cantgetin

App is crazy.

Processing starts at 1:30; VV advises you to not show up more than 30 minutes in advance. We have always had 1:30 priority boarding. On 3 of our 4 cruises, we were in our cabin by 2:00. First cruise, we showed up at 12:30 and were politely sent away with instructions to return at 1. At 1, we were allowed into the terminal and things followed quickly until we were required to wait for the notice to proceed to the gangway. This was in Barcelona and things were a little different than in Miami in terms of the order in which they happened. They processed us, then we waited to get on the ship at 1:35. In Miami, you wait till processing starts about 1:30, then go thru security and board. Same steps, different order. If you show up more than 30 minutes early, you MIGHT be kept waiting. But if you have a late time (anything after 3), I'd show up an hour early. You will line up by time, and as soon as the people with earlier times are completed, you'll be taken. Then they just end the time system. It is not unusual for a 4:30 scheduled person to be able to get on at 3.

OK, if I had a 4:30 terminal arrival time, I'd show up about 3. My experience has been that boarding is very crowded about 1:30 because so many have priority boarding, but it moves very quickly. Normally people with late times are able to board 60 -90 minutes early because the earlier times have finished everyone who has arrived. When you arrive early, you stand in a queue based on your scheduled time, but those are not the time the processing will start. If the 2:30 queue is finished, they will move to the 2:45 regardless of time, and continue thru the lines....to the point that late times get taken far earlier than planned. Worst case, you are kept standing till your time. A huge percentage of dining reservations are held back until after boarding. You can access them on the app as soon as you can log on to the ship's wifi (it is called "mermaid" something). Same for booking dinner show--on the app. It will not be Sailor Services on 5--they are dealing with app problems, room issues, etc. There will be a location for crew to help with reservations; normally dinner reservations are in Razzle Dazzle restaurant, but on our last cruise they had moved to Pink Agave. There will be many crew on deck 7 and deck 5 to direct and assist you. Excursions always fill very early, but VV has a generous cancelation policy so it never hurts to check back on the app and at the desk. Soft drinks are coke products. There are self serve devices in The Galley. Most bars have a "gun" system and will happily give you a glass of whatever they have available. A few bars and room service have cans available and will give you those. There is no charge at any location. Also restaurants will have it available.

Basically the ships were designed for visual appeal and to be "different" rather than for comfort. The planning teams wrongly decided who their sailors would be and were gearing things toward a different audience.

As I said above, on our last cruise (May 2024, Scarlet) the dining assist was in Pink Agave. On previous cruises, it was in RD. There were plenty of crew members on the 7th floor to direct you to the right place.

Many VV agents purchase their limit of MNVV each time they sail and resell them to clients. You are looking for a Gold Tier agent, preferably one who was in the top 10 in 2023. We aren't allowed to recommend agents here, so not one can share a name. Sorry about that. Other sites do allow sharing. Also, if you find an agent who had an on line conference with their sales person and book within the time limit, you can get a little extra perk beyond the MNVV.

On our first cruise, there was a lot of pop up entertainment....that seems to not exist any more.

Reservations open for normal cabins 45 days before cruising. A large number of reservations are not available at that time and are held back until after boarding. As noted, there will be a location where people will be available to assist you in making dining reservations on board. While in the past it has been in the Razzle Dazzle restaurant, on our most recent cruise on Scarlet Lady it was done in Pink Agave. Whichever is used on your trip, there will be crew around to direct you to the correct location. The sooner you get there, the more options you will have. These will also be available on the app....but you can go to the restaurant location and stand there trying to get them on th app while you wait your turn to be helped! No, you will not be stuck in The Galley for all meals. However, the nightly dinner specials in The Galley are often very good.

We have done it with a different cruise line. You can do it as a "walk up," independent of the cruise lines, and it used to cost less; it functioned as a Hop on, Hop off situation. Or you can pay a bit more and do it thru the cruise line, but that was a "we will spend this long at this stop" thing. Ours did not include admission to the Truman house or the Hemmingway house....just a pass by and see the grounds. Again, different line, things may be different. Benefit on your own--more freedom, lower cost Benefit thru cruise line--ability to cancel per cruise line policy, no issue if port is canceled, known departure and return time, only people from the ship on your vehicle.

We've had at least one comedian on each of our sailings (Valiant and Scarlet)...but we don't book short cruises. That might make a difference.

If I am at all interested in bidding, I make a computer note as to what the higher category prices are when I purchase. Sounds silly maybe, but getting a decent savings always feels good,

That is interesting....I thought we were each getting 2 free as we each had DBE. The web site says that benefits are per person rather than per room, and that is what we found on our most recent cruise (May 2024)

Any purchase covers the delivery fee regardless of how many people are in the cabin. You can order 4 burgers and fries + 2 steaks and purchase a $5 coffee--no delivery fee. The delivery fee is the same whether you order one bagel or 4 full breakfasts. The premium juices on our cruises were not called "Fresh Squeezed." They were called "cold pressed" and were served out of cartons from specified bars at certain times during the morning. There was no "fresh squeezed" OJ on the room service menu. You can get them in some restaurants and room service as well as the specified bar locations (it is the one by The Dock and the one by the gym)

As above, the delivery charge is per order, regardless of order size. And you can order a $4 hot chocolate or $5 specialty tea and have the fee waived--any charged purchase eliminates the fee. It was interesting that on our first 2 cruises, the fee for the charged item went to our "loot" while on our more recent cruises, it was charged to our bar tab.

The beds in suites are totally different and much better.

Some of the crew from Ramen and Panini place work the restaurants at night. My guess is that ramen wasn't the most popular dinner place so that's one that they close.

Rockstar won't help if there is a medical situation on board! Normal self disembarkation will start some time between 7 and 7:30.

The list above is just a start. There a may types of bagels with your choice of toppings, various hot and cold cereals, (the place that has salads during the day has nice breakfast choices as does the dessert daytime place!) Walk around and hav e a look on the first or second day.

thanks....if we book another, I'll remember this.

Also, check Southwest Airlines for flights to SJU. They often don't show up on flight searches, have great sale prices, and all prices include up to 2 checked bags. They have non-stops to SJU from Miami and MCO....likely others as well.

In addition to the above, our transatlantic had hosted solo activities on all or most sea days.

Obviously the airline does not see the business value in flights to San Juan. For a real odd one, we could not get a direct flight from BAR to LAX for the transatlantics we did....checked Google Flights as well as others. We had about a dozen selections for layover cities. NOW, Iberia has a direct.

If you can't fit the closed suitcase under the bed, you can open it and slide it under that way. And we found a cut out by the closet that would hold a suitcase. There is also a HUGE drawer that will be under the L bed if you separate them that can hold anything that won't fit in the closet (we did 15 nights and still had enough storage). Sometimes the host uses this for bedding if you split the bed, but even then it is so big that there is additional room for "stuff." However....it is low to the floor, so not the most friendly on your back when getting stuff in or out.

Just FYI, an ambulatory cabin is basically a regular cabin with some extra safety bars added. They free up the fully accessible cabins for people who really need them but providing spots for people who just need a little help, particularly in the bathroom. It is NOT a fully accessible cabin which has many alterations from the standard cabin.

I suspect some things would have been done differently had they not ended up launching the ships so close together.....didn't really have time to sort out what was working and what wasn't prior to starting construction on numbers 3 and 4.