Mbot222000

Thanks and we do plan on checking back in. We researched a number of Greek cruises including Virgin (which we've done and liked), Windstar, Viking Ocean, but wanted a luxury cruise and smaller ship so after the research settled on SS based on our timeframe. I'm also very interested in hearing peoples reports over the next 12-15 months as SS implements changes and the new president puts his stamp on things. I'm going to assume the best. There's no doubt that the cruise industry went wild in 2023 and the first part of 2024. My guess is it's hard to find good help and compete. We shall see....

Agreed - when we retire we definitely want to take those longer cruises, and I agree B2B cruises with the same itinerary would also be a no-go for us. Hopefully they do mix things up with 7 day cruises, followed by 10-14 day cruises, back to the 7-day, etc. That would offer some variety for sure. Like you said, we definitely are looking for luxury, and wanted to go to Greece and SS is where we ended up based on the timing and itinerary, coupled with all the research we did, videos watched, posts read, etc. What many of you have described as why you are loyal to SS was what we were looking for. I was bit taken aback when this thread developed about 3 weeks after we put our deposit down - thinking we might have made a wrong decision. Sticking to it and just going to see what everyone's experiences are moving forward.

Interesting article and conversation by all. My wife and I have our first SS cruise booked for Greece in 2025. The first 2 pages of this thread had me very worried, but we're committed to it. We are GenX - early 50's empty-nesters and finally have the means for what we thought was a luxury cruise, but now others are comparing SS to be just a plussed-up deluxe cruise line. After reading the article, I understand some of the concern, but I guess I'm just chalking up those negative posts in the "change is bad column, therefore I will assume the worst". Just going to monitor things and people's experiences to see if they really notice a downgrade from luxury, or if it's just a shift in the experience. I really don't have the perspective of cruising SS in the past or other luxury lines, but have cruised quite a bit, and also understand the business speak this new president is throwing out there. There's nothing wrong with SS aligning some of their backside operations with their other cruise lines to perhaps more efficiently run, schedule and perform their cruises, freeing up more capital to serve it's customers. It could be a good thing for SS customers. I really can't speak to much longer cruises and the philosophy there. We are still working and were specifically looking for a 7-day Greek Isle cruise so we could take a full 2 weeks off and stay in Greece before and after for a few days. Eventually we would like to take a longer cruise, but also want to enjoy the before / after travel. That will require us to be retired to take off 3-4 weeks. we'll get there eventually. Thanks for all the insight here.

Yup - my knowledge of how TA's operate nowadays is nil. I just travel unlike a lot of you folks who know the ins/outs of how to do this stuff or are TA's yourself... Regardless, I sent her an email and problem solved! exact same cabins as we had originally booked on the BL! 2 adjacent XL Sea Terrace rooms on the 13th floor!

I would agree somewhat. We were on the 3/2 BL sailing that got shifted to the VL but... we were sailing with another couple whom we had our TA link the reservations together and get us 2 adjacent rooms. We were on the 13th floor with 2 adjacent XL Sea Terrace rooms. Now we both have XL Sea Terrace rooms on the VL, but ours is on the 10th floor, and there's is on the 11th floor on the opposite side of the ship. Having our TA call VV to see if they can rectify this. Boo! not happy... 😞

We are sailing on the 9/23 Fantasy cruise to Puerto Rico and St Maarten; very interested to see what comes of these "technical issues". Please keep us posted...

Same here. I'm assuming / hoping it's the same cabin...

So those of us that have booked on one of the SJ trips that is being taken over by the Valiant have to do nothing? They'll just automatically shift cabins, etc. to the Valiant? We are travelling with another couple and our TA got us adjacent cabins previously on the BL.

The aerial view is from 4/14/2022... You can check using the "history" or the little time dial / stopwatch thingie...

I see that now. I'm really interested to see how this will all come together.

I was thinking the same thing as well. A lot of reviews have said that net is kind of a waste of space and would better be served as a an actual deck, or even if possible, a second pool given how tiny the only pool is.

Great stuff - you all are on top of this. I'm really hoping they take some of the feedback they've gotten on the other ships and put it in place here, but from the aerial view of the ship under construction it doesn't appear that way. Pool is still really small and not enough hot tubs.

Much earlier in this thread there was talk about the physical structure of the ship and the tweaks from it's sister ships, and there were some pretty great photos of the BL under construction. But those photos were from almost a year ago - does anyone have any links to recent pictures of it from the shipyard? or during trial runs? I'm curious to see how those changes from the other ships look as it gets to be a more finished product.

Good to know - this our first trip with them so we are VV virgins... 😜 We just got a message from our TA and jumped on the opportunity. We got a promotion and then this discount. Pretty happy with the overall price.

We have a 3/2-3/9 sailing booked on BL; apparently it's not just about the sailings after 4/20 based on some recent posts here. We just PIF and got an overall 10% discount, which means if they cancel we get less money back to re-book. Could this have been intentional on VV's part???

Took a NCL cruise around Tahiti last November with the wife and another couple. Had the premium drink package and all the bars, bartenders, servers, etc. were outstanding along with the drinks they made. Been seeing a lot on the CC boards about the bad drinks, slow service and general lack of available bars for drinks. Starting to get nervous about our upcoming cruise in March 2024 on VV. Is this the general consensus - that getting GOOD drinks in abundance, in a timely fashion is an issue on-board VV cruises?

Newbie jumping in here with a question. We are booked on the Brilliant Lady for a March 2024 cruise out of San Jaun (sunset on the lesser antilles) - is the concern about cancellation specifically over this TA crossing, or generally all the itineraries from the time it debuts up until this April crossing? When we booked we looked specifically at itineraries and didn't even realize we were booking on a ship that wasn't even going to debut until December 2023. And BTW - thanks for posting all those pics of the ship (rendering, under construction, etc.) - I find them fascinating to look at and am really hopeful they take some of the criticisms of the prior ships into consideration when putting finishing touches on this one. I hear (and have seen) a lot of complaints about a small pool, odd configuration of some of the deck spaces (like where the net is), etc. Hopefully some of those are rectified or acknowledged with this ship. TIA.

I'm on the 10/31 Papeete to Papeete cruise and our 2nd Moorea day was also flipped to a "sea day". Bummed out to say the least. French Polynesia just doesn't work well on these big ships it would seem. We Board on 10/31 at noon, but the ship doesn't leave port until midnight that night. Great - we get to look at the port all day for our embarkation day. Boo!

Same here - have some really good excursions planned and don't want to miss them.

Question - is it just a matter of asking the staff how many passengers are onboard? Do they readily give out this info if asked? Just curious for our upcoming NCL cruise out of Tahiti. TIA

Thanks all - saw many of those videos and also read the various threads form the Hawaii/Tahiti vacation. And I understand the Covid March 2020 issue. Unfortunate - I read those reviews / threads as well.

Headed to Tahiti in October to sail on the Spirit. I know it's a 20+ yr old ship that was revamped in 2019. Any reviews on the updated ship? Information in general? I'm curious what people think, etc. I heard there were some snafus on the first few sailings after refurbishment, but looking for any reviews. I see it's currently in Alaska right now... We are on the 10th floor (balcony room) near Spice H2O. Hoping to take advantage of that bar and the drink package quite a bit... Would love to hear of any experiences with this ship.