cantgetin

I no longer trust the porters in Miami after a bad experience.  We do carry on now.

23 hours ago, Tyler414 said:

Just got back from Barcelona on a Med Rome cruise on Scarlet. We embarked and disembarked at the WTC port.   I could not get the ships WIFI in the terminal, I had plenty of time to try and I was definitely trying.

This was the worst embarkation process I've been part of since before covid.  Stood in the hot terminal for over an hour waiting to board, no clue what the issue was, but it was far from a good experience.

This is very odd.  We've done 2 Barcelona embarkations, one from each terminal, and they were far smoother than Miami.  We had 1:30 times each time.  At WTC, showed up at 1, went thru security and check in, then boarded about 1:35.  In fact, at 1:30 the woman "in charge" of us went to call her supervisor saying we should have begun boarding by now. She returned within minutes and we boarded. We were in our cabin by 1:45...likely a few minutes earlier, but I didn't look till then..  The second time was similar but at the other terminal, again, quick and easy.

Both of our Miami boardings were a bit of a mess

On 8/22/2024 at 7:00 AM, RosyWorld said:

Thanks for this information! Another question: When do you find out about an upgrade? We are considered offering for a Mega Rockstar category. But we will want to purchase a bar tab if we don't get the offer. I know the bar tab has to be purchased at least 2 days before sailing. Will we already know if our offer was accepted/rejected by then?

You can find out at any time up to embarkation.  MOST people seem to find out about a week in advance.  Your TA can see on their portal whether any Megas are showing up as available.

The difference is that there are 70 Rockstar cabins per ship and 1400 other typed of cabins.  Glad it all worked well for you.  In 4 cruises, we haven't had a good app experience, but we've had a great, helpful TA who took care of what the app didn't.

A cabin can be assigned on a "lock it in"rate anywhere from a couple months to a couple days prior to embarkation.  On rare occasions, it can also be changed after it appears on the app.  If someone wants to pay them a high price for a particular cabin type, they will move t "lock it in" person.  There is no obvious rationale to when the cabins are assigned.

2 hours ago, jon81uk said:

I’ve never run around to get any reservations, just boarded the ship, sat in the Dock or Galley, ordered food and a maybe a cocktail and sat down making them while waiting for the food to come. Got the week planned out in half hour or so.

Since there are usually two of us, we sit in The Galley and split the work--one of us makes any changes to dinner reservations needed and the other handles any activity stuff (most of which don't take reservations any more).  You don't need to GO anywhere unless you need help.

But the bottom line as to being able to get ship wifi in the terminal is "sometimes" of "it depends."

Originally they kept the Beach Club open till after dark and had a bonfire, but the realized that only the crew was there.  Most people hit the island early and head back early .  In reality, it is impossible to predict how many people will want a tram at what time as that will depend on how many people are on board, weather, etc.  We haven't had waiting issues, but we haven't cruised on a nearly full ship either.

1 hour ago, Gretchendz said:

 

I don't disagree, but Princess is WORSE --and they just upgraded last December.

yikes

You can make dining reservations for them by linking their reservation to yours.   Same for excursions.  Not sure how you are planning to "help" them with bar tab--you can allow them to drink the alcohol from your bar in your suite, but you can't take them to the cocktail hour of Richard's Rooftop. Of course, you can get a beverage as the event nears closing and take it to them elsewhere on the ship...that seems a bit of effort to save $10.  If they are still within a cancelation period, you can cancel their reservation and move them to your suite, in which case they will get all suite benefits.  Paying their bar tab is actually easy--you go to Sailor services and ask that their alcohol charges be moved to your account, which then puts them on your bar tab with your DBE. You can allow them to use your 2 Grounds Club drinks per day per person by doing with them and having it put on your bracelet.  But no, you cannot get them the black bracelets to have suite perks unless they are booked in your suite.

Agree with inconsistency.  We had one cruise where The Wake was a "one and done" while another it was great.  Almost the same with one poor Extra Virgin experience while overall that is a great place.

