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April 15th thru 20th - my life as a Mega Rockstar

tde1969

By tde1969,
in Virgin Voyages

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tde1969

tde1969

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Let's start at the very beginning, We were booked early on and were able to take advantage of the double your money offer.  This allowed us to upgrade to the gorgeous suite and have about $1200.00 left over for spending money on the ship.  We were able to book all of dinner ressies in advance which was really nice.  We didn't book any excursions because our goal was to try out the ship and all that it had to offer.  We received an email about a week before hand about transportation to the ship.  I completed the form with our hotel information and requested that we be picked up with as little wait time at the port as possible.  Our pickup was confirmed for noon on the 15th.  The morning of our departure, we were moving kind of slow and the driver called at 11:15 am to say he was at the hotel.  He was perfectly understanding that we would be down closer to noon in that we simply were ready.  I also didn't want to get to the port any earlier.  The ride there was a nice black suburban.  Once we arrived at the port, we were driven to a separate entrance of rockstars.  There were maybe 3 other couples checking in and at least 5 or 6 staff there to check folks in as they arrived.  The process at best was maybe five minutes and we were good to go upstairs to  the lobby.  Once there, they had some packaged snacks, chips and granola type bars and boxed water.  Because we had completed our COVID test before our flight, we were allowed to grab snacks and move ahead to the rockstar waiting area.  This area had floor to ceiling glass with excellent views of the ship.  As soon as you get to this area, it is close enough that you are able to log onto the ships wifi.  This is key since once you do that, you can book your shows.  It really shouldn't be a problem with Mega Rockstars but I just wanted the peace of mind of having my shows booked.  You also can book the spa and exercise classes at this time.  Having all my shows booked and a couples massage booked, I was ready to get on board.  We maybe waited for 45 minutes and with no ceremony at all, we were able to board.  I mean I didn't need trumpets sounding but they just moved the velvet rope and said nothing.  

 

At this point, the direction really could have been better.  The rockstars are supposed to go the Manor for free Champagne and to fix or make ressies.  The Megas are suppose to go directly to their room where the roadie is waiting to meet you and assist you.  No one told us that so we were roped into the manor and seated.  Once someone came over and asked our room number, they said we were not supposed to be there and to head to our stateroom to meet our roadie.  So with a glass of champagne in hand, we headed to our gorgeous room. 

 

The room is amazing.  There is so much space.  Some of the highlights are the peek-a-boo shower.  They do offer to cover it up if it is not your thing.  The shower itself is huge and I love having a bench in there.  The bar setup to include the glasses, cutting board and shakers are really nice.  The balcony is huge and has an outdoor shower!   The turntable was so much fun and we used it every day as we were getting ready.  Storage was not a problem at all and there was space under the bed for both large suitcases and one small one.

 

David our roadie introduced himself and went over some general information.  I let him know that we had some conflicts with dinner and shows and he said he would fix all of them so that we could make it to both.  He went over our preference for drinks and wine.  I drink mostly white wine and hubby likes titos and soda, with whiskey in the evening.  We met both of our room stewards because of course we would need two.  They indicated they would come twice a day or to let them know if we needed anything more.  David suggested we grab lunch at the dock house.  This is a gorgeous area with Mediterranean type food. The shrimp with the yogurt type dip were great.  By the time we finished lunch, David had put a bottle of Buffalo Trace in the room for hubby and a second bottle of Chardonnay for me.

 

With wine in hand, we explored the ship.  There are so many great areas to chat, read a book, meet new people.  I think Virgin did a great job with the layout and it really encourages just small gatherings here and there.  I had seen on-line that one of the bars had cakebread by the glass so we found Sip!  This ended up being our favorite bar to swing by and grab a drink before dinner or after a show.  It's in an area where people are walking thru to get places so we were always sure to see new friends.  The bartender there was Eugene and he is a great bartender and just a great guy to keep you laughing.  Didn't hurt that he was cute either!!  Sip also has a caviar menu and it is where the tea is hosted.  

