cantgetin

7 hours ago, jon81uk said:

Pretty sure Razzle Dazzle now just serves one menu straight through breakfast to brunch too.

We didn't notice a change in the menu, but they did list a short "break."  Great if they no longer do that!

14 minutes ago, conandrob240 said:

I am still not fully understanding. Meaning like a big atrium?

 I think that's what OP wanted.  Bottom line, VV is not like Celebrity or Royal or Princess or NCL.  If you want what those ships offer, go on those ships.  Virgin has lots of smaller lounge areas with bar service, but there is no huge central atrium like you'll find on other ships.  I was on VV for 14 nights in October.  Many things I experienced were quite different from what is quoted here BUT I can't say what OP experienced.  Maybe the Tomahawk steak did increase from $75 to $125,   Maybe everything he said was accurate.  It just doesn't correspond to my experience in a sea terrace cabin only a few weeks before he cruised.

I followed shoreside's recommendation to make all dinner reservations in advance on my cruise....but when we wanted to change them after boarding, we had no problem.  Sailing had 1400 sailors.

Walk ups are available any time that seating is available (they'll save seats for those with reservations).  Razzle Dazzle does breakfast, a short break, and then lunch/brunch.  The Wake is open continuously from opening, but adds additional items to the menu at noon.  On our cruise there was no limit to the number of reservations we could make at either place.  We were turned away from walk up seating at The Wake once as they were full, but they made us a  reservation for the next day.  We went to Razzle Dazzle and were seated.

You can make same day reservations at any time IF there are spaces, so yes, you can wake up at 9 and make a 9:30 reservation if it is available.  The app will show available times for that day...but if you don't see a reservation time, there may still be walk ups.  A reservation is held 15 minutes after the scheduled time; if the party doesn't show up, that table becomes available for a walk up.

We had about 1400 on our cruise.  The only time we couldn't do a walk up at either brunch/breakfast or dinner was the one time I detailed above.  We even got our favorite server at Razzle Dazzle most of the time.

Correct that you cannot choose your cabin with an on line booking.  You can choose if you make your booking on the phone or thru a travel agent.  Or you can book on line and then call and change the assigned cabin.

There is NO predicting when the "loot" will show up other than it will be there shortly after boarding.  My TA sends me photoshots of her documents (which do show it) so I have proof if I board and it isn't there.  However, in my case, it has always been correct after boarding even though the app showed one thing, the "my account" section of the web site showed something else, and they were both wrong!

Bottom line, their pre-cruise IT stinks.  It does improve at boarding.

When I said "host," I was referring to the room steward.  They call them something different on VV, but I couldn't remember what.  We were not in a suite and paid $96 pp per day for our cruise.

Sorry you didn't like VV; with 90+ cruises under your belt, you've obviously found lines you do enjoy.

On our cruise the shows were repeated multiple times, usually twice each night and at least 2 nights during the cruise. There is also a standby line so that if the people who have made reservations have not checked in by 5 minutes prior to the start of the show, they will seat people from the standby line.  I honestly don't know how many people can be seated in each venue; I suspect that 200 is a low estimate for the Red Room, which is where many of the shows are located.  200 would be 10 rows of 20 people.  There were more rows than that, and there is also an upper level.  We did have difficulty getting reservations to one of the shows.  After a quick chat with a fellow passenger, we learned that the fully booked show the night before had been more than half empty when people didn't show up.  That was our lesson in "try the standby line."

There will always be conflicts in scheduling.  There are typically at least 2 different shows each night, each show running twice. They usually have different start times...and you have to get dinner in there sometime.

Food availability--did you know that you can actually go to another restaurant if you are still hungry after Test Kitchen and the restaurant is still open?  We went to Razzle Dazzle about 9 after an early dinner at Test Kitchen.  No, we didn't eat a second dinner, but got something!The only place open 24/7 is Diner and Dash.  We found Noodle Around and the salad place re-opened in the late evening; we went up and got custom made salads one night.  Pizza was open until 1am.  Each place has different hours.  I can't begin to quote you the hours of each place, but again, they are on the app and on the daily sheet. Room service was available late and they have real food available, not just typical room service junk.  Food hint--the selections of the "to go" boxes changes throughout the day.  Get a box of cut fruit in the morning or cheese selection around noon and pop it into your fridge for an afternoon or evening snack.

