CruisingWalter

Yep, no dress code on the VV ships, though it was interesting to me how it seems more people were dressing up for dinner on VV than other ships I've sailed. I would just suggest something other than gym shorts, but I work my dress shorts to dinner every evening except Test Kitchen and The Wake. But that was just my choice.

If you insist.. Honestly it's not worth arguing the point. Have a nice Thanksgiving.

I think they're being very clever in their terminology using "Cabin Type" above and then "Grade" down below. They can move you to any "Grade" and that does mean they can change your cabin level. And then to see that secondary thread where the people are getting bumped off the Wonder. I don't know why anyone would book a Guarantee during busy times.

The "Grade" is the overall designation of a cabin. Not just within a category. All cabins on a ship are given a grade and when they say your 'grade is not guaranteed' they are saying they can move you into any 'grade' on the ship.

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but Royal Caribbean does not guarantee you will receive the class of cabin you booked. I was just looking through the FAQ and it clearly says they can place you in any class of cabin at their discretion at any time right up until check in. I thought the same as the OP that you were guaranteed "at least" the class you booked. Apparently not. We never ever never ever book a guarantee because we want absolute control of where that cabin is going to be. I would recommend everyone at least purchase the next step up from the guarantee so at least you know you have a cabin assigned for the cruise. Especially for the busy times because we are back to 120 - 150% capacity sailings. 🙂

Ha! If we get a chance to meet IRL on a ship, I will gladly buy you a drink! 🙂

In Europe, Princess, Holland America and Celebrity have some of the best itineraries of the mainstream cruise lines that are based in the U.S. P&O has some great itineraries as well and is one of the cruise lines I plan to sail in 2023 or 2024. In fact I really want to get on the Mein Schiff ships one of these days, that'll be interesting trying to converse with a mostly German crowd and I don't speak a lick of it. 🙂

THEY gave back a full refund on a cruise. When a new cruise was booked for free, the guest still has to pay port fees and taxes on the room. But the cabin itself was free. Pretty good deal by me.

Absolutely you can choose your cabin. Call into VV or use a Travel Agent which is the best route to go. We've always used a travel agent in our nearly 20 years of cruising and our TAs were awesome in helping us get through VV's system. I do agree that matching status after you book is interesting, but I guess they want to know you're going to be cruising on them. And for the employee attitudes, wait till you get on the ship. Easily the best crew we've ever had, you could genuinely tell they're happy. And they should be. They're among the highest paid crew in the industry, they get free WiFi, they have only one crew galley so officers and crew eat together, and every crew member is allowed to eat in the same restaurants we do. They have a rotational system that allows them to enjoy all the restaurants. You can even ask crew members if they'd like to join your table for dinner. And they have some of the best uniforms that are both comfortable and allow them to express themselves. We've sailed 8 cruise lines so far and while every single crew is awesome in their own way, Virgin's crew definitely is the most happy and free spirited.

One is more than enough for the two of you. If you happen to use it up, going ala carte for the rest of the drinks will be cheaper than spending another $300 up front. Enjoy, you'll have an amazing time on the ship!

You get your fully stocked bar in the cabin and access to RIchard's Rooftop if you're a Rockstar. You get a selection of drinks at all the bars if you're a MegaRockstar. We had a Cheeky Corner Suite on our sailing and while it was really fun to have a fully stocked bar, you can take the unfinished bottles home with you, Richard's Rooftop was not a benefit for us. It has barely any shade so we did not go up there except for one champagne reception. The crew up there are awesomely friendly like the rest of the ship, but it was a non benefit for us. If it had a pool it might have been a place we would have spent more time. It was barely used during our cruise. The only nice perk really was the private golf carts at Bimini. The road is SO rough there that when we rode back on the regular tram, it was almost painful, but the golf cart was a much smoother ride getting to the beach. Even our massive balcony was a waste because VV only had two lounge chairs, 1 very small table and dining chairs. We had a 500+ sq ft balcony and more than 80% of it was empty. Normally you might expect a four person dining table, an outdoor sofa/chaise setup. Something to make that balcony feel more like a private oasis than just two lounge chairs and one hammock. It was a stunning balcony to be sure, but we didn't spend as much time on it because it wasn't as well appointed as you see on other cruise line suite balconies. VV is one cruise line where you don't need suite perks. There is no special restaurant exclusively for you, there is no specially held seating at the venues jus for you, there is no special lounge (other than RR) just for you. Everybody gets the same restaurants, bars, And if you look at the location of some of the suites, they are directly below the gym, the galley and the pool decks. That's why we booked the Cheeky Corner in the back.

