jon81uk

You responded to the post stating that Virgin was the first cruise line to have a show made for a cruise ship go on and tour and you stated that was false. But it’s actually true, the show made in collaboration for VV for their ships did go on to tour.

That wasn’t false though, the show was made by 7 Fingers specifically for Virgin Voyages, it was designed for VV. The credits for the touring version state “Originally produced and created with Virgin Voyages”. 7 Fingers have gone on to tour the show, therefore making it the first show designed for a cruise ship to go on to tour.

I’ve not done any other cruise line, but I don’t think the cabins on VV feel small, except maybe the bathroom. XL rooms have a larger bathroom, but the cabin overall feels similar to others.

The VV ships are the same no matter where they are, everyone speaks in English, they are an American cruise line. As others have said there are almost no announcements, it’s all done via app notifications.

Someone asked about this as a fifty-something recently and there are some good responses here.

I think doors opening 30 minutes before is plenty. It’s people choosing to line up an hour before the show despite being asked not to that makes the lines. If they arrived five minutes before doors open it wouldn’t be as much of an issue. I don’t think the old reservation system worked well either, often shows were sold out in the app but maybe a third of the seats were empty when the show started. I would probably allow one reservation for each show once per trip but also stop scanning the reservations fifteen minutes before and switch to first come at that point. So doors open 30 min minutes before for those who reserved and they make it very clear you need to be there 15 minutes before show time or the reservation is useless. Also as they have been doing now have staff in the Red Room making people move down the row and fill every available seat.

The Pizza Place closes at 2am so it’s great for a late night meal after going to the club. The Dock and Dock House are good for late afternoon snacks, especially if you’ve been in port and want something. Most of the Galley food is more “functional”, the burgers aren’t anything special and a turkey & Swiss or pastrami sandwich is pretty much the same anywhere. The choose your own salad is good, but again similar to on land. So if you are on a sea day it’s good to get lunch, but not worth making special time for.

We did it last September, there was a fun food market tasting thing in the Galley around 5-6pm, each counter had a small plate item to try. I assume that will be the Asian market this time. there are also extra paid for drink tasting and food making classes. Plus the Seven Seas Sippers drinks you can collect stamps to try and win a cruise.

I had the lamb and it’s pretty good lamp chop. My husband had the shrimp and it’s a small portion, it’s interesting as it’s like pasta made from shrimp, but it’s not fulfilling.

Yes I find it’s better to order individual meats too as we want the marinated beef but the platter stuff isn’t. Also agree it’s easy to fill up just on appetisers and bibimbap.

I love the Korean fried chicken (dakgangjeong) which by default is spicy but you can ask for no sauce or on the side. Also the seafood pancake is nice (but one is enough for the table to share). Then bibimbap (rice and veggies) is nice and the server add the spicy sauce at the table so you can decide how spicy. For mains the marinated beef (kalbi) is fantastic, pork belly OK but needs the dipping sauces and the shrimp are good. Don’t need more rice if you have a bibimbap, but there is the option to order fried rice on the side. dessert is soft serve ice cream. i don’t taste any significant black pepper on it. The kalbi beef is more sweet, soy sauce and brown sugar. As above other dishes use chilli spicy sauce (gochujang) but you can get it on the side.

If you like dancing to 90s/2000s music like Britney Spears and Spice Girls it’s a fun party. It’s normally outside on deck 15 so can be possible to stay on the quieter edges if you wish. There will be a brief “show” from the diva drag queen and the hostess at some point around 11.30 to midnight. There will be a wide range of people so I doubt anyone should feel out of place, as long as you know to expect loud music.

On Scarlet last month most people in line half hour before for popular shows like Duel Reality got in, the box office staff made sure every single seat was filled and moved some groups around to ensure there wasn’t gaps. For less popular stuff like Untitled there was no issue and a line didn’t form.

We generally leave luggage with the hotel for the morning, explore the area near the hotel and then get an Uber/Lyft to the terminal.

Apparenty there is a bus provided by the port now. https://www.virginvoyages.com/help-and-support/search?text=What can I do in Miami if I get to the terminal early?

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.