Chrish2

Just to be clear, the removal of evening turndown isn't giving staff a rest. They now have duties in other parts of the ship during the time they would have been doing evening turndown. It was planned before COVID came along and allows the ship to be run with less crew. @Adawn47 I can't see that as feasible. Better to have a uniformed service than one that is difficult to manage.

The copy of the email is a little off IMO, as it they reused some copy for the old $200 offer and applied to the closing the scheme. From observing others I think Virgin was too accommodating re adding the offer after booking. The reason they must have allowed it was so people who was travelling together didn't miss out which is nice of them however it resulted in lots of confusion that was also spilling over into Sailer Services onboard. I wonder if come Feb 15th the full loyalty scheme might be announced and the sailer loot been withdrawn here might be re-deployed within that scheme.

Just spotted this on MSC's UK website "Status Match Plus". Seems to be an improvement over the existing program of matching status https://www.msccruises.co.uk/cruise-deals/status-match-plus Status Match Plus What will take your favourite cruise to the next level? Our Status Match Plus Programme! Are you new to cruising or do you want to try your first cruise with MSC Cruises? If you are a member of another cruise line’s, hotel or tour operator’s loyalty programme then you can match your status to MSC Voyagers Club with our Status Match Programme and only for a limited time, with the NEW Status Match Plus programme, you can now move to the next tier by booking a cruise with us. What does this mean? If you are a Silver member of another cruise line, hotel or tour operator loyalty scheme, we will not just match your status to our MSC Voyagers Club, but we will move your status to the next tier to enjoy even greater privileges. So your MSC Voyagers Club status will be Gold instead of Silver! Don’t miss the chance to join our MSC family and enjoy a great selection of privileges such us priority embarkation and disembarkation, late check-out, complimentary dinner at one of our speciality restaurants, 5% off on all future cruises and much more, depending on your membership level.

Mid ship there is a notable part that sticks out on deck 7 with seating/sofas facing the ship. Having sat on the sofas you do look directly at peoples balconies which is a bit strange IMO. We actually spotted this before booking from a drone video. I've highlighted the relevant section on this video from YouTube. I think it might be the one we spotted the issue. We booked a forward cabin over the lifeboats to avoid been overlooked like this. n.b. aft cabins have a walkway under that is less tucked away than in the forward section. This provides some viability of balconies but if I remember nothing too notable. There is one exception, those angled balconies at the point the layout changes. When walking aft to forward on deck 7 these are quite visible. Full video

Hi I've spotted an itinerary and date on MSC Virtuosa that would join up quite nicely with some other travel plans but not at the current price. I've noticed how low some of the itineraries go to and would be interested if it dropped to that price. Other than checking out the price every couple of days is there any other good places keep an eye on and tips from those who have watched MSC prices in the past?

Does anyone have recent info about what tier MSC will match you to for various Peninsular Club status?

This link looks dead, does anyone have the file? Interested in finding out what P&O status matches to

My understanding is can have three sharing in most room types however you might notice you don't get much of a discount for a 3rd passenger in the same cabin. This is different to what other cruise lines often do where once you hit the 2 people occupancy having a 3rd or 4th in the same cabin is highly discounted. As an example the following is all in prices for a sea terrace at this time on The Irresistible Med (7nights) 21st May 2023 Lock It In Rate Ltd View Sea Terrace (for 1 sailor in 1 cabin) = $2,735 (for 2 sailors in 1 cabin) = $2,844 ($1,422pp) (for 3 sailors in 1 cabin) = n/a sold out The Sea Terrace (for 1 sailor in 1 cabin) = $3,610 (for 2 sailors in 1 cabin) = $3,718 ($1,859pp) (for 3 sailors in 1 cabin) =$4,974 ($1,658pp) The extra for going from 1 to2 people is tax ($108) however the extra to go from 2 to 3 is $1,256. In effect the 3rd person gets 1/3 discount. Keep an eye out for the no solo supplement offer they ran last year as it might work out better value. We got 3x normal sea terrace with 1 person in each cheaper than 3 people in one cabin! "Top Tip", if you do end up booking 2x sea terrace cabins then book one on Port and the other on Starboard. That way if you want to join on the balcony you will have a choice of sunny or shaded (and some times shaded is much nicer as it can be too hot, especially if you are still in port with little wind and no movement to cool things down).

Words to the effect P&O have done away with them.

So the lack of coasters during the K301a sailing was hopefully only a "supply chain" issue!

Do they have them onboard? I was under the impression it's not the staff not bring them out by default but P&O scrapped them entirely.