As noted, there is no rule about how many times you can eat in the same restaurant.  Based on the length of the cruise, you are limited to either 1 or 3 advance dinner reservations per restaurant.  In the lowliest cabin on the ship, you can waitlist or do same day reservations.

As a Mega, you can get just about anything you want concerning dining, including having meals from a given restaurant served in your suite.  Just FYI, they are very good about allergies--it should be noted on their computers when you check in at any dining venue, and your servers will ask as well.

7 hours ago, Tatra603 said:

Can you elaborate on the restaurants and food court?

 

We weren't thrilled with the dining, but I thought it was just because we were tired of the same menus.  The Razzle Dazze menu was changed about 9 months ago and our 3 favorite items were removed (dinner).  We did enjoy some of the nightly specials in The Galley--they are listed in the daily program.  The food on VV is better than the "normal" food on other lines, but not as good as most of the specialty dining on other lines.  Some things were great, overall I'd give it a "quite good." There was supposed to be a new Test Kitchen "C" menu coming out--not yet on our last cruise.  Of the lines we' ve cruised, I'd rank the normal food on Celebrity as next best.  It gets hard to compare with the "ship within a ship" programs and such on other lines.  The nice thing on VV is that you get the good food whether you are in a solo inside or a massive suite (although in the suite, you could have it sent to your room).

Princess just revamped their Princess Premier program to make it quite similar to Virgin.  It adds $90 per day to your cruise cost and includes unlimited specialty dining, tips, unlimited use of their top internet package, and unlimited beverages including alcohol up to $20 per drink, soda, premium coffee and tea, smoothies, etc. Also fitness classes and reserved theatre seating as well as some other goodies.

Obviously there are huge differences between VV and Princess in terms of ships and atmosphere, but it does imply that the more "all inclusive" concept is gaining traction in other lines.

9 hours ago, kaysha2004 said:

If you want Virgin to listen, copy and paste your post and send it to sailorservices@virginvoyages.com.  They say they want to listen to sailor feedback.

 

You can also reach customer service executives by email:

 

Virgin Cruises executive customer service contacts

Primary Contact
Richard Kilman
Vice President
1000 S Pine Island Rd
Plantation, Florida 33324
richard.kilman@virginvoyages.com

 

Secondary Contact
Brian Crutchfield
Chief of Staff
1000 S Pine Island Rd
Plantation, Florida 33324
brian.crutchfield@virginvoyages.com

 

Chief Executive
Tom McAlpin
1000 S Pine Island Rd
Plantation, Florida 33324
tom.mcalpin@virginvoyages.com

McAlpin is no longer the CEO, and when he was, he was essentially worthless in responding to issues.  I sent correspondence about a very significant issue with HA boarding, and 4 months later received a ink to a page on their web site which I'd seen prior to our cruise and didn't deal with the issue...sent by one of his minions.

The new CEO is a younger man named Nirmal.

1 hour ago, Bluebury said:

Do you really have to book or can we just turn up when we feel like it and wait? Also, does each restaurant have a set menu for the whole cruise or do they offer alternatives on some nights?

 

Depends hugely on how full your sailing is (and recently most sailings have been quite full). Set menu for the whole cruise, but and jon noted, there can be occasional special dishes, particularly on longer cruises.  The Galley has a nightly special, and some of these are excellent.  If you don't make reservations in advance, you can make them after boarding.

1 hour ago, jon81uk said:

There are pastries at the grounds club of course, but need to pay for coffee there.
 

You can use the seating in Gunbae if The Galley is completely full though. I’ve never had an issue finding space for lunch, but breakfast on some days is harder to get a seat.

Also, the outdoor part at the back of THe Galley is often pleasant (weather permitting...it is covered, but 95 degrees is not so nice

There are many great ideas on this thread, most of which would not require structural changes to the ships.  I hope someone at VV is paying attention!

I think VV is still experimenting with pricing.  THey obviously priced low with lots of perks early on to get people on board.  Now that doesn't seem to be a problem, and prices have increased greatly.All other lines seem to have raised fares as well.  As long as they can fill ships at these prices, they will stay high.If they aren't sellng, we'll see various short term "sale" prices or "deals" to keep them full.

