MTAK

This seems to be the most recent post about taxi service:

On 6/5/2022 at 6:15 PM, S.A.M.J.R. said:

We're six weeks from our cruise, so it's about time for me to start "worrying" over the details.  

 

We are scheduled in port from 7am-2pm on a Friday.  We have a 1/2 day tour with Big Beard's that's supposed to go from 9:00-12:30p.  From what I'm reading it's about 30 minutes between Christiansted (that's the cruise ship port, correct) and Frederiksted.

 

My questions:

1) Assuming we're done at Big Beard's at 12:30 (heck, even 1p), we should have no problem getting back to the ship on time, correct?   

2) Is there a "best" way to accomplish this?  I'm thinking taxi, but is that the route to take?  Is there a private shuttle that can be arranged in advance?

3) There are six of us, what would an estimated cost be?

 

Anything else we need to know?

 

TIA

Actually, you will be docked in Frederiksted.  Is your all-aboard at 2:00 pm or would that be departure? Seems you could be cutting it close but I think your best bet would be to ask Big Beards if this is doable or not.

I don't know if this was a wedding or ROV, but this was on the Rotterdam in April.

For those who had sailings out of San Juan, you may want to check Celebrity.  The have a nearly identical itinerary to ours that departs and arrives on the same dates as our VV, so in our case we wouldn''t need to change travel plans - just change ships.

9 minutes ago, Virgin Voyages said:

Yes, that's all correct ⚓️

So I could book a 4-night out of Miami using the FVC and use the Access Key for a 5-night, which would create a B2B booking for a total of 9-nights?

The Valiant option for Western Caribbean is Roatan and Costa Maya. We haven't been to either, but they don't seem that desirable. The Eastern Caribbean includes San Juan, St. Croix and Puerto Plata. We've been to San Juan twice on port stops (as recently as a couple months ago), and St. Croix in January 2020 - which was a bust IMO.

We were really looking forward to the southern itinerary out of San Juan, but at this point I doubt Virgin will ever depart out of there (it appears it was 1-season only), so we'll have to start looking at other lines again.

We were supposed to be on the November 26, 2022 itinerary out of San Juan. I suspected this might happen though so wasn't terribly surprised to see the email. Unfortunately the Scarlet itineraries out of Miami aren't very enticing so not sure where we'll go at this point - we may not sail Virgin after all.

On 5/13/2022 at 3:35 PM, CruiseMGM said:

Last time we were there, my brother ordered the lasagna and it was unbelievably good, so now I have a big decision.....lasagna? Or grilled shrimp? Hmmmm!

We ate in Canaletto for the first time on our April Rotterdam cruise.  I thought the venue was nicer than the Signature ships, and the lasagna was one of the best restaurant lasagna I've had.  However the exact same lasagna was offered in the MDR the next night...had I known that I would've ordered something else.

Based on our experience I now prefer Canaletto over Pinnacle and will be sure to dine there on future voyages.

18 hours ago, TiogaCruiser said:

So for those who got internet under HIA with 2 in a cabin, did it allow you to both connect simultaneously? 

Yes, you each can connect at the same time, 1 device per person.

Our boarding of the Rotterdam on April 3 in Port Everglades went a bit differently.  We were assigned Group C at 12:40 if I remember correctly.  We checked out of our hotel at 11:00 and arrived at the port about 20 minutes later.  We breezed through the Verifly line and were seated in the waiting area by 11:30. I think it was close to noon when they began boarding, and it was based on where you were seated.  So in other words, they began boarding the first few rows in the waiting area, then continued calling a few rows at a time.  It had nothing to do with our assigned boarding groups.  Those with priority boarding were able to walk right on.

Note there were about 2400 pax on our cruise.

22 hours ago, LindaJ+ said:

So if you take your key card out of the power slot, does that shut off all power to the cabin?  Like if you were trying to charge a device while you were out, there would be no power to the outlets?

I don't know about the outlets, but I do know it gets real dark in the shower when your significant other pulls her card out of the slot to go get coffee. 😅

On 4/17/2022 at 7:33 AM, VermeulT said:

It was on the last sea day night (Friday), which was also gala night (now that I think about it - that was odd).

I thought it was odd to have it on a Gala night too.  I had an orange t-shirt but that would've necessitated changing clothes again after dinner and it seemed out of place when so many people are already dressed up for the evening.

Here's a picture of the Sea View pool on April 3. It does have a green hue to it but honestly I never thought about it until reading this thread. It definitely looks more blue in the recent pics that were posted.

I haven't previously spent any time in a casino on a HAL ship, but I was at the Casino Bar for a while watching the Master's tournament and it did seem more cramped than I expected. The game tables really seemed crammed together.  I was looking forward to trying a Hold 'Em game but the only table they had was one of the Heads Up models and I wasn't interested.  Apparently others weren't either as I only ever saw a few people at that table during the entire cruise.

We were on this cruise also and, aside from a few technical difficulties, we had a great cruise. It was the best of the three cruises we've taken so far.

Glad to see this after a hectic day yesterday.  We should be on board in a couple hours. Sorry to hear about all those flights were cancelled. I think we were lucky to land last night.

I can see menus and events on my Pixel 4a for next week's trip on Rotterdam, but cannot figure out how to add an event to my itinerary. Is that only possible once onboard, or is that feature not actually available?

4 hours ago, Linguist208 said:

Glad it worked, but the "2-day window" is for having the test started, not for getting the result.

I was trying to verify that everything could be completed on Day 3 for those who have boosters. It allowed the upload but I don't know if their system is set up to approve that early. I was surprised that our electronic test results from Walgreens required manual verification. It didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling...

2 hours ago, MarkWiltonM said:

This morning, my VeriFLY app worked with the 3-day test window. VeriFLY wouldn't let me upload the 3-day test result until 2 days before the cruise, but it retroactively accepted the 3-day result.

That's the point I was trying to make in my previous post too. I don't really know if mine worked entirely correctly because, while it allowed me to select the upload on Day 3, I was within the 2-day window when it finally was accepted. I was hoping to see it accepted yesterday but it didn't happen that way.

Well it worked.  My work schedule changed so we were able to get tested at Walgreens yesterday at 4:00 and had our test results in about an hour. However it was after midnight when the tests were finally approved by VeriFly, so at that point technically we were within the 2-day window. It's nice to have that step finally completed - we'll see how boarding goes.

I was told that gift card money can be used in the casino, as it's considered "cash". Either pre-purchase OBC in advance, or redeem the gift card at Guest Services for OBC. I don't think the card can be used directly at the casino, but maybe someone else who's successfully done that can confirm.

Here's an update. On Monday I sent a message to VeriFly support explaining the problem with the 3-day test. Today I notice in the app that Step 2 now says "Test must be completed within 2-3 days of sailing".

I can't test until Friday anyway, but thought I'd post this FYI. I'll try to remember to check the app tomorrow and see if Step 2 is still greyed-out. In theory it shouldn't be.

This post shows the correct steps for booking using the Complimentary Dining credit:

It would work better if HAL eliminated the drop down arrow so you could simply check the boxes for the guests you wish to use the credit for.

Great to hear, I'll be on next week.

15 hours ago, KroozNut said:

 

Recommend tossing the app, and just going with HAL's clearly stated policies regarding testing requirements.

We can't test until Friday for our Sunday departure anyway, so I don't think Verifly will be a problem.  I will have all documentation on-hand regardless.