thrifty99

We are on this cruise too - looking forward to it.

Bought one on Navigator in February and used half of the punches. Used the rest 2 weeks ago on Ovation. When on Navigator we had conflicting answers as to using it on another cruise / different ship. Guest Services said “No” and cafe workers said yes. We didn’t have any problem on Ovation. They put your name and cabin number on the back - I just crossed off cabin and put new one when on Ovation.

Our Unlimited Dining on Odyssey (December and February cruises) dropped from $244 to $177pp this weekend for the Labor Day Sale. We typically get it for $167 - $175 on sale so this was close to what we find on sale.

We were on Navigator out of LA in February and had the cruise planner in our room.

It really was a good pizza. The only downside is they make you a whole pizza. No way to just get a slice for a little snack.

Thanks - yes, we didn’t see anything about the luggage. Good to know. That was one thing many we met said… they don’t communicate very well and your first trip with them is a bigger learning curve than other cruises. The “no snacks” reference was about Bimini Bay, not the ship. Feel free to point out any other differences / things I missed. The ship is a bit of a maze and I’m sure I missed some things.

If you are a Royal Caribbean customer and curious about trying out a Virgin cruise, we just returned yesterday. You can read my overall summary / comparison on this link: You can find my "live" review thread on this link:

Virgin cruise thoughts After just sailing on my first Virgin cruise I thought I’d post my comparison to many years of sailing on Royal Caribbean. Cost: I will compare 5-night Caribbean cruise costs on Virgin’s Scarlet Lady versus Royal’s Oasis of the Seas. I looked for a date that had low prices for each. Virgin Scarlet Lady 5 night cruise for Nov 2023 is $2,334 Gratuities included WiFi included Soda included All restaurants included TOTAL = $2,334 Royal 5 night cruise in Dec 2023 is $1,804 for the base cruise on Oasis of the Seas Gratuities $14.50 per day per person = $145 Soda & WiFi for 2 = $36 per day (typical sale price)= $180 Unlimited Dining Package = $25 per person per night = $250 TOTAL = $2,379 for comparable services Note: you can do the basic Royal cruise for $1,950 (cruise fare plus gratuities). You can see the cost is about the same if you add in things to Royal’s base price to make it comparable. Now to compare what you get in each. Food: The Galley is Virgin’s version of a buffet. I wish you could walk up and get everything versus waiting for waiter to take order and then deliver it. I’m guessing they do it this way to make it feel less of a “buffet”. A few stations were “walk-up” but most you had to order with a waiter. Wait times could get long on a full sailing. It was only about 10 minutes on our 35% filled ship. The food was was better in The Galley than the Windjammer on Royal but more selections to choose from in Windjammer. I give Virgin the “win” on this for the better food. Quality wins over quantity. Restaurants: Virgin’s included restaurants are comparable to Royal’s Specialty restaurants and much better than the standard Royal main dining room. But when you compare with Royal’s Specialty restaurants it is very similar Virgin only allows you to reserve any restaurant once per cruise. To go a second time you need to do “walk-in” to see if any availability. This will be harder to do a repeat restaurant on Virgin, especially as cruise occupancy increases. With Royal’s unlimited dining plan you can go to the same restaurant multiple times during the week and even multiple restaurants the same night. If we liked an appetizer or dessert at a certain restaurant we could do appetizers at one, main course at another, and dessert somewhere else. More flexibility. Oasis restaurants (included restaurants and those included in Unlimited Dining Package) Main Dining Room (included in cruise) Izumi Hibachi (cook at your table) Chops steakhouse & seafood Giovanni’s Italian Solarium Bistro seafood & steak (not an up-charge restaurant but has a great dinner menu. Portside BBQ - ribs, brisket, pork & sides 150 Central Park - higher end menu of fish, venison, duck, beef tenderloin Virgin restaurants The Wake steak & seafood Pink Agave upscale Mexican Razzle Dazzle vegetarian The Test Kitchen unique foods similar to Wonderland on some Royal Ships. Gunbae Korean (cook at your table) Extra Virgin Italian There are pros & cons to all of the above. Virgin had smaller portions of some items but also had some creative dishes I had not seen before. As stated above, Royal allows more freedom with reservations. They both have complimentary things like snack bars, ice cream, & pizza. Virgin has “small bites” areas like The Dock House where you can get tasty skewers with shrimp, octopus, and steak. Royal has the DogHouse with several types of hot dogs & sausages. It also has Park Side Cafe for roast beef sandwiches and salads. Virgin’s snack food is a little higher end. Cabins: The Virgin Sea Terrace (balcony) Cabin was pretty similar to Royal’s Ocean View balcony. Virgin had hammock and rain shower head. Really liked that shower. Closet space / drawers / shelves seemed less on Virgin but still worked fine for us. Virgin had nice technology controlled from tablet in room. Can control lighting, temperature, drapes