neverendingcruising

We haven't done a GTY on Virgin, however from other threads it appears to be a day or two before sailing.

One of their main tech suppliers was put out of business by Carnival so that might explain the slowness to update/fix.

You can request a steamer from your cabin host, I don't recall the brand but it worked fine.

6 total hot tubs if you include Richard's rooftop. Two on 16 aft, 2 on 15 midship, 2 on 16 forward (Richard's). There's also the thimble sized one at the spa on 5

I know Grof Walk is $50, I think the others are similar maybe slightly less.

My wife's favorite wine is a variety of Belglos that is only available at the Wake so we started going there for a pre-dinner beverage. After a couple of visits the sommelier came out and told us he'd be happy to bring a glass or bottle to any of the restaurants so we didn't have to bother going to both places. On the other end of that spectrum, the Dock told us they didn't have a whiskey I had at Sip the previous night and had no idea if it was anywhere in the ship.

It certainly was not an option in 2022 when we arrived back at World Trade Center, now that they are at the main port maybe it's an option?

Flew in on Southwest and walked at least 15 minutes to get to the one place they pick up. Signage was abysmal and took forever for the driver to arrive despite the "5 minutes" advertised in the app. If I had to do it again I would have taken a cab.

The benefits of Sea Rover were only advertised through 2024, I think we will always retain that designation for bragging rights.

We did the Delos tour through Virgin and wouldn't do it again, even not through a cruise line. We thought for sure the ferry was going sink because one was out of service so they jammed everyone in one boat. Once arriving on the island it was absolute chaos. After finding our guide we walked for what felt like forever through a wild crowd of people, especially very large groups that just trampled everyone else. Our guide was incredibly monotone and boring, no energy whatsoever and there was absolutely zero shade. We have done many excursions through Virgin and a lot of have been great, we just didn't think Delos was great at all.

We were able to chat through the Virgin app on our last cruise, however it wasn't very reliable. A lot of times no notification of a new message if you weren't actively in the app. Honestly it seemed kind of pointless since everyone gets free WiFi. I guess maybe if you didn't want to give out your number or become instant FB friends with other sailors it might be useful?

Drinks are not free at the PJ party, however the Grog Walk final stop is there so I could see that as confusing with a group of people being handed a drink.

Starlink has been on their ships for awhile now so maybe they are just finally announcing it? We had Starlink on Resilient this past summer and on Valiant in December out of Miami

Yes, if you were late picking a time this could be normal. They don't let people on the ship until 1:30 at the earliest. Conversely, you don't have to be off the ship until 10:30

We have done a couple of really fantastic excursions through Virgin and at least one that was just meh. We don't tend to do a lot of organized excursions and just go our own way. I will say, if you get the opportunity to do the truffle hunting excursion in Marina De Carra it is probably one of the best things we have done on land if you are remotely into truffles.

And no self serve laundry like other cruise lines, you will have to send it out.

San Juan is like Miami, escorted off the ship and through customs to then return to the ship. In most of Europe it's all done onboard, up to you if you want to leave or not as you don't have to go through customs.

You can do either in the Galley. If you sit and raise the flag someone will come to you and take your order.

My wife says gel for sure, not sure about the dip.

Maybe some placeholders for Brilliant?

Heres an example, we were pretty far back on the ship on the starboard side.

For the Galley in general we walk all of the stations everytime now. Never know what you are going to find and now that they take walk up orders we will order direct at places there is no line and then go sit and order the rest from a server.

Starboard

All of that is available. Maybe not raisin bran specifically, but there is a selection of cereals.

Its because that route sails too close to the coast of Australia. They do everything they can to keep the ships out of territorial waters so they can get every last dollar out of you, but things and certain itineraries can change those plans.