Fire and Sunset Soirees itinerary - a good intro to Virgin?

[critic2023]

Hi everyone! I'm a solo Celebrity cruiser who is starting to branch out after the launch of their discriminatory solo pricing this year. I've been interested in trying Virgin for a while, but this seems like the perfect excuse to leap out of the nest, so to speak.

 

Here's my situation: I have roughly $500 in credit with Virgin from a cruise that I had previously booked with them but canceled due to other plans for that trip falling through. I have until June 2025 to use that $500 credit. Now, I'm more of a traveler than a vacationer. By that, I mean I like to use cruises as a way to see multiple new/exotic destinations in one trip, not to hang out on board and relax.  For that reason, I've always steered away from Caribbean cruises. It's not that hanging out on a beach isn't great, I just prefer to use my vacation days to see the world. Virgin has a lot of itineraries that meet that criteria.

 

Despite everything I just said, I'm desperately curious to try Virgin at this point and have been looking in to the 4 night Fire and Sunset Soirees itinerary for Summer 2024. It's not an itinerary I would ever pick normally, but it's a quick intro to Virgin and would be easy for me to travel to (and save time off work) as I'm in the US and it's only 4 nights. Alternatively, I can wait until 2025 or later and use that credit for an itinerary I like much better.

 

Is this itinerary worth it as a quick intro to Virgin? Would love to hear your thoughts!

[neverendingcruising]

We started our journey with Virgin this way, we are avid cruisers but swore to never do anything shorter than 7 days. Like many, we thought we would like it but weren't sure. We also only had the option of 4 or 5 nights back in 2021 so we broke our rule to test the waters. In our case we haven't looked back. 

[CineGraphic]

1 hour ago, critic2023 said:

Is this itinerary worth it as a quick intro to Virgin? Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

As seasoned cruisers, our intro was this exact itinerary, but we did it as part of a back-to-back with the 5 day Dominican Daze, for a total of 9 days. I don't remember which sailing was first, but we used turnaround day to book everything that we had missed on the first sailing before everyone else boarded. We've been hooked ever since.

[-The-True-North-]

38 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

As seasoned cruisers, our intro was this exact itinerary, but we did it as part of a back-to-back with the 5 day Dominican Daze, for a total of 9 days.

I always wondered who would choose to do that cruise because it was so short. However, that's a great idea of putting it as a back to back.

 

Now if only VV would give people a discount for doing back to backs...

[CineGraphic]

8 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

Now if only VV would give people a discount for doing back to backs

 

I don't think any lines give a discount to do b2b sailings. Why would they?

[Travel-and-See]

I did the same thing by wanting to test the waters and started with the 4-day.  The only negative is this seemed to bring out more of a party crowd vs. the longer sailings I’ve done since.  
 

it wasn’t too much for me, but the longer cruises will feel more natural for a celebrity cruiser (I came from celebrity as well). 

[cantgetin]

Shorter cruises are definitely more "party" cruises than longer ones.  Personally. I'd hold off for a cruise that I was more interested in and was longer.  I also use the logic that if I'm using the cash and the hassle of travel to get to and from the port, I may as well cruise for a while.

[jon81uk]

9 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

 

I don't think any lines give a discount to do b2b sailings. Why would they?

In general I think longer cruises do work out a bit cheaper anyway on a per night basis, so in a way it would make sense if they did give a small discount for back to back as usually you would pay less for one eight night compared to two four night anyway.