TechSurfer

The other answers are accurate and important. You want to be there as early as you can, because the WiFi doesn't work until inside the ship, and many events - including the exercise classes and the drinking games - fill up pretty quickly and only book via the app on the ship's wifi. But the answer to your specific question is, no problem showing up past your boarding slot. Don't push it too far; it can take 20 minutes just to drive around the "Port" to get to Virgin, so you could be half-a-block away and not able to get there.

Exactly that. And, to be fair to the respondants who pointed out how much better Virgin is than Norweigan or Royal Caribbean... I've never been on those or Carnival, because, again, exactly that - I can afford not to.

Not even remotely the point. The point is, it is (as I called it) diming us. Not that they aren't up-front about it. They don't hide it. But the reality of a thousand small cuts was annoying. All together, it didn't come to a lot of money. Hence the "dime" part, rather than being centuried.

Fascinating. We saw Ship Show three-ish days ago. It was one of our favorite shows. And the dinner was about the best we had on-board. (I had the chicken.) That's partly a commentary on how bad Razzle Dazzle was and how inconsistent the Galley, but it was good.

We just got off the Scarlett Lady. Our final invoice was quite long. Even espresso isn't included. (Drip coffee is, but come on, this isn't the 70s.). No concept of well cocktails. Many of the on-board activities are fee-based. If you're accustommed to mass-market cruises (e.g. NCL, RCL, Carnivale), this may not be a surprise. But this was the opposite of the Paul Gaugin, for example.

I'm on Scarlett right now. We did make some reservations, but also... Walk-ins are decently common. Not always available, but sometimes. Having a reservation doesn't guarantee that their app will recognize it at the restaurant. (My worst experience on the ship so far was a snotty and incorrect Matre'd. I made him call a manager.) Some of the shows (e.g. Ship Show) include dinner. And it was pretty good actually. Regardless of reservations, room service is decent (and one of the very few things Virgin doesn't dime you for), and the Galley is often open. Although... from 11:30am to noon, you have almost no options. I think the choice was a few breakfast options - eggs and chicken sausage. Because the menus are switching over and lunch starts at noon. I personally despise the normal cruise-ship assigned seating-and-time thing. Hate it. This is more like being in a nice city... make reservations for fine dining, nip out for something fast or order delivery.

Just ate at Test Kitchen Thursday. It wasn't that communal. More like eating at a sushi bar.

The porters at Miami, or at least the one of the twenty that we dealt with, was aggressive. Something like, "You don't have to tip, I'm not saying you have to tip, but it is up to you." I tipped. $5. If he hadn't said that, I wouldn't have tipped because I thought one point of Virgin was to be tip-free. So, in that sense, the open mouth gets the worm. But regardless, our luggage barely made it on-ship. Fortunately it was iTagged. Shortly before boarding, I sent Sailer Services after it. My guess is, a cart wound up off to the side. As for avoiding the porters, I wouldn't. I'd prefer they be less aggressive about the tip, but you're going to be hauling those bags through the line and multiple checkpoints into floor 4 (I think) of the ship. If you've let the porter handle those, you just have your purse or backpack and can nip off for a drink or the view instead of having to go find your room and drop the bag off.

Not about shorts and definitely not about jeans, but hats are a huge issue in certain U.S. based sub-cultures. They are used essentially for tribal identity and often result in physical fights or worse. These are not issues for the demographic and style of Virgin Voyages, but I would expect Carnivale, for example, to be vigilant about it.

Thank you. Nice to know the bus is rational. But was this meh customer service/support typical of Windstar? It left a pretty bad feeling.

The dive tours were an absolute blast, generally in the earlier part of the day. The dive staff takes good care of you, good dive masters (one was a bit unpleasant, but other dive masters noticed and controlled it - bad morning perhaps?), and it's super-convenient just going down a few flights to the on-boat Zodiac dock.

We are (or possibly were) looking at a Windstar cruise that can either start or end in Colón, Panama. But we couldn't figure out the airfare, so I called their 800 number in the banner of their website. On the bright side, I spent less than two minutes on hold, and the agent who answered speaks perfect English. On the dark side, she apparently is charged $200 a word, and an extra $500 penalty if she's rated "helpful." Her answers were single words, no volunteered information, even though her tone was pleasant. I felt like a hard boiled detective in a film noir trying to extract information from an uncooperative suspect. By the same I surrendered, what I believe I now know is: Fly in (or out) of Panama. Which is like 50 miles away. (She didn't say this, but I already knew.) Let them know and they will add a "transfer" (bus ticket) to your reservation. The ride takes about an hour What I don't know: Anything about cost - it sounded like it was extra cost, but she certainly wasn't going to volunteer such valuable information! How many of these transfers run a day - i.e. how long we'll be waiting Is it their transfer or a third party, or just a ticket on a regular bus? (I did ask and she completely avoided answering.) I am curious about these questions, but now I'm even more curious about whether Windstar has dreadful customer service. Other than a minor date screw-up, which was fixed quickly once we pointed it out, we felt well taken care of on the Paul Gaugin (now Ponant.) Will we regret travelling Windstar?