff wages, etc all are things that could degrade over time if they are not intentional about maintaining a high standard I'm these areas. Since those are highlights of their cruise line and higher selling price, I would hope the focus (and the money) stays in the right places.  I have noticed a lot of questions about capacity for shows and dining, but it seemed those limits were tied to how many staff were on duty or concurrent activities running and not about space on the ship itself so those should scale up just fine.

From our experience when the ship was just over half full, yes. Disembarking was a breeze and you just walk off when ready, no line, and head to customs where there was a tiny line.  The airport is about 20-30 min away, traffic dependent.  If your flight is 10:55 wheels up, then figure you should get to the airport by 9, so plan for an 8ish disembark after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

This was the best cruise we have ever done and we will continue just sailing with Virgin Voyages for the foreseeable future. For context, this was our 6th cruise and our previous ones were on NCL and Princess over the past 15 years.  We are in our early 40s and are foodies and board gamers, so those are how we mostly spent our time on board.

Food:
The food in each of the dinner restaurants was at a level of delicious that matches our favorite local restaurants, with the addition of great plating and presentation.  By far The Wake was our favorite, both for breakfast and dinner.  Test Kitchen was second on our list, with the full experience truly being memorable and the food was delicious.  The food at the galley was good, with the Kouign Amman (labeled as caramelized croissant) as the standout winner among everything we ate there.  The salad station was also great, loved the curried cauliflower.  The poke bowls with cauliflower up on the sun deck were also a hit, although we did wish that the sushi and taco stations at the galley also offered cauliflower rice as an option.

Drinks: 
All the cocktails were priced around $9-$12 and there was no upcharge for your preferred spirit (bonus points for Aviation Gin available shipwide) or for substituting one spirit for another.  The bloody mary mix they use on board was delicious and does not have extra added sugars or fillers in it.  Most bars had tabasco, bitters and other additives right at the counter to add to your drink and all the bartenders were extremely kind and attentive.  Bonus points to the Pink Agave bar staff for making me a "skinny" version of one of their signature cocktails so it had no simple sugar added.  Four of those may have been too many, but they were delightful!  We had read menus in advance and they did not include any hard seltzers, but we discovered they actually were available on board - very happy to see that.

Room:
Next new ship, two hammocks.  We fought over taking turns in the hammock because it was so comfortable. My husband did bonk his head a few times though, so the placement could also use some work.  Our room was a regular sea terrace on deck 14 and it was quiet and pleasant. The bed was somewhat uncomfortable, but we have had worse elsewhere so it is not bad enough for a full complaint.  The shower was perfect and we had plenty of space for our items in the cabin. The movie selection was very limited and we had already seen everything in the genres that we enjoy.

Entertainment:
The trivia and Risky Business Game were great, wish they were offered more often.  Also, bingo was a lot of fun and would have been nice to have another time during the cruise.  We were very disappointed by Puddles the Clown, but the rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy him so I think that was more personal taste.  We loved the idea of Never Sleep Alone, but the show execution felt more like we were at a Multi Level Marketing Sales event with some crowd antics and less like a burlesque show.  Keep the idea, ditch the hostess.  

Amenities:
The board game selection on board was fantastic, although we were bummed it was just available during set hours.  We have many of the games at home and really appreciated seeing more Euro style strategy games as options to play.  There were plenty of places around the ship to hang out that were comfortable, but it was difficult to locate an open bar at times - especially during the afternoon of Bimini Beach day.  We especially liked the shaded area on The Perch where we could relax on a lounger without being a sun worshipper.  The private karaoke booths were a lot of fun, but it would have been nice to have some public karaoke times on board as well so once we practiced we could share our secret talents with others!  We did not use most of the gym equipment and did not visit the spa, so cannot comment on those.

Recommended Improvements:

• Have diet tonic and other sugar free mixers available at the bars.
• Add an electrolyte beverage like Powerade Zero or Gatorade Zero available on board. With all the exercise available this seemed to be a big miss.
• Make getting coffee an easier process in the morning without having to pay for room service.  We went to the galley and used the carafes and trays that were there to bring it back to our room, but that meant one of us had to go out each morning to get it.  
• Have a way to ask for more water carafes in the room - we refilled ours at the bottle fill stations on board multiple times.
• Add a map of bottle fill stations - had a hard time locating more than the ones we found up on deck 16.
• More time with the board games please! Make them always available and treat the pop up as a hosted game time where the staff person teaches a game to a group.  
• More keto friendly food options in the galley.  When we asked for parts of items (like just the meat and veggies) at the taco place they said they could not do that.  Same for the sushi place, it would be great to have sashimi options.  
• Add some more always available activities, like sudoku and crossword are on other cruises.  Would be fun for the app to have a shipwide exploration game with puzzles and clues that take you exploring everywhere!
• Relocate the trivia games to a larger space.  The bar where it was held was just too small and there were overflow teams outside of the room for each game session.  
• Turn down the music, or even off, on the outside decks in the middle of the night and early morning.  It was always blasting and really took away from the quiet of the sea.  Very glad The Perch was quiet.
• Make the sleep timer button work on the tv remote in the cabin.
• Add more movies or enable a way to access streaming services on the cabin tv (cast from device or log in with our own credentials).
• Have at least a basic souvenir shop open on disembarkation day. We wanted to spend money and couldn't. 

Overall Impression: 
This was a fantastic cruise, made even better by how amazingly happy the staff were.  They clearly were being treated better than we saw on other cruise lines and we hope that continues for them.  The other passengers we met were in our age group and had similar interests, so that was a nice treat as well.  We are already booked for next year!
 