open/close, and TV. In-Cabin entertainment on Virgin is much better for when you need some down time. Nice selections of movies. TV channels very limited on Virgin (news & BBC). My wife missed the Red Bull TV channel that Royal has for extreme sports. Internet: The basic Wifi is free on Virgin but many apps & websites did not load for me. All of these work fine on Royal’s lower speed WiFi. On Virgin my home cameras did not load so I could not monitor my home. My stock trading app did not work. E:mails with links did not always load or work. I’m not sure if upgrading to the higher speed would have worked. I was able to have a video call but it did freeze and disconnect at times. Royal wins for better WiFi. Activities & Shows: Royal wins with a much broader selection of entertainment. You really have to be organized with your planning to see everything. Royal: Broadway show (Cats is on Oasis - not my favorite of their Broadway shows). AquaTheater show - unique outside diving and acrobatic show. Headliner show (like an ABBA tribute band) Ice Skating and Ice Show Cirque du Soleil style acrobatic show Outdoor Movies on big screens Comedy shows Game shows, karaoke, trivia Zip line (short zip line on ship) Flow Rider surf simulator Mini golf Rock Wall Water slides and 10-deck dry slide Laser tag Escape room Virgin Cirque du Soleil style acrobatic show Adult Cabaret show Ships in the Night - dancing & techno show Music entertainment around the ship in small settings Karaoke in private rooms and in other areas. Game / trivia shows Fun free exercise classes (Royal charges for classes) Pools / Whirlpools: Virgin has smaller pools and whirlpools. It was fine on our low occupancy cruise but I wonder what it is like on a full cruise. The main pool has large cushion loungers around the entire pool. This allows only a small number of people to be sitting pool side. Virgin also has limited shade on their pool decks. Some umbrellas would be nice. Royal has larger pool areas so more can enjoy being closer to a pool. They also have the Solarium which is an adults only pool for a more quiet pool area. Private Beaches: Royal Caribbean has Coco Cay and Labadee. Their beaches have more activities such as the Water Park at Coco Cay and zip lines at Labadee. But they charge a lot for these activities. They have beautiful free pool and beach areas. Virgin has Bimini Beach Club which has a great pool area and beautiful beach area. Virgin wins for the adult pool party vibe. Fun music, entertainers dancing by the DJ booth, fun pool floats thrown in the pool. Royal wins for better lunch food selection and other snack foods to enjoy during the day (love the funnel cakes at Coco Cay). Virgin has NO food available until lunch at noon. Then very limited light fare after 3pm. They need to have some snack food all day long. Other Differences: Children: This is the big one!!! Virgin does not allow children to sail. It was refreshing to have only adults on the ship. No crying kids at dinners. No teens sitting on the stairs blocking the stairways. No kids playing elevator games. Luggage: Virgin delivers it to your cabin, but you take it off the ship with you. Royal delivers it and takes it away at end of cruise (if you want). Casino: Virgin’s casino is smoke free which was nice compared to the smoke filled Royal casino. I enjoy slot machines and found Virgin’s to not pay out as well. I spoke with others playing the slot machines and the general consensus was the same. Announcements: Royal tends to have a lot of announcements over the speakers / in rooms. Virgin had very few which was nice. Spas: both have nice spas and services available for extra cost. Daily planner - Royal delivers it daily to your room. Virgin has them available to pick up if you want a paper copy. Both have the daily activities on their app. Ship design: Virgin is more of a modern look. The pool area is industrial looking with metal walls. My wife commented that the pool areas lacked that fun tropical look to them. Virgin design emphasizes a lot of smaller, more intimate areas instead of larger, more open spaces. No multi-deck atriums / promenade areas. Virgin does have a great variety of unique seating styles around the ship. Royal (especially the Oasis class) has more unique larger areas. Open air Boardwalk with carousel, shops, food, and AquaTheater. Open air Central Park to stroll through trees and higher end restaurants. Multi-story promenade with food & shops. Next Cruise Booking: Virgin has a nice deal right now if you book your next cruise on the ship. You save $300 off your next cruise and you get $300 of on board credit for that sailing. We booked 2 sailings on board. Royal offers a lower deposit and I believe $100 on board credit to book your next cruise while on the ship. Summary: We have sailed on many Royal Caribbean ships and very much enjoyed our Virgin cruise experience. In fact, we reserved 2 more Virgin cruises while on board. The “adults only” is a nice change of pace to not have children on vacation. Overall there seemed like fewer activities / less to do on Virgin which can be good or bad depending on what you want. It is a more laid back cruise on Virgin. I personally miss the larger spaces of the Royal ships (Central Park, Boardwalk, Promenade atrium) while others dislike all those big spaces. We will enjoy sailing on both cruise lines.