Actually this one really bugs me. To the point I might consider taking my own beer mats in future. However did I queue up at reception about it no. However I think people have a right to make know what is spoiling their enjoyment.

It's present with the code previously posted (Js7d) and was added just a few days after. The target URL that redirects seems to contain the same referral id (81ABFD19-6938-4418-91F7-11E030F51AC6) so all looks good to me. Let me know if anything has been overlooked

FYI the sheet is up to date with everything posted up to this point. Been a few pages since I posted but have been updating in the background recently. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UaItklpqBLClAiCNxN9I32iSRXM4x0rQWND-jUjwGzc/edit#gid=0 Some observations (sorry, don't think I can call them "fun facts") * @aqlollipop has the booking the furthest out in May 2024! * The transatlantic and repositioning trips look like they have multiple codes submitted, expect them to be busy! * Not many yet with Australian departures. Maybe the reach of CC is more US & UK focused.

Having been onboard what I saw was Anderson’s has a display cabinet with board games and books however the books are the large “mostly for display” kind you often see in hotel rooms on the table. I didn’t notice novels etc. but didn’t spend much time in Anderson’s, it had a strange vibe.

I wonder if it's anything to do with the new "Badges" section. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/forum/826-virgin-voyages/ @liquix said they saw "Foodie, Holiday, MerMaiden, Miami Resident, and Transatlantic" in the source of the page. Maybe the badges might be a virtual representation of a set of charms you can earn for completing certain achievements ... think a pin would have been preferred but will hold out till we see one. I get the sense this might all be part of the 2023 launch of the proper "Sailing Club" loyalty scheme as otherwise it's an odd random addition.

Could you share a link to the terms? for some reason I can't find them anymore.

I've had a request to change this link to https://virg.in/Jumg and seeing as the original link errors I see no harm in changing. I've seen this error before and wondered what causes it. Out of curiosity for the rest of the board, did you modify your booking in some way since September?

We was unaware of this pre booking discount for the a la carte venues. Thanks for mentioning it. I will looks more closely next time.

This shows as "Sold and Serviced by Barbara Harrisso", is this your Travel Agent?

Hey, This link shows an error on the page. Do you still have this booked?

Before sailing on Arvia I posted what mix of dining we expected to use onboard. I thought it would be interesting to compare with what we actually did ----- Breakfast or Lunch in 6th Street Diner is appealing and we *might* also try it one evening. We had breakfast once, lunch twice and evening meal once (last night). We really enjoyed the 6th Street Diner. Food was always hot. Limelight Club Club is booked for one evening just to try it. We booked this for one evening meal before the first port call. We ended up moving the booking as the artist was ill. We felt the main meal was very good (did not appear to be either menu a or menu b). We probably will give Epicurean a miss this time (no special event in the family). Did not dine at Epicurean. Noted that it appeared fully booked all cruise. My impression (without seeing it first hand) is Keel and Cow is a glorified wetherspoons so the up charging don't appeal to me. Did not dine. Did not appeal to anyone in our party. Green & Co we might try for lunch one day. We dined for lunch once. Interesting menu. Sindhu tends to be when on promotion but I don't think they do that on the a la carte mode on Iona/Arvia We dined for one evening meal. If cruising again we probably would give a miss as we did not enjoy the a la carte mode. Beach House with the increased costs is no longer good value so probably a miss. We dined for one evening meal. Food was nice but menu is all over the place. If cruising again we probably would give a miss. Olive Grove is the only alternative to the MDR we may consider for 3 or so nights but not for formal nights Olive Grove was a let down. We dinned here for two evening meals (one on menu A and one on menu B). Food was ok-ish but did not live up to word of mouth from Iona. Service was not great (one of the meals took 2 hours with staff clearly stretched). Unless something unexpected happens we don't plan to go to horizons or quays for evening meal As per plans we only dined at breakfast/lunch at quays. Horizons we mostly stayed away from other to pick up a afternoon treat and one breakfast. ---- All in all the 6 of the 15 evening meals was eaten outside the MDR which was broadly inline with the expected 5 from planned. Meridian (MDR) was our main dining venue for evening meal. We tried Zenith (MDR) for one night just to see it however we felt we waited longer for the table and the venue was not for us. In the Meridian (MDR) we had one meal that could have been warmer, one which service was far too "express" and one menu we felt was boring. Wait times: For Limelight, Green & Co, Sindhu and Beach House we booked in advance. For the remainder for evening meal we would meet in a bar, order a drink and once arrived request a table via the My Holiday "app" (table for 5, no sharing). Sometimes the table would be ready as we finished our drink in which case we finished our drink, hit the "im on my way" button and walk down the left hand side to be seen to our table right away. Once or twice if it arrived too quick we gave up our table and rejoined to get a table when we was ready. On formal nights we had to re-order drinks when waiting but we never waited more than two drinks. We felt the app worked well for us. I'm not sure I would want to wait in the real queue, then possibly take a pager, order a round and then be called at a random point. With the app been two way you are in control of when you join, from where in the ship you join and if you accept the time you have been allocated. The only grumble is number of people in the queue is not a good indicator of wait time. E.g. we thought the night we went to 6th Street diner we would be called right away (2 people waiting) but it was much longer wait than most visits to Meridian (MDR) with 30+ people waiting. It would seem some venues need a little bit more bedding in but this is understandable for a brand new ship. There are some personal preferences we would prefer P&O to change however we understand some will have the opposite preference and we are happy to "work around them".

