_tacocat_

if you show up that early, you'll either be told to stand in the "too early" line of shame or be directed to take the shuttle to a nearby shopping center to hang out there while you wait. if you show up closer to your time, and after the initial boarding rush is over - say 3pm, you may be able to just waltz into check-in.

there are a ton of things going on on sea days, less so on port days. trivia, slot and poker tournaments, musicians at the dock and roundabout, tequila tasting class, paint & sip, "summer camp" arts & crafts (friendship bracelets), lots of other random stuff! no real "shows" per se, but sometimes there's a bingo with the diva during the day.

Get those steps in... err... "step-touches" in hahahaha

it'll change 100 times before you board, and sometimes even after hahah don't sweat it!

that's how it had been the first few times we were on, but the last couple times we noticed that razzle was definitely open on bimini night!

for megas, you're supposed to go straight to your suite - your roadie meets you there, then you go through all the perks, what your preferences are and (for us at least) ask them a million questions - liquor swaps, "room service" from restaurants, etc. going to the manor would have been a total waste of time for us when we sailed mega, as our roadie was able to quickly do everything we needed (or find someone herself to get it done). the manor serves st louis sparkling rose and has reps from the spa, box office (entertainment), and restaurant reservations floating around. we just used that time to hit bars around the ship and get drinks that we actually wanted!

i regularly regret booking the 8/9am spin classes on the first morning. finally learned my lesson on my last voyage and opted to sleep in after PJ party 🙂

For datapoints, I booked them via their call center with the MNVV last October. Best advice is to hang up and call again until you get someone who knows what they’re talking about. I think it shows up automatically anyway, so it doesn’t really matter what they say on the phone if the system pulls it automatically

Yes it does, I’ve been able to get it on 3 different bookings using MNVV offers

It’s the layout of the ship. Every other room is generally one way, and the rooms in between are the other. Like hotels, apartments, whatever, they try to do bathrooms in as much of a “stack” as possible, and this means having the bathrooms back to back between 2 rooms. That forces the bed to be on one wall or the other, and the beds only open into a L the one way, so some rooms end up with the stationary part towards the middle and others have it with that part towards the balcony

its for new bookings from april 1-11th. i think it's valid thru 2024 voyages, but i'm sure it'd end up more expensive if you tried to cancel/rebook, given they usually increase base prices and decrease the % off with every sale!

i like the "sticking out" part to be by the balcony. i find that the beds with the part that rotates towards the center of the room give at least the illusion of more space. i've been in cabins where the moving part of the bed opens towards the balcony, and it felt SUPER squishy. sounds stupid, but when they added the wood paneling thing behind the TV, that extra inch or whatever made it near impossible to walk between the stuck-out-in-the-middle-of-the-room bed without nailing your shoulder on the corner of the TV.

room service starts at 5am, so you can order them the night before for early delivery. i want to say the pastry station in the galley opens at 6, but i've admittedly never been up that early haha

i want to submit a petition to get this as an all-day menu item.. SO tasty!!!

The caveat with that is that it 100% will change as soon as you board. If you get attached to that lineup and plan all reservations around it, you’re going to have to redo everything as soon as you get onboard!

Scarlet night, I like to do pink agave or razzle dazzle around 7. Test kitchen and Gunbae take upwards of 2 hours and extra virgin and wake can be hit or miss with respect to timing. test kitchen, I’d recommend doing a reservation on the early side (7 or earlier) because it takes so freaking long! happy hour isn’t a real thing onboard. They currently have a ketel one sponsored happy hour every night at several bars, offering choices of 3 cocktails and 3 mocktails, but that is supposed to end on Friday. The only other “deals” they have onboard if $25 bottomless brunch drinks at razzle and wake and discounts if you get buckets of cans of beer by the pool.

for the paper vs. app thing, generally trust the app. if things are moved, they're typically reflected in the app -- obviously a piece of paper won't update. your experience with trivia was an unfortunate outlier. if a show or class appears booked full, show up a little early and see if there are noshows/standbys. in 11 times onboard (and at least 10 spin classes across those), i have never seen at least 1 standby person be able to get in. hangovers happen, and while the $10 no show fee is enough motivation to get my ass out of bed, others are clearly not as cheap as me and just pay the $10 to sleep in haha. hope your experience turns around! make sure to check out the dock/dock house for appetizers (i think noon to 5 or 6pm). so tasty!

there are a couple services that are not listed - pretty much an express mani/express pedi. i want to say it was like $45 and $55 but can't recall 100%. then there are 2 versions each of manis and pedis that are i believe $89 and $99 for the pedicure (not sure about manicure). i sprung for the top pedicure last time. it was awesome, but i'd say unless you have a ton of loot to burn, it's better to just get them done at home. the time to get them done eats into your limited time on the ship/in port!

yup, you can use sailor loot to pay for anything onboard - spa, shopping, tattoos, gambling, whatever. bar tab is the limited-use pool of credit, which can only be used for drinks at bars/restaurants.

no - $39 port days/$59 sea days for a 3-hour thermal suite pass for everyone, unless you're a mega rockstar, have splash of romance package, or book one of the big spa packages that gives you access.

My experience has been totally different hah- the first time we were on, we went to Gunbae after our Cozumel port day. Everrrrryyyyone had a garbage time in port because, well, it was Cozumel. Everyone at our table was so grumpy because it was hot, there was too much walking, we got ripped off by xyz vendor, my excursion sucked, etc., so conversation was not great to start. Then one of the other couples at our table dove head first into an unprompted politics/second amendment debate. We quickly excused ourselves as soon as we finished the meat course because "we had a show to catch." Flash forward to the next voyage, and we went embarkation day - everyone was still in a great mood, and most of the conversation centered around how cool the ship was, what VV was like, and travel in general. It does take forever, so we typically try to book around 6:30-7 if we're doing it the first night.

lol i wish they would either rip the bandaid and release the loyalty program (or at least give a real date!). this is starting to sound like their 2020 launch (your voyage definitely won't be cancelled - richard's bday bash is just too important to push. oh wait, yeah we're not going. oh and your 2021 voyage on our second ship is cancelled too.) or their constantly "ending this week" sales 🙄

hahahahahaha stay safe 😆 hopefully the events kind of stay to themselves! we had a big virtuoso TA networking trip/conference on one of our recent voyages, and that was just plain old weird because they were all wearing business attire and conference badges/lanyards on the world's most casual ship. i go on vacay to get away from the crap i have to do on land, not to be smack in the middle of it!

unofficially, you can search for your voyage, and see if rooms are still available in most categories. if rooms are available in almost all the categories, you're likely looking at an undersold voyage. TAs also have access to be able to see sold/unsold cabins. my guess they added the limitless thing + the extra limitless package that gives guaranteed entry to the speakers to boost occupancy. (but as a woman, if my voyage turned into this, i would be so turned off and probably reschedule my trip)

wow - that is good to hear!