_tacocat_

3 minutes ago, lahrbrat said:

Hello! First time VV cruiser. Do both my husband and I need to apply for the status match or is one per stateroom all we need? 

you only need 1 per cabin (you only get 1 set of perks per cabin)

if you're bringing a water bottle, make sure it's reusable (i.e., not a disposable plastic bottle).  you can bring your own commuter cup for coffee, but it's not really necessary.

all cabins have shampoo, conditioner and shower gel.  suites also have lotion!

5 hours ago, mazz1 said:

and wondering how they can charge VAT on a item that is free ? 

if there's VAT applicable to anything, it'll just come out of the $600 balance.  for example, in the caribbean, they have to charge sales tax in some (all?) of the ports.  you'll see a slightly higher amount deducted from your bar tab for the same drink when you're in port vs. at sea.

1 minute ago, mizLORInj said:

So these are both options on a cruise we're considering.  Do you really notice the cabin space difference in the XL?

 

the cabin itself is pretty similar, but the bathroom is super different between the 2.  the XL has an open doorway with frosted glass door cubicles for the shower and toilet, and the sink is in the open door space.  the regular sea terrace has an all-in-one bathroom with a sink, shower and toilet and has a door to the whole thing.

8 hours ago, cantgetin said:

for entry to the cocktail party.

it's not even needed for that because they have a checklist with everyone's name and cabin on it - even if you have the bracelet, they'll still check you off.

at this point, i basically wear mine for boarding, then it comes off.  it's gross when it drags across your plate when you're eating!

16 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

Sounds like you had a swingers club on the ship. They're everywhere on all cruise lines and super annoying if you have the unfortunate pleasure of running into them. We've not had that experience and I have to say, all our friends who have gone on the ships have not reported anything like that either. 

lol it was ridiculous on richard's birthday bash last year.  there was apparently a large swinger contingent onboard, and after a while it was like - yes, we get it, you don't need to keep advertising!! that and the fact that a lot of that group felt pasties and g-strings were appropriate attire for the pool, and going commando in dresses at the scarlet night pool party was a classy choice 🙄 felt like i was around a bunch of horny teenagers who wanted attention the whole week!!!

1 hour ago, lisabucsfan1 said:

All of this is very different from how other cruise lines reward frequent travelers.

i'm guessing this is by design - the other lines do lifetime status, and as more people get said lifetime status as time goes on, the quality of perks have to get diluted to support the greater numbers.  an 85 year old that spent 200 nights onboard a line in the 90s is given more recognition than a 25 year old that's probably paying a ton more today for go on a few cruises on the same line.  same stuff that goes on with airlines and hotels - when everyone is elite, there's not a ton of value in it anymore.

i sailed norwegian once, and as a person without status, other pax kind of made me feel like a second class citizen.  forcing people to re-earn status on whatever basis (i'm guessing it'll be a 2 year qualification period and 2-year perks period, reading between the lines on their terms) gets them more repeat business and keeps the "elite" herd a bit thin.

33 minutes ago, AdoraBelle said:

what is my first move onboard? Try the app? Rockstar agent? Food booking person/desk?

You'll be one of the first people on board, so first move is connect to the wifi (like on the entry ramp!).  make sure you're connected in the app - i've never actually done that, but someone in the pre-boarding lounge should be able to help.

a LOT of dining reservations open up as soon as you board, so jump on whatever you want to start.  you can eyeball the lineup for rough times before you board, but it'll probably change a bit once you're actually on.  you should be able to make a reservation with you + friends at that point.

you can always try to move things as the days go on, but good to have at least something to start.  i know you said you don't like eating late, but if you like eating really early, you can also try to get to whatever restaurant about 10-15 mins before they open (5pm if i recall correctly) and see if they can take you as a walk-in.

1 hour ago, Moochi said:

Really? We need to find this out! I always think they add $100 bonus for every $300 bar tab purchased, and this already includes our status matched from other lines.

 

If we get $200 bonus for every $300, I think we only need to purchase $600 extra, and might have a little bit extra for some expensive shots at the end. 

