_tacocat_

the biggest differentiators are the crew and the food. the crew is phenomenal because they're allowed to be themselves - hair, tattoos, makeup, piercings, whatever! they seem to get perks that crew on other lines don't have like free wifi and ability to dine in the galley and actual restaurants (at times) vs. being sequestered to the crew mess. while i'm sure there is some hierarchy for safety/operational reasons, there are no stripes on anyone's uniforms. instead of a cruise director, they have 12 or 13 Happenings Cast members whose job is to make sure guests are having a good time/have things to do. If you want recommendations, find one of them and they can give you some tips. i had only been on 1 cruise before VV and that single cruise 10+ years ago turned me totally off from crusing until my husband convinced me to try VV. on NCL, the included food was inedible, and passenger hygiene left a bit to be desired- i basically ate pretzel rolls from the buffet the whole time. VV has great food, and lots of variety. real mexican and real italian (vs. americanized stuff), pretty damn close to traditional korean BBQ, great pizzas, poke bowls, ramen, tacos, and so much more. mmmmmmmm.

Yeah - smart decision. MIA is an absolute disaster. Even with Clear and pre-check and no checked luggage, it still took 30+ mins to get from the curb through security (for reference at any other airport, it's maybe 10 mins max depending how many people have Clear). The normal security lines HAD to have been at least 90 mins.

You can use it to buy things above and beyond the mega rockstar inclusions (i.e., extra bottles of wine, bottles of wine above $90 and drinks above $25, which are basically only expensive spirits - we saw it as a challenge to see how creative we could get to hit $25/cocktail because most mixed drinks were so reasonably priced). There were definitely a ton of tequilas & mezcals that were above $25/pour if you want to treat yourself! If you don't use it all, that's basically just a "tip" to Virgin because it's use it or lose it.

Not anymore - this is billed as "Box Office" and doesn't count against your bar tab. It worked in December, but I think they changed it in May.

This was in a FB group that I'm in that's run by travel agents, so I'd guess so. The no hammock rooms seem to be due to either the geometry of the terrace or the structural steel (or lack thereof) over the terrace.

yeah - some guy on FB swore he was "in the know" and that his friend at NCL told him that they were looking to buy VV. red flags galore with that, as that would be a "shipload" of MNPI for some rando to be posting on FB. glad he was wrong! i see this infusion as a good sign, as both partners re-upped vs. just recapitalizing the deal. another article i read also said that the blackrock investment was on behalf of multiple funds.

On Scarlet at least 11346 A&Z apparently do not have hammocks. Try calling to switch! Sailor services can confirm which rooms do/do not have hammocks & glass balconies. The rooms with no hammocks are in the forward part of the ship- not sure which cabins have metal vs. glass balconies, but if you're in the "pointy"/tapered part of the forward, you'll likely have metal. You can kind of guesstimate by looking at the deck plans + photos of the ship and counting decks and balconies. I think it's kind of ridiculous that they market these as standard sea terraces, when they're... not! At least on Scarlet, these are the no-hammock cabins- Valiant is her twin, so I'd guess it's the same: DECK 9: 9366 A AND Z 9370 A AND Z 9374 A AND Z DECK 10: 10354 A AND Z 10358 A AND Z 10362 A AND Z 10366 A AND Z 10370 A AND Z DECK 11: 11286 Z 11346 A AND Z 11350 A AND Z 11354 A AND Z 11358 A AND Z 11362 A AND Z 11366 A AND Z 11368 A AND Z DECK 12: 12338 A AND Z 12342 A AND Z 12346 A AND Z 12350 A AND Z 12354 A AND Z Re: your other question, I've seen some reports here that you are allowed to book multiple times for longer voyages - maybe even 3x per restaurant?

