CruisingWalter

Flights literally change by the hour. That old adage of 'flights are cheapest on Tuesday' doesn't really seem to apply anymore. We had some friends waiting to "see what happens" and ended up paying $250 more pp than if they had booked when they first looked at the flights. They did find a sweet hotel in Old San Juan for a really good rate, around $120/night ish I want to say. Looked like a cute little 2 story place within walking distance of some of the local restaurants and I think they can literally walk down to the port if they wanted to. I'm really excited to get down there to try Brilliant Lady. Those are the best Caribbean itineraries VV has right now.

You can find sample menus on VV's website: https://www.virginvoyages.com/cruise-dining

Those certificates are only good on The Sea Terrace and above. The Limited View Sea Terrace and all categories below that are not included in the MNVV certificate. And I just realized you said that. I need another cup of coffee..... 😅

On the food and the experience I do have a full playlist on YouTube. Here's my food tour of Scarlet Lady and you can also find a VV Review along with a Cheeky Corner Suite tour and some other fun. We have found The Wake to be the weakest of the primary restaurants so that's a brunch date for us now. Razzle Dazzle has become our favorite along with Pink Agave. And the pizza is awesome, try the truffle oil with egg. Amazing! No MDR but The Galley is a great food hall. Instead of lining up at a buffet, take a stroll around The Galley to see what interests you, then sit at a table and if a server doesn't come to your table immediately, flip the red flag up on the table card. On our first Scarlet Lady cruise The Galley was a slow experience, but they have greatly improved the experience now. Also notice that there are Grab N Go boxes both in The Galley and as you walk out onto the The Dock on deck 7. Some great items in there with my favorite being the cheese and meat box. So good with a cocktail out on The Dock. By the way our go-to start to a VV cruise is to drop off our bags and head directly to The Dock aft on Deck 7. They serve tapas and great cocktails out there. Perfect way to start any VV cruise. Drink Package is The Bar Tab and we love this concept more than any other cruise line. You pre-purchase it before the cruise, and this is a MUST, they do not sell the Bar Tab onboard the ship. You purchase in $300 increments and VV tops it off with either $50 or $100 more depending on the current promotion. The Bar Tab is good for the cabin and you can purchase coffees, fresh pressed juices, mocktails and alcohol on the ship at at the Bimini Beach club. The best part is that you can buy drinks for anyone on the ship, you don't go to 'drink package jail' if you buy a drink for someone else. When the Bar Tab drains down you just pay per drink for the rest of the cruise. At the moment if you sail by April 2024, VV is giving away $300 and $600 Bar Tabs depending on the length of the cruise. Interestingly the coffee bars shut down at 8:00pm so if you're looking for a late night espresso or cappuccino go to Sips Champagne lounge. They have a gorgeous hand pulled espresso machine. It's the strongest coffee on the entire ship. 🙂 For daily activities the one big difference with VV is that there is very little to do on the ship during port days. They fully expect you to leave the ship. So while most cruise lines still have a full day of activities planned for port days, VV does not. Maybe a few activities during the day. On sea days you'll find some fun things like the usual Trivia, scavenger hunts, we've done speed puzzle challenges and of course the Social Club is loaded with both classic games from our childhood to current games like Exploding Kittens. My recommendation for 'do not miss' is Bingo with the Diva. We NEVER play bingo on a ship, but that was some of the most fun we've had on a cruise ship. As for crowds, much like any cruise ship, the pools will be jammed on sea days and even moreso on the ladyships because the pools themselves are very small as is the deck area around them. Plenty of room on Deck 16 above the pool, but not a whole lot of room around the pools themselves. A great respite on sea days are the side decks on either side of the Roundabout on Deck 7. Lots of comfortable seating right above the waterline and you can choose to sit in the sun or shade depending on which side of the ship you sit out on. If you like casinos, we love that VV's are both non-smoking and they have huge porthole windows looking outside. The beds in the standard staterooms are not the most comfortable, they're a bit thin and firm. You may want to get an egg crate foam topper requests, we're not sure if they have them to be honest. The beds in the suites are lovely because they're actual beds, not two twins pushed together. VV's vibe is most similar to Celebrity, but it is its own unique animal. You should have an amazing time. My only complaint right now is that after you go on a few from Miami, the itineraries are not that interesting. I really like 7 to 10 night sailings at minimum so I've been eyeing the new Brilliant Lady itineraries from San Juan. Those two itineraries an the 8-Night Eastern Caribbean itinerary when 2 ships are in Miami are the best Caribbean itineraries right now. We're all waiting for VV to drop their new itineraries to see if anything changes.

