WatermelonSugarHigh

No. I was too busy enjoying myself to waste time complaining.

🎯 our steward was lazy and she was absentee the entire voyage.

That was me. We were three, and our cabin attendant refused to put the bed back to a sofa, or show us how to do it ourselves. it could definitely have been done we found out later, but our steward was lazy and not very helpful. The L at the end was just a loveseat type thing with a thin, fairly useless and barely there mattress pad cover. The person sleeping on it was very uncomfortable. Would not recommend for a third.

I don’t really find it funny. I assume you’re speaking to what I said about my husband and his practice partners. I don’t think they’re afraid, I think they’re realistic. There are quite a few differences between cruising on a cruise ship and working in a medical office. I think this convo has run its course.

Sounds like it should be a team of 15 people with one being the Explainer = you 😂

What’s a grog walk?

Social distancing was entirely possible by choosing what venues to go to fior shows and events. We did none. Because my family is in the medical field, they are experts at it. It kept us all alive, while they were working in medicine during a Pandemic in NYC. Our lives depended on it, Maybe that’s why I’m more critical. Watching the sloppy pouring of champagne for guests into their used glasses on day 1 set the tone and lowered any expectations or notions we had. The last we had cruised, protocols were still in place, Getting sat with a sick person at Gunbae who coughed all over us, the crew member and our food was avoidable. I knew nothing anbour Gunbae prior to going. Had I known, I would have skipped it entirely. All three of us getting the flu after most likely wouldn’t have happened had we not gone there and ate communally in a booth with a fairly tight seating arrangement. I was more or less commenting that the industry could do more to continue the efforts they made after finally being allowed to open up after Covid, and make attempts to mitigate the chances of getting sick by continuing their level of cleaning and sanitizing, but from what we saw, they’re not,. And not filling sanitizing stations or soap was extremely disappointing. That should never happen. My family is keenly aware of the dangers and risks. I will add that my husband would never do a cruise if it were not for me. Nor would any of his associates. I guess we’ll see in July how Celebrity is handling things. As for the 🍍 people, to each his own but I think it’s gross.

The Galley (food court area on Deck 15) has daily dinner specials. They’re listed on a daily goings on paper you can get in the coffee shop on Deck 7. We didn’t know about the paper or the specials until day four. One night they had really good grilled Greek chicken, yellow rice, tzatziki, feta. We got salads made too, and honestly that was our best meal on the cruise, it was really really good. We took it to the Dockouse outside seating area and got a bottle of rosé. Nice evening. The specials will be at the Dine and Dash counter.

A group of cool, talented people who do different things on the ship. Like magicians, musicians, singers, artists. At least, I think that’s what it is. I never saw one though.

The drinking game was really annoying to me, it took too long to get to the eating part. It was also very loud in there. Personally, I would not go back because I felt the food was just ok, nothing special. The drinking game, sitting with a couple who were reallllllly into it, and the crew member sitting at our table being a cheerleader/gameshow host was just weird to me. I’m not a dud but I’m just not into that kind of fun. Maybe watch some videos of it on YouTube. Also, there was never a night on our sailing that Gunbae didn’t have reservations for almost every time slot available.

Same. I agree completely. Celebrity went downhill, food is meh and it’s a snoozefest at night. It used to be great. We were on Millennium Nov 2022 and the food situation was atrocious. Hoping it’s improved some since there was a lot of negative feedback happening right after. We were told our sailing was a test to see if reducing the buffet to literally nothing would fly. I hope it’s better in July on the Eclipse but not expecting much. Especially since we’re only paying $1,283 for two! That’s ridiculous pricing. You’ve made me want to try NCL. 😊 thanks

It was the one by the Wake!

As a side note, you couldn’t give me the keys and deed to Necker Island to sit in the hot tubs or pool. We saw the woman and her companion in the cabin next to us, with an upside-down 🍍 on their cabin door, making lots of friends in the hot tub and they had quite a few late night guests back to their cabin. 🤮

I saw absolutely zero cleaning being done. And I was looking for it. Yes, hand sanitizer stations were empty on ours too. And several of the restrooms were out of SOAP.

I’m not really speaking about Covid. I’m talking illness in general. We are fully vaxed for Covid, got it. We got the flu shot, all got the flu. We wore masks for two weeks at work before the trip, masks on the plane, masks in San Juan…get on the ship…boom. My husband and son are physicians so we take all the precautions and still got ill. I just think seeing crew members sanitizing, with hand sanitizer stations everywhere, using app instead of menus that everyone touches, not encouraging crowded sweaty drunk people to gather in small spaces…may have been small steps and some for show - but helped a bit to curb infection. They went whole-hog back to 2019. Why even do the health questionnaire prior to boarding, it’s just for show. I don’t know what I’m really saying here, I guess 😂 I’m still cruising again.

