cantgetin

I'd love to, but there is no PM function on CC and we are absolutely forbidden from sharing info about agents. The underlying issue is that Cruise Critic IS a travel agency. You can go to various threads on other social media sites and share information that way (you don't have to be booked on a particular cruise date to join a thread for that date and ask questions.....

If you can't get a reservation somewhere that you wish to eat, get one elsewhere....then a little earlier than your reservation OR at about 6, do a walk up. At 6, you can ask whether they can work you in about X time...or a bit before your reservation, ask whether they can take you. If the response is positive, you just got in. If not, you still have your back up reservation.

Just remember that the event listing is subject to change at any time and often there are events that are not on the list at 45 days but show up later. That may happen more often on the more unique cruises, but has been my experience.....so consider the event listings as just giving you an idea of what the schedule will look like. Also, with thing like shows, cancelations can happen at any time due to weather, an ill crew member, etc.

That was my guess, but different term. Nope, new prices are too high for now. Will do what I have booked, then take a break for a while.

Good point.

What is a "basic balcony? Guess it doesn't matter at those prices, but???? And no, VV is not worth $375 PP per day...even with the "almost all included" concept. Their food is overall very good, but specialty dining on some other lines is better. They are definitely better than MDR fare. I just don't see much to justify these prices. They are a good line, but are that this great? not in my opinion.

I doubt that cruises will continue to fill at these prices, although as noted, there are still a few reasonable sailing dates. None of my cruises has been full; the most booked had 1800 sailors (capacity 2700). I do realize that some dates have been full, but many others have not even been close in 2023. It is not just suite prices that have become unbelievable. I paid $2100 total for my upcoming 2024 cruise after all discounts. It is now selling for $9K for that same sea terrace cabin, and upgrading to an XL is $1K rather than $200. IMHO, VV does not give enough perks to justify their new suite prices. I LIKE that they have avoided the "ship within a ship" concept and the limited suite perks, but you can't charge outrageous prices and give limited perks. Yes, you are paying for the increased room and balcony size, but how far can that be pushed? Guess we'll find out.

That's what I thought, but I'm not a TA and didn't want to post something that I wasn't sure of....thanks for the info.

You can sell your MNVV to anyone who wants to buy it--that is one benefit of the deal. Let your TA know that you will not be using it (if that is the case) and perhaps he/she can sell it to a client. There is no reason for you to lose the $300 that you paid for it.

They are idiots. That's why I use a Gold Tier travel agent. And my agent sends me a screen shot of her accounting and any perks I am supposed to have "just in case."

Not true. You get $300 off your cruise fare. The $300 you pay for the MNVV can be used for deposit, and you get $600 Loot. Example....You buy MNVV for $300. You book a cruise that has a price of $4000. Your cruise price is immediately discounted to $3700 ($300 off) and that makes your deposit $740 (20% of $3700). The $300 is applied to the deposit, meaning that you would pay $440 at the time of booking or $3400 if you wanted to pay in full at that time ($3400 + the $300 paid for the certificate = $3700) SO the benefit of the certificate is $300 off cruise fare + $600 loot. I don't know if the 10% PIF still applies. If it does and you opt to PIF, your cruise fare would discount another $370. Note, price percentage reductions do not apply to taxes. Similarly, in your example above, you are correct. $300 paid for MNVV, $300 discount, $400 paid at time of booking = $1000 AND you'd get $600 loot.

Bottom line, they will either find people who want to pay the higher rates or they will need to find reasons for "discounts." Bookings will tell the story.

The bar tb promo hasn't been around all that long....but people have cone to expect it. Yes, I can certaily see going back to the paid bar tab. But it would take a truckload of bar tabs to make as much as these price increases IF they can reasonably fill ships at these rates. I somehow doubt that they can, We normaly cruise 2-3 times per year....at this point, we'll cruise what we've booked, but I can't see booking any more.

That's lovely--wonder where the CEO was for our gosh awful embarkation that was delayed for the JLo shoot. Bottom line, at least in Miami, is that they seem to do a good job normally, but aren't so great with any stress or atypical situation put on embarkation. Each of our embarkations or disembarkations in Miami has had "issues" surrounding wheelchair assist embarkation/disembarkation. In fairness, many of the terminal people wearing VV shirts are very part time people, working VV on days that they have a ship in port and other lines (meaning other rules and protocols) on other days. BCN was great at the WTC terminal, a little less so at the newly required terminal.

