pa-annie

On 11/7/2023 at 6:28 PM, Valpacino said:

"We had a decent breakfast & lunch experience on the YC Pool Deck.  I have no issues with the food there.  That they serve the delicious pizza by the slice would be a great addition seeing as it seems to be a jewel in the crown, so to speak, in the food offering on board.  I am hoping MSC may be monitoring this thread & consider this suggestion.  To keep such a great offering confined to the Marketplace buffet or room service seems to be a bit of an odd move.  Maybe there are operational reasons why this isn't possible?"

 

 

You mentioned on a few occasions that it would be a plus if you were able to get pizza at the YC pool deck buffet, which seems like it should not be difficult to do.  Is there any ability to order room service pizza delivery to the YC? I still have a ways to go on your thread, but so far I don't think you mentioned anything regarding room service quality.  Thx - BZ

On 11/2/2023 at 2:45 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

bolo for my review after our Thanksgiving sailing in the same class. 🙂 I'll be very thorough and fair.

I will definitely BOLO, we are on Seashore 12/10. Assume you will be starting a new thread, will you post "live"?

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

There will be an arrival time assigned to you that will appear on your eTicket. No one will enforce this time.

Hi Jamie ... we are also from ROC.  We just got an upgrade to YC on the Dec. 10th Seashore sailing, do you know what time we should try and get there to board, and what do we look for when we arrive (any special YC service)?  Thanks A&B

I am not clear on how the dining room times work.  We are not YC or Aurea, I understand that we need to set up either an early, or late dining time.  Ideally we would like to dine around 6:30 or 7:00, how do we best manage to accomplish this?  Is it possible to get a two top, or is it all group seating? TIA ...

Appreciate your review, nicely done.  DYK if they were serving free champagne for sale away?  Someone posted here that they did not get on the ship until 5:00, what was your experience? Any Covid issues?   I was told yesterday by Sailor Services they are still sailing at only 60% capacity, and have an entire deck isolated for quarantine, thoughts?

Thanks much - BZ

1 hour ago, abaci said:

The earliest

 

This appears to be changing. We sail out on March 27th and yesterday selected our arrival time slot as 12:00. The earliest it would let us select was 11:45 am.

Yes - we have 11:45 on our January 25 B2B.

15 hours ago, work4cruising said:

Anyone know if you have to recovid test on 2nd leg?

Everything I've read and have been told is no 2nd Vid test on B2B if you don't leave the assigned area at customs.

On 8/10/2021 at 12:09 PM, fubarbloke said:

Good news: a customer service rep told me that the $425 bar tab ($300 cash + $125 seablazer spiff) can be carried over to the second sailing of a back to back. I'll have to talk to guest services once I'm onboard, but she assured me it can and will be done. We'll see.

 

I also asked about the app. It only shows your next sailing, so it's not possible to use it to book restaurants or shore excursions for the the second sailing. The rep said "it's being worked on" – I think that's safe to say about the app, full stop :-). For now, if I want to book restaurants or shore activities for the second sailing, I have to call customer service and do it over the phone.

 

No problem upgrading my cabin for both sailings from a solo inside to a solo sea view which just became available on the website. I won't have to change cabins between sailings, either. But the website is still very basic – can't do upgrades online, or pretty much anything except an initial booking.
 

We have a B2B in late January and we booked all our restaurant reservations for both sailings on the app at the 45 day marks.  You have to change bookings in the app to be able to do this ... Me, Settings, Switch Voyage (at the very bottom).   I have heard you can ot carry over your pre-paid bar tab to the second sailing, will need to look into this further.  I do have in writing from Sailor Services that we can bring 4 bottles of wine onboard for our B2B.  - BZ

On 12/7/2021 at 10:40 PM, Chamoretta said:

 I don’t know the answer. That is an interesting thought.  Let me know if it works or the last night of the first cruise.  I believe it is is 2 bottles per room so only 2.

Here is the answer I received from Sailor Services via email:

"Ahoy there William,  

12 hours ago, Chamoretta said:

There is a vegetarian option as well as the pre set menu and adjustments for allergies.

So if you plain-ole don't like something they are serving, you just skip it?  Do you know in advance what the menu courses are for the evening, or is it a SURPRISE?  Tx again - BZ

On 10/16/2021 at 5:13 PM, Chamoretta said:

I am currently on a B2B on the Scarlet Lady and will try and answer as many questions as I can.  I'm posting picture on instagram under Parttimecruisers and will have videos up on youtube under the same name (may take a while to edit) about our experience as well.   I'm having trouble using my phone for cruise critics so I will try and use the laptop daily to check and answer questions. Please be patient. I want to give you all as much information as possible with things you want to know.  Please don't be afraid to ask here and I will try my best to answer.  

Our B2B is coming up the last week of Jan., and have 2 Q's:  If we are allowed to bring 2 bottles of wine aboard, then does that mean we can bring 4 (2 for each cruise)? If we buy booze in the duty free on the 1st cruise will we get it the last night so we would have it for the 2nd?  Tx - BZ

Test Kitchen clarification please:  Is the TK basically like a chef's table and you get whatever they serve you, or ... do you get to choose different foods you would like to try?  How does the cocktail parings work, cost?  Do you have your own table or is it a big community table? Thanks - BZ

Does anyone know for sure if the Scarlet Lady will begin going to Key West on the Fire & Sunset Soirées, and if so ... when?