There is a back up housekeeping team available from 2 (when the main team finishes) till into the evening.  You can request service on the tablet, the app, or by calling on the phone. If you want the bed converted every day, let your host know and he will set it up for the entire cruise.  If you need towels, water, or anything, just contact them.

There are bars all over the ship, and other than mornings, most of them seemed to be open  thru the afternoons and evenings.  There are bars outside of a couple of the restaurants.  You can go there whether you plan to dine at that restaurant or not.  The restaurants that don't have a bar outside so serve alcohol once you enter.  It is true that not all bars are equipped to make the same drinks. For instance, one bar specializes in Mezcal and tequila drinks.  Most can make the common drinks, but you have to be in the right place to get something special.  True that there is no huge central atrium--which is mostly wasted space on other lines.  The closest thing is the Roundabout, a stairway with various gathering areas on each floor.

My suspicion is that OP didn't do a lot of research before boarding Scarlet Lady.  I spent a lot of time on line, and felt well prepared for the things that are "different" on VV.  I liked most of the differences, OP did not.  Different lines for different people.  The things that DO need help are the app (great when it works, but it craps out a lot) and the wifi.  If you are looking for Princess or Celebrity, you will be disappointed on VV--that's not how this ship is designed physically or entertainment-wise.  Before our first Princess cruise, I suggested to my travel companion that if we compared everything to our favorite ship, we were bound to be disappointed, while if we looked at this as a new experience to see what this line had to offer, it was far more likely to be positive.  That is especially true on VV.  OP was unhappy when something wasn't as he expected; but I see most of the dis-satisfaction being that he didn't know how or where to get things to happen.  We found great food and great crew, as well as great prices.  Some of the entertainment was not to my taste, but that's on me, not the ship.  There were plenty of other things to do if we didn't choose to do one of the shows.

5 hours ago, Host Joe said:

Shouldn’t they be available in your stateroom or on the app? That would be logical to me. And if they are available only in those two pick up locations wouldn’t it be wise to let passengers know that?

They are available on the app.  And I listed 3 locations where they are available (grounds club, grounds club too, sailor services.  There were other locations such as the rebooking area, the big red desk near there, etc.

The idea is to reduce waste and not print them for people who are happy getting the info on the app. Actually, many other lines have gone to a "grab them if you want them" concept rather than sliding them under the door.  The other thing we didn't get was 5 or 6 pages of ads each night like you do on DCL, Princess, and Celebrity. And, as noted above, any last minute changes are on the app and on the screens  on decks 5 and 6.

2 hours ago, godzukihop said:

Don't you have to wait for the tram to somewhat fill up before it leaves? The golf carts are constantly shuttling people. 

 

Yes, you have to wait till it either fills up or the next one shows up.  But considering that there are now typically 1300 people on board and almost all want to get to the Beach Club, it doesn't take long to fill.  When the next one returns, the one filling will depart regardless of how full it is.....at least in the early/mid morning and for returns in the afternoon.

The easiest way is to call VV Sailor Services.  If either of you used a TA (First Mate), they can do it for you as well.  You'll need the name of the primary sailor in the cabin and the booking reference number.  A hint--after you board and see your loot on the app, you may want to remove them as friends.  If you continue to be linked, they can make and cancel reservations for you while on board.  We didn't want anyone outside of our cabin messing with our reservations!

1 hour ago, Yukiie said:

 

This is quite frankly bizarre to me. I hope they take this feedback and make some signs to put near elevators. I get turned around easily onboard so I've always relied on signage near elevators to get my bearings. Although I am old enough to remember the days of little fold out maps that you would try to navigate from. 

As I noted, signs have been added on Valiant Lady.  Also, OP was concerned about the lack of daily programs.  We found them available in multiple locations--both Grounds Club location, Sailor Services, etc.