On 11/20/2021 at 6:38 PM, Duquesmom said:

Is there a place onboard with computers for “sailors” to use?

A friend is sailing soon & wants to know if she needs to take her laptop.

 

TIA

I did not see any computers for use on board anywhere, just people with their own laptops.  

21 hours ago, LadyLion_AP said:

4 - $300 deposits

4 - $300 off coupons

1 - $300 off for SeaBlazers program  

It is this! I just called to work on my future booking and these stack, so each SeaBlazer can get a total of $900 off their first 2022 voyage, then $600 off other ones.

We just cruised this week and have a few suggestions for making reservations. Watch them to load in the app by 15 days out at midnight EST. Take a screenshot of your bookings, ours and many others had them disappear and we had to rebook once on board. Finally, there were new same day openings all week so keep looking if you didn't get them - worth the effort because they were all amazing!

We had the bar tab on our account as a regular sailor and every charge we made came out of that balance, even my bingo card. We had exhausted the balance by the time we hit test kitchen, but the pairings were excellent!

@Chamoretta Thank you so much for digging up the answers! It is so nice to hear you are having fun and I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.

In my youtube review research to prep for my upcoming cruise, I happened to see a celebrity in action! @sid_9169 on his phone likely posting an update to this thread on embarkation day.

Thank you @Chamoretta and have a wonderful day today!

I know there are at least two frozen drinks, per the menu, at the Athletic Club Bar. @bortzct you may want to check that out. I also think I saw a photo of someone with a frozen drink at Bimini.  Have a wonderful day today!

Thank you for sharing, that video actually answered a question I had!

Thank you for the offer and I hope you are having a great time!  Here are my questions:

• Do the bars have diet tonic available for drinks?
• I noticed a few bars offer cocktails made with Aviation brand gin. Is it stocked at all the bars on board and what is the upcharge to use that in a cocktail over their well gins?
• When you order the half bottle of alcohol available at The Manor and Dock House can you take it back to your room?
• Are there yoga mats available for use anytime or just during their classes?
• Are there any other secret off menu items like the secret steak at Razzle Dazzle?
• What kinds of diet soda are stocked in the soda machines?

Just tried at my 120 day mark for a Feb trip on the Star and also unable to book. The prepurchase of a thermal spa pass is open today though. 

Since this is an older thread, hoping a bump to the front page will get some other recent feedback on if dining bookings are available.

Thank you for the update on the boarding process, I was debating if I would pack my sun-brella and this confirmed it. 

For the wifi upgrade, you say it covers two devices. Is that two at any given time or two set devices that you can't change? 

For the show booking, where do you go to book and do you need everyone and their bands with you to do it? Was thinking I will send hubby to our cabin while I go book as soon as we board.

We had initially looked back in 2019 when they first announced, but the itineraries were not exciting to us yet so we passed on it.  Now that we are in Covid times, the idea of getting to go on a fully vaccinated cruise to ANYWHERE sounds good and the experience posted by @sid_9169 sealed the deal.  

The top two motivators for me with this cruise line are the higher quality of food and the treatment of staff.  How staff are treated on cruise lines has always been a real buzz kill on our previous trips - we even experienced when our room steward was fired mid cruise because a drunk passenger complained about him for something he did not even do (per his tearful claim).  I am a public employee with a social work degree who is very active with my union, so treatment of staff is an important thing to me and it had become difficult to turn a blind eye in the name of "vacation".  As for the food factor, we are foodies and eat high quality, locally sourced, meats while at home. Cruise ship food has never been a draw for us, so the chance for it to be a positive part of the experience instead of a neutral one is a great opportunity.  

Other factors are the current bonus offer for sailing with them this first year, the more risque adult entertainment since there are no kids on board, and the improvement in their environmental footprint compared to other cruise lines.

We are booked to sail in T-23 days and hope that the trip meets or exceeds all our expectations.

Edit to add: Our previous sailings have been on Princess twice and NCL 3 times. They were a mix of lengths and destinations, the most recent was a transatlantic on the NCL Epic in 2019 and the earliest was a round trip LA to Hawaii on Princess in 2004.

Looking forward to following your adventure so I can learn in advance of our sailing next month!

2 hours ago, barbiecruiser27 said:

Wifi didn’t work last night. Hardly working for me today. Haven’t been in the app in 24 hours. Would like to see my bar tab…. Beds not comfy. My back is killing me. I ended up sleeping in top of the duvet. Did I mention there’s no sheet. Very odd. I’d say 50 is the average age. We’re few in 30s. The show last night was very target to our age maybe 20-35.. so the crowd wasn’t feeling it. We were though! I think they need to bring in more 40-50 age groups music to tend to them. I wonder if it’s older now because of the line being new. I wonder if the age will stick. The galley is amazing. I will try pics in another post. Wifi hasn’t been liking that though. 

I recall reading that NCL would add a foam topper to your bed on request. Perhaps VV will as well? Doesn't hurt to ask if that's an option.  I also saw somewhere (In the FAQ I think) that alternative pillow options are available upon request.

Thank you for sharing your trip Sid! I was entertained all week with your adventure and even booked my own to do the same thing next month.  It was a pleasure virtually travelling with you.

1 minute ago, Dreamingana said:

Well it not only needs to be Plant Based ... how about upping the ante and making it also  gluten free?  Bonus points for organic too. lol  We are picky eaters. 

As a keto eater, the secret steak is a great choice for me. Lots of other offerings on the ship look to make it easy for me to eat right on my trip...with a few necessary indulgences that look too amazing to pass up.

I just read that there is a secret off menu steak at razzle dazzle. Not sure what your breakfast plans are, but that may be worth a try.