FFMilesJunkie

Contact Virgin or your Travel Agent. They can make an exception. They just need to create a ticket and get it approved.

Keep in mind that if you book a “Lock It In” rate, even a travel agent can’t help you pick a cabin. Virgin is selling a lot of Lock It In rates in the final few months before a sailing to fill up ships. However it’s still worth it to go through a travel agent since they can still add perks to lock it in rates.

March cruises are filling up quickly and running into issues where sailors cannot get dining reservations at many of the restaurants and end up with 10pm bookings on several nights at Razzle Dazzle and test kitchen. What is someone to do when 10pm is when they would normally be winding down for the evening but are now told they have to dine at 10pm? Any experiences here with dining on full ships? How flexible have the restaurants been on accommodating people who want to eat earlier when their reservation is close to bedtime?

Suites still get the Bar Tab. They just don’t get the 55% off the second guest. A travel agent will be able to hold the cabin and send you a confirmation that shows the bar tab.

You can make changes to cruises outside of 45 days as long as it's not a "Lock It In" rate. Those are not changeable. Inside of 45 days they would need to make an exception to change your booking, which they have done on a case by case situation.

The "Mermaiden" cruise is the 11th, so from the 5th until the 11th is probably a preview cruise or cruises for media, travel agents, dignitaries, etc.

Thank you so much for posting that. I've had people ask about accessible cabins and there is not a lot of info on the Virgin site, but you have answered all my questions with that quick video.

Don't forget when the cruise is over, the booze is yours to keep, so keep a little extra room in your suitcase and seal up the bottles nice and tight.

This is the Virgin Voyages section of CC; you will need to post your question in the Viking section of Cruise Critic to get some help. Good luck. Sounds like an awful situation. Hope your Dad recovers fully. For what it's worth, Virgin does allow you to change passengers up to 48 hours before the cruise. Just another way Virgin is different from the main cruise lines.

Bar Tab can be purchased up to 24 hours before the sailing

I go to insuremytrip.com and compare rates. Lately, I've been picking the Nationwide Cruise Plan which has specific unique coverage for cruises such as port schedule disruptions or delays.

Lately, it's been $300 down payment on placeholder cruise gets you $300 off your next cruise + $600 On Board Credit for that cruise. The normal offer is only $300 OBC for the future cruise, but it's been $600 lately.

This is for new bookings only. $300 Bar Tab for sailings 6 nights and less and $600 for sailings 7 nights and longer. If you have an existing booking and you haven't made final payment, you can try to get it repriced to include the new promo, but I have to warn you that Virgin has raised the prices for most sailings to make up for this give away. It's a smart move and I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a permanent thing. It takes some of the anxiety away from those who don't like to sail without a drink package. You start out with $300 or $600 and you can always purchase more ahead of time or pay as you go if you run over the budget.

Yes, the on board bookings are combinable. You could end up with $600 + $600 on a 7+ night voyage next year! Cha Ching

It’s for new bookings only. If you are outside the cancellation window you can get your cruise repriced (rebooked) with the new promo but you would lose your original price and any perks. The new promo is $300 bar tab for under 7 days and $600 for 7+. More details will be available next week.

you got a sneak peek at the new Wave Sale. Those with on board bookings get advanced access to the sale starting today. Everyone else gets access to this great sale next Tuesday. Bar tabs for everyone!!

If you don't need a fully accessible cabin for a wheelchair, then maybe an Ambulatory Cabin would be a good choice. They would be standard sized cabins with a plexiglass balcony but with some features that might be helpful for you. Ambulatory Cabin Features: Cabin size and shape are identical to non-ADA types Lower coat hooks, thermostat, desk mirror, switches Grab bars around toilets Shower seat and grab bar Larger handles on fridge doors Standard height bathroom sink (lower than typical cabins) Lower towel holders

If you book online you have to do it at the time of booking. Travel Agents can add the promo any time before the 6 months deadline and apply the discount and take the payment. It's not a back door. The Virgin sales reps sent TA's a step by step guide on how to do it. They may change the policy in the future and make it only at the time of booking, but for now a TA can do it anytime outside the 6 month window. Technically, re-pricing is not an official policy for VV. They will always say the price is final at time of booking, but in all practicality, they re-price if the booking is outside the final payment. Basically, since there's no penalty for cancelling outside the final payment, you are in essence, cancelling and immediately rebooking with your FCC in the same "shell". The only issue is that you could lose the original perks you might have had in the original booking. So in a few cases when you had good perks at the time of the booking, you will not want the lower price and lose the perks. And while good travel agents will see the benefit of having happy customers who appreciate the fight for lower prices, it can be a bit demoralizing to be on the phone for a couple hours to do a reprice which is in essence, lowering your commission. LOL But hopefully your TA realizes that taking a bit of a hit in commission is worth it in the long run with repeat business!

You can pay in full at any time before the 6 months deadline and get the discount. They may change that policy in the future, but for now if you are more than 6 months out from your cruise, you can pay in full and get the discount, even if you booked it months ago. You may need a travel agent to do it. They have the step by step instructions on how to do it. In the OP's example, pay the down payment on the full price now and just before the 6 month date, call your Travel Agent and they can apply the 10% discount and take full payment. That way you can still take advantage of price drops or promo perks that are offered between the booking date and the 6 month date.

The Captain just came on and said we have been cleared to dock at Key West tomorrow morning. Great job by VV to adjust on the fly and recover from things that were out of their control. Kudos to the staff on board to continually adjust the schedules. I’m sure there are many who are disappointed we didn’t get the cruise we signed up for but I think it’s a good sign they they are able to pull strings and make on the fly adjustments that can’t be easy with all the clearances needed to dock.

Thanks to the late season Tropical Storm Nicole, our schedule has been put in disarray. Instead of yesterday being Cozumel, the captain sailed us to Costa Maya with the anticipation that we would pick up Cozumel today. Bimini was cancelled. Yesterday at Costa Maya was good. The crew did an incredible job to load new excursions into the app by around 3pm on our sailing day and they quickly sold out. Well we arrived in Cozumel this morning and because of the schedule change we don’t have a berth so need to rely on tendering. Unfortunately the seas are too rough and we are about to pull up anchor and sail back East. Not sure what we are going to do for the next couple days. Key West and Bimini are probably out due to the storm so might just end up with a 2 day slow sail back to Miami. A lot of disappointment on board but Ship Happens and we are making the most of it. By the way, there are 1700 on this cruise. 2,000 on the previous cruise and 2,100 on the next cruise. I think the $300 bar tab promo worked like a charm. I wouldn’t be surprised if the $300 bar tab becomes permanent in the future of course off set by an increase in fares by that same $300+!

Travel Agents can setup the referral for you. Just let them know the booking number and they can do it in their system or call Virgin to get it done.

We’re you in a lock it in guarantee rate? Curious if the lock it in rates get access to the upgrade offers.

Have friends sailing on the Edge TA cruise that need a proctored test. They were going to use Onpoint testing but their site seems to be down. Did they go away? Any suggestions for online proctored testing? They don't have emed kits with them. Just the ones they brought with them from Costco.

Loving your reports. We loved the meatballs in Extra Virgin. In fact, we went back a couple days later when they had an event called Aperitivo with the Foodie (around 4:30pm). We enjoyed a Aperol Spritz and another order of those delicious meatballs! I've been concerned about how VV will handle ships at full capacity. Sounds like it's hit and miss right now. Hopefully they can find a better rhythm as they continue to ramp up their capacity numbers. Enjoy the rest of the cruise. Even though you may not be getting a lot of feedback, I'm sure there are many silent readers here following on to your adventure. Cheers!