1 hour ago, Yukiie said:

 

1 hour ago, angela12345 said:

Haha, yes there are.  TOO many in fact, I can't get anything productive done because I'm glued to youtube.  : )

By the way, what can't you get in ?  This website ?  lololol

I used to post under another name, and one day it literally wouldn't let me log on; I kept getting a "wrong password" message.  I knew it wasn't wrong, but tried every other password that I've used.  After a while, I gave up and made the new name account, which has worked fine for years.

And yes, I spent way too much time researching VV before my first cruise.  However, it was worth the effort.  Not everything posted was accurate, but I learned a lot of important things.

Tram takes about 15-20 minutes.  There are multiple vehicles and they run back and forth all day.

Thanks for the in depth review.   I'm a little puzzled by some things because what you describe is very different from what we experienced on Valiant in October.

You mentioned you learned about dining reservations from a group, but many of your other discoveries, like rooms being cleaned once a day, could have been known in advance.  It should be noted that there is a team on call to service any later needs like fresh towels, bathroom supplies, or even a late cleaning should you decide to sleep till after 1pm.

Totally agree with Test Kitchen, especially the B menu.  We also went to dinner after that one.

I'm surprised that there were no walk in slots available for dinner on a half full ship.  We changed our reservations same day or did walk ins several times on our 14 night cruise. That included the night we did Test Kitchen--we went to a different restaurant at 9pm!  Pizza would have been another option.  

We liked The Galley much better than a buffet.  No one else is touching your food.  You can order things as you want them provided they have the ingredients.  For instance, tell them what  you  want in your omelet, salad, etc.  There are 9 or 10 stations, each serving a different type of food. There are many other lunch options--The Dock, Sun Cafe, etc. The Wake and Razzle Dazzle were also open for breakfast and brunch, with seating till about 1 each day.  Reservations for brunch are suggested, but we were able to do walk in with one exception (The Wake was full on one day, but made us a reservation for the next day).

I agree that the steak in Extra Virgin and the "secret" steak in Razzle Dazzle were better than what we had in The Wake.  Tomahawk is up to $125 now?  It was $75 in October.  We found that our favorite restaurants were some that we did not expect to be favorites.

Maybe prices went up all over.  Drinks on our cruise were $9-13, which included gratuities.  Some items were less.We did have a cocktail "forgotten" once in one of the restaurants--they were very apologetic.  Seems the waiter handed it off to the bar tender and the communication stopped at that point.

I'd read about lack of signs so was surprised that we had many signs...by each elevator and in other  spots.  We were told that they were newly added on Valiant. We found the crew lovely and helpful.  THey earn about 3 times as much on other lines, and most say they like it a lot better than the tipping system.  The app needs help.  I'm sorry to hear that the wifi was bad.  It was ok in the Med, but awful during the crossing...we kept hearing from past sailors how it was so much better in the Caribbean.

We found the entertainment to be "spotty."  Some was excellent, some not to our taste.  There were multiple options available each night in different locations.  It isn't the normal model where everyone goes to one big theatre for either an early or late show.  There would be one show in the Red Room with a couple presentations each night, another in The Manor, and often some in other locations.  Then, different shows would be available at 10 or 11pm.

Totally agree that VV isn't for everyone, but it is our new favorite cruise line.  We've done over 40 cruises on many of the major standard lines. We've booked 3 more sailings on VV.  I'd rank it far ahead of the others for food quality, crew attitude, and options.  But people like different things...that's why there are different lines.

1 hour ago, gordiej said:

Trying to make dinner reservations for a cruise next month. There are 4 of us in 3 cabins (which should be linked, although two are guarantees and not assigned yet), I choose party of 4 on the app, but then it will only make the reservation for the two of us in one cabin, and the only way I can see to add someone else is to scan their QR code. Is this just hopeless (I mean the app gets REALLY bad reviews in the Apple Store) and should I call Virgin? Can my Travel Agent do this too?