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/6623/?sourc&fbclid=IwAR0ULjbTiPcck71kp6T5NZfPTG8ma8yiTcLkRH5E6X9_6LELpHhW8kDkUGk

- BZ

Thanks for the very succinct review.  That really sucks about the smoking, sorry you had to put up with it and nothing was done to correct the situation.  If it was in another cabin or balcony seems like there should at least be a charge applied.  Did you request a change of cabins?

Do they have glasses you can use by the water stations or do you need your own bottle?  I heard about the crowlers, but didn't know they were insulated.  Do they have any beer bucket deals like buy 4 get 5.  Any type of daily drink specials or happy hour? Tx - BZ

On 11/21/2021 at 9:43 AM, Wildcatllamas said:

I had to call Virgin about a couple of things and the wonderful woman who helped asked if I would like to add the Bar Tab to either the first or second leg of my trip. I explained that if I could carry it over to the second leg or get a refund if I don't use it all I would do it in a heart beat. She was very sympathetic about it when she said that neither could be done but added that we could use it to buy fresh squeezed juice, coffees as well as drinks. I told her that for my friend and I when we did the math figuring 2 coffees apiece per day, 2 drinks a day at lunch and 2 glasses of wine at dinner that we would still have money left over since our first leg is only 4 nights. She understood then.

 

Now this is the big selling point I have with my clients. Most don't want to lose the money if they don't use it all. I wish that Virgin would do what other lines do when there is refundable OBC and non-refundable OBC. The non-refundable is used first and then the refundable is tapped. Oh well. Guess I will buy a bottle of wine to bring on board.

Now I'm confused.  So you need to pay for juice and coffee, thought they were included?  Agree, if you get the "prepaid" bar tab you would have to drink a whole lot to break even on a 4 night cruise, and I don't get why you can't at least carry it over on a B2B.  If you don't prepay a bar tab, your OBC would go towards paying for drinks though, right?  - BZ

29 minutes ago, sellwingri said:

This really makes it difficult for those of us who stay at a hotel the night before.  With an earliest check in time of 2pm, not sure what we’ll do for then 2 hours before.  Not customer friendly.

Agree - most peeps who don't live in FL usually come in the night before, more so now because of all the issues with airline staff shortages and flight changes.  All other cruise lines we have been on out of MIA and FLL allowed for noon arrival at the pier and typically checked-in and in the cabin by 1:00. 

18 hours ago, Nap3025 said:

Book as much as you can on the app before you board. Ship was only half full when we boarded but were unable to get a 2nd reservation at the Italian restaurant. Disappointing as only pizza and they galley were open unless we wanted Gumbai.  

Isn't there a way to book reservations online, or you have to use the app or call?

On 10/29/2021 at 1:15 AM, Chamoretta said:

We did move rooms.  I assume if you weren’t then you would not need to pack up.  We were the first set of people back on and were basically alone for 2.5 hours.

Thanks - were bars/restaurants open for you while you waited for general boarding?

11 hours ago, Chamoretta said:

Just got off a B2B on Virgin Voyages.  They had us pack our bags and leave them in our rooms.  We had a paper that said where to meet at 10:30.  We were to meet at On the Rocks.  They give you a bracelet to show that you are doing back to backs.  No testing is required. You need your band and passport to get off and go through customs.   You check back in.  Then they let you back on.  The whole process took about an hour.

We are on a B2B in Jan/Feb and have same cabin. Did you have to pack your bags because you were assigned to a different cabin?  I assume you were the first passengers back on the ship and did not have to wait on line? Thx

I think if you're Ubering MIA to FLL (only 30 mi. mostly highway) on the weekend you will have plenty of time.  If it's a weekday you still have quite a bit of time to make it but have less leeway for any unexpected circumstances. I would definitely line up early in this case for the walk-off.  I would do it either way and roll the dice if the airfare and flight times are that good. - BZ

"We put a lot of trust in our Sailors to have some basic respect for each other, and to not show up to a full service restaurant in only pasties and earrings, a dripping wet bathing suit, a pair of sandy flip-flops or a fully mesh jumpsuit."

Thanks all.  The suite case is 19" wide x 28" long, we are going to give it a shot unless someone knows for sure it will not fit through the scanner or we'd get turned away. 

And ... we will you be sure to use the stairs so not to offend the naysayers by taking the elevators. Sailing on the Edge Friday, getting psyched. 

- BZ

57 minutes ago, EatonDoolittle said:

Mine fits fine:  24" x 18" x 11". 

Hard side, not a lot of room to spare, but have scanned successfully at Port Everglades, Port Canaveral and Port Tampa.  

So ... L - 24" x W - 18" x H - 11"?

Thx -BZ

Now that we are able to immediately take our luggage to our cabin upon boarding, it would be nice to just take everything with us rather than waiting/hoping for it's later arrival.  We will be sailing the Edge out of Terminal 25 Port Everglades this Friday and curious if anyone knows what the max. suitcase dimensions are that you can get through security?

I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but I thought the cruise terminal scanners were be a little larger than airport scanners.

Much thanks - BZ