When we were in a Cheeky Corner we asked the room steward to bring two extra chairs for the balcony and they did. Perhaps ask your room steward for an end table or something to eat from. They have extra of most everything on the ship.

The Itineraries have been on Virgin Voyages' website since they opened the sale of that ship. 8:30p departure for both.

One channel's opinion. Have you seen the female TikTok travel influencer with over 1M followers who completely trashed Virgin Voyages as the WORST cruise and cruise line she's ever been on? That was a month ago. Over 300k views with many comments to the affirmative that they hated it too. Probably most of those commenters have never been on a cruise ship, let alone VV, but there you go, the 'power of social media.' You remember how a certain British vlogger built their entire audience trashing Scarlet Lady during a preview in England before it even started sailing I will say all this fuss over Princess Plus is just amusing and it will all blow over sooner than later. At $60/day pp it's the best value out there other than VV. If you're purchasing WiFi, you'll might as well roll into PPlus because you're already over halfway there. And the service has remained exceptional in our travels on Princess. I cannot wait till the Sun Princess gets here, though I'm trying to convince my DW to go to Europe so we can sail her in the Med next year. If you really want to see the Princess experience, check out Ben and David's vlogs on the Sky Princess. What they show in their series is exactly what we experienced. Heck you can watch our experience in our vlogs too. One bad meal that was correctly brilliantly by the management.

I would be incredibly bored sailing on the same cruise line over and over and over. Especially VV with pretty much identical ships and very limited itineraries. I love the ships and I love the crew, but in small doses. At least with other cruise lines you tend to have variety in the classes of ships. So far we're up to 9 cruise lines, hoping to get to 11 by the end of next year, maybe 12. Adding some river cruising soon too, right here in the U.S. 🙂 If you like VV, Celebrity and Princess should definitely be on your list. All the nonsense over the Princess Plus (which is an awesome deal) will die out at some point. We've never had a bad sailing on Princess, we've never had a bad sailing on Celebrity and the Sky Princess sailing a few months ago was just almost perfect. MSC Yacht Club looks intriguing and we'll be sailing the Seashore to try that out once she comes to Port Canaveral. We sailed Seaside last month sailing standard and were pleasantly surprised. The specialty dining was awesome and both the buffet and MDR were much better than we expected. Ocean Cay is far and away my favorite private islands and our overnight stay really made me wish Virgin would stay later at Bimini. I have never understood why VV leaves so early when it's less than 2 hours to get from Bimini to Port Miami. The big MSC Beach Party at night was so much fun, especially with the ship sitting right there looking amazing in the dark. There's absolutely nothing at sea like Central Park on the Royal Oasis class. Yes, those ships are big and loud at times, but I had such a great time exploring the ship and spending time in Central Park. That really gets me excited to finally sit up in the Garden area of the Celebrity Edge Class Ships. There are just too many cruise ships out there and so many experiences to enjoy to be locked into one cruise line. If it works for you to be loyal to one cruise line, then do it. If it makes you feel better to berate other cruise lines, then do it. For me, I see the good, the bad and the ugly in every cruise line, but you won't ever get me to lock myself down to one flavor of cruising. 🙂

