gcoolie

That is great news! I hope they fix the Prima hot tubs as well. We sail on her this summer in Northern Europe. It would be awesome to have the hot tub available whenever we want it. 

So true! They don’t want to say we bought hot tubs without heaters. 🙄

We also had a pass to the thermal suite this sailing. We did that on the Prima last year and loved it.

That is obviously not private, but still a great experience. It would be worth fighting for the monetary compensation and convince them to throw in a cruise long pass to the thermal suite in the spa.

13 minutes ago, ncbrowns said:

Ugh, this is not something I want to see right before sailing in an H4 on Viva where the private hot tub splurge was a major selling point.  Like @Spicer312, I seriously doubt if I would have booked that room class otherwise.

 

That said, we haven't gotten any letter like @gcoolie posted yet, but it sounds like NCL sent that at the last minute.

Yeah, we got the letter 3 or 4 days before we sailed. Too late to change anything. It’s not the experience you expect having a private hot tub. Anytime use was our expectation. 
 

But, work with your room attendant. Maybe figure out a regular time each day or something. You can make use of it, but not the original idea for sure. 

2 minutes ago, Spicer312 said:

Thanks for the info, at least it’s worth a try, and glad it’s running and not totally off limits.  But, 112 is HOT: even if you could get it to 105, I could live with that, our home tub is usually 100-105 in the winter, however.  We sail in a couple weeks hopefully it will keep improving!  Thanks. 

Maybe you could specify the temp you like. And if you use it in the evening, I am guessing they will leave it until morning. Not sure if that was just our guy or if the procedure is usually just a little more lax than they stated. 

Good luck and have a great cruise!

19 minutes ago, Spicer312 said:

Did anyone experience the “private” hot tubs on your balcony on the last couple December cruises? Are they up and running or still this one hour only deal that I read about …but was never confirmed.  Thanks for any info. 

We had a hot tub the first week in December on the Viva. The real issue is they are not heated. It is a jetted tub but nothing to maintain the water temp. That’s the reason for the one hour. They don’t have to drain it right away. We tried it one night. Our room attendant said he could fill it whenever we wanted. We told him we’d like to use it after dinner. He filled it late afternoon. Then we went to dinner. When we came back, he was refilling it because he said it got cold. Well, he refilled it to 112 degrees (temp is displayed). We kept trying it and by the time we wanted to go to bed it had barely cooled off. I

couldn’t get in. My husband got in for a few seconds and felt burned. The attendant left it overnight. So he doesn’t have to drain it. It’s a heat issue imo, not for sanitation. 
 

It was not what we originally thought it would be. And the attendants doing the extra work apparently aren’t trained. It was dangerously hot and he timed it wrong. Nothing against him at all. 
It’s an additional duty and needed training. 
 

Maybe private hot tubs on other ships have heaters and can be left full. I have no idea. This situation didn’t work for us. I also think it’s dangerous. That was way too hot. They might be better off removing them. 

17 hours ago, PATRLR said:

I know that if I decided to book one of these rooms, my expectation would be that the hot tub is available to me 24x7 without any prior planning.  I'd be mighty disappointed to learn the access is as limited as they say.  I wonder what the draining process involves?  Does someone need to enter the cabin to do that (I assume they do).  Talk about a mood spoiler...

Right? We wouldn't have bothered with this room knowing how it works. I guess this is new protocol. We probably won't use it at all. Call someone to fill it, 1 hour of hot water, and then have them come back to empty it. Nope.

That is exactly what I am wondering. If the issue is sanitation, wouldn't it be the same for all hot tubs including in the thermal spa?

We are sailing on the Viva this Saturday. We received an email today about new protocol for the hot tub on the balcony. Seems to make it a lot less useful.

We sailed in a Cheeky Suite over New Year's. We did not notice excess movement at all. I had not sailed aft before on any line. The only thing I noticed was the water noise from the engines, but not movement. I think if you've sailed aft before you'll be fine. That Cheeky Suite is amazing!! 

1 hour ago, luckyinpa said:

seems like virgin is the only forum that has no cancelations nor horror quarantine stories so i was thinking about in the next month booking an aft suite. looks like deck above on 15 and i worry about chairs scraping and other public sounds. any experiences?

 

also since i literally only started researching today i wanted to confirm you cannot pick your own cabin or is there just only that one left for the cruise i'm looking at? im starting to read reviews and gather that as long as i dont want booze, everything is included which is great. i see masks required thru the end of january. hope that goes away in feb. 

 

ive never flown to a cruise and i know you are supposed to do the day before to fly in but since they leave at 7pm is that really necessary. right now my airline has 4 flights before 10 am and a few after that. so i think barring weather id be ok?

We were in cabin 14011Z over New Year's. It is under the outdoor seating area for the Galley. We heard chairs scraping sometimes. A little annoying, but not too aggravating.

Flying during the holidays was a nightmare due to employee absences and Covid. I don't know if it has gotten better. We always go in the day before. Heading to Miami, we had a flight cancelled and they tried to put us on the next day getting in about 6 pm. Luckily we scrambled and rebooked for the original day. Heading home we were stuck in Charlotte for 16 hours for another cancelled flight. Personally I wouldn't risk flying in the same day.

22 hours ago, llgator said:

Looking at the cheeky corner suites, but would like to be able to sit in the sun with such a large balcony.  Does anyone know if one floor is better than another for that? I know on some ships, the balconies on the lower decks aft stick out further so get more sun. Any help would be appreciated. 

Thanks!

We just sailed and had the Cheeky Corner Suite on the Z side (port?) Anyway, at times the sun came onto the balcony maybe about halfway. I kept pulling the lounge chair back out of the sun, but you could do the opposite too. There is a lot of extra open space to move those chairs around. I bet you can catch some sun.

On 12/9/2021 at 2:21 PM, xerenthar said:

xmas and nye back-to-back let's goooo

Have you seen any plans for a NYE's celebration? We are on the 29th sailing.

1 hour ago, meatball_nyc said:

Current live thread. Hope this helps. 

Thanks!

8 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Welcome to CC.

 

You may want to ask that in the current live thread.

Thank you. It's good to be here. I will learn so much. I will now try to find the current live thread. 

From the FAQs on the website:

On 10/2/2021 at 6:52 PM, leo72976 said:

I just finished booking our very first Disney cruise ever.  We are experienced cruisers having sailed around 45 times with other cruise lines all over the world.  We are huge Disney fanatics and even got married at WDW.  I don’t know why but I had butterflies about booking this for my wife and I but the deal was too good to pass up.  We are saying on Disney Wonder on 10/31.  Do they do anything special for Halloween sailings?  Are we crazy for doing this without kids?  I’m just so nervous!!!

You will love it!! We have done 3 Disney sailings for our anniversary without kids and quite a few with kids. We love it both ways! 

11 hours ago, rebeccac said:

I have zero experience with travelling with a child, but from what I understand most cruise lines follow the laws of the port of departure.  Since that is Miami, the 19 year old likely would not be able to drink.  However, since this is Virgin, things could be different.  

Thank you for the responses. 😃

We will be on board over New Year's with our 23 year old and 19 year old. I've checked the website. As far as I can tell, our 19 year will be able to drink as long as we are not in a U.S. port. Can anyone verify that? Have you been with a "child" in the under 21 age category?