jon81uk

For some reason now they had ramen closed at 3pm so it didn’t do dinner at all. But yes on my recent cruise burgers were now to midnight instead of 10pm, they also now had cookies and limited desserts to midnight.

Given earliest non-rockstar boarding is 1.45pm, 3pm is only halfway, it’s not that late overall. we leave luggage with the hotel and use the morning to explore Miami or Barcelona, then collect bags from the hotel 12.30-1pm and get an Uber to the terminal depending when our arrival slot is.

Yes I should have added that earlier, even though there might not be loads of younger people, most people are there for a good time.

It’s not really a younger crowd, most people are 30-60 with a lot of 50-something. Generally the people younger than 25 are there with parents and I would guess that a lot of 30-somethings have kids so they can’t make a no kids trip happen so easily. But the energy on the ship is usually pretty fun, so if people want to party they can often find it.

Having done the behind the scenes tour, I’m pretty certain that plastic ducks will just go into the incinerator as they are probably not a recyclable plastic. As you say though they’ve eliminated most single use plastics, I think food wrappers (for ingredients) are the main thing they still have. Also most of the ducks aren’t single-use, if people do collect them and take them home then they have a purpose, hence throwing them away being the worst option if there are others who would rather have them as a keepsake.

I think removing them regularly is the worst of both worlds, it’s just making plastic waste. Allowing them to be collected for a short time makes sense as those who like the collection game and will keep them can get them. But taking 700 with you is just stupid.

You can pretty much get that service now too, but on Virgin it’s only for mega rockstars who get the full butler style service from their agent, regular rockstar agents are more like a concierge.

I expect it’s because they’ve not got the hammocks on them yet and there would be no point photographing them without the hammocks. They show as only one square foot smaller than a regular sea terrace though but I would have thought the difference is more than that.

I don’t want what In the Know is, but the old Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Virgin Red can be directly linked and the points show in both and can be used for flights with VA or anything else with Virgin Red.

In theory it should come back next day, but on our recent transatlantic it did take two days at one point as so many people put it at the halfway point. But if you are doing it towards the end of the cruise then it would need to be two days before the end so you get it back the last full day.

Yes you would still receive deep blue extras on the fifth cruise. From the terms “Sailors who join the Sailing Club via Status Match will receive Blue Extras on their first ever voyage, and continue to receive Blue Extras until they unlock Deep Blue Extras, on their fifth voyage, in line with the standard Sailing Club program requirements.” and the current loyalty programme seems to have an end date of December 2025 so there might be something new for 2026 anyway.

Yes but they are not great, pretty standard hotel hairdryer. There is no socket in the bathroom so you do need to dry hair at the vanity/desk mirror.

On Scarlet Lady the world poker room was removed, on the recent transatlantic the Den hosted a sewing activity and was also available for people to use as a quieter space for playing card and board games. Not sure if they’ve added poker to Valiant Lady instead. Having a space like the Den in theory makes sense to me as you may need meeting room space for corporate bookings or charters, but in practice I don’t think it is very well used. I think it’s the only really under-utilised space on deck 6/7 though.

Relaxed most of the time with many people choosing to be a little nicer for dinner such as a shirt or better t-shirt.

as this thread is discussing boarding and departure times, it seems useful to state that status match now won’t make any difference for those things. it will get you to the first rung of the VV sailing club and give you blue extras of one speciality coffee per qualified person a day, a bag of laundry and an invite to a drinks reception.

Me then add ons

if you have anything for the cruise selected, it’s shown under add-ons on the app.

yes I expect that is happening as well, but given the non-availability of deck 13 it does sound like something is happening with cabins there too. I doubt they would do a rockstar only restaurant, but a dedicated bar/lounge with decent snacks would be good. Not sure where it would go. Maybe The Den event space. It does feel like a lot of deck 6&7 is utilitised so not much available space.

Sounds like you got unlucky with an impatient room attendant. We’ve not had an issue before leaving the room after 10am, although on the recent transatlantic it seemed almost the entire ship waited til 10am to disembark causing massive queues around the entire of deck six and seven. But generally as you say you only start hearing the announcements from 10am and you can disembark as late as 10.30am. as soon as you’ve booked get the VV app and go into the check in steps, do the last step first and select an arrival time. For those not in suites this will be sometime between 2pm and 4.30pm. You can turn up an hour before (especially for later times) and see if they are ready to allow you to board, but you do risk having to wait outside. Muster drill is around 5pm and they usually serve free sparkling wine 5.45-6.15pm during the sailaway party.

We don’t yet know what they are doing with the deck 13 cabins. It might be like the current thing for influencers of standard cabin but black bands, but my guess is they are refurbishing and redesigning cabins to turn them into some form of suite that they can charge even more of a premium for.

Splash of Romance is $250. If you won’t drink the Moet it is definitely not worth it. Also the spa is $79 for the three hour visit, not the day, sorry I wasn’t more specific.

Probably not worth it. The thermal spa is $79 on a sea day per person and the Moet is $110. Those are the two biggest value items. The juice is only available something like 8-11am so I think many people find it hard to remember about it. The drinks party is an hour of sparkling wine and sangria so depends how much you drink that could be $10-50 worth, but it’s not a must do either. Now that a majority of shows just need you to arrive half hour before instead of booking the early boarding isn’t necessary, some fitness classes need booking but these only show in the event listing later on that first day.

You can’t status match to get deep blue extras. That ended December 2023.

Richard’s Rooftop is open all hours but the hot tub will drain around midnight or 2am for cleaning. The bar up there closes at 7pm. It hosts a happy hour with free drinks 5pm to 6pm but will move to an indoor bar if the weather is bad. VV Insider has details on what is included https://vvinsider.com/on-board/event/richards-champagne-happy-hour/ Also rockstar suites get the first fill of the mini bar for free, that’s five half bottles of spirits plus some beer and wine, it’s about $250-300 value. If you are bidding then check the dates for your sailing on your website and see what suites are available. If there are none for sale then you are relying on someone cancelling to give a room for you to win a bid on. There are only 78 suites so chances of getting one is very very low.

Change one of the restaurants so it’s different to the other ships, maybe switch out Gunbae for something new. Improve Richards Rooftop so it’s not so windy. Get rid of the bed to sofa concept and just have a proper bed and separate sofa or seats. Add more suites. Find a way to make cabaret shows work better in the Manor so it can seat more. Maybe move the bar into the back corner that isn’t used for seating really. Or create another venue for live music and cabaret somehow so there are more options to go to all at once. The dancefloor space in the Manor is almost perfect though. Fix the music zoning and sound levels. If there is hosted karaoke in the social club it doesn’t need to be heard at full volume in the whole venue. Same for On the Rocks which is frequently too loud. Give each ship at least one unique show and more unique food menus.