_tacocat_

Event Lineup for shows/fitness/onboard activities - you can add them by clicking each activity there. Restaurants you can do discover>space>eateries or something like that (or there's a link if you scroll the home page of the app)

yep this is correct - they've added this to their sailing club webpage, starting Jan 1, it'll be a $100 bar tab. not sure if that's departing on/after Jan 1 or literally on Jan 1, but it's up there already.

they're EXTREMELY pushy re: tips, and if your driver pops the trunk before you get out of the car, they'll start taking everything out and trying to tag all the bags. maybe a coincidence, but someone either on here, reddit or FB said that they had no cash for tips, and mysteriously their bag "got lost" and took hours to get to their room.

i've heard NSA is going thru either jan or feb... i'll be on in both mid-jan and end of feb, so i'll report back either way!

i've also been following the chatter on FB about this. it seems there was actual feedback that people did not like this port (vs. the "due to sailor feedback, we are shortening all port times because that's what sailors want" on the 8 night valiant eastern caribbean itin) some of the comments on FB were that it was kind of an industrial area, the excursions were not great, and people ended up sitting in traffic for most of the day on those excursions. la spezia is gorgeous - you can rent chairs at the beach and walk around the old city to eat, drink and shop to your heart's content!

i still have 1 from my voyage this week that made it onto my final folio. didn't bother checking with sailor services on the way out since my other 3 voyages that had charges for deep blue extras were all eventually fixed between when i disembarked and when i got the folio (those folios took a little longer than usual). i emailed sailor services, but i'm not going to waste hours tracking down a $10 coffee charge. annoying, but certainly could be worse!

Ship: Scarlet Lady Cabin#: 10326A Deck #: 10 Cabin Category: XL Sea Terrace Sleeps: 2 Cabin Location: Forward Terrace/Window/Obstruction: None Noise Issues?: Very quiet room, but cabin door is VERY squeaky when opening! Wind Issues?: No Connecting Cabin? Where Does it Connect?: No Hammock: Yes Metal/Glass Terrace: Glass Advantages/Problems: This is a 2 person XL Sea Terrace. I previously stayed in a 3 person (extra lower bed) version, and this cabin felt a bit more squishy than that one, due to the orientation of the bed and the fact that the cabin walls are slightly angled inwards towards the balcony. Would You Book Again?: If a 3-person XL wasn't available, I'd definitely grab one of these! Comments: Nothing else!

yep, the perks were officially extended unitl the end of 1Q23. my guess is they're still in data gathering mode now that the ships are at higher pax loads and trying to see what perks people actually use. i see the deep blue extras in my jan/feb voyages too. i don't think the $100 bar tab will show up in the app until after boarding (when the rest of that kind of stuff pops up). we never had the moet listed as a separate item, it was always just taken off after the fact.

leaving earlier does seem to make a difference - we usually stay till 10:30 and book that disembark slot accordingly because we either have late flights or fly out the next day. the previous couple voyages before my last, it took over 90 mins to get off the ship thru customs. a couple before then, the captain came on the PA at about 10 and told everyone to chill wherever they were because the gangway was backed up. my last voyage, i got off around 9:30 and breezed through in under 15 minutes. felt like the wait for the elevator with all the bags we schlepped off was longer than the actual customs line. the bigger pain was waiting for an uber because we were then in the end crunch of every other ship completing their disembark.

Ship: Valiant Lady Cabin#: 12267Z Deck #: 12 Cabin Category: Seriously Suite Sleeps: 2 Cabin Location: Slightly behind the forward elevator bank Terrace/Window/Obstruction: Nope Noise Issues?: We had a really rough voyage, rocking and rolling all night. all of the furniture creaked! also, not sure if it was the ADA room itself (a few doors down) or someone's scooter, but there was a pretty annoying wailing buzzer/alarm/siren/whatever that would go off at random times. you could hear it mostly in the hall from the terrace, but was quietly audible in the room. Wind Issues?: No Connecting Cabin? Where Does it Connect?: No Hammock: Yes Metal/Glass Terrace: Glass Advantages/Problems: Super close to the forward elevators, but that means it's kind of a hike to the Galley or Dock. Quick access to the pool/richard's rooftop. Would You Book Again?: maybe if i got a good deal, but prices keep going up. i've sailed in a bunch of suites and one XL terrace, and i think the XL is the best bang for the buck. i have a few more voyages booked, and they're all XLs. Comments: Our rockstar agent was not the best in this suite. not naming names to get folks in trouble, but it's kind of the luck of the draw to get a good agent. we asked for a couple things up front and got them the next day, but any time after then that we had a question, the answer was either no, we were given incorrect information, or we just got plain old ghosted.