You only get the bonus for purchased bar tabs, but unlimited- you can buy $3k of bar tabs and get 10 bonuses!  If you have the status match you get 1 $100 freebie tab per cabin with the deep blue extras (even if both people in the cabin do a status match)

7 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

I don't even know what pickleball is, but it was on the daily schedule.

 

They had it scheduled on a couple of my voyages earlier this year, but I never saw it set up (or even attended by any crew!). It’s basically a cross btwn ping pong and tennis.

20 minutes ago, LetsGoToo said:

That hasn’t been the case for this cruise. 
 

You were allowed one reservation pre-departure. This was communicated via emails pre-departure and via message in the VV system if you tried to book more than one reservation. 
 

By 3 PM on departure day, that’s the time I tried to make reservations, literally everything was booked with the exception of Gumbae. I got a reservation at the Wake due to a cancellation on day three. 

That’s definitely not the case.  You can make 1 reservation per night pre-departure, starting at 45 days before departure.  You can make 1 reservation per restaurant if you’re on a shorter cruise and 3 per restaurant on a longer one (but can go as many times as you want as a walk in if there’s room).  

Perhaps by the time you made your dinner reservations there just weren’t book-ahead reservation time slots left?  Either way, a TON of reservations have opened up on departure day and throughout the voyage on all 11 VVs I’ve been on- whether we had 800 or 2,300 onboard.

galley, sun club (poke), pizza place, ice cream, dock house and social club.  basically just not the sit-down restaurants.

If you have frequent flyer miles or other cc point currency that can be transferred to airlines/used for flights, that’s probably your best bet.  Transatlantic airfare is insane right now, and then you have to add on the premium for a one way international flight!

Eek, that is definitely troubling to hear!  If you are a butt-in-seat diner, there should be no hierarchy!  The servers have zones (that, let’s be honest, aren’t expansive) in each restaurant.

I’ve heard grumblings of service levels going down over the past few months, so I’m just hoping that was a hiccup, the server having a bad day and taking it out of guests (also not acceptable!) or beginning/end of contract timing (we sailed towards the end of a lot of crew’s contracts last year, and the service was awful at times across the ship, presumably due to end-of-contract-itis)

4 hours ago, raphael360 said:

I've been told, by a supervisor at VV sailor services, DBE (including the above items you mentioned) will NOT be offered starting May 1st.  I will be shocked and pleasantly surprised to get them when I board Scarlett next Wed.

fwiw, someone in a VV FB group that i'm in posted a screenshot of their DBE status matching email that they just did.  the end date for the program in that email was 12/31/23.

not sure if they just updated the email prematurely, or if something else is going on, but it seems like they're leaning towards extending to year-end (i'd heard whispers of this a little while back but took it very much with a grain of salt!). 

Honestly, at this point it wouldn't surprise me if they just scrapped the actual loyalty program altogether and made DBE their version of a loyalty program (2 cruises in 2 years or whatever criteria gets you the perks for the next 2 years, and would need to be re-earned every 2 years)

even pre-covid, they were advertising as all entertainment included, but it still seemed like they had intended to charge for "supper club" type events like another rose.  like jon81uk, i think it's wildly false advertising and goes against the spirit of their mostly-inclusive model.

for $55 for the "cheap seats," even if they include drinks, i still don't like that.  what if someone doesn't drink alcohol?  they're going to pay $55-$75 just to watch a show?  also, i'm curious to know if they'll be set drinks or if you just get an x-number of drinks/$x credit during the show.  i can't stand sicky sweet cocktails, so if they're anything like the grog walk drinks, i'd be pretty upset.

2 hours ago, DSGDSG said:

This brings up something we were wondering about. While smoking and vaping isn't allowed anywhere indoors here, for whatever reason, people think it's perfectly ok to vape standing shoulder to shoulder with strangers, blowing their smoke so everyone else can breathe it in, and what's worse, employees/management doesn't seem to care.  It drives us nuts.  Is this happening on ship too? How willing is the crew to keep people from vaping amongst others?