The app is awful.  Yes, you can make dinner reservations before a cabin is assigned by calling VV or by having your travel agent deal with the hopeless phone lines for you.  They also have a special travel agent web site that might work better.  We were able to request a table for 4 without naming the other 2, so if I can do it with no name, you should be able to do it with no cabin number!

Call at 8am EST, or use the call back feature and cross fingers that they get back to you.  I've had a call back in 20 minutes and a couple that never did call me!  The app and the website have issues.....

There are tons of well done ship tours on social media sites.

So basically you need to decide whether you want the sea terrace or the XL sleeps 3 with the ottoman.  We never used the chair in our sea terrace room!

USA News ranked VV as the best cruise line for the money in 2022.

Surprise, they did not win best cruise line for families!

Thanks for posting, tacocat.  Yeah, his latest is that NCL is "poised" to buy out VV.  Right.....

1 hour ago, Roscoe Fatty said:

Are wristbands mandatory?

We carried ours in our pockets.  The wristband is an electronic device that acts like a Key to the World Card, Sea Pass,  or whatever other titles various lines use.  It is used to pay for anything on the ship, open the cabin door, open Richard's Rooftop (if keyed that way), etc.  It also lets crew know if you have "status" for staying in a suite, being in 485c, etc.  Bottom line--we found them annoying and placed them in our pockets.  Thinking about bringing a lanyard to hold it on the next cruise.

You must have it, but you don't have to wear it.

1 hour ago, rebeccac said:

Plus, they are definitely pivoting their marketing away from what it was originally.  While it used to be geared almost exclusively toward young people, the marketing is now much more open to a variety of ages and people.  

Average age on VV is now pushing 50, with 50% of "sailors" being married couples.  The longer the cruise, the older the mix tends to be.  Age range has been 18-90s.  At least OP stated that they had never cruised VV.

They started sailing in October 2021.  As to this guy....he'd put up a couple of scary videos...hope he is wrong.  Bookings on VV cruises are gradually increasing and most passengers are now paying the rates available to all on line (as opposed to casino or travel agent rates).  True, these are not the "book rates" but most lines have constant sales and other than the really high end lines, very few passengers pay the "full fare."  True that VV started out cruising at 1/3 capacity, but most current cruises are going out at 50% -80% of capacity.  VV will essentially never hit the 101+% of lines that focus on 4 person cabins as most VV cabins hold 2 people.

19 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

worth reiterating this - you order anything with a charge and that waives the fee.  so if you order a $3 espresso, you don't pay the fee AND you get an espresso!  fee is waived for rockstars too.

Correct....sorry if I confused the issue by giving examples of things with charges.  One problem with room service if you are not a coffee drinker--if you order soup or tea, it comes as the solids/tea leaves in one container and the hot broth/water in a thermos type container.  They do not separate those that are used for coffee from those that are used for other things, so the tea water or soup broth smells and tastes like coffee.  I couldn't come up with a solution for the soup broth, so ended up placing that in the containers to return, but sprinkled the veges on my salad!  The premium tea that I ordered (in lieu of delivery charge), I saved till I could get a cup of fresh, hot water from the Grounds Club the next day.  Hot water is also available at The Galley.

2 hours ago, FlyingCruiser2 said:

 

 

I feel terrible for the large number of pax that we’re on a Virgin flight from Europe to Miami that got diverted to Dulles for a medical emergency Saturday, and due to crew time limits and a maintenance issue ended up not getting to Miami on time.  Cannot imagine how disappointing that would be.

That's why we always fly in at least a day ahead and purchase travel insurance.  Flying in a day (or even 2 when we are going to Europe) ahead can eliminate a lot of the potential flight issues.  Nothing takes care of the disappointment, but at least travel insurance can make another trip financially possible.  

We have friends in the UK who come to Florida regularly, but they don't just do a 4 or 5 night cruise.  They will combine a cruise with theme park or other locations, and typically stay in the US about 3 weeks.  No, I can't see flying to the US for a 4 night cruise, especially when Valiant Lady was in Europe until a month ago.