Rough Seas on Virgin Voyage?

[Cloud9 Bob]

I sailed Scarlet Lady last June and the seas were as calm as can be. I'd like to hear from sailors on all VV ships if you have had any really rough seas during your cruise? Where and how long did it last?

[Fogcityca13]

We were on Valiant Nov 13-19, and had lots of wind leaving Costa Maya heading to Bimini. One sea day to get to Bimini and we couldn’t navigate the channel to dock at Bimini due to the winds. We were on deck 15 forward. Definitely felt the ship moving for two days. Not as bad as leaving San Francisco on the Grand Princess in a storm. 

[_tacocat_]

valiant is reaaally bad right now - there were apparently swells on the atlantic side, so we took the long way around cuba.  it's STILL so bad that i can't even imagine what or original course would have felt like haha.  our room is on 12, and we've been wobbling for the past 2 days.

 

the bigger issue seems to be that some shows like duel reality have gotten cancelled, and excursions are being cancelled left and right. 

 

i'm skeptical about the excursion thing because they don't seem to be weather related.  almost everything was showing as sold out before we boarded.  some of the excursions disappeared on day 1 and a ton of new ones that hadn't been on the list were added.  then more got cancelled.

 

there are 2 ships when we're in st croix (i guess this is a rarity?) and apparently a bunch while we're in san juan, so i'm thinking that someone dropped the ball on actually securing the tour companies and now we're at the mercy of whatever is left.  if so, this is pretty annoying because VV initially sold themselves on either going to ports where no one else did or going to ports when they were not inundated with other ships, and their itineraries are like 95% in their control. 

[cantgetin]

Rough seas has nothing to do with the cruise line--we've had isolated rough days on many different lines/ships/locations.  Most recently, we had one rough day while on Valiant Lady while going thru the Strait of Gibraltar.  It was one fairly rough day on one not quite smooth next day....so 12 out of our 14 days were smooth.  This was my 7th (I think) TransAtlantic crossing, and the only one where we had any roughness.  Yes, they do cancel Dual Reality (gymnastics show) if the seas are too rough to do it safely.

[conandrob240]

11 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Rough seas has nothing to do with the cruise line--we've had isolated rough days on many different lines/ships/locations.  Most recently, we had one rough day while on Valiant Lady while going thru the Strait of Gibraltar.  It was one fairly rough day on one not quite smooth next day....so 12 out of our 14 days were smooth.  This was my 7th (I think) TransAtlantic crossing, and the only one where we had any roughness.  Yes, they do cancel Dual Reality (gymnastics show) if the seas are too rough to do it safely.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting it’s Virgin’s fault, just asking how the ship handles rough seas, how the cruise line approaches cancelled things, etc

[cantgetin]

Got it....obviously any canceled "shore things" are fully refunded to the same source used for payment (If you paid on your credit card, it goes back to your credit card.  If you paid with Loot after boarding, it goes back to Loot).  VV's ships are at our preferred size range, and the ship seemed to handle the roughness about the same as other medium sized ships we've been on.  While there were people very upset at the roughness, we didn't have any issues beyond making good use of railings which are located around the ship.  I did apologize to one of the crew working in the shop for placing my hand on a display table, likely leaving fingerprints that would need to be cleaned.  She was very gracious and reminded me that the captain's announcement had asked everyone to be cautious and use railings, walls, etc. for supports as needed and that she'd rather wipe off fingerprints than have to call medical for a fall.

Bottom line--I've been in rough seas before and this was the same as other medium sized ships.

 

[keels81]

On 12/5/2022 at 8:38 AM, _tacocat_ said:

valiant is reaaally bad right now - there were apparently swells on the atlantic side, so we took the long way around cuba.  it's STILL so bad that i can't even imagine what or original course would have felt like haha.  our room is on 12, and we've been wobbling for the past 2 days.

 

the bigger issue seems to be that some shows like duel reality have gotten cancelled, and excursions are being cancelled left and right. 

 

i'm skeptical about the excursion thing because they don't seem to be weather related.  almost everything was showing as sold out before we boarded.  some of the excursions disappeared on day 1 and a ton of new ones that hadn't been on the list were added.  then more got cancelled.

 

there are 2 ships when we're in st croix (i guess this is a rarity?) and apparently a bunch while we're in san juan, so i'm thinking that someone dropped the ball on actually securing the tour companies and now we're at the mercy of whatever is left.  if so, this is pretty annoying because VV initially sold themselves on either going to ports where no one else did or going to ports when they were not inundated with other ships, and their itineraries are like 95% in their control. 

 

I was on the Carnival Celebration at the same time (we saw y'all in San Juan!) and it was borderline miserable until we got back into the old Bahamas channel on our sea days back to Miami.

 

On the excursion thing, on the Celebration almost every excursion involving snorkeling in Amber Cove and San Juan was canceled the night we left Miami (Sunday), and many things involving the south side of St. Maarten were also canceled.

 

We had a private (non-cruise excursion) and we were only able to go to the north side of the island to snorkel and sightsee because the chop was so bad. Watching planes at Maho, we'd have to reset about every 3-4 minutes because the waves were so strong we'd be all the way back by the Sunset Beach Bar. 

 

Can't speak to St. Croix since we didn't port there, but you weren't alone in having excursions canceled in San Juan. Don't know if it was weather or short on staffing as they still recover from hurricane damage, etc., but I was also surprised at how many ships were in port that day.

[CruisingWalter]

The worst we've had it was on the NCL Escape a year ago, barf bags in all the stairwells for the first three days of the cruise. It was the worst rocking on a ship we've experience in a very long time. When the swells are coming in sideways to the movement of the ship, that's when you really feel it, especially on the upper decks. It's been a bad few weeks out there for everyone for sure. 

 

As for the shore excursions, remember VV has much different requirements than all the other cruise lines. They are all in for local community support, green first companies, no animal exploitation (swimming with dolphins or pigs) so when things change, they have limited options compared to the other cruises lines to replace excursions. That's why you might not see all that much choice when they have to change itineraries mid cruise. We were underwhelmed by their choices when we sailed and opted to look at third party independent excursions instead. 

[coevan]

On 12/4/2022 at 11:30 AM, Cloud9 Bob said:

I sailed Scarlet Lady last June and the seas were as calm as can be. I'd like to hear from sailors on all VV ships if you have had any really rough seas during your cruise? Where and how long did it last?

As a Captain and an experienced sailor, it is impossible to know sea state, except a few days in advance, go to windguru.com

[Cloud9 Bob]

Apologies if I wasn't totally clear in my original question. I was just looking for passengers personal accounts of rough weather that happened to occur on Virgin ships.

[Lustate]

On 12/27/2022 at 11:25 PM, Cloud9 Bob said:

Apologies if I wasn't totally clear in my original question. I was just looking for passengers personal accounts of rough weather that happened to occur on Virgin ships.

in short it’s no worse than any other ship. We did the trans Atlantic in October and had one day 24 hour period. What virgin have beaten a few other ships on is little things like having ginger ale and apples out and about the ship, so if you do feel unwell you have natural options just there waiting. 
 

entertainment will be 50/50 so you can expect bands etc to carry on, but shows like the circus based ones or with big set pieces that move, may be cancelled at short notice. 
 

Rob 

[conandrob240]

I feel like it’s a very smooth ship. In many areas, didn’t even notice the normal little rocking.