I had mentioned all the various/ unique seating around the ship. Here are some examples.

It’s too bad they are telling people conflicting information about the Dec 17th cruise. But it seems the official e:mail may be what is actually happening… Dec 17th cruise returning one day early. I called Royal this morning about our Dec 11-17 and they said it is sailing as planned with no early return. Of course that could change anytime.

Is this impacting the Odyssey Dec 11-17th cruise? The blog states the Dec 17th departure will depart a day earlier which would be the 16th but our cruise was not returning until the 17th. We have not received any e: mail about this.

Very relaxing and enjoyable cruise. A different experience than Royal Caribbean… each with their own pros & cons. I will be interested to see how I like the next Virgin cruise (booked Nov 2023 and April 2024). Assuming a much higher occupancy than the 35% we had this week it could be a much different experience. That will be the challenge for Virgin to handle a lot more people in their smaller venues (pools, shows, restaurants). Some things like waiter service for food in The Galley could be more challenging with 3 times as many passengers.

I wish they had done it per couple / asked our preferences. There were 3 couples at our table and none of us knew each other. Next time I know to speak up and ask for something more. For example if I see 8 shrimp for 6 people I’d ask if they could get some additional shrimp. We did enjoy meeting the other 2 couples and besides small portions it was still a nice experience.

Yes, the morning was great for swimming laps as no one was in the pool for the first 1-2 hours. We had the pizza once - it was very good. Nice thin crust.

I forgot to mention we did stop for a snack after returning from the beach and before dinner. The Dock House at the rear of the ship has nice little skewers. We had a couple of shrimp and hanger steak skewers and a chocolate moose with chips and strawberry.

Dinner tonight was at Pink Agave, the Mexican style restaurant. Of course I forgot to take photos of some of the food but I found similar photos from other reviews to fill in those I missed. Here is what we had: Small Plates: guacamole & chips and grilled corn. Medium Plates: seared shrimp and chicken enchiladas. Large Plates: ribeye steak Dessert: chocolate “tacos” (note the ice cream was not normally included). All of the food was delicious.

