ceilidh1

Wait, are you saying that “to gain weight” is officially a valid reason to cruise now? Cause I slay at doing that! Maybe my health insurance will cover it..,

My biggest (and possibly only) peeve with VV is that they have this beautiful sparkling terminal and they make people wait outside. I don't get it. By the time folks are allowed inside, boarding has pretty much started - so what is the point of that lovely terminal?

Hurry up and sail already. Or at least get to SoCal....

Omg! I just went on carnival site as I was going to gift you Tribies a bottle of Patron…$190 USD? Sorry. I love y’all but that’s just robbery!

But you know I love babies…🤣😬😳

MEEEEEE

I thought I saw a post from @Greenpea2 saying she wasn’t on! That’s why I got confused

I haven’t been as present on this site as I usually am (🙄🙄🙄) so I’m confused who all is tagging along now. I know the usual suspects but can we have a roll call of who else is onboard? @Greenpea2 I thought for sure you were going! And @AmyJA too? I really need to come back to the fold!

Perfect! Black Out!

Yahoo - I've been waiting for this. Starting to have serious FOMO now. If only I hadn't gone on my Virgin cruise a month ago, I would be coming along. But, then again, that cruise was epic. #ifyouknowyouknow I expect more and better shenanigans from y'all on this one. If I can do it, I know all you guys can! Woot Woot

It's 16 years old - you would need to have it booked by Princess agent or TA as the bookings would need to be correctly linked. One thing to note is that if you plan on using Princess Air, the minors must be on the same flight as the adults (sounds obvious but did cause an issue for us once as one of the teens was flying from school rather than from home).

No, I don't think that would be the right itinerary for them. I think Hawaii, Mexico, maybe Coastals...

Just like that it was all over. Got into my house at midnight Vancouver time, which was 3am Miami time. Thankfully no delays so all smooth and the train was right at the airport when I arrived. I’m now on my way to work as well as a full detox! Thanks for following along everyone. It was a blast. Already filled out the post cruise survey and waiting on new itineraries being released December 14. Praying for west coast sailings!

I only saw it the one time on mine between 4;30 and 5:30 but I hadn’t been at The Dock at that time on other days so it’s possible it was every day

The app said that guests wanting assistance with luggage could put it outside their room and disembark after 8:30am. But no mention of going to sailor services to get tags so that the terminal could sort them (bags were arranged by deck). Did your notification mention that? I only found out as I saw my neighbour putting tags on as he had been confused and asked about it.

Well that was nuts. I got in line for security at 2:55 and just made it through. Even TSA had to stand in the long line until it got the actual start of the security stanchions. The line snaked all the down past the check in counters, so it was half hour before even reaching security. Ugh. Now at Earl of Sandwich as it was the first place I saw that didn’t have a line…

Happy I chose the earlier shuttle to the airport. It’s nuts here. Over an hour wait for security. I still might not manage to get food at this rate! 😭

Excursions: I didn’t take any VV excursions as nothing jumped out at me and they were all pretty pricey! They seemed to book up very quickly so not sure if there was even anything available once on the ship. I was shocked that the cabanas in Bimini had doubled in price. I also booked an identical independent excursion in puerto plata (only 4 in our group) for half the price VV were charging.

First Solo Sailing: let’s just say I may be hooked on sailing solo now. I had a blast! I met so many people on the ship that I never actually felt alone. There was a great group from our other group who weren’t necessarily sailing solo that were also fun and welcoming. VV were great at organizing two solo meet ups and a solo dinner and from there we got to know one another VERY well! 🤣

The Food: Pretty much everything I ate was awesome. Even the Galley was decent - I’m not a fan of buffets, but I liked the bento box sushi and the pastries there. I will say that it wasn’t quite as blown away impressive as on Scarlet but I suspect that had more to with that being the first time experiencing it. Definitely no complaints. Except missing butter chicken. Oh and the weird times when they stop serving! Lol

Staff/Happenings Cast: I can’t say enough about the team on the ship. Outstanding. Sure, there were a few times when service was slow or orders got mixed up but overall everyone was fantastic. They all seem so happy in their jobs and really stood out as a team that gelled! The cast and dancers from the shows? Wow! Loved them all. I realized too late that I never managed to make it to comedy or the bands around the ship. No idea what I was doing during those times!

The Booking/Events: It frustrates me that you can book dining but there is no information about shows, etc when that opens. My first dining reservation I made was The Wake and it turned out that by the time I got on the ship I ended up not being able to do it as it clashed with a paid event I had. I wasn’t able to book another day/time and couldn’t get a walk in so ended up missing The Wake. All things considered, I’m glad that I booked all the things I 100% wanted to do the second I boarded as they filled FAST!

The Communication (or lack of): I feel like it gets to be a job to find out basic things. The app lists some stuff but not others. It was impossible to find opening/closing hours of stuff without the printed piece of paper. It was often unclear that some of the events weren’t actually events so when you showed up it was a non event (I’m looking at you Pink Agave After Dark). Zero info about disembarkation and luggage. No information until too late about bag storage, etc. I met a LOT of first time virgin cruisers and the number one frustration from them all seemed to be not knowing about having to book dining, shows, etc and by the time they found out everything was full. If you’ve sailed before you know to keep checking or try walk in but if you haven’t, you don’t know that. I feel like VV could definitely do better with this stuff!

Final thoughts: you can probably tell from reading that there were way more HITS than misses on this cruise. Were there one or two things that could have been better? Of course. Were they worth complaining about or did they ruin my trip? Absolutely not. Here are the hits and misses for me: The Room: I was in central sea terrace 14150A. When I booked, I allowed VV to select it and thought nothing else of it. This is the way VV does it, but you CAN call in and request a room or go through an agent who can select a room. Had I thought about it more carefully, I would have changed it. The location was 100% perfect- right next to the stairs/elevator at mid ship and an easy walk up one flight to the Galley. For the most part it was quiet except that it was below the gym. If there were classes or folks lifting weights, it got LOUD. Usually early in the morning. I also had a lot of door slammers around me. Please people, it’s not hard to just hold onto the door and let it close slowly and quietly. Other than that, the room was great and I loved that the balcony had some cover/shade as it was partially built into the hull. I think lower floors don’t have that.