Wildcatllamas

1 hour ago, trippingpara said:

I wonder if it's been chartered.  I heard that several of Virgin's cruises over past year or two have been chartered suddenly after it was listed.  I did a Google search trying to see if it was available anywhere and every cruise site either says to call them for info or lists it as sold out.  Yet, there is a LGBT travel site that is listing the TA to Lisbon as their "Gay Group Cruise".  That sounds chartered to me but I've never been on a ship that was chartered, so I'm just speculating.  I'm wondering if they are holding it waiting to see how many cabins this group will take and then open it back up once they know.

Yup, there it is on a Gay website for this particular cruise. So back to the planning board.

49 minutes ago, jamesp1234 said:

Hi everyone, anyone had any update on if the sailing is going ahead. I can’t get any information from Virgin despite the sailing not being on sale for a month now ! Thanks 

Not a word. I checked again last night and was told once again it is in the inventory department. 

14 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

 

One thing is for sure: One of the them is wrong. lol

Very true. Kind of like calls to Princess. Five calls and one of them may be close to right.

4 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

And someone on a Facebook group a couple of days ago said that a rep told them it was sold-out.....could have been a guess of the rep's part.

Could be because the agent I spoke with had me on hold while she verified what was going on. She had me on hold for about 5 minutes, so I would think if it was sold out it wouldn't have taken that long.

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

 

Well, since it's still not available for booking, there's a good chance it's sold-out.

I know when given the choice of Miami to Barcelona, or San Juan to Lisbon, my wife didn't hesitate and opted for this one since it's a bit unique. Maybe that's the big attraction.

I spoke with a Virgin agent yesterday and it isn't sold out. She did confirm it is in the Inventory Department.

That would be great if we can. Of course there may be difficulties if on your first cruise you were in the Mega Rock Star cabin and now you are in a humble Sea Terrace. But if they can reuse them that is a lot less waste.

16 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Although the Transatlantic sailing still isn't showing up, they were finally able to re-book us this afternoon, so my guess is that it should be viewable/bookable in the next day or so.

That is excellent news. I hope the fare doesn't jump up to drastically. 

30 minutes ago, notme2012 said:

I would wait and see, before purchasing any flights. Inventories for flights for around April 20, 2024, will not be loaded until May 21, 2023. Besides there could be promo airfares between now and Jan. 1, 2024. In this case, waiting is your best course of action.

Yeah, I had planned on waiting but I just wanted to get a ball park idea. I'm going to just wait and see what happens because I'm really not interested in Barcelona.

Wow. So this is interesting. I hadn't looked at the summer offers for Brilliant Lady but I had been really looking at the TA. I began pricing airfare yesterday for the TA that Scarlet Lady is doing and couldn't believe the prices just going through various months to get a feel for them. With a $500 credit that isn't even close to covering my cost out of Colorado to Miami and then back from Barcelona. I could get cheaper flights out of London and a pretty cheap flight from Barcelona to London so that might be an option. Guess I will wait and see.

2 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

The summer season for Brilliant Lady has never been announced. Only the transatlantic has been taken off sale, anything beyond that was never published. I’m expecting they would announce in the next month or so the summer 2024 itineraries for Brilliant and maybe the winter 2024 for Valiant too.

So I was being way to focused on the TA and just didn't pay any attention to the rest. My boss finally gives me permission to be gone longer then 10 days and I have always wanted to go to Lisbon so I was really focused on that. Thanks for the reality check jon81uk!

I finally convinced a friend of mine to do the TA from San Juan to Lisbon the end of April 2024 and now it is gone. But it appears all sailing with the Brilliant Lady are gone from the end of April 2024 through October of 2024. Has anyone heard anything about this.

I am slated to leave on my cruise on Sunday. I had my reservations fully booked months ago. On Tuesday I went to check and all of my dinner reservations, including the Crown Grill (which was paid for) were gone. Talk about a scramble to try and get ones done during the time we wanted to eat dinner. Crown Grill is now fully booked and they couldn't get me back in. So after a lot of back and forth we are doing the Ultimate Balcony Dinner. So if you do have your dinners booked keep an eye on them.

That is so sad. A terrible situation for those directly involved in it.

On 3/28/2023 at 7:02 AM, CruisingWalter said:

Folks on the West Coast of the U.S. have been asking about a ship. Folks have been asking about Asia itineraries. Sending one of the ships through the Panama Canal for a 2 month West Coast season that includes Hawaii trips would be awesome

I would so love them to sail out one of the West Coast ports. So much cheaper and easier for me to get to. The chatter I have been hearing is that Scarlet is due to go into dry dock in late 2024 and that she may "possibly" move to the West Coast. Keeping my fingers crossed.

59 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Carnival has the e-muster now. We did that last March, easy peasy. 