swore i added the link! trying again here... https://spark-aws.virginvoyages.com/api/v1/ext/ddp/5a3193a0af8e4c3fb714386b/2022-12-14#events i think the restaurants open at 6 most evenings. i'd personally do dinner at 6:45-7 the first day so you can actually make the sailaway festivities. if you don't care about sailaway party on deck, eating around 6 at the wake or gunbae gives you a pretty neat view (especially gunbae - south beach view as you sail out!) shows seem to depend on how busy the ship is. if it's a fuller load, you'll likely have 2. if you generally stick to the same meal times each day, you should be able to make some combination of shows work, especially if you're eating on the earlier side. bimini lunch consists of pulled pork, grilled corn on the cob, pumpkin curry, a few other dishes and rum cake. if that's not up your alley, you can hop on a shuttle back to the ship. i think all-aboard is 6:30 in bimini, but the beach club kind of dies down by 4-4:30. last week was the first time i haven't been rushing to get ready for dinner because we ate late that night, and we were able to catch a phenomenal sunset from a hot tub on the ship! the crew said they're basically like that every time they're in bimini, so now i'm going to eat late bimini night from now on.

it apparently wasn't last year, but this year, valiant had some garland/swag on the stairs of the roundabout, a giant nutcracker and ornaments at the top of those stairs, and a disco ball photo backdrop setup on 7. there was also a menorah and a kwanzaa light thing (i assume scarlet did something similar but can confirm when i'm on this week). my only complaint is that they were pumping christmas music EVERYWHERE starting the first week of december, and that playlist was super limited. i worked at macys a couple christmas breaks in college, and it brought terrible flashbacks of the same. damn. songs. for hours and hours every day hahaha.

you can tell them you're good, pop your own suitcase out of the trunk, and proceed to the check in queues (can't miss them - bright red flags separated by check in time!)

sailaway is ~6pm and PJ night is 99% of the time the first night at 11pm. scarlet night on scarlet seems to always be the night before bimini, and the festivities start at like 8 or 9. here's a website that gives you an idea of the actual schedules of sailings. they get loaded pretty close to sailing, but gives you an idea of previous schedules - just pick a date of a past riviera maya voyage and click through.

You have to log in with your room number and date of birth.

Can’t remember where I saw this (another thread here, FB or Reddit), but someone recently said the close garage was full and they needed to go to a remote garage/shuttle in

This sailing had 2,200 and the galley was kind of a disaster at times. We opted to do a lot of the ready made/counter options in there vs waiting to be served. Not the end of the world. Room service was absolutely broken on this sailing. We had ordered breakfast for 9am on Monday because that was the next available option after 5:30 by the time we ordered. Our food wasn’t there by 9:30, so we called. We were told 15 more mins. That came and went, called again and were told 15 more mins again so we pressed for more info. Something apparently happened in the galley (printer issue, fire, missing finger, something else? Our imaginations were running wild in our hunger haha) that required them to basically stop for an hour at peak breakfast time. They said they’d waive the delivery fee for our inconvenience, which did nothing for us bc we were in suite so it was already waived. Finally got our breakfast around 11. I get stuff happens, but communication would be better than just missing food for 2 hours. I was griping to someone else about this, and they said their “40-60 min” room service took over 2 hours one night, and they just ended up cancelling the order and going to a restaurant another time once it crossed the 90 min mark.

I think it was beef tartare and scallop ceviche? We just got the chicken entree bc we had eaten earlier and it was pretty tasty!

Make sure you know your cabin number when you pull up to the port- the porters start grabbing your luggage as soon as the car rolls to a stop haha. Goes much smoother if you can give them your cabin number immediately. Also note that porters aren’t VV employees, so their tips are not included. They basically shake you down for tips up front and some people don’t get that they’re not part of the “tip free” VV experience and get a little miffed (to be fair, they’re pretty damn aggressive…). VV should do a better job of explaining that experience starts once you enter the terminal

Was on this sailing- the woman apparently fell and hurt (broke?) her hip, they rushed her to medical and then I guess decided past the last minute that they’d need to get her off the ship. We also had a medical incident on the ship at Bimini yesterday- as i was walking back from kayak beach after a dive, a lady was strapped to a stretcher in the back of an all terrain golf cart with her companion and luggage in tow. We came back at least 4 pax lighter that we start 😕

nope, not for valiant this week. they also held back a ton of activities bookings until later in the afternoon, which was kind of annoying bc we had to keep checking back to book shows/fitness classes. on the other hand, it makes it more fair for folks with later boarding times.

heh i actually like the lack of closet doors! less things to clank in the dead of night as the ship rocks, and you don't need to keep a radius clear of the door to open them. i sailed in an XL sea terrace in october and thought it was a really good value/compromise between a suite and a regular sea terrace. we used the baskets in the closets pretty heavily as kind of supplemental drawers and moved the life jackets off the shelf/to the closet floor to make more logical storage space for us. 2 big suitcases fit under the permanently perpendicular side of the bed, and we shoved a carryon suitcase in the back/side nook of the closet

i'm not sure - we didn't have any issues when people used one of my links earlier this year, but almost everyone on my current voyage has done the "name and booking number" linking after the fact.

never started 😞 but there is a drag show and drag bingo!

omg that is ridiculous - how can they even expect someone to remotely relax with that nonsense?????