 

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.  Staying in a Mega, you can call your Roadie and they will press your clothes for you each night.  This was one of my favorite things about being in a Mega.  We had booked Wake because I wanted to good view of Miami as we pulled away.  I highly recommend this.  The views of the Miami skyline from the windows in Wake are breathtaking.  We were lucky enough to be seated by the window in the middle, which is the prime real estate table in Wake.  They first bring you out a tin of rolls with sea salt sprinkles on top and some her butter.  The rolls are fresh out and nice and warm.  The clam chowder is delicious with small bits of yukon gold potatoes and bacon.  I probably embarrassed myself by taking the rolls to sop up every bit of goodness but then I noticed the table over had picked up their bowls to make sure they had emptied them.  Hubby and I split the wedge salad, which was good, I like a little more blue cheese but that's just me.  The filet was great with the bone marrow bearnaise and don't miss the twice baked potato with caramelized onions, which had such thin little layers and was wonderful.  The star of the show was the New Zealand Lamb chops.  They were cooked perfectly and had great flavor.  I added the tarragon salsa verde and this was by far my favorite meal of the cruise.  We never skip dessert but I was afraid we would miss the show so off we went.  Dang, I wish I would have stayed for the dessert instead of trying to make all of the Untitled Dance Show Party.

 

So we are a gay couple between the ages of 40 and 50. We love to cruise and have done Disney, Royal, Carnival and Celebrity with most of our cruises being Disney and Celebrity.  We just didn't care for the Untitled Dance Show Party and we could have come in late, after my dessert and not missed a thing.  They clear out all of the seating and the stage actually moves around during the show.  There are some dancers who direct traffic while the stage is moving so that you don't get plowed over by the stage but pay attention if you go to move from one area to another.  The dancers are all in lose fitting neon track suits and they all are very talented.  There is a strange cat on the screen that periodically speaks although I couldn't tell you what about.  At one part, the singer the unicorn came out and sang a mash up of songs starting with the theme from Titanic.  She has a great voice and we enjoyed hearing her sing numerous times during the cruise.

 

At this point it was almost time for the PJ party, we ran upstairs and our PJs had been pressed and were laid out on the bed for us.  The PJ party was an absolute blast.  There were all different types of PJs and nothing to scandalous.  Virgin encourages the staff to party with the guest and it seems like they had all shown up for the PJ party.  There was a live DJ and also some pop up entertainment with some Hype staff to just keep the energy going.  Megas have unlimited drinks and I had read that includes grabbing drinks for your friends.  At this point, we had a group we were hanging out with and dancing so I decided to test the theory and ordered drinks for everyone.  No issues at all, he scanned my band and we all continued to drink.  

 

It was getting close to 2:00 am and I thought the boat was rocking but realized it was the rounds of shots that we had.  I announced that it was Pizza time and off we all went.  The pizza is made to order and is really good pizza.  I tried it when I had not been drinking just to make sure but seriously it's good Pizza.  There is a great outdoor seating area at the pizza joint to eat your pizza and just feel the ocean breeze.  And with that, it was time for bed.  We had extra water in our room which came in handy.  

 

Wow, I didn't mean this to be such a long review and this is only day one.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Omgirl

Omgirl

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Great review! I’m very excited we are in a gorgeous suite in May and can’t wait! Do the same roadies always take care of the same rooms? David sounds fantastic! I wonder if you can ask for a specific roadie? 

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britincanada

britincanada

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14 hours ago, Omgirl said:

Great review! I’m very excited we are in a gorgeous suite in May and can’t wait! Do the same roadies always take care of the same rooms? David sounds fantastic! I wonder if you can ask for a specific roadie? 

Which cruise are you on in May? We are in a gorgeous suite May 27th! Wondering if we might be neighbours!

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tde1969

tde1969

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17 hours ago, Omgirl said:

Great review! I’m very excited we are in a gorgeous suite in May and can’t wait! Do the same roadies always take care of the same rooms? David sounds fantastic! I wonder if you can ask for a specific roadie? 

We were in 15299A.  David seemed to indicate he always had the same rooms.

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Omgirl

Omgirl

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4 hours ago, britincanada said:

Which cruise are you on in May? We are in a gorgeous suite May 27th! Wondering if we might be neighbours!

Nope we are May 8th… 16 days and it’s finally becoming real!

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tde1969

tde1969

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Day two was a sea day, so we had signed up for a 90 minute couples massage. The app only has the 75 but when I mentioned that to David, he had it upgraded to the 90.  He also suggested that we let him know what kind of specialty coffees we liked and we could either let him know a time to bring them as a wake up call or just call him when we wanted them.  Yes, Please!  So everyday David would deliver two caramel mochas.  He also brought ginseng, chili shots to help with any over indulgence from the night before.  They are really strong but I swear they worked.  So after coffee and the shot, we headed to the spa.

 

The massages were amazing.  Two warnings as to the massages, she indicated I had some knots that she wanted to use a salt rock on.  Well it ended up being a upcharge of about $50.00.  I just wish she would have said that to me.  Also, check you wallet on the app because they had billed us twice for the massages.  You don't have to go to guest services to fix it, you just have to tell David and he will have the account fixed.  He also said he checked the account daily because every once and a while the bartenders still bill Megas.  This happend one night and before I could even tell David, he caught it and took off the charges.  