Oh geez, it BETTER still be good or I'm going to call Rudi myself and say "What the heck man!" I really hope you all enjoy it, such an unexpected surprise on that ship. And be VERY CAREFUL with Shaq's Big Chicken. SO ADDICTIVE. 😄

One thing I will say that was ridiculously good for breakfast is the French Toast Burger at The Burger Bar in The Galley. Just over the top ridiculous in a good way. Good item to split with someone else. We did brunch in both Razzle Dazzle and The Wake and both were delicious. As others noted, we had reservations but neither was completely booked when we went.

Rudi's Seagrill is amazeballs on Mardi Gras. Worth more than the per person charge honestly. If you want to see it, you can find my YouTube Channel, Where's Walter Travel and the episode "We Eat Almost Everything On Carnival Mardi Gras." CC doesn't like it anymore when we link to our own videos, so I can't put the link here. There are chapter markers in the video so you can jump right to the Rudi's portion. 🙂

It's the same size as Mardi Gras that has been sailing almost a year now. We sailed MG with about 5700 on board. Really the only problem is that the seating for the Grand Central space on MG is terrible for being able to see everything going on. Unless the entire show is on the stage, which most of them are not they have stage extensions, you won't be able to see everything from the seats. They tried to replicate Studio 270 or whatever it's called on Royal Caribbean, but it's not a great setup in terms of being able to view as an audience. You need to get there at least 2 hours early for the first show and then maybe 30 minutes before the last show to hover around people to get their seats when they stand up. But as far as that many people on board, it was a non-issue. The ship really spreads out everyone nicely.

1000% and my wife brings paper copies of everything too in case reception is bad or some other WiFi issue. 🙂

Cruise excursions are not 'dreadful' and they often offer the exact same excursion as the third party operators. Dune buggies, four wheelers, snorkeling, catamarans, big party boats. The difference is you pay a markup to the cruise line, sometimes as much as 100%, vs paying a tour operator directly. And you're also getting a cruise line vetted tour company because the cruise line is responsible for you when you're on a cruise based excursion. We took an AMAZING sunset catamaran sail in St. Thomas that was required to be booked through the cruise line because our return time was sail away time, so the ships had to wait for us. And it was absolutely positively amazing. In Falmouth, Jamaica I ONLY recommend taking ship tours. That's not the safest town in the world once you leave the secure port area. The port area is a lovely shopping and dining area, but when you leave the gates, it changes very quickly. We did an afternoon tea at a former plantation and it was absolutely stunning. But we never do a third party excursion in that particular port. Others on here will tell you they walk around the port city or take third party tours. We personally do not. What those 'dreadful' comments are referring to is that the cruise lines do offer some very slow, often bus tours that appeal to a specific audience. Generally you're driven through town, someone narrates, you make a food stop or two, some shopping stops, maybe a history stop, a local distillery/food operation and four to six hours later you're back to the ship. The cruise lines HAVE to offer these because not everyone can, nor wants, to do adrenaline based tours or hang out at a beach all day.

The only company I mentioned was San Juan Food Tours and that's their actual name, absolutely delicious. They also have a branch in St Thomas 🙂 Some others we have used: Bodden Tours in Roatan, Honduras for Zip Line, Sloth and Monkey encouter Harv and Marv Whale Watching in Juneau, Alaska, one of the best independent tours ever. Temsco Helicopter Company in Skagway for both glacier tours and real dogsled camp with snow. Island Wings Air Service tours with Pilot Michelle Masden in Ketchikan was booked, but bad weather cancelled our tour. She is the ONLY pilot we would fly with because if the weather is bad, she cancels. We saw dozens of other float planes flying up into the fog and low hanging clouds. She said it's too dangerous to do that with so many planes in the area and you can't see much of anything. Captain Marvin's in Grand Cayman for Stingrays Mad Maxx Dune Buggies in St. Kitts BOSS Submersible in St. Thomas Kuralu Day Dream Catamaran and Snorkel in Tortola. Best snorkeling trip we've done so far. All of these companies offered refunds if our itinerary changed, they all gave us direct contact information, and they all lived up to what we expected. My wife spends hours researching both here and on other travel sites before booking.

