Live from Virgin Valiant Lady

[flyerbrp]

Just boarded this pretty ship. Efficient boarding 30 minutes early. Boarding time was 2:15 but let us on at 1:35pm. Muster completed and enjoying a drink. Lunch at The Galley was good. Pastrami sandwich was decent. The desserts were amazing. A s’more parfait was over the top. More tonight after Gumbae. 

[Janthere]

Jealous! Have a fabulous cruise and would love to read more updates! 

[ownedbypets]

1 hour ago, flyerbrp said:

Just boarded this pretty ship. Efficient boarding 30 minutes early. Boarding time was 2:15 but let us on at 1:35pm. Muster completed and enjoying a drink. Lunch at The Galley was good. Pastrami sandwich was decent. The desserts were amazing. A s’more parfait was over the top. More tonight after Gumbae. 

Have a great cruise. We got off Valiant this morning.

[cantgetin]

18 minutes ago, ownedbypets said:

Have a great cruise. We got off Valiant this morning.

We board in 2 weeks....can't wait.

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, flyerbrp said:

Just boarded this pretty ship. Efficient boarding 30 minutes early. Boarding time was 2:15 but let us on at 1:35pm. Muster completed and enjoying a drink. Lunch at The Galley was good. Pastrami sandwich was decent. The desserts were amazing. A s’more parfait was over the top. More tonight after Gumbae. 

I'm guessing you had DBE or another status that allowed you to board early.  In my experience, boarding runs on time or just a few minutes early.

[CineGraphic]

Just watched you sail away on Youtube.

Enjoy your cruise!

[YXU AC*SE]

Me too ...     board in a fortnight.   getting more than a little bit excited for an antithetical HAL (314 nights) cruise experience.     Scott.  

[flyerbrp]

Gumbae last night was lots of fun and we had an awesome meal. So much food cooked at the table. The hibachi shrimp and beef short ribs were superb. We met some very nice table mates as well and enjoyed the icebreaker Gumbae game we all played. What fun. 
After dinner the casino called. The casino is small but we had no issues finding a machine. Since I am a non smoker I was pleased to find the casino Smoke Free. 
A Virgin signature followed at 11pm, the Pajama Party. There were about 500 guests of all ages dancing and enjoying drinks on the 16th deck aft in our pjs. We had a ball. A glorious party under the stars in one’s pjs. 
This is our second Virgin cruise, our first last November was on Scarlet. So far Virgin is maintaining its brand of an adult only fun product. By the way we are Diamond Plus on Royal and sail Royal and Celebrity regularly but Virgin is an awesome change of pace. 
Today is a sea day, Easter on the high seas. We are doing arts and crafts later this morning after breakfast in The Galley. Then casino and sun time. Dinner tonight is in the Test Kitchen. More to follow tonight. 

[flyerbrp]

Also I wanted to respond to the question of boarding early. We don’t have any special status on Virgin except for casino status. No Suite guest or Rockstar so boarding early was maybe just luck but just the same our queue for the 2:15 time slot was opened up early. Virgin has a pretty good system where time slots are stanchioned off in lines posted by your boarding times in 15 minute intervals. And since all the pre-board issues like security photos and credit card information is done in advance check in was a breeze. A quick stop at one of the checking positions to get our wristbands and boom we were on our way. Apparently they processed the 1:30 and 1:45 passengers quickly to allow us on a little earlier. We were group 8 to board. This might not be the norm but hey I appreciated the gift. Also as an observation the ship is full, at least more so than our Thanksgiving cruise on Scarlet last November. 

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, flyerbrp said:

Also I wanted to respond to the question of boarding early. We don’t have any special status on Virgin except for casino status. No Suite guest or Rockstar so boarding early was maybe just luck but just the same our queue for the 2:15 time slot was opened up early. Virgin has a pretty good system where time slots are stanchioned off in lines posted by your boarding times in 15 minute intervals. And since all the pre-board issues like security photos and credit card information is done in advance check in was a breeze. A quick stop at one of the checking positions to get our wristbands and boom we were on our way. Apparently they processed the 1:30 and 1:45 passengers quickly to allow us on a little earlier. We were group 8 to board. This might not be the norm but hey I appreciated the gift. Also as an observation the ship is full, at least more so than our Thanksgiving cruise on Scarlet last November. 

Interesting....we are familiar with the boarding process, but have never seen it start early.  Yes, the boarding process on VV is as smooth and easy as it can get.  Good for you to get on board early, but for others, I wouldn't plan on it.  VV says to not show up more than 30 minutes before your scheduled time; we've seen that to be pretty accurate.

[flyerbrp]

Yesterday was a pleasant sea day. Dinner last night at Extra Virgin was superb. I had the strip steak, pasta and salada. Cooked and prepared perfectly. My wife had the pork which she reported as delish. 
Afternoon was spent at the arts and crafts event and then the onboard coffee tasting and demonstration. This morning we arrived in Puerto Plata. We arrived after two Norwegian ships the Sky and the Escape. The port is a mad house. While not necessarily Virgin’s fault, our excursion was an hour late leaving because of the chaos of 12000 people all trying to queue up at the same time. The wait now at the distillery is over an hour. My advise to all is find out in advance how many ships are in port together and plan accordingly. Tomorrow the tour operator said 5 ships are due in. After 30 some cruises this has been the most dis functional tour ever. Not ruining my vacation but be informed. Hopefully there is better organization in our next ports of call. Again I am not blaming Virgin I am only reporting the facts live from Puerto Plata. To that end our previous cruises on Virgin to this island were flawless so I understand things do go wrong. Hopefully Virgin is proactive to solve this issue. 

Edited April 10, 2023 by flyerbrp