the onboard offers stack with other offers, but not themselves, if that makes any sense. so you and your friend can book 2 separate cabins and each use the $300 off offer AND each get the $300 sailor loot associated with the onboard offer AND each take advantage of the current sale, but you can't apply 2 $300 offs to the same cabin. additionally, the onboard offer is only applicable to standard sea terraces and up -- ltd view or lock it in sea terraces do not count -- but i think the sale has that floor too. a word of caution though -- you can make "open deposits" and book whatever you want (i think within the next 24 months) by calling sailor services, but their system seems to be glitchy when combining with a future sale. we booked one specific voyage onboard and did 3 others as open deposits. when the august sale started, we opted to add a second leg to our existing voyage, and the system couldn't handle it because the booking was technically "made" before the sale started, when we placed our deposit. they opened a ticket and pushed our pay in full deadline out, but it still wasn't fixed by the day before the due date. we called and they had to cancel our booking and rebook it, and we collectively had a mystery $300 in FVC in our accounts that we were then able to apply to the rebooked rate (which was actually slightly lower than we had originally booked, somehow).

Forgot to add - on the past few we've been on, they've had a solo artist (usually with a looper pedal) in the Roundabout a couple times throughout the voyage. Super low-key! Not sure what the deal is with Phantom Folktales right now - I heard their contract was cut short, but I also saw recent videos of them at the Bimini "bonfire." They have random pop-up shows and do a few smaller shows on Scarlet Night too.

If you see Slam Allen on the agenda, he's the blues guy and usually plays in the On the Rocks lounge. Free Label was the house band for a while, but they've been popping up as a guest band here & there. They play mostly funk covers, but they also throw in a few of their own songs. On all the voyages we've been on, the DJs play a bunch of latin music (usually with an EDM flare, of course haha) at the pool and The Manor.

Yeah, we could see the first leg fine, it just didn't let you see anything for the second. B2B is AWESOME. We did it in June/July while you still had to test between voyages, and our turnover was super delayed because they have to zero out the ship (get everyone off who's not supposed to be there). There were a bunch of people at the desk on 7 trying to fix their bills or something, so we just sat in Sip for like an hour. Because debarkation was delayed, we then had an extended time waiting in the terminal. Even with those delays, we were back on by around 12-12:30 and had the pool basically to ourselves for almost 3 hours - apparently no one goes straight to the pool after boarding 🙂 We had specifically booked the same suite so we wouldn't have to pack, and turnover ended up being a super relaxing day! We're doing another B2B in October because it's such a schlep to FL from CA, but this time we're switching cabins. Hope it's a little quicker this time now that testing isn't there anymore!

Yep, you also can't see your Sailor Loot, which was kind of annoying with the Share the Love promo when it was glitching and only giving $50. We had to keep calling to check how much loot we had, then have them open tickets to get the full $200/referral. This was especially tricky because we were on a B2B, and once you check into your first voyage, it basically locks you down and you can't do anything with your second until you get off the first one.

In the Caribbean in December, there was minimal breeze because the ship cut most of the wind. Not sure what it’s like on a TA though

Didn't see one for 10/28 yet, so here we go: 5 nights Dominican Days Scarlet Lady October 28, 2022 https://virg.in/oBiX

pro tip - order room service breakfast the night before port days! we always do that before bimini and are really quick off the ship after that

Caribbean for all of them

It was hot as balls outside during the summer (I was on in June & July), and it was still crazy humid in December last year. I had grand visions of enjoying room service on my huge corner suite terrace last year, but it was SO uncomfortable and that plan was quickly dashed in favor of in-room couch meals. In the summer, you have the added fun of the heat, and your room AC doesn't run unless your sliding door is closed and locked. It gets pretty toasty/stagnant in there when the AC stops for a while. That said, there are plenty of outdoor dining options, including lots of hard and soft seating along each side of Deck 7. The Dock is my favorite food-wise, but it's more of a loungey type place. No real dining tables, more like a beach club/day club type of seating setup. The Grab & Go boxes were great to have a quick salad/snack by the pool in the middle of the day, and no one bats an eye when you bring food to the pool area, which is nice!