We enjoyed about 6-7 hours today at the Bimini Beach Club. It is a nice facility with 2 great pools and a beautiful beach. our weather was pretty good with just a couple of short showers lasting about 15 minutes each. It is only a 5-6 minute shuttle ride from the pier. It officially opens at 9am but you can go in and grab a lounge chair earlier. The bars don’t open until 9 though. Virgin keeps the music at a “normal” loudness and more mellow until about 1:00. Then they boost up the volume, bring out the dancers, and throw a bunch of inflatables into the pool for a massive pool party. TIP - if you don’t like loud and bass heavy music sit at the far end of the pool away from the DJ booth. It is also the end closer to the food area. The music is not quite as loud at this end. Food: there is nothing to eat until lunch is served from noon to 3pm. They do offer a limited “snack” menu after 3:00. I attached photos of the lunch menu and snack menu. I would have preferred the ribs on the lunch menu instead of the “lighter fare” snack menu after 3:00. I wish they offered something in the morning and some type of fun pool / beach type snacks (chips, nachos, churros) the rest of the day. My wife had grabbed a “quick bites” container of fruit from the ship and was glad to have that snack for the morning. The lunch was pretty good. I had the snapper, rice & beans, corn on the cob, and rum cake. The pool and beach water were both a nice temperature for swimming. We enjoyed the white ledge loungers sitting on the pool shelf.

A little sneak peak at Bimini Beach Club. We were the first ones to arrive at about 8:30am. Beautiful pool and beach area. I’ll do a full review later.

We are at Bimini Beach Club today - Virgin’s private beach spot to spend the day. I’ll post a review with photos later. We are overall enjoying this cruise and the different experience than our typical Royal Caribbean cruise. We still enjoy Royal and have 4 upcoming cruises with them in the next 9 months (Alaska, Fall Colors - New England & Canada, and 2 in the Caribbean). We did book 2 more cruises with Virgin while on board this week. One in 2023 and one in 2024. They offer $300 off the cruise price and $300 on board credit so it is a good deal to book your next voyage while on board.

For the casino lovers, the casino is smaller than on other ships I’ve sailed. I do enjoy that it is smoke free. I really only play the slots. I played them a couple nights and watched others play them. You never really know how the payouts are set but it seems like the slots here have lower payout odds as I saw few winning and a couple others playing slots made similar comments.

Dinner last night was at Gunbae which is the Korean restaurant where they cook on a grill at your table. It was a fun experience and we had great table mates. They have you play a counting drinking game which is a fun ice breaker to get to know everyone. The food was good but the portions very small. They will cook each course and then pass it around on a plate for everyone to take a portion. With the seafood plate I was the last in line so only had 1 shrimp. There were 6 of us at the table and he cooked 8 shrimp so there was not a large amount to share. It is more of an experience meal than a filling meal. The appetizers were 5 small bowls of various things like seaweed, Korean potato salad, slaw, etc. I had to grab a photo off the web as I forgot to take one of my own. They also gave you a big bowl of rice. The seafood was shrimp, octopus, and shrimp. The meat was pork belly (really like bacon), rib meat, and a steak I believe. You can see the portions he cooked and that was for 6 people to share. Dessert was an ice cream of 2 different flavors swirled together and a little topping tray with chocolate sauce, marshmallows, and granola. We didn’t find it to have much flavor. Overall a fun experience but they should increase portions.

Went to The Wake for brunch / lunch today. If you go after 12 (noon) they add 2 steaks to the brunch menu: Hanger steak and a Filet. We had the clam chowder, shrimp cocktail, pork belly eggs Benedict, Hanger steak, and Filet. For dessert we had the crepe cake and apple tart.

We are not big drinkers but enjoy the frozen drinks at the pool. The virgin daiquiri’s are cool and refreshing and only $5.

Just a note on the weather. We have a beautiful sea day today and weather looks perfect for tomorrow at Bimini Beach Club. Don’t be discouraged if you see a lot of rain predicted for your cruise. The day we left for the cruise showed almost every day with 70% or more chance of rain. We had one rainy / cloudy day and the rest have turned out great. It’s pretty typical for rainy days to disappear as you get closer to each day in the Caribbean and the captain has some ability to bypass storm cells.

I wanted to grab it and roll it to my cabin but wife said No. 😁😁