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Live! NYE on Valiant Lady

conandrob240

By conandrob240,
in Virgin Voyages

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conandrob240 "Live from...." Rare

conandrob240

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LauraS
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We are at JW Marriott Marquis after driving from the St Pete area. Had a nice day Downtown. Shopping, a few drinks, did Happy Hour at our hotel (BouludSud)- nice appetizers and wine on Happy Hour Menu.

 

our plan is to drive over and park around 12:45pm. Hopefully enter terminal at 1:00pm for our 1:30pm time slot.

 

Just mapped out shows to try for in order of importance to us so hopefully that goes well.


background: couple in early 50s. Have cruised NCL, RCCL, DCL maybe about 15 cruises. None since mid-2017. We prefer land All Inclusives ( big Sandals junkies) but the food/drinks looked great on VV and the no kids convinced my husband to try it (cruises aren’t his favorite but he wanted to go on this one). 


will try to post here during the cruise. 
 

excited!!!

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conandrob240 "Live from...." Rare

conandrob240

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They told us a bit over 50%. Nothing feels crowded. Our cruise was a bit different with entertainment because of NYE. I loved Never Sleep Alone and Duel Reality was great too. Ship musicians are excellent and the parties have been fantastic. I really don’t want this cruise to end! Best cruise I’ve ever had by a mile!

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keels81

keels81

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40 minutes ago, conandrob240 said:

They told us a bit over 50%. Nothing feels crowded. Our cruise was a bit different with entertainment because of NYE. I loved Never Sleep Alone and Duel Reality was great too. Ship musicians are excellent and the parties have been fantastic. I really don’t want this cruise to end! Best cruise I’ve ever had by a mile!

 

Are we on the same cruise? On my VIP tour today, we were told it was at "capacity" at 87 percent with guests and comp'd talent/guests and it definitely feels crowded everywhere. Dinner takes 2+ hours, regardless of restaurants, if you aren't right there at opening with an opening time reservation. Gunbae tonight took us 3.5 hours (we sat down at 6:15 and left a little after 9:45, missing most of the Scarlet Night fun). They've run out of dishes and glassware every night to the point where bar service slows to a halt so they can handwash glassware to serve people. Last night at The Wake, they were using servers from The Galley to help expedite plate delivery and it so much of a disaster. I've never seen so much piled up plates of food/used dishes before and I've cruised Carnival and Royal, with dinners in their MDR.

 

It's definitely not as fun if you aren't a Mega RockStar/RockStar. Also, guests are treating the staff like straight-up trash, so they're not enjoying this cruise.

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conandrob240 "Live from...." Rare

conandrob240

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6 hours ago, keels81 said:

 

Are we on the same cruise? On my VIP tour today, we were told it was at "capacity" at 87 percent with guests and comp'd talent/guests and it definitely feels crowded everywhere. Dinner takes 2+ hours, regardless of restaurants, if you aren't right there at opening with an opening time reservation. Gunbae tonight took us 3.5 hours (we sat down at 6:15 and left a little after 9:45, missing most of the Scarlet Night fun). They've run out of dishes and glassware every night to the point where bar service slows to a halt so they can handwash glassware to serve people. Last night at The Wake, they were using servers from The Galley to help expedite plate delivery and it so much of a disaster. I've never seen so much piled up plates of food/used dishes before and I've cruised Carnival and Royal, with dinners in their MDR.

 

It's definitely not as fun if you aren't a Mega RockStar/RockStar. Also, guests are treating the staff like straight-up trash, so they're not enjoying this cruise.

I’m only quoting what we were told about occupancy. If you’ve specifically been told 87%, I believe you.

 

we haven’t had a single dinner take anywhere near 3 hrs. Test Kitchen first night was the longest maybe 2 hrs 2 15. I’m not a person who wants to rush through dinner. 2 hrs is perfect for me. Our dining times have all been 7:30-8:30 and the longest we waited to get in was Test kitchen 15 min on first night. And no, I haven’t seen any crazy pile ups of dishes or service issues. The On The Rocks bar has been the only place where there isn’t enough staff plus staff there is slow plus they’ve run out of glasses.

 

im not sure why it’s more fun for Rockstars? No special perks at dinner or other venues. Only Richards rooftop area.

 

BTW, nothing about Scarlet Night started until 9:30 and the pool party began at 10:50pm so you didn’t miss anything.

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conandrob240 "Live from...." Rare

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I also haven’t seen mistreatment of staff. The staff is super nice, always look happy and all we’ve spoken to LOVE the line (or at least have said they do). No one seems confused or unprepared. They are all wonderful and extremely knowledgeable and well- trained 

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