No surprise at the rates. My 2024 cruise that I paid $2100 for after all discounts had been listed at over $9K for several months. The cost to move from a Sea Terrace to an XL is almost what I paid for the cruise!!! It is a good product, but no longer a good value!

Bottom line, weather happens. That's part of what travel insurance is for. The forecasts I'm seeing just show a lot of rain. Unless there are problems with flooding or hurricanes (neither of which are currently showing on the sites I checked), you shouldn't have a problem. Also, the weather is supposed to be improving each day from now thru Monday. If the issue is rain, VV will move activities inside. My experience on other lines. over 50 cruises....Port Canaveral closed due to hurricane--cruise departed 3 days late (7 night cruise became 4 night) from Port Everglades. Cruise line offered 1) cancel for full refund. 2) cruise with 40% refund + transportation from MCO or WDW to Port Everglades Different cruise--port fogged in, cruise delayed 24 hours. We were held in the terminal till 6pm. at which point the cruise line arranged transportation to local hotel as well as back the next morning. Got 1/7 of cruise fare refunded. Trip insurance paid for the food we ordered at the hotel. Many times--ports of call were changed or eliminated when ship unable to dock due to weather. That's just the breaks of cruising. Captain will do what he can based on where the ship is located, available ports, weather, etc. Until you hear from VV that anything is being changed, assume everything goes as scheduled.

Exactly--no different than 18 months ago!

You have a 15 minute window with dinner, so if you have an 8:00 show, go to dinner at 6. They will seat you then. Reality--6:15 dinner with 8:00 show will be fine most nights, but if that 15 minutes makes you feel better, no one will care that you went to dinner a few minutes early. The Wake was A LOT better on our last cruise, both in food quality and time for service. Most dinners will take about 90 minutes. Of course, you can linger over a cup of tea at the end or get out and do something--that's up to you. But you can have the full dinner in 90 minutes.

Selecting a departure time is to spread out people and to work with the luggage placement in the terminal. We were able to select a departure time several days in advance, not the day before. But no one checks. The bottom line is that if you are doing self-disembarkation, you can leave the ship as soon as the disembarkation announcement is made. This is typically about 7:30 under normal circumstances. No one can predict the construction issues in March. We can only speak to what has happened recently, and in our case, it hasn't been bad at all.

We've not had a problem on our last 3 cruises, but no one can ever predict. If time is tight, do self disembarkation (you handle your own luggage, do not put it out the night before) and depart as soon as they announce that you can. Last trip, we encountered about a 10 minute traffic tie up, but once past that, it was all smooth. The problem is that ANYTHING can happen to delay disembarkation. If your last port is Bimini, it is a very short distance to Miami, so delays are less ikely....but if there is a medical or legal situation on board, passengers will not be able to disembark until that situation has been managed.

Yup....I called IT about this once. The game is to make a new account and you can use the same email and password....and magically it works. VV is a pain!

There have been some titneraries posted on social media--# of nights, list of ports posted by travel professionals without prices or dates.

Out service at The Wake was A LOT faster on our last Valiant trip than the previous one. And yes, the steak at The Wake was much improved. I don't love their sides, but it was all much better.

It is supposed to work so that if you submit it with a booking number attached, it gives you a "thank you" message. THen, in 1-7 days, you get an email that you are approved. Good luck! The only suggestion I have is to call Sailor Services and ask to speak to IT.

Welcome to Virgin. Their Shoreside Sailor Services is totally awful with a very few exception, and it has gotten better over the past 2 years. The only way to get around their insane lack of customer service is to book thru a Gold Tier travel agent and let that person deal with them. Obviously that's too late for you now. Tolkmit may have given you a good idea. I've had issues in the past when the perks (known as "add ons") on the web site were intermittently wrong....I had screen shots when they were right and from my TA just in case...and magically everything was right after boarding. I have no good ideas for you....just a "you're not the only one." There is a guy named Raoul who is good...if you are ever lucky enough to get him on the phone. The only line I've cruised with worse customer sercive than VV is Princess, and we won't get into that.