Yep, seems to be especially bad in the casino every time I’ve been on.  Like zero attempts to hide it.  Crew won’t do anything about it either in my experience!

3 minutes ago, neverendingcruising said:

A place that accepts a card number scribbled on a piece of paper is asking for fraudulent cards. 

with accompanying valid ID used to check into the hotel, the billing zip, etc., not so much.  it's not like we're talking about a roadside motel 6 here - it's a $1k+/night hotel.

5 hours ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

this is kind of a strange question. Are you planning on NOT bringing the credit card?

i actually don't think this is a strange question.  this might be a person that just applied for a card and needs to meet a spend bonus - chase/amex will give you digital card numbers that you can use while you're waiting on the card.  i've done this a ton (even got a conrad to run my interim CC number off a scribbled scrap paper).

could also be someone who has misplaced their card somewhere in their home, so it's not "lost" lost, just not on their person at the time.

59 minutes ago, rebeccac said:

I think you have a better chance of some airflow on the balcony with the Cheeky Corner Suite vs. the Sweet Aft Suite.  We stayed in a CC and it seemed to us that the SAS were so blocked in by the two corners that there was very little chance of any airflow. 

we sailed in a cheeky corner december 2021 and had no breeze haha i was SO excited to enjoy a light breeze and some shade, but there were a couple nights where we were sailing directly away from the sunset/it was blazing hot with stagnant air on the balcony

56 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

the entire pool is 5'11" deep

it's actually 5'.11" deep.  if you look close, there's a decimal point on the sign.  it's dumb and i have no idea why they didn't just make it 5' even.  

ETA: other people have claimed this is incorrect, but i'm 5'8" and i was able to stand with the water basically just above my shoulders.  seems like those people just don't know how tall they are haha.

9 minutes ago, MoonSurf said:

We were notified prior to our cruise all the shops would be closed for the entirity.  Only essential store and VV logo stores open.  Also seemed weird to eliminate an opportunity to sell things.  Does anyone know if this had anything to do with the filming too?

they're transitioning retail operators, so that's why the shops have been closed.

1 hour ago, tbmrt said:

I'm definitely an overplanner so hard for me to relax with all the changes!  Thanks for all your help everyone!

if you generally eat dinner at the same time every night (say 7-7:30), you should be able to get into the shows, as they do some showings early/some late, but usually on different nights.  with respect to daytime activities, it's usually fitness stuff between 7-10am on sea and port days if you're interested, VHS at 10 on sea days. 

other sea day activities like trivia, boy band dance class, arts & crafts friendship bracelet making class, etc. are usually around 11 and 1:30 (likely to draw people away from the pool in the peak of the pool day; however, people leave all their crap on their chairs/daybeds to "reserve" them when they're at these activities, defeating some of the purpose ugh.) early evening activities can start at 5 - if you check out the current/recent past voyages on that link above, you'll get a picture of the general timeframes they're going with these days!

4 hours ago, tbmrt said:

I was surprised to read that the Festival Shows must now be booked onboard rather than just walking up.

 

Some of my shows overlap with some of the Festival Shows so I guess I'll have to pass on the Festival Shows.  I'd feel guilty booking regular shows and Festival Shows that overlap.

 

Would you miss any of the regular shows in order to attend the Festival Shows?

in my experience, they've always required a reservation.  valiant in december (the magnets a capella group in the red room) and scarlet twice in february (tamar broadbent comedy cabaret thing on the first, and on the second, quite possibly the worst comic i've seen in years whose name escapes me).

the only show i'm aware of that doesn't require a reservation has been around the world with the diva.

6 hours ago, sollan said:

What?! 

if you go into your wallet, you can click into each of the transactions if you're curious.  sometimes, they just charge you for a totally wrong item, other times (as i noted in my other comment above), bartenders will charge you for a liquor PLUS the base cocktail vs. a liquor with a couple-buck cocktail upcharge or a cocktail with a couple-buck "premium spirit" upcharge.  if you see anything weird, go back to the bartender, find a bar manager or go to sailor services to resolve.