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it's 2 bottles per day, and pretty sure it's just 750mL bottles of wine. you can also get them with dinner, at the pool, or to-go from any bar/restaurant. we made sure to max out our allotment last week!

The casino is small, but was sufficient for me - not a huge gambler. Shows are definitely not your typical cruise ship shows. Right now, there are a few main shows- Never Sleep Alone, which is a one-woman sex-themed comedy/cabaret show that can get a little raunchy for some folks; untitleddanceshowpartything, which is a dance... show.. party.. thing? not really sure how best to describe it, but there are cast members floating around the dance floor, different pieces of stage that move across the room throughout the event. Ships in the Night is probably the most traditional show they have - it's mostly dance + a singer, with a theme woven through of everyone being glued to technology all the time/missing out on real world interactions. Duel Reality is an acrobatic show with a twist on romeo & juliet theme. They have a few others that pop up here and there with shorter contracts (1 month i think?) including a blues guitarist and his band, cabaret-style singers in one of the main bars, and a drag show. Food is phenomenal, and 99% of things are included - the only upcharges are for things like caviar, a ridiculously large tomahawk steak, and seafood towers. On shorter voyages, you are limited to 1 reservation per restaurant in the app (more for longer, but I don't know how many off the top of my head). You can, however, walk up to the restaurant to see if they have room or join a virtual queue if you'd like to dine at the same restaurant again. Spa access is included with the mega rockstar level of suites, but those are $$$$ and also include all alcohol (among a ton of other things). Regular rockstar suites get 1 fill of their mini bar (a few bottles of liquor, wine and beers). Anyone can access the spa if you purchase a $39 pass for 3 hours. This access is not included with any treatment 3 hours was definitely enough time for me to enjoy the thermal suite. All spa treatments seem crazy expensive, but they already include gratuity, so it ends up being about the same (or less) than you'd pay at any resort property in the US that i've been to recently. Balcony is excellent, and the hammocks are soooo comfy! Overall, throw all of your expectations away about what a traditional cruise is. It feels more like a boutique hotel at sea. No announcements, no cruise director pushing you to do this or that, no buffets, no belly flop or hairy chest contests, etc. The app can be a royal pain in the ass at times, which can get frustrating because that's where you make all your reservations for meals/activities, but Sailor Services onboard is typically very helpful in resolving issues/helping out!

quick update here - we were REALLY excited to try test kitchen's new menu... only to be faced with the OG menu when we sat down. womp womp. our server said they're now on a 3-day rotation, so 3 days old/3 days new. they have a veg menu for both, and we actually swapped a few of our standard choices out for the veg - tomato gazpacho for the shroomies, asparagus panna cotta for the scallops, mandarin sorbet for the blue cheese semifreddo, vegan chocolate coconut bar for the chocolate cake. we also made the stupid mistake of listening to everyone who said "you'll be starving," pre-gamed test kitchen with the beef sandwich from diner & dash in the galley, and couldn't finish our (surprisingly really tasty) test kitchen dinner.

This set-up is specifically for scarlet night - it's a DIY photo booth with props. you click a button, pose, and email yourself the photo. no photogs on board, no packages, but crew or fellow sailors seemed pretty willing to take photos of others. i didn't do this, but they have a "sunsets & selfies" session where the happenings cast supposedly shows you the best places to snag photos around the ship too.

If you’re planning to do that, it’s probably best to make a reservation for your main course restaurant, and walk into the appetizer restaurant right when they open (6?) to get a seat at the bar or a table if you explain that you’re only going to be there for a short period and they have space available. Then go to your main restaurant and try to get into the dessert. That way you’re not wasting 3 ressos in one shot. Multiple bookings in the same evening also might not be possible because they block some on your agenda for 1.5-2 hrs and you can’t book a conflicting appointment. some of the restaurants are also quicker to schlep between to than others. Gunbae is all the way aft on 15, extra virgin and test kitchen are in the same deck (6) and razzle dazzle and pink agave are on the same deck (5). random tip- room service has some stuff from each of the restaurants. Meatballs & pappardelle from extra virgin, the sea bass from pink agave, similar dish to the razzle dazzle cauliflower and I forget what else.

From what I’ve experienced firsthand, no one cares. We brought 4 on (2 each in different bags) and no one said anything. A friend that just went on brought a ton of wine, all in the same bag, no issues. I probably wouldn’t try this with $300 bottles of wine though haha They’re supposed to charge a corkage at restaurants if you bring the bottle to a meal, but I was never charged. You can also open the bottle in your room before dinner and bring a very large glass of wine with you if you’re worried about corkage. There is no corkage if you’re just sitting in your room or other public areas of the ship enjoying your wine. It’s not like some other lines where if you bring the bottle on you get charged a corkage.

Just got off and there were ~1,000 folks on board. RR was delightful on the sea days when the pool deck was packed and we just wanted some shade. Quick jaunt down the stairs to get to the pools when we wanted to dip. I do wish they turned the heat off in the hot tubs in RR and made them cooler soaking pools during the summer months - getting into a 100+ degree hot tub seemed a little excessive during the day, given 90+ temps and direct sunlight. It was nice in December though!

More reservations generally open up once you get on the boat, and even more as people shuffle their plans throughout the voyage. For scarlet night, dress in as much red as you like. Theres a kickoff around 9:00 at the central staircase, then lots of different small experiences across decks 6&7. At around 10:45 it ends up as a big dance party on the pool deck. bring PJs for your first night- PJ dance party on the upper aft deck! the only other advice I have is that you’re not going to get to eat, drink or do all the things you want to- especially in 4 days. I’m on my 3rd virgin voyage right now and am still finding new things and making mental notes about what I want to do on my next one. Take a look at the “lineup” in the app as soon as you get onto the ship WiFi and you can start registering for various activities. Some require registration/are limited capacity, others don’t, and some say they need reservations but you can usually stand by for entry if you can’t get a ticket.

