jon81uk

I’ve always flown in the day before the cruise so no idea, sorry.

Bags2go will transport luggage from the port to airport if you need to. No passengers shuttle but taxi is fixed rate.

I think several of us already have, they did lower the pricing after the very first sailing but no further changes. The cost does include $30-50 worth of drinks though, 3-4 cocktails and 1-4 glasses of sparkling rose.

Do you mean the drinks reception part beforehand, that forms part of the show with the cast mingling with the audience? Or just that the suggestion of arriving before doors open isn’t very clear in the app (we had a bigger issue with Its a Ship Show for this).

I’ve only done it in Gunbae, the drinks were pretty good but I don’t remember them much.

Pretty sure the need to turn is just because VV’s Terminal V is right at the end of the port and the ship needs to turn to get out.

In terms of the workshops to avoid, there is one on posture that is an insoles sales scam and one on nutrition pushing supplements. Might be others but some are obvious, like the watches one is in the watch store!

Doesn’t matter if married or not, when doing check in on the app you and your cabin mate can select if one person is paying everything or if paying for own expenses. Only way to share a bar tab is for all charges to go to that person. You can also go see sailor services on the ship and get them combined, but still any charges over and above bar tab will go to that one person. Otherwise you could ask onboard for individual transactions to be moved between people or just ensure that it’s always your band tapped so charges go to you.

No you just bid on a type/category of room and can be allocated any room within that category if the bid is successful. also to answer the original question, we went from limited view terrace to central terrace for around £100.

If you select in the app during check in that one person is paying then all charges will go on that persons account and come from any bar tab or loot they have on their account. Once bar tab is depleted then loot is used and once that is gone then the credit card is charged on the last night.

Of those on Resilient Lady I’d say all of them except Lola’s Library are great. Persephone is probably the best, it’s quite full on with lots of circus and acrobatics with live singing. Miss Behave Show is a lot of fun and very interactive. Will have most people singing and laughing along. Another Rose is a good dinner show with an Indian inspired menu as well as plenty of cocktails and sparkling rose. There is a slightly confusing three way romance plot but lots of good live singing, dancing and circus. Mind Mangler is from the same company who did The Play That Goes Wrong and is a good farce with a little actual magic. It’s a great show and again very funny. Lola’s Library I just found it tried too hard to be risqué or double entendres and although it some performers are good, the show seemed drawn out. But I think it’s changed since I saw it a year ago to tighten up the running time.

I think that will be enough on VV, but you listed the $13k price for Celebrity as including the premium drinks package. I think that is worth $100+ a night so is a big part of the reason that cruise is more expensive.

And therefore that $13k celebrity price that includes the drinks package would probably be even less relevant to your needs!

Big difference between those is the drink package on Celebrity of course, I think that adds over $100 a day plus tip. Not sure how much you drink but we’ve got through over $1000 between two people on a transatlantic on VV. While that isn’t as much as the package would have cost, if you aren’t drinking at least that much you wouldn’t need the package on Celebrity anyway.

If you want to eat upscale every night then sail on Cunard. But they now have 2-4 dinner specials each night and on my last sailing they had a section of the Galley with a host stand and tables laid out to give a slightly more upscale feel to the space for those that did want that experience. For me I was happy to walk up to the counter and get a third serving of butter chicken curry. But pretty much there are plenty of different cruise lines, there are those who offer upscale dining every night, there are some with the MDR experience where everyone gets bland and there is Virgin offering multiple different experiences from experimental six course menus, to dinner shows and so on.

They have added place mats to darken the tables and changed the dinner menu at Razzle Dazzle a year ago to make dinner feel a little more upscale. I don’t think removing the more unique offering of Test Kitchen is a solution though. Those who want a more traditional menu can now go to the Galley in the evening though, they have made one section there more upscale and added the traditional dinner items as specials.

The OP was asking about when the reservations that can’t be booked before boarding become available, hence me asking what the problem you were looking for a solution to is because the OPs question is answered, can do it as soon as onboard and the app is on the ship WiFi or go to see the dining team in person. If what you mean is the fact the reservations get booked up too quick and it’s hard to get into some places, then VV have implemented some solutions (although the quality of the solution is for others to decide). One solution VV added is now offering several dinner special in the Galley, typically at least one roast meat type dish and at least one Asian dish. When I was on Scarlet Lady they also set up one section of the Galley with a host stand and full waited service if you want that. Another solution is having a dedicated dining help desk space to make or change reservations, last time I was on Scarlet Lady they did this on Pink Agave every day. They also seemed to have a more robust waitlist system and would message people back if they have a no-show and space becomes available. Whether you view these as solutions is up to you, but it did seem like they were trying to accommodate more people.

Solution to what?

It’s once you are onboard and on the ship WiFi, so as soon as you are aboard. You can either book yourself on the app or go to see the dining reservation team. The dinner show and other activities will also be available to book in the app as soon as you are onboard. Some small group fitness classes though won’t in the event line up and available to be booked until later in the day, sometime around 3-5pm.

I think the most accurate way is to ask at the host stand once onboard what the menu rotation will be. VV Insider knew the dates for the food festival month but don’t think they permanently find that information. For seven night cruises on the last it’s one menu for four days and the other for three days so I assume that continues.

The singer is the finale of the show, about the last 15minutes after the solo slow dance.

1. You’ll need to order from room service. Get a paid thing such as wine, beer, or barista coffee and you pay for that item but the delivery is free. If you only order the free soda it’s a $10 charge, so a $5 coffee or $7 beer is better deal. 2. only if you pay for the loose leaf tea. Otherwise for teabags you make it in the mug. 3. they are fairly standard size mugs. Not huge but not tiny. It’s about the coffee size I drink at home. 4. Some people leave it out but I prefer to leave in the room and press the needs cleaning button for them to get it. But most of the room service we have has been breakfast.

Virgin Voyages currently only matches to the lower tier. They have too many people on the high tier on some cruises now so status match to Deep Blue ended at the end of 2023 and you need four cruises to get those benefits on the fifth if you didn’t already earn them or match in 2023. All the details are on the website https://www.virginvoyages.com/sailing-club#status-match

Yep, status match will get you a free barista-made coffee a day, a bag of laundry and a drinks party. https://www.virginvoyages.com/sailing-club#status-match

Generally all VV ships have one or two live guest bands and at least one busker-style solo or duo guest musician. On longer itineraries there might be more. Right now Resileint Lady has Sons of James trio and Soulo Lyon trio as the bands plus Selkii as a soloist and Akimbo duo. They do seem to have increased slightly the number of guest live bands compared to a few years afo, but there is no house band on Resilient. There will be a guest magician, comedian or variety act as the festival stage act onboard. Generally just one, but transatlantic and similar long trips get more. Resilient Lady has completely different shows compared to Scarlet Lady, Persephone is a circus type retelling of the Greek legend, performed with a standing audience, I thought it was excellent, Mind Mangler is a comedy magic show from Mischief theatre (who made The Play That Goes Wrong), Miss Behave Show is a silly caberet game show with lots of ability for the audience joining in and is just great fun, Another Rose is a dinner show with live singing and circus/acrobatics plus drinks and good Indian inspired food and Lola’s Library is a cabaret show with singing and dancing. In my opinion they are all great shows except for Lola’s Library that is too badly written. VV Insider has a good summery https://vvinsider.com/events-on-resilient-lady/ there is also the official website https://www.virginvoyages.com/cruise-entertainment#resilient-lady I think RL in general has better entertainment than SL and VL.