Wow that's a very nice compliment, I do appreciate that. Social platforms are so weird. We just crossed 14,000 on TikTok, we'll have upwards of 3000 - 6000 folks join our weekly live chats. But on YouTube it's been a very slow build. The one thing that separates me from a lot of vloggers is I literally pay no attention to the analytics. I just follow what my dear friend Sean told me years ago, just create what I like to create and I try to create content that's helpful to others. There are vloggers out there who are trying to make a living just vlogging, so they have to game the SEO and the system to get the most clicks and subs. I used to work in television, film and marketing and it was my job to game the system to get the most subs. But with my own channel, it's just meant to be fun and helpful. Glad some of what we create is useful. 🙂

We've sailed Princess 5 times now, most recently on the Sky Princess where we had a simply outstanding time and where the management showed why they are so incredible. Their MDR service is second to none in the mainstream industry. Yes the crew is over the top friendly, but they've always been like for the almost 20 years we've been sailing. You just see then now because everyone has a video camera in their pocket. On VV I've actually had some crew members ask not to be filmed, which of course I respect. I do love that VV allows the crew to eat in the same restaurants as the rest of us, though I have seen some grumblings around that they take seats from the guests when the ships are full or near full. We've not sailed a full ship yet, I have a feeling Nov 18 on Valiant will be the first as she is close to a sell out now.

Absolutely it can be used for drinks. I'm not sure why it wouldn't. It's cash. It's the Bar Tab that cannot be used for retail. As for the retail partner that story was reported back in April / May of this year. Here's one of the stories. https://www.cruisehive.com/virgin-voyages-details-retail-changes-with-new-partner/100550

The subject header was wrong for your post and I think that's where the confusion comes in. It looks like you're asking a question, not promoting your YouTube channel. And the copy is clearly written as an ad designed to drive people to your channel and away from Cruise Critic. Be mindful because some people will take offense to blatant Ads like that and report you for spamming the boards. Much better to work the video information into an answer or frame your post entirely different than a blatant marketing "watch my video" post. I love that your content adds valuable information for the accessible community, but be mindful the purpose of Cruise Critic is not to drive traffic to your social channels through a "watch my channel" post.

Same promotion as the previous month. Minor changes but basically the same Know that the Bar Tab offer only goes through April 2024. Any cruises booked after that time do not have the Bar Tab promotion applied.

Yep, it's specific to the Brilliant Lady. Most likely they are still finalizing details with the Port Authority in San Juan before they open up embarkation times. This is a brand new embarkation port for them so it makes sense they want to have everything squared away before you select an embarkation time that they have to change later.

Absolutely. In fact I recommend booking an early dinner at Test Kitchen because you will most likely be hungry again in a few hours. We usually hit the Pizza Place for our second meal. 🙂 But absolutely you can walk up to any restaurant for a second dinner if you so choose. And don't forget the Galley has a full dinner upstairs as well.

I appreciate the kind words. Hopefully we'll meet up one of these day on a ship. 🙂

Again, zero preferential treatment. The Social Media department has no idea who I am, from any cruise line. There is nothing anyone does on any ship that's preferential to me, other than Eliot receiving permission from his boss to make an 'off menu' Old Fashioned on Sky Princess. THAT was a glorious moment that happened because of a TikTok I did the day before from the ship that the head of Princess F&B saw. Otherwise, they have zero idea who I am nor do I get any preferential treatment on VV or any other cruise ship. Major vloggers like Ben and David are personally invited onto ships by cruise lines for good reason, they are great ambassadors for the cruise industry.

I don't know about everyone else, but Princess has more ships and itineraries for 2024 and their just announced 2025 itineraries are even moreso. That 22 night roundtrip from San Francisco for the Summer Solstice in 2025 looks amazeballs. But I really really want to do the 17 night CruiseTour. Our 14 Day Alaska CruiseTour in Alaska is still hands down my favorite cruise ever. I need to get back there.

Not in the least. Most of the crew have absolutely no idea who I am and I'm fine with that. I'm not Ben and David or Tony from La Lido Loca who have 200,000+ subscribers, nor am I demanding like one certain British woman who I will not name here. Zero preferential treatment for this vlogger. Really the only people who reach out to me are the guests who have enjoyed our videos and they helped them make the decision to sail Virgin Voyages or the other cruise lines. But especially VV. So many vloggers concentrate on Scarlet Night and the PARTIES, but I try to give a more balanced view of the actual ship life no matter which ship I'm on.

