jon81uk

In Malaga you can walk to the castle (although it’s very up hill) and the Alhambra. There is also a Picasso museum and other places to see.

Just consider if Splash of Romance offers a value for you if you already have expedited boarding with deep blue extras. thermal suite is normally $59 on a sea day and Moet is $95 a bottle, that’s the bulk of the SoR package, you also get the party with an hour of sparkling wine or sangria. Therefore if you don’t really want Moet (personally I prefer the $39 sparkling rose) I don’t see the value in the package.

The original Virgin Records from the 1970s was sold to EMI in the early 90s and is now part of Universal. It has no connection to the Virgin Group. Any music played on the ships would be licenced from record labels the same as any other venue.

Check in is available as soon as you are booked, don’t even need to pay in full. Earliest timeslot without rockstar status is usually 2pm, but first to book gets the best times. Restaurant reservations can be done 45 days out (60 for rockstar) and more slots open once onboard. Fitness classes and shows you book onboard.

Bar tab and loot would be assigned to the lead booker and you can either set it in the app so everything gets charged to that person, or visit sailor services onboard and sort it out later.

Just turn up for afternoon tea, it’s not often busy. Personally I don’t see the value in paying for more food. Hot tubs are open almost all the time, they just drain in the middle of the night, like 2am or similar.

It’s a test email with placeholder information. It doesn’t mean anything about itinerary changes. Just that there will be 30% off for Black Friday.

It’s the same food as the diner counter just a set plate with no substitutions to make service faster.

I think that’s exactly how it should work, if you turn up significantly before your time slot you wait outside. There is no need for anyone without rockstar status to arrive before 1.30pm. When we got there at 2pm we had a short wait to drop luggage and then straight into the terminal, hand luggage scanned and then just one person in front of us in the DBE expedited boarding queue. Whole process took maybe 20 minutes.

We checked in around 2pm in late September and could go straight inside. What time did you try?

If you order at the counter for something that takes time to heat up you’ll get a pager and need to go back for it. I found it easier to get a server to place an order for those items and I just collected the cold stuff myself.

The DJ will generally play chart dance, RnB and similar except at the 70s (Scarlet/Valiant) and 80s (Resilient) and the PJ Party when it is more 90s/2000s cheesy. Around the ship there will be a selection of different background music in the bars, each bar has its own style. Then there is live music, normally the house band (rock/pop covers and/or Latin music), one or two busker style artists (rock/pop covers or their own original songs) and a band. The guest band usually plays late night at On the Rocks and is often blues, soul or funk music but can by rock or country. But in short answer, there won't much rock in general but there will be live guitars.

Normally about five or six months. Andy the Charmer posted on Instagram yesterday that it’s now home for 5.5 months, so currently a six month contract including the rehearsal time. But 5.5 months means they will leave Valiant Lady late March I expect. So they should be onboard in February.

What doesn’t appeal about the entertainment? Duel Reality is an excellent circus show, loosely based Romeo & Juliet. The Miss Behave show is a bit loud but it’s just a silly nothing comedy gameshow. It’s a Ship Show is live music and variety acts. Untitled DanceShowPartyThing is the most different of the main shows but it’s good fun watching the dancers. Then on the transatlantic specifically there are a lot more guest comedy and magic acts, plus lectures and book clubs that don’t happen on the shorter cruises.

Andy the Charmer is also fantastic, his Roundabout show is a lot of fun, we saw it on Resilient in June.

Many of the smaller places aren’t shown, of the stations in the Galley they mention Noodle Around on the website but none of the others. It will show in the app though and have the right hours for your ship/itinerary.

Next Aprils Miami to Med transatlantic is up to £7500 now from around £2000 when it first went on sale! So prices are definitely going up.

Usually bar tab. Tarot is only done by one of the “Charmer” magicians, usually it will be a standard magic act on board, it depends who they have recruited into the role at the time.

Although every bar or restaurant had music it didnt seem any different to the real world to me where bars and cafes have music on. It only gets louder when it’s a band or DJ performing. Generally Sip is the quieter of the bars and the upstairs roundabout area is not loud and the outdoor spaces on deck 7 or the Athletic Club at rear of deck 16 is quieter than the pool area.

No tip is expected. When we arrived at cruise terminal A three weeks ago you queued for a counter outside, showed your passport and they check if you are eligible for DBE or Splash of romance and looked up your cabin number. They issued wristbands if you do have expedited boarding and tagged the bags. Then you go inside and do hand luggage security before going to check in.

But if you are staffed for 70% then service will suffer if you get 100% of guests turn up. Not comparing a ma and pa restaurant, but other big operators like Disney who are very fixated on their margin and not over staffing. Also it’s said that if you get a bad experience you will tell 15 people but get a good experience and you only tell one or two. Therefore it is good business sense to focus on giving a great experience to a small number of people who will come back and bring friends with them, instead of a crappy experience which will then be shared and put people off. If my first cruise was terrible I wouldn’t have booked again, but I’ve now done six. So great service to smaller numbers is a great way to start a business and then once the good reviews start flowing (which they are judging by the number of awards VV have) you can then focus on getting more and more customers coming in and ensuring existing ones return.

It’s common sense and it’s done by restaurants across the world. If you don’t have enough waitstaff then you don’t take the reservations. I’ve sat in many restaurants that were half empty because although they had enough chairs and table to accommodate more diners they didn’t have enough staff to serve any extra tables. But once word gets out the place is good they then have enough seating and can start hiring more staff and filling all the tables.

Although ensuring you offer a good quality product will get people to return in the long-term. If they know that they can’t offer the level of service they wish when occupancy is above a certain level it makes sense to cap it slightly until they get the right number of staff. Also for costs it doesn’t make sense to have enough staff to serve 2700 people when most sailings have around 2000 on them, better to save staff costs slightly and aim to get 2200 on every sailing than some with 2700.

It’s never taken more than two hours for us, last two cruises it was about 90 minutes. It’s Agua Fresca (Mexican drink made with fruit sugar and water) spiked with your choice of liquor. the cheese topped steak is good and my favourite is the side of sweetcorn (esquites). I think the Gym & Tonic bar next to the jacuzzi pool also offers fresh juice and smoothies and the Dock bar should as well. Some menus here. https://profcruise.com/virgin-bar-menus-2023/#gym https://profcruise.com/virgin-bar-menus-2023/#dock

I’ve always sorted our own or got travel agent to do it. Don’t think there is a huge benefit in VV doing it. VV only book two hotels in each homeport anyway and they are relatively expensive.