I wonder if they’ll expand hours of restaurants once capacity increases. I can’t see them getting 2700 people through the 6 restaurants each night, and it doesn’t seem fair that some people have to get “stuck” with the galley for dinner

You can only book once per restaurant on the app, but onboard, you can physically go make another reservation at a restaurant if there are any available. If not, they seem to save some slots for walk ups or have a virtual queue in case any tables cancel

it'll probably never work out from a math perspective. we did rockstar instead of regular last time because we had tons of credit, and the softer perks were things like priority access to dining reservations, having our agent (kind of like a concierge) who could move dining and show reservations around for us, private golf cart transport to bimini vs. waiting for the tram, quiet spot at Richard's Rooftop when pool deck got loud, in room bar, more space & a real bed in the room, etc. we ended up doing mega rockstar for a back to back starting today. again, definitely doesn't work out from a purely math perspective, but we liked the ability to get whatever drink you want wherever/whenever, spa access, etc. our agent on our first voyage told us that as megas, your "roadie" (butler) is able to basically get you into whatever you want, even if you don't make reservations before your voyage.

😬 hope whatever it is is fixed by Wednesday!!!

hope so - flying to miami is such a schlep from LA

yeah zero breeze basically the entire time in our cheeky corner too, but there were also plenty of quiet places to enjoy a breeze on the public deck... just needed to have clothes on there 😉

you're able to book on your own and transfer to a TA within (i think) a week and they get all the credit. we did that with the first couple of ours that got cancelled, then ultimately started booking direct with VV because it ended up being a giant pain to wait for the TA we used to attempt to unwind everything.

yeah, our access keys to book after our first voyage automatically ended up in our accounts on the website. the odd thing there was that any time we started looking to book to compare prices or whatever, it would "use" the access key when we were searching. so if we came back to look later that day it would say it had already been used. come back the next day, no problem. so weird.

Our app and the website both only said $50, so we ended up calling Sailor Services when they first opened yesterday because I trust nothing at this point. First they said we weren't eligible because we (the referrers) booked in December, then they had to get a supervisor to come manually fix it. If your app/the website still says $50, it might be worth giving them a ring before the promo ends to make sure you're all set with your bonus loot! I've screenshotted mine in case something happens before my voyage...

Someone on here said before that if it’s “biddable” it’s available, but I doubt they would hold back suites specifically for bidders. It’s probably there for bidding in case someone cancels at the last minute.

Yep, the crew is pretty young overall. The "Happenings Cast" is especially outgoing and fun to hang out with - in lieu of a cruise director, it's their job to get the party started everywhere. You can invite them to dinner if you become friendly with any of them (they can, of course say no!), but it's pretty cool to see that they're allowed to be normal people onboard!

Gorgeous Suite is a Mega Rockstar, so you actually get drinks all around the ship (up to $25 per drink + 2 bottles of wine up to I think $90 per day) in addition to the in-room bar. I've never been on Celebrity, so nothing to add there, just wanted to point out the drink thing 🙂

I don't recall any Zumba classes specifically, but there were a ton of yoga classes, spin, HIIT and barre. There's a part of the gym that has on-demand fitness classes and then there's also really nice cardio equipment. Certainly enough to keep us active for the 5 days were were on in December - we were so busy with fitness classes that we didn't get to do things like Bingo with The Hostess, any of the casino tournaments or any of the sessions they held in the shops/salons during the day.

Ah totally forgot about the ice cream place! It was tasty, but we only ended up going there maybe twice because there was so much food everywhere else. We were also staying in an aft cabin, so we didn't tend to cross mid-ship for "quick bites. We usually ended up at either the Dock House (really good shrimp skewers and they had chocolate hummus as a dessert, which sounds gross, but was actually pretty interesting) or the Galley. We also didn't get a chance to try anything at the Social Club, but they have candy and boozy milkshakes there. Definitely going to hit that up on our next trip!

There are a few blogs that posted screenshots/PDFs of all the menus after their initial voyages. This one is pretty comprehensive and also has a separate page with bar menus. https://eatsleepcruise.com/virgin-voyages-restaurant-guide-with-menus/ I thought the food was generally awesome - as others have said, they're not typical cruise ship/americanized restaurants. Extra Virgin is more northern Italian vs. the "red sauce" Italian that people usually think of, and Pink Agave is Mexican vs. Tex Mex. I get the lack of customization options at the Pizza Place because it'd be difficult to manage 40 different pizzas at once. I was able to add extra garlic to a white pie every time I got one, but that was already an ingredient so I guess that's why they did that. Desserts throughout the ship were the only things I found lacking, if you can even call it that. Most of the desserts in the galley were SO sweet and our crepe cake in The Wake tasted sour/spoiled. That said, there were a few bright spots - popsicles in the Galley, baked Alaska (itty bitty, but perfect size for after a heavy steak dinner!) and lemon cheesecake in The Wake, affogatos at Extra Virgin and churros at Razzle Dazzle.

We were able to get multiple bookings at different restaurants on the same night and multiple bookings at the same restaurant during our voyage by going in person to whatever restaurant we didn't have an app reservation for earlier in the day (this cannot be done in the app). This was also on one of their highest capacity sailings (1,600-1,700 pax), and we had no problem moving/adding reservations as a Rockstar.

if anyone's looking for a last-ish minute booking, June 29-July 3 Fire & Sunset (Key West), here's our code: https://virg.in/4mcP