I will definitely disagree with that one based on our Sky Princess sailing in February and our April sailing on Scarlet Lady. The MDR on Sky Princess was superior to The Wake in every way, Crown Grill was better than anything on Scarlet Lady save Razzle Dazzle. The buffet on Sky Princess was on par with or better than The Galley. The buffet was unreal on Sky Princess and from what we've heard from friends they've really upped their game across the fleet. I mean it's awesome to have everything included and I really enjoy the food on Virgin, it's among the best at sea for the mainstream cruise lines. But Princess and Celebrity are right there with them, even if you have to pay a little bit more for some of the specialty dining. I would take a longer Princess or Celebrity cruise over a shorter VV any day if I'm being totally honest. If it's the same itinerary, same length, then I'll probably take VV. But in Florida, for most of the year, I'm going on the other cruise lines to get maximum days at sea and maximum value. 🙂

When I see a statement like "for many of us" is it really "many of us" or primarily you and those you know. I'm not saying this to be mean or offensive, but just as someone who sees how wildly popular the Plus package has been for Princess. The fact that they've made these changes means they've had tremendous traction with the program. Now if you're in the upper echelon of the Princess loyalty you're going to get some added perks so the Plus/Premier is not necessary. But if you're not, then you're paying $15/day per device for WiFi with the MedallionNet package + $16/day for Gratuities or $31/day. So that makes the drinks and all the extras $29/day pp or $58/day per couple and $406 for a 7 day cruise. If you're not going to get WiFi at all, then the Plus/Premier packages would most likely not work in your favor.

1000%. My long term goal is to sail on all 300+ cruise ships at some point. I don't have enough years left in me to accomplish that, but it would be awesome if we could do it. I want to sail them all except one. 🙂 And in Florida right now with VV, you can only compare the 4/5 Night with 7 Nights for most of the year. I have asked repeatedly why can't they mix in a few 7 and 10 nighters from time to time like Celebrity, Princess and all the rest do.

No offense, but you can play those games all day long and make one cruise line come out ahead of the other depending on the time of year and the itinerary. May 10, 24: Dominican Daze. 5 Days in a Sea Terrace: $3244 May 11, 24: Eastern Caribbean on Enchanted Princess, one of their newest ships: 7 Days in a Balcony $3061 with Princess Plus. I'll take the 2 extra days on a ship any day and I still have almost $200 on VV if I want to add a dinner at Sabatini's or Crown Grill. But with the outstanding quality of the MDR, I may not have to. Princess has one of the best MDRs at sea across the 5 Princess ships we've sailed so we usually only do one specialty meal per cruise on Princess. And that gelato is ridiculously good on Princess. I'm really hoping VV will up their Florida itineraries because those 4/5 having gotten old and tired very quickly. Celebrity and Princess especially have much better itineraries out of Florida right now. I'm excited for our 8-Night Valiant sailing in November but really don't plan to do any more 4/5 on Scarlet.

According to some reports, BL is slightly narrower than the other three ships, there modifications to the lifeboat connections and something may have been done to the rear overhang as well. But the lifeboats should have no affect on the view from Deck 12. Deck 8 will be impacted if the lifeboats have been raised up. Embarkation procedures are unknown at this time. As others have noted you have to choose your arrival time in the App. If you status match, you can get into the Deep Blue Extras program and be poised to hopefully roll into whatever plan is coming in 2024. We have no idea what the loyalty / status match program will be yet, but it would be nice if they took a page from MSC and added hotel loyalty to their list.

I have never heard of this happening. If this was an issue we would have seen more posts over the 2+ years this forum has been running. Are you certain either you or your cabin mate didn't click one of the Shore Things in the app and make a purchase? As others have mentioned it isn't fraud, it's a mistake. We have had drinks and meals put onto our account on other cruise lines. This is why you ALWAYS check your account before leaving the ship to have those issues resolved. This often happens when someone mistakenly, or willingly, gives the wrong cabin number to the server.