How to book restaurants and spa on app? New Year's sailing Scarlet Lady

[Lurdes777]

Dear Travelers, 

 

I downloaded an app and see some things like restaurant listings but I can't figure out for the life of me how to book restaurants and spa services?  Can someone please share?  Supposedly it should be available already for a New Year's sailing.  Additional questions:

 

 - which restaurants you highly suggest to book ahead of time and which ones don't require booking?

 - anything else we need to book ahead?  Shows?

 - When are we going to receive a detailed daily schedule, I am most interested in New Year's celebration option.  I hope it will be something special!

 - when we booked there was some sort of special where we should have gotten $100 credit.  I can't find it also.  Is it for a bar tab?  How do we upgrade?

 

Thank you all fo ryour help!

Edited November 29, 2021 by Lurdes777

[ociana]

Congrats on your upcoming vacation! My sailing was in early November, so any advice here is subject to change as Virgin updates their process and app.

 

If you are in a rockstar suite, then you should be able to book at about 45 days in advance. In a regular room, you can book at 15 days out (midnight EST). Where you see the restaurants listed in the app there will be buttons with times showing that you can press to book them.

 

You will need a dinner reservation for any restaurant you want to eat at as a dinner meal, personally I recommend all but Razzle Dazzle - brunch there instead. They offer some walk up availability, but everything I have read is that it is limited.  Brunch and breakfast are offered at The Wake and Razzle Dazzle but you cannot book those until you are on the ship.

 

When you book your dining in the app, it locks in a 2 hour window of time and will not let you book if you have something else scheduled. Don't "book" tickets for the activities that are listed in the evening (like trivia) and you won't run into this issue. The tickets aren't actually used for those events anyway, just for shows and exercise classes.

 

Show and activity bookings that actually use the ticket become available as soon as you are on board the ship (connected to ship wifi and checked in). I recommend viewing the schedule in advance and making a plan so you can book right away when they are available. Things like the bungee class fill up fast.

 

The schedule for our cruise was continuously updated right until sailing and we noticed a few added things after we got on board. Another thread on this forum has a link where you can view the current schedule on your browser instead of the app, super handy! 

 

Final note, take a screenshot of all your advanced bookings before your trip. From my experience, there are still some technical difficulties with getting shore side data to sync up with ship side data...so things might disappear. We did see it all reappear by the next morning, so don't panic if something is missing the first day.

[Lurdes777]

Dear Ociana!  Thank you it is very helpful.  Sadly all suites were sold out before we booked. So I guess thats the reason why I don't have booking option yet on the app. I am particularly interested in New Year's eve celebration, do you think they will send out some details over email?  

 

Spa treatments also available 15 days out?

[ociana]

51 minutes ago, Lurdes777 said:

Dear Ociana!  Thank you it is very helpful.  Sadly all suites were sold out before we booked. So I guess thats the reason why I don't have booking option yet on the app. I am particularly interested in New Year's eve celebration, do you think they will send out some details over email?  

 

Spa treatments also available 15 days out?

The spa treatments are available once on board, and I expect any details about new year's will show up on the schedule in the app during the week before sailing or once on board.  

 

I see you also mentioned a $100 bar tab credit. Since you are sailing in 2021, you actually get better than that as a Sea Blazer.  For every $300 in bar tab you purchase in advance of your sailing, you get an additional $150 added on for free.  This stays true for you indefinitely.  I recommend copy/pasting the language of the Sea Blazer promotion from https://www.virginvoyages.com/promotions-terms-and-conditions and saving it for future reference.  You do have to call them to get the bar tab added and then make sure to ask them to link it to everyone in your cabin that is sharing that tab. 

[Lurdes777]

this is a great info about Sea Blazer promotion!  I am currently on hold with Virgin customer service.  Already placed an optin for a call back at 8AM however no one called back...  

 

Another weird thing is we filled out health info in the app for my husband, but for me there was no option!  Although I am listed as a second sailor and have my profile listed  - there was no option about vaccinations etc.

[Lurdes777]

1 hour 40 minutes on hold... still holding

[scaught]

I am booked for the NYE cruise. I was able to reserve some restaurants this evening? I am in a balcony room, but not a suite. 

Here's what I did: launch virgin app. hit discover tab. selected "ship". selected "eateries". selected a restaurant, then selected day/time and booked it. The days presented are days of our cruise. The restaurants I booked now appear on My Agenda. Not sure why I was able to do this considering I'm not in a suite? Your mileage may vary...