CruisingWalter

I have friends who were on this cruise and LOVED it. Got to personally hang with Sir Richard a few times and said it was everything they promised the cruise was going to be. Supposedly another one will be coming in 2024 to Miami, but no official announcement from VV. This one was only announced about 2 months before the event so I would suspect they will not announce it until next Spring.

Unfortunately it does work that way and their Shore Things tend to be much more limited. One good use of Sailor Loot onboard, at least in our experience, is the Tomahawk Steak in The Wake at dinner. Generally I don't recommend The Wake for dinner because service can be slow and it's a pretty weak steakhouse. But that steak we enjoyed on our very first sailing because our friends had about $100 Sailor Loot left to use on the last night of the cruise. That steak was $65 at the time and it was well worth it. Another good purchase if they have them onboard is the hammock they have on every balcony. They're incredibly comfortable and if you have a space to hang one, you can buy them from the ship if they have them in inventory.

I think the sweet spot on any VV ship is Deck 10 - 13. As recommended above, avoid Deck 14 because of the pool deck and gym right above you. Deck 10 is well above the lifeboats and Deck 13 keeps cabins above and below you. Otherwise, there's really not a 'bad seat in the house' on the VV ships. If you've never sailed VV, work with a Gold Certified TA who can help you navigate the ship, explain the pay in full discount and possibly give you some extra Sailor Loot to spend onboard. I think you're really going to enjoy VV!

TAs have access to PDFs of literally every single itinerary. An easy way to get info for what you want is to contact a TA and ask them to pull itineraries for a specific timeframe. Let them do all the searching for you. 🙂

Not really, you just cannot convert unused Loot for cash. It's a use it or lose it proposition just like onboard credit on any other cruise line. You cannot convert on board credit into cash, you must spend it on the ship.

Awesome, that MNVV is the best deal in cruising hands down. You do have 2 years from purchase date to sail so that gives you plenty of time to wait and see what Brilliant Lady has in store. I would hope she's going to be ready to start by April and launch from Portugal with whatever itineraries she was supposed to do from there.

At least you're on the cruise. 🙂 Your TA doesn't have to call, they can go into the VV booking engine and see all the cabins. If there are adjoining cabins anywhere they can very easily move both of you so long as you both were booked through the TA. Literally takes about 10 seconds for a TA to move guests within the same category. Good luck!

Yep. A Back to Back on VV or a Side To Side with another cruise line is the only way to go when the 4's and 5's are the only options in the Caribbean. Or just go with Celebrity and one of their 9+ day sailings. Great cruise line and the most similar experience to VV of any other cruise line. Plus they have amazing pools. 🙂

Expect that VV's pricing will slowly slide upward in the coming year or so. They are underpriced at the moment for the included values. Investors want to see that per Sailor price slide a bit upwards over the next two years. Moral of the story, book very early. 🙂

Incredibly rare for VV, that price drop at the beginning of this month was practically unheard of for VV. In general the first month a booking is open is the cheapest you're going to get the VV staterooms. It's basically the Disney model that Tom McAlpin brought over from DCL. After the first month, staterooms slowly inch up. Our Valiant Lady Thanksgiving cruise was selling at 2.5X the original cruise fare by the time it sold out.

Just one form per booking.

There are amazing prices across the board on those new itineraries. Especially in Europe. My only disappointment with the new itineraries is they did not add any longer Caribbean itineraries when we only have one ship in Miami. I was really hoping to see a few 7, 10's and maybe even one 14 day itinerary sprinkled in there to mix it up with the 5's and 4s. Just literally repeating the same 5 and 4 over and over with the one ship does get old. Especially when you don't have that 4 month Brilliant Lady option in San Juan for the Southern Caribbean option in 2024.

Events are still available upon boarding. Shore Things are available to pre-book 120 days out. Our Thanksgiving Cruise on Valiant is not showing any way to reserve events in advance.

Yep, if you were transferred to a VL sailing on the same date, it's a smooth transfer to the new ship. I've been hearing the same from a bunch of folks who were transferred almost as soon as the announcements were made.

Generally after the last name which is how mine is set up. On your passport it does appear after your last name so you can do your last name, space, suffix.

I don't think she can go through the Panama Canal. She's going to live in Miami since they are getting the Ocean Cay ready for her arrival. No plans for MSC on the west coast at this time, Galveston will get going as soon as they reach an agreement with the Port Authority to start construction on their new terminal. World America could potentially visit Galveston for a short season.

It is, MSC has said so. It will be the first MSC ship with a comedy club because the American audience has been asking for one. Everything about that ship is solely being designed around the American cruiser. Including Ocean Cay shutting down for 6 weeks so they can prepare the channel and dock for her arrival.

You can't wait until next year if you're part of the Brilliant Lady rebookings. Per the terms of the offer, you will automatically be issued a refund on December 28, 2023 if you have not rebooked. Also keep in mind your Sailor Loot will drop to $300 after October 11. If you're just waiting to see what's coming for the future, then yes, waiting until January - March of 2025 to see what is released is a good idea. I suspect by January we should hear about Brilliant Lady and they will most likely take that opportunity to extend the itineraries out.

A promotion is the current public offering from Virgin Voyages. Currently it's $900 off Med sailings, $500 off Caribbean Sailings with up to a $600 Bar Tab. As for how they will handle you being rebooked onto a lower priced sailing remains to be seen. We will all know starting today as the first notifications are sent out. Here in the U.S. the offices should now be open as of 8am ET.

My guess is we will not see Brilliant Lady itineraries announced until the first quarter of 2024. They want that ship to be essentially finished before they make another announcement. 🙂

MSC phone support is not the best and honestly their booking engine can be a bit flaky. But if you're booked and your confirmation shows a final price, then you should be good to go. You should not be hit with any extra charges on the ship so long as you make your final payment.

Definitely not this year, we sailed Symphony of the Seas in December which was docked immediately next to the new terminal construction. Definitely a 2024 or maybe even 2025 opening if they have any supply chain issues. A ton of work still to be done. Should be stunning when it's done.

On the Seaside about 2 months ago, we simply made a reservation on embarkation day. But our 'hour' turned into 3 hours because it was not very busy and they didn't seem to care. So don't feel pressured to leave in an hour, take your time and enjoy yourself. 🙂

MSC is building more new ships than anyone to be honest. They're right behind Royal Caribbean, already the third largest cruise line in terms of capacity. During the pandemic their massive shipping company and all the money that flowed in through shipping allowed them to continue ordering and building new cruise ships. Their intent is to become the largest cruise line in the world and they're well on their way. Add the new Explora ultra-luxury cruise line that launched on ship and is already on their way to launching a second and you have a major player emerging in the cruise market. While not nearly as well known in the U.S., once they expand their footprint to Galveston, it probably won't be long before they have a homeport on the West Coast as well. Expect their pricing to slowly rise over the next few years. One of their U.S. sales managers was on a YouTube Live about a month ago and he said to stay tuned to an evolving U.S. market strategy. That they've been 'listening to the feedback from our American guests' and are implementing changes. He said to give it a year and MSC in the U.S. will be an evolved brand in the U.S. Should be fun to watch. We had a blast on the Seaside and we're looking forward to sailing the Seashore once she gets up here to Port Canaveral.

If Priority Boarding on embarkation day was the only perk, that would be enough for me. 🙂 I love the extra Bar Tab and I think the $100 idea is better than the automatic bottle because I can stretch that $100 further than just one bottle of Champagne. But just walking past all the lines of people on embarkation day is the best perk of DBE.