I just used an online TA website to find a shortish itinerary on Arvia (they all tend to be longer). The first I found was in Nov 2023 so I looked up a "long" Virgin Voyages one (they all tend to be short) to compare in the same month. Without looking at prices I picked the first itinerary for both that came up for me what was of about the right length and ended up with 7 nights (P&O) and 8 nights (Virgin). This is what I found P&O K323B Eastern Caribbean from Barbados 11 November 2023 7 nights With Flights OBS £0 Prices per cabin (based on 2 sharing) £2,506 Standard inside Saver (Select @ £2,820 with £180 OBS per cabin) £3,004 Standard Balcony Saver (Select @ £3,510 with £300 OBS per cabin) Virgin Voyages Eastern Caribbean Antilles 18 Nov 2023 Sun (8 nights) Current offer will give you $600 (~£500) "Sailer loot" (OBS) per cabin. You will also get 10% discount if you pay in full today (not shown below). NO flights included Prices per cabin (based on 2 sharing) £2,054.92 Social Insider (£2,174.74 Insider ) £2,671.46 Limited View Sea Terrace (£2,846.20 The Sea Terrace) Virgin Atlantic (KLM ticketed) flights direct from LHR to MIA are currently £373 pp on skyscanner and you are going to need a hotel the night before (~£150). Knock off the sailer loot (I assume you will spend that onboard anyway) and add on flights/hotel gives you £2,450.92 Social Insider (£2,570.74 Insider ) £3,067.46 Limited View Sea Terrace (£3,242.2 The Sea Terrace) IMO (and this is subjective) price wise when looking at these two they are in in spitting distance of each other, if anything Virgin Voyages is better value given they are giving you 8 nights onboard for the price of 7 onboard P&O. The virgin one appeals to a DIYer who might do something in Miami, Florida or USA before/after. The P&O one to someone who wants something simple "tell me where to turn up and when you going to get me back". Based on the above I think its entirely fair to compare the products, especially the core onboard experience.

Going on Arvia this Friday. Breakfast or Lunch in 6th Street Diner is appealing and we *might* also try it one evening. Limelight Club Club is booked for one evening just to try it. We probably will give Epicurean a miss this time (no special event in the family). My impression (without seeing it first hand) is Keel and Cow is a glorified wetherspoons so the up charging don't appeal to me. Green & Co we might try for lunch one day. Sindhu tends to be when on promotion but I don't think they do that on the a la carte mode on Iona/Arvia Beach House with the increased costs is no longer good value so probably a miss Olive Grove is the only alternative to the MDR we may consider for 3 or so nights but not for formal nights Unless something unexpected happens we don't plan to go to horizons or quays for evening meal So over 15 nights we are probably looking at 5 nights outside the MDR and 10 nights in. This feels rather typical to the proposition offered. Currently the number of non MDR nights is up compared to prior propositions (e.g. Azura). The key caveat on this is formal night changes the dynamic with 0 nights expected outside the MDR. The only alternative on these nights would be Epicurean. I do wonder if this factors into why there is only 1 formal night a week (instead of 2). If MDR quality deteriorates and there is any feeling we are been "pushed" to other venues then we probably will reconsider if P&O is right for us. After all on Virgin Voyages we effectively had a rotation (you can pre book each one once for evening meal) of high quality, high concept restaurants included in the fare.

It's really hard to say. Will they extend deep blue extras even more (a further 6 months)? Will they want to overlap the schemes in anyway? Maybe if most of deep blue extras are featured in the sailing club an extension might act as a cushion for those without enough "tokens" get the perks whilst the scheme gets introduced. Given how freebie driven their promotions are I've wondered how much they really want a tiered loyalty scheme. It can be quite rigid and not allow them to tweak away until they get it right. With sailer loot I think their winning formula is marketing it as "free drinks" but it has taken some time to find that spot.