Those were nixed with the covid cancellations and never rescheduled (I'm assuming so they wouldn't have to scramble to unwind again if they were delayed/cancelled again). I think they were supposed to be in Bimini super late irrespective of DJ (maybe 10pm?) when they first announced. Obviously that changed, but even with the late-ish 8pm departure, the extra time seemed like a waste. People have tended to head back to the ship at like 4pm so they could clean up and go to dinner, which left the Beach Club pretty dead after that. We finally stuck around for the "bonfire" during Richard's Birthday Bash because we were already going to be there for the Happy Birthday drone photo/cake/celebration (which was a disappointment in its own special way haha, but that is for another time/thread). By the time the bonfire started, there were maybe 20 people left at the beach club. VV also abruptly cancelled Phantom Folktales' contract early. They were the group that did the bonfire and all the smaller pop up event around the ship. It has to be hard from a staffing perspective - the ship crew comes to Bimini, but 90% of the guests were back on the ship at that point. Chicken or the egg - there aren't enough crew left at Bimini later in the day to satisfy guests (most of the bars close, no food, etc.), but there aren't enough guests there to support more staff.

Some nuance here- It was launched in a JV with Bain, not bought out. Yeah, they’re trying to turn a profit, but it’s not like they just took it over and are looking for ways to slash everything at once to flip the company.

i liked the single cubicle setup - no waste of space from two giant mostly-unused locker rooms. change into your bathing suit/robe before in one of the changing rooms (or just come wearing a bathing suit to begin with!) shower after, dry off and go about your day, or just go back to your room to shower.

Is the error they there are no reservations? They seem to hold a ton for day of departure, so you should be able to make them all once you connect to ship WiFi

my guess is that those voyages were woefully underbooked, so it made sense to make a small group of folks unhappy (although the compensation was pretty sweet) to be able to get more revenue + marketing exposure. yeah, it sucks if you were impacted, but stuff like this happens at resorts on land ALL the time. planned your honeymoon for years in the maldives? ah, a sheikh wants to have a private vacation at the resort, that week so your stay gets bumped (with compensation - maybe). relaxing weekend at a fancy pants resort in big sur? oh, justin and hailey bieber want to have a quiet getaway, so they're bouncing everyone, or a tech company is bumping everyone's reservations so they can have their offsite there (also with generous compensation, and that happened a TON at the alila ventana last year, some with very little notice!). at the end of the day, it's unfortunately a calculated business decision to optimize profits.

Only mega rockstars get spa included (wish it was all suites!), but they do offer half day/3 hour passes for purchase now. I've read they've updated the pricing recently, but when we did the 3 hour pass in December, it was $39 any day and you could pick 7:30-10:30, 11-2 or I think 2:30-5:30. I've heard it's now $59 on sea days/$39 on port days, which makes sense because it could get insane at times on sea days.

I love the bar tab concept too - you can track everything you've spent and look into the actual virtual receipt line items if you have any questions right in the app. The band-tapping process is fairly seamless, there are no receipts to sign, and no one binge drinking to make a drink package "worth it." I've seen people complain about not wanting to worry about what they're spending on vacation, but all the bartenders will tell you what something costs before they make it if you ask. The other complaint I've seen a lot is that drinks are $$$. New York, LA, and literally any other city would like a word! I think the most expensive cocktail I saw was $17 (tip included), but most fell in the $9-13 range, most wines <$15/class, most beers maybe $6-8? That is cheap compared to any bar near me, and again, it includes tip. It's also possible to make drinking more economical -- you can buy a bottle at a bar and mix it with whatever. We've seen people get 1L of Titos at the pool + mixers (I think it's $110 or $120 - pretty decent for "bottle service," all things considered, especially knowing it includes tip), and split it amongst their group.

No way - if they allow kids, they'd lose most of their current customer base: the child-free, the parents who want to take a vacation without screaming kids everywhere, the empty nesters, the singles, etc. They'd also have to redo the entire ship layout and offerings, as there is not much onboard that would appeal to families. While definitely eccentric, Branson has done a pretty damn good job at flipping industries on their heads, and in the process, optimizing profits. VV made a calculated business decision when cancelling the (probably way underbooked anyway) Valiant UK voyages earlier this year in exchange for the revenue they got when The Bachelorette (ironically Disney IP, via ABC) + the marketing exposure they'll get across the US when that premieres. I think they'll also continue to gain word-of-mouth exposure when folks who have been on and loved it tell all their friends, and they'll continue to build loyalty from existing customers that like how different the VV offering is.