 

Make sure that you use the spa facilities.  All of the additional rooms are included for the rockstars but  I think that I would even pay for the day pass.  The mud room was great. They give you a small container of mud, I wish I would have asked for two.  Be sure to sit in the room for a couple of minutes to let your pores open up and then apply the mud.  It smelled divine with hints of lavender. We also used the sauna and the salt room to just relax.  They have one small hot tub and two cold tubs.  They are cold, like I screamed out loud the first time.  They also are really slippery, I did not plan on going all the way in, but  I slipped and then the scream.  Nothing like drawing attention to yourself as you wipe out.  The mineral pool was my favorite place and we ended up hanging out there for a while.  We realized the only thing we needed was champagne so we called David.  He said of course we could have champagne in the spa.  Please take advantage of this.  David showed up with two bottles and multiple glasses and we made friends with everyone in the spa!!!

 

We ended up grabbing lunch at the burger joint in the galley. It was a great bacon burger, cooked to order.  I also like the fries which had just a little bit of seasoning on them.  The desserts in the galley were the best that I have ever had on a cruise.  A lot of times they just seem congealed.  The scarlet dessert looks like an eclair but has the most amazing chocolate mousse.  And the cheesecake had just a hint of orange to it!  

 

We headed to the room to get ready for test kitchen.  We love a tasting menu and this seemed right up our alley.  We had a booth which was great because it is a long meal and the stools do not look comfortable.  I thought all of the dishes were very innovative and tasty.  The venison was probably my favorite and is not to be missed. And again the potato dish was so buttery and just delicious.  Now a disclaimer is that I did low carb for two months leading up to this cruise, so every carb dish seemed amazing.   I ordered the wine pairing and hubby ordered the cocktail pairing.  He thought the wine pairing was better and wished he would have ordered it.  I think the cocktail pairing is fine but it competed against the food instead of complimenting it.  It's just easier to have a wine that works with the flavors.  

 

The show for the night was Ships in the Night.  It was also in the red room theater, where there were no actual chairs the night before but for this show they had transformed it into a theater seating styled room.  I wanted to love this show but just couldn't get behind it.  There were some good moments/performances but overall if felt kind of high school musical.  I also don't want to be political on vacation and  I just felt like the show was trying so hard to be different and "woke" that it failed to be entertaining.  I should also point out that we are just broadway show type people.  I like my musicals big !! Be sure to run by Sip or on the rocks and grab drinks before the show as  I found the staff to be overwhelmed when everyone show up.

 

We left the show and headed to the Manor.  This is the nightclub and sometimes where the smaller shows are done.  I love this space.  It's obnoxiously over the top and everyone seemed to enjoy the space.  We met up with folks we met at the spa and danced till at least 1:00 am.  By then it was time for .................................................. Pizza!!!

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Omgirl

Omgirl

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Thank you again for the mega RS daily review! You’ve given us so many ideas!! 2 weeks to sailing! Re the sea bands they say they aren’t getting them but some have some haven’t. It’s kinda annoying, you’d think as mega rs we would get them..

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Janthere

Janthere

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25 minutes ago, Omgirl said:

Thank you again for the mega RS daily review! You’ve given us so many ideas!! 2 weeks to sailing! Re the sea bands they say they aren’t getting them but some have some haven’t. It’s kinda annoying, you’d think as mega rs we would get them..

Try not to let it bother you about the sea bands - we didn't get ours either and it's really so not an issue as they give them to you when you check in 🙂 You are going to have an AMAZING time! So Jealous! Our next one isn't until January 

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tde1969

tde1969

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11 hours ago, dukefan94 said:

@tde1969Are they mailing seabands at all or are they picked up on embarkation day?

You guys look like you had a blast!! 13 days and counting for me...

 We got our seabands and luggage tags about 7 days before we took off.  

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Roel94

Roel94

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9 hours ago, Cwinedds said:

What time did you get your reservation for the wake to see the city as you departed? Coincidentally we are staying in you exact same room for a august cruise.

I think base on sail away you want it around 7.

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tde1969

tde1969

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11 hours ago, Cwinedds said:

What time did you get your reservation for the wake to see the city as you departed? Coincidentally we are staying in you exact same room for a august cruise.

We had a 7:15 pm ressie!  I might do a 6:45 pm if you want to see the show and have dessert.  The crew did say that sail away time  kind of varies.  

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