scubagal44

Thanks for coming along!

A few miscellaneous notes - This is my third and hubby's second VV cruise, the most recent of which was our trip in October 2023 on Scarlet Lady. My first time sailing on Valiant was October 2022 in the Med, at which time I bought an MNVV that was used for this upcoming sailing. We have around $1400 of Loot and Bar Tab, pretty sure we'll have no trouble getting through it. This trip is to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary, we do a trip every year for our anni and have never been home on the actual day. Winning! Finally, I'm an avid traveler and about 5 years ago I realized that the goal of visiting 40 countries before turning 40 was within reach. On this trip, I will be visiting my 40th country with over a year to spare. 🤗

This plane is completely full and hot AF. Let's get some air going in here.

Woohoo, thanks for joining!

Ooh I love that! You're going to have the best time!

Awesome, so glad you had a great time! Can't wait to board.

Yaaassss! High five!

Boom! Let's do this!

Welcome, thanks for joining!

Power nap accomplished! For hubby, at least. For me it was more like quiet time resting my eyes, but hey, sometimes that's just as good.

Also, I think I forgot to pack my toothbrush. Boo. Guess we'll be making a run to the CVS by our hotel in Old San Juan sooner rather than later.

On the ground in Dallas. If you've ever flown on a red eye you know they're a b%!&#, but I did manage to sleep for about 2.5 hours of the 2 hr 55 min flight. For me on a plane, that's unheard of. Even as such, we're going to try to hit up the Minute Suites at DFW. Hubby gets access for free via Priority Pass, so hopefully we can get a spot and get a bit more rest before our connecting flight.

On the plane, on time, relief! Catch you all from the next stop.

Thanks for following along!

We put in for a cabin upgrade, haven't heard anything yet so assuming it's a no go. But we're happy with our original spot so no worries, though not gonna lie, the suite would be nice! Cross your fingers with us. 🤞

Can we sail yet??

The cats are at home with grandparents set #1. Grandma #2 arrives on Sunday when grandparents #1 have to leave to fly back to Seattle. We have a bunch of food and drink planned for San Juan, can't wait.

Took me until the last hour to decide to go live, but here we are at the airport ready to go! Sailing one of the new(ish) itineraries from San Juan, hope you'll join us! Hubby and I will keep this going for the duration, keep us company or let us know if you have any questions! Thanks for following along. We're flying San Francisco to Dallas, Dallas to San Juan. I've been stressed AF all day due to major storms here in the Bay Area, but all is looking on track.

I'll be going to Renaissance next week, will let everyone know how it goes.

Then I would DEFINITELY ask your TA to book your dining reservations for you, esp if you're trying to do it for a group!

My favorite restaurant on board is Extra Virgin, I have it booked twice on my next sailing. Also really enjoy Pink Agave and the Wake (when it's having an "on" night). Love the Wake's brunch, too. Test Kitchen is hit or miss depending on the night's menu. I like Menu A (mushroom as the first course), and really dislike Menu B (corn as the first course). Shows - Duel Reality is great, and anything with the Diva. My first sailing I went to Ship Show and left after 10 minutes because I thought it was terrible, but the acts change and I've heard the style has also changed. Ship Show includes a meal, but I would advise to eat before you go. I saw Ships in the Night on my last sailing and it was....weird. Can't say I liked or disliked it, it was just odd.

I get the concern, but really, it's not as big of a deal as it sounds. Did you book with a TA? If so, let them handle your dining reservations for you. That's one of the benefits of using a TA with this cruise line, they can get your reservations for you, even when nothing is showing as available in the app. And FWIW, I was recently on a full Scarlet sailing that I booked last minute and so had a scheduled boarding time of 4p - we were easily able to get all the restaurants we wanted at the times we wanted, and all shows and extras we wanted, by boarding at 3:30p. The ship didn't feel full at all and we didn't miss out on anything.

Hubby and I recently did a last minute VV also, and we had 4:15p boarding and all dinner reservations were already booked up. Did you use a TA? If so, I would ask them to try and book some dinner reservations for you. My TA was able to book us into dinner each night even though the app was showing nothing for me. She also advised that even with our late boarding time, so show up around 3p because usually by then you'll be able to board regardless of your scheduled time. We didn't show up until around 3:30, but she was right, we were able to walk right on at that time. Once we boarded, we immediately sat down and were able to book shows and move our dining times around, and we even were able to still book the Grog Walk by then. Many more dining times open up onboard and we were able to get into every restaurant we wanted at the time we wanted just by taking a few minutes upon boarding to get it all situated. I was actually shocked at how much was still available that late in the day. Good luck!

Thanks for letting us know! We're sailing from San Juan in 3 weeks, so I was hoping someone would share some experience there before then. 😄 Have a great cruise!

I believe on my first sailing in Oct 2022 it was around $250. I didn't bother to check on my Oct 2023 sailing since I no longer needed to buy one, so I have no idea if the price has gone up or down. I got it on Amazon for $160.