All food outlets on VV have vegan and vegetarian options.  Test Kitchen offers a vegan menu and a vegetarian menu (different nights) as well as A and B menus for omnivores.  Razzle Dazzle is plant forward, but also has a "naughty menu" that includes meats and fish.  Bottom line, each restaurant will have items that will meet your dietary desires, as will The Galley.  Dining reservations start at midnight Eastern time 45 days before embarkation day; 60 days for suites.  When the app crashes, you can contact your TA or shoreside sailor services at VV.  MY TA will make reservations for me at midnight Eastern time.  She asks me to send her a list of what I want on what nights and preferred times and will do her best.

More reservations will open on embarkation day and after boarding there will be a place to go for dining assistance.  It is usually in Razzle Dazzle, but on our most recent cruise, was at Pink Agave.  THere will be plenty of crew on deck 7 to tell you where to go.  Sailor Services does not make dining reservations....not on embarkation day or ever.  Don't waste your time standing in their line.

There are multiple drag shows--Around the World, THe Diva Sings her Secrets, Bingo with the Diva, Cabaret with the Diva, etc.  As above, show up and line up 30 minutes in advance--no more reservations.  If you are in a site, you will be escorted to the front of the line.

Excursions book in advance.  Other things that can be booked must wait till you are on board.

For a company that pretends to be so modern and sophisticated, they have some of the worst IT going.

You got good answers above.  I carry my large mug so I can take my ice tea wherever I go.  You can do the same with water or you can get a glass from any bar.  Some people just find it easier to fill a water bottle or covered cup and carry it around.  There are lots of water refill places around the ship, but again  any bar can give you water.

We got the premium wifi free and it made a big difference.  If all you want to do is email type stuff, standard is fine.  We have had quite a bit of variation from cruise to cruise with the standard, so having the premium was nice.  I heard there was quite a price increase for it....sorry, don't know the current cost.

Scarlet Night basically starts at 9pm and runs as late as you want....the preliminaries start earlier.  PJ, differen tnight, different atmosphere, starts about 11pm....over by 1 but feel free to leave earlier.  Lots of people are tired on the first night.

If I had a 4pm terminal arrival time, I'd show up about 3.  You will board as soon as everyone with an earlier time than you have is on board.  The later times are usually moved up significantly.  Lyft works great for us.   Our last cruise out of Miami, the hotel offered a shuttle; I'd take a Lyft instead.  The shuttle driver was a jerk.  We usually ask for a late check out at the hotel, which gets us 1pm in most cases.   My suggestion would be to get something to eat after that  and then head to the port MIA airport area to terminal is about 20 minutes, FLL area is about 45 minutes depending on traffic.  There is one small coffee shop in the terminal area, so not much to do there.

Sold out suites does not equal a full ship. However, most of the ships are going out a lot more full than they used to be.

Everything I'm seeing is at least double what we paid for our last cruise and not nearly as many perks.......not booking at this time.

2 hours ago, jamesboat said:

From a trip last week...

 

-Lack of desert options in pizza parlor (and no soda machine)

 

 

You can get soda from the person who takes your pizza order.

2 minutes ago, chill6x6 said:

Anyone else getting this message when trying to book a cruise?

 

"Aw dang.  Looks like your season timed out and unfortunately that cabin is no longer available."

 

Nothing timed out... Picked cabin within a couple of minutes.  Doesn't matter which suite I try to book on two different itineraries I get this message.

 

Anyone else?

Call your TA or Virgin Voyages shoreside sailor services.

2 minutes ago, GlitterFemme said:

Which ones are the good ones?

Personal choice...choc chip, macadamia nut.  I don't care for the oatmeal. Peanut butter is OK.  THey had different choices on different days.

29 minutes ago, creef1014 said:

The definitely need late night cookies and ice cream availability.

 

The whole late night snack scene is really disappointing IMO

We go to Grounds Club during the afternoon to see which cookies they have and get some for the night if they have the good ones.