jon81uk

They’ve had several smaller duos of musicians in the last year. Often in Sip they would play a more subdued set compared to other venues.

Less than half of the reservations are available in advance, they hold most back for booking onboard.

I’ve also heard some people mention they could hear furniture in Gunbae being moved for cleaning.

I knew I’d forgotten a venue but could not think what it was! 😅

The Wake and Razzle Dazzle are open for brunch 8am to 1pm. The Dock and Dock House open at midday to 6.30pm for grilled meats and mezze. Pizza Place is generally 12noon to 2am, but might be 2pm to 2am on port days. The Galley has breakfast to 11.30 then lunch 12noon to 3pm and some stations stay open for dinner. Tacos and toasted sandwiches are lunch only. Sun Club Cafe has poke bowls and bao 12noon to 5pm.

By the way, I’m not trying to compare to any other cruise line as I’ve only been on VV. Therefore I’m mainly comparing Virgin with Virgin and what they’ve changed and added over the last three years.

Generally the activies that come with alcohol are charged. Loteria Gigante the Mexican card game is charged for as it comes with almost unlimited margaritas. But there are still plenty of both silly gameshows as I mentioned before and trivia based games for free (where you can win drinks). Things like Last One Standing (everyone chooses multiple choice) or Great Minds (international trivia trying to think like someone else) are new this year.

Yes and no. On Scarlet Lady the dinner show is now a comedy club so they usually have 2-3 comedians and maybe a magician. On Valiant & Resilient they might have a comedian or a magician or some other caberet act as the Festival Stage act.

Also although not as well known as Russell Howard who is definitely the headliner, we saw Andre Vincent on Scarlet Lady in April this year and he was very good. https://www.virginvoyages.com/ahoy/stories/portsmouth-uk-comedy-cruise-festival

Sailors staying in a suite.

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They do have some game shows, there is Latte you Stay and Scoop There it is, hosted by the diva drag queen. Also they’ve started to introduce more trivia based game shows, we had several new ones on Scarket Lady last month.

The taco/burrito counter has started doing daily specials of eggs Benedict

The burger bar has pancakes, French toast and a French toast burger. But you can just order from a server and get it brought over no matter which counter serves it. Not sure what you mean by double delivery charge? Each delivery gets one charge. In the past we’ve ordered breakfast for two, some pastries, some free drip coffee and then just one paid-for Americano. That one paid-for coffee ensured there was no delivery charge even though it was food for two people. as for the juice, I don’t know as I’ve not paid for it.

Delivery fee is now $10 per order. But yes paying for a $5 coffee or $7 beer removes the fee.

I think we had it delivered two or three days on one cruise and just found the main three hot choices got repetitive (eggs, French toast or frittata) and I wanted pancakes so opted to walk up the the Galley instead! Would be nice to have breakfast sandwich, burrito or similar on the room service menu too.

VV Insider has most of the menus https://vvinsider.com/restaurant-menus/ here is the Ship Eats room service one. The drink prices are out of date on this one I think though, expect everything to be $1 more. https://vvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Ship-Eats-Menu.pdf

Room service has been pretty much the same for us in suites and standard cabins. The only difference is rockstars never get a delivery fee. But for others, if you add a $5 coffee (like Americano or latte) that waives the delivery charge, you can then add as much free drip coffee as you want. Although the room service breakfast is fine, not amazing. The food isn’t bad. It’s just not a very extensive menu.

It used to be a dinner option. No idea why they stopped it.

They’ve pretty much stopped opening it anyway. It’s not really worked as it’s so separated from the other stores. Yes, it’s quite well used. Certainly more than the cabanas.

One way flights seem to be crazy with many transatlantic airlines. We’ve in the past used airmiles to book them to Miami with VA. But in this case it was then a lot of miles for the internal leg of the flight really. JetBlue are still expensive for one way compared to a return but not as bad as VA or BA wanted.

Virgin Atlantic is a separate company to Virgin Voyages and VA is mainly owned by Delta. As it’s possible to fly into New York (or Atlanta) with Virgin or Delta and then get a flight from there to San Juan I assume Virgin/Delta don’t see a need for direct international flights to San Juan. I don’t think the market for direct UK to Puerto Rico will be big enough to make it worth offering. We’ve chosen to book with JetBlue as their Mint business class looks good and was a better price than VA. Others are looking at flying with Iberia as they have a Madrid to San Juan flight so you can change in Europe not the US.

We invested in a USB toothbrush charger so we don’t have to bring shave adapters on holiday!

Supposedly you can ask for a card instead on VV if that’s your preference. https://www.virginvoyages.com/help-and-support/search?text=I do not like wearing things on my wrist, are there other options other than the wearable? I like the band as it’s easy on the ship, don’t need anything in pockets and can wear the band into the hot tub etc.

There is one time when you do need to ensure you have the correct band, getting on and off the ship at port. It would probably be fine if both are together getting off at the same time and can just swap back, but one at a time may be more of an issue with security!