I understand and agree with all you said. Since cruising is a closed environment, it is different than other facets of life and from what I saw, they’re back to doing absolutely nothing precautionary. I saw not one person cleaning or wiping down anything in seven days. They were definitely cleaning more last November. There was always someone wiping th3 bannisters, elevator buttons, handing out hand sanitizer. There’s a reason it’s common to hear people say cruise ships are floating germ factories…because they are. The pouring of champagne for passengers into their already-used glasses, touching the bottle to the glass, should never ever have happened. And I get that sitting in Gunbae sick, knowing she was infecting other passengers, was the fault of that woman and not VV. (we are all confident she did get us all sick with her coughing spray.) I would also never go back to Gunbae again because of it. We should have gotten up and walked out as soon as she sat down and sprayed the table. I also wouldn’t dine in a main dining room on any line with strangers. I know we can’t live in a bubble, but really don’t understand an industry who was so damaged by Covid, now pretending it never happened.

Wondering if it was just us noticing the sickness on board our recent sailing. Lots of coughing everywhere. We talked with quite a few people who also noticed. Three of us went healthy two weeks ago, masked up on the plane and in San Juan…..and still three of us got the flu. (We all tested neg for ‘vid.) Son got sick on day four (after Gunbae.) I got sick on day 6 and hubs got sick day went home. We were surprised how much cruising has gone back to not managing or caring about social distancing at all, anywhere. The elevators were always packed with people, so we used the stairs. The sail away party was imho a germ-passing nightmare. Saw the bartender at the party re-pouring champagne into glasses for people that they had used and touched the mouth of the bottle to the glasses. HARD PASS. There was no more emphasis on hand sanitizer….overpacked venues, bars with no distancing. At Gunbae, one of our table mates (not with me) was sick and coughed and sneezed on everyone. Son got sick two days later and stayed in cabin after. Have we learned nothing as a society from Covid? I’m not saying this is a VV thing, I’m sure it’s all the lines. But when we last cruised November 2022, it was much different. We will never ride in a van full of tourists again and always choose single cabs even if it’s double the cost.

The sailaway party was packed, loud, and they were out of champagne glasses. We left after five minutes.

You should be working for them! This is great information!

There are lots of kitschy names for things with VV, and even after a week onboard I still have no idea what the events were or where. We didn’t know what a happenings cast was until I got home and looked it up on Google. I think they could do a much better job at descriptions and messaging. Have fun on your cruise, it’s really a good time on VV!

We booked on Celebrity earlier this week and they applied the $600 to the cruise fare. With the senior and resident discounts, we got a total fare for two at $1283.02 -for an inside guarantee room. That’s almost like stealing this cruise! We couldn’t go to the Catskills overnight for that cheap! Another comment on here mentioned that the extra day in Bermuda on the NCL sailing could be only an extra half day and that helped make the decision for me. Something holds me back from booking NCL when there are other options, not sure why? The Guarantee cabin can be anywhere on the ship and we’ve never done that before. We’ve also only had an inside once, but we really are just using it as a place to sleep and shower. There will be three sea days, but the amount of times we’ve spent on the balconies or suites we paid for is always minimal to not at all. We just don’t get our monies worth from them. Balconies are a glorified place to dry swimsuits (for us) and we don’t sit and drink champagne or entertain in our suite 😂 I always picture myself sitting and reading on the balcony with coffee, or gazing at the sunsets, but it has never happened in over 20 years. I get a to-go cup of coffee and we’re in line to get off the ship as soon as we can. We are just never in the cabins unless we’re napping or getting ready to go. We shall see how bad the cabin turns out to be I guess. Virgin was amazing, the ship was brand new, extremely well-designed and the public areas were off the hook. The entertainment was phenomenal, in a class by itself. But imho,where they missed the mark for us was restaurants that are too hard to get in with food that is far too “fussy” and a lot of emphasis on vegan, gluten free, fad menus being Instagram- worthy. Fine for some, just not my cup of tea. I’ve spent my entire career in the culinary industry and I appreciate an energetic trendy menu. Cooking and entertaining is my passion, but elegant, well-prepared classic dishes never go out of style and there was nowhere to dine that offered that. Eating in the Galley was similar to being in a mall food court and too kitschy. All that being said, we would still do another VV if the itinerary was right. It was really fun.

My son is 33, newly divorced, and (still) very much heartbroken. . He has said there’s nobody he wants to spend a week with at this point except his Mom and Dad or his dog 😂❤️ I will be paying either way, but he can afford the trip. He’s a physician. I was surprised they penalize solo travelers. We just back from Virgin Voyages on the Valiant Lady and I believe there’s no surcharge for singles.

Suites are running over $13,000 for three pax. I love my son but there’s no way I’d pay that for a ship cabin that needs refurbishing so badly. Looks like the Eclipse cabins are pretty “dumpy” compared to refurbished or newer ships from the pics ive seen,

Thank you so much!

Thank you Harriet! We did end up booking on Celebrity Eclipse for the last week of July. I can’t wait. July gives me a little time to lose some weight to fit into my “suitcase clothes.” 🙃