That's good to hear. That was only one of so many things that made that cruise a "one & done". To many to list but suffice it to say that my friend and her husband were loyal and high tier Carnival fans. After that cruise - they never sailed Carnival again. They and I had plans to sail on Virgin and then she passed away. He and I sailed and he found a new like. He still loves Princess but Virgin has also won his heart.

I loved Razzle Dazzle. Their bacon is awesome. Galley is definitely an option and you can get breakfast 24/7. The friend I traveled with had to sample just about everything at Razzle Dazzle and to say his eyes were bigger then his stomach is definitely an understatement. He loved the combination muffin/croissant. He said the waffles were amazing and the breakfast fruit pizza, as he called it, was a definite winner. I tried that as well and it was really good. I had to pass on all the gluten stuff and just took his word and facial expression as to how good it was.

I will take VV way of doing it any time. The one and only trip on Carnival we were standing in the hot sun for over an hour while waiting for everyone to show up and check in. My friend and I were mushed back against the wall and they kept screaming at everyone to move back and get closer. I am mildly claustrophobic but combine it with the heat and being crammed together I started to feel faint. My friend hollered to the ship personnel that she thought I was going to faint and their response was to just deal with it. The man next to me grabbed me and pushed our way out of the crowd to the rail and now the personnel were having a fit. Princess, NCL and Celebrity aren't bad but watching the video in the cabin and then strolling down to check in was a piece of cake.

On the cruise I was on, back in December 2021, one of the football (American football) games was on. My friend and I ordered the white pizza then went over to the little bar, just down from the pizza place, ordered a couple of beers and proceeded to watch the game with another couple on their tablet. Great pizza and company. Remember, the pizza and ice cream are free. Way better ice cream then the gelato that Princess sells for a premium price.

If you have booked through a TA they can usually go in and get your dinner reservations booked for you. 

I called Virgin direct back in 2021, when the app was notorious for being wonky, and they were more then happy to help me book my dinner reservations.

So relax and enjoy the new experience. 

I have joint issues and for me the bed was uncomfortable. But the friend who sailed with me loved the bed. So it would just depend on the person.

Thank you everyone. I'm waiting to hear back from a friend to see if they want to go with me. So all of your help is greatly appreciated.

I am looking at this cruise for 2024 and have some questions for those who have done it. 

I have never sailed outside of Hawaii, the West Coast or the Caribbean so this will be all new to me. I have been thinking about getting a Sea Terrace on what would be the South side of the ship going over so I could relax in the hammock and read while getting some sun. Then I thought it might make the cabin to warm. So would love some feed back on this. I noticed on my other cruise on Scarlet that my cabin never really cooled off like what I like. Living at 8200 feet in the mountains of Colorado, I handle cold way better then I do hot. Like leave my bedroom window cracked open all year long.

My other question is I get motion sickness - like riding in the back seat and backing out of a driveway = violent ill. On my first cruise I swore never again - even with Bonine. Now 15 years later and I am still cruising, but now I take ginger along with the Bonine. Hoping that will be enough being out there on the open ocean. 

I'm also thinking either train from Lisbon to Paris so I can see the country side but it looks like it is a 19 hour trip. So maybe a flight would be better.

My boss isn't happy about me taking 2 weeks off, but I figure I have been with the casino for 21 years by that time, so I deserve to take an extra long vacation from the craziness. 

Any tips, suggestions, ideas will be greatly appreciated for this trip. Thanks everyone!!!!

On 2/19/2023 at 6:00 PM, Goobaroo said:

Well he offered me $200 onboard credit.  So again, after doing most of the research myself I might “earn” $200 - on a $5000 booking.  I think I’ll just book the cruise directly through VV and skip the middle man.  😏

So having an extra $200 isn't worth it? So here is a scenario - you have a major problem with your cruise. It is taking repeated calls to the cruise line and still not resolved. At times you may be on hold for an hour or more. Or you let your TA do it. But if you book it yourself don't bother to call the TA you spoke with to fix any problems. That would just be rude. 

4 hours ago, Rhea98 said:

I heard the Old Fashioned 🥃 is really good, too. In fact, I heard it several times 😉.

I think CruisingWalter had in one of his video he had an Amaretto Old Fashion that was amazing. I'm not an Old Fashion drinker but I may have to try that.

10 hours ago, Goobaroo said:

 

 

4- Feedback

In summary, we’d like to try something new with cruising. But we don’t want to find ourselves in an environment that feels uncomfortable for all involved. 
 

Thank you!

I think everyone had hit it right on for cruising on Virgin. I'm on the upper end of 60 and fell in love with Virgin. I have another Virgin cruise booked in December. Would go earlier but I have my final cruise on Princess in April and my milestone birthday in Hawaii in May. Since I work in a casino June through September are out for vacations and I don't book cruises in the Caribbean until December. Otherwise I would be cruising with them at least 3 times this year.

I sure wish they would cruise out of the West coast because it is so much easier to get to for me. I would probably be on Virgin at least 4 times a year if they were doing the West coast.