So you've never cruised VV but you know their market better than they do. You do realize the Miami marketplace pretty much dovetails with many of your, shall we say, suggestions. The biggest influencers in Cruising right now are in Europe along with Tony who is here in Florida. So all of these Californians who do things on land will automatically flock to VV because they live in California? Just because these are 'California things' on a cruise ship? Those statements, to put it very kindly, are naive, insulting and plays into VERY old stereotypes. And you do realize that most people who cruise are not from Florida, especially in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale with direct flights from all points in the globe. So comparing Floridians with Californians is completely moot for the sake of discussion. You also realize that Miami and Ft. Lauderdale are the two largest cruise ports in the world. California barely has a cruise port, so if you want to compare "who has the most and the best" well Florida will win every single time when it comes to Cruise Ship Operations. Nobody does that better than Florida. 1. Fitness is global. I haven't checked lately, but I believe there are gyms and fitness centers all over the United States, including a very active fitness community in Florida. The ability for year round outdoor activities plays into that. 2. The entire ship is vegan/veggy friendly, as is much of the cruise industry. Virgin places more emphasis on Razzle Dazzle as a veggy first restaurant, but you can order meat items in that restaurant. And the rest of the industry supports and provides great veggy/vegan options, they just don't advertise it like VV does. 3. You're joking right? Korean BBQ's largest concentration is in Houston, that city is legendary for Korean BBQ and their Korean community. And Gunbae is not 'real' Korean BBQ. It's a really fun dining experience but if you're a huge fan of Korean BBQ, you will probably be disappointed, whether you're from California, Ohio, Idaho, Florida and pretty much any of the United States. 4. This one made me laugh out loud. As someone who works in marketing, actively works with influencers, who has hired influencers for campaigns, that's not how this would work and would be a horrible business decision to move to LA for 'influencers' who will cruise on a ship one time to show their audience and then never sail again. 5. So having a pop up experience potential means people from LA will flock to the ship? Hardly. Pop ups are in Miami, New York and many other cities where people come to cruise, but it's hardly a reason to get on a cruise ship. 6. The stereotypes in your statement are just so silly, no need to add a further comment. 7. I would love to see the census report where you found out that California has more LGBTQ+ population than Florida and why that means the LGBTQ+ crowd would want to get on a ship out of California more than one out of Miami. Because the LGBTQ+ has been well represented on cruises during my almost 20 years of cruising out of Port Canaveral, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Celebrity Cruises has been especially popular with the LGBTQ+ crowd for many years and VV is certainly attracting that audience with their come as you are approach. Please share that link to the population report, I really want to see the LGBTQ+ census. 8. You really don't know Florida, especially Miami where VV is located. Once again, the wealthy have access to jets so they can get to Miami easily enough and they probably own a home in Miami. One thing you don't seem to understand is that Virgin Voyages is a middle of the road, reasonably priced experience. Massive Suite/Fab Suite are around $25,000 ish for a week while the Iconic Suite on Celebrity Edge Class is $40,000+ for a week (I've seen it as high as $80k), the 3 Story Family Townhome on Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas is $63,000 for a week, The Haven on NCL can run $24,000 or higher for a week. So there's nothing 'status worthy' about going on a VV ship other than the fact that it's a really REALLY good cruise experience, I think one of the best in the industry. And because it IS such a good experience she is positioned exactly where they need to be for the cruise market. Miami is the largest cruise port in the world, if you want to be seen and discovered by the cruise audience and by a very hip demographic, that's where you do it. You can literally see the ship from downtown and the sports arena the way she's positioned. And when the ship isn't there, their terminal is a HUGE billboard during major events. I would suggest you educate yourself about the cruise industry, the demographics and why Miami is so important to any cruise line that wants to 'make it' and why California is honestly not all that important. It's nice to have cheap options to run to Mexico, and the round trips to Hawaii are really nice. But California can't support the growth of a cruise line like Miami and Ft. Lauderdale can.

They did the same with us, asked to swap and they just brought more. LOVE that! 🙂

Customs has a $300 limit or something like that before you have to declare. We were under the limit so no declaration. They didn't check our bags.

Not in our experiences in Port Canaveral, Ft. Lauderdale or Miami this year. Every card in a cabin must be scanned by the safety officer. One person from a cabin could not show up and 'check off a cabin.'

When we cruised to Alaska the best purchase we made was a 3 in 1 jacket from LL Bean. In fact we still have them and that cruise was in 2009. It has an inner warm liner, and an outer windbreaker/rain jacket. You can wear the two pieces individually or together for maximum warmth. That was the only jacket we took with us and it got as cold at 30 degrees in Copper River while up to 71 in Fairbanks. The jacket was perfect. And ditto to the layers, that is a MUST for any colder climate vacation. Especially as the sun comes out you start to get warmer, you can peel the layers back. If your hands or feet are prone to getting cold, those chemical warmers really do the trick, they kept my feel and fingers warm on those two really cold days we had.

Obviously the spa was not delivering on the revenue expectations so now the need for the hard sell. Certainly share your info with the VV guest relations team.

One Bar Tab between both of you should do fine. And if you go over, well you just pay a little bit more ala carte vs. paying $600 and wasting it. 🙂