If you like to wait on line, you will LOVE the Scarlet Lady !

[We_like_to_cruise]

Lines, lines, lines – everywhere and for everything.

 

Recently back from the TA, our first VV cruise, and probably our last (not just because of the lines).

 

We have been on dozens of cruises on most of the major cruise lines with voyages ranging from three days to over one hundred. This cruise was inexpensive transportation to Europe and we were excited to check out the buzz on VV. Ultimately it wasn’t for us. We loved the vibe of the ship, met many nice people but the cruise experience did not live up to the hype. That is for another review.

 

EMBARKATION

 

Having been granted “priority boarding” thanks to status match DBE, we were instructed by Sailor Services to arrive at the Miami cruise terminal between 1pm and 1:30 pm. There we joined – literally – hundreds of other “priority boarding” pax. (One VV rep opined there were nearly 1,000 pax with this perk). “Priority” ain’t worth a damn if everyone has it. Nearly an hour in line standing outside and we were finally aboard.

 

The weather was in our favor that day; cannot imagine standing outside in typical Miami heat and humidity. And rain ???

 

Every other cruise line we have been on offers you a seat in the air conditioned terminal as you await with your group for embarkation. WTH Virgin ?

 

DINING RESERVATIONS

 

Next we wait in line for another 20+ minutes to fix the dining reservations the app cancelled a few days before sailing. And that was after a looong time unsuccessfully adding them pre-cruise between starting and restarting the crashing app. Calling Sailor Services also did not help, but a friendly TA we met on another cruise seemed to have it taken care of for us. Alas, it was for nought as the app deigned to delete and rearrange our reservations.

 

DINNER

 

Lines to enter the dining rooms were not too bad – except for The Wake. We gave up listening to the musical entertainment with a pre-dinner drink at The Dock House, as the line to enter The Wake often stretched right down the middle of the hallway and through The Dock House. You could not even see the entertainment.

 

SHOWS

 

Every show we attended required at least 30 minutes waiting on line if you wanted a decent seat. We went to see the a capella group “Moonshot” and got to the end of a long line. Curious, I went to the front of the line. Guests 1 and 2 got on line one hour prior to the performance!

 

Some lines for The Manor stretched through the casino all the way into the Roundabout bar area.

 

 

PORT

 

Our first port on this TA was Funchal, Madeira, after nine days at sea. Due to a prior medical emergency, our arrival time is a bit later at 12:30 pm. Hoping to avoid the early rush of disembarking pax, we prepare to leave a bit after 1 pm to meet our scheduled semi-private tour. BUT, not so fast. We are instructed to wait in a lounge and are forbidden to disembark. (Barriers are even put in place to prevent this). No real reason is given. After 10 minutes or so, I speak with a fellow passenger who has already been waiting 30 minutes. Eventually, to the sound of loud grumbling by many, we are given permission to now wait on another line to get off the ship.

 

Returning to the ship is even more of a joke. The line stretches on as we wait and wait, slowly moving one step forward. The ship has one gangway open and one person checking in each of the hundreds of passengers on line. (Again, for comparison, most ships we have been on have TWO gangways and each has TWO agents checking oncoming passengers. Never waited in a line like this). When we finally got to the front, I asked a rep why the cruise line did not provide waiting passengers with a cup of water or a cool washcloth - she said “That’s a great idea!” This is not anything new to anyone who has been on any mainstream cruise line.

 

 

Disembarkation

 

VV allows very late disembarkation, seeemingly another great perk. Unfortunately that leads to more lines of disembarking passengers and more lines at the taxi queue.

 

Honestly, this did not affect us, as we had an early flight. But we did keep in touch with newly made friends who complained about the excessive time waiting in yet another line to disembark.

 

Sometimes lines cannot be avoided. But it seemed excessive on this sailing.

 

 

 

 

 

[kaysha2004]

Wow!  Those are very long lines.  I've never experienced those lines on my previous VV cruises.  I hope you were able to get into the shows after waiting in line.  The smaller capacity theatres on these ships often end up filling before the line is finished, so people get turned away.  When VV first launched, there was a reservation system on the app, which controlled the capacity.  Now it's a free-for-all.

[Cloud9 Bob]

At least there were no screaming kids 😇

[CruisingWalter]

Definitely different than our experiences other than the longer lines for the DBE priority boarding. But once that line opened up we were inside the terminal in minutes. No lines onboard for the 4 cruises we've sailed on VV so far other than the Red Room and for the Diva show.

 

Fortunately there are a lot of other cruise lines out there for you to explore. 

[Lustate]

7 hours ago, We_like_to_cruise said:

 

Sometimes lines cannot be avoided. But it seemed excessive on this sailing.

 

 I was also on this voyage (but as a rockstar).

 

Embarkation day - This is classic of people NOT following simple guidance. Priority is clearly explained that at your BOOKED ARRIVAL time, you should arrive at the terminal, and you will be put into the priority boarding line for your slot. If there is no one there, you literally walk straight on. When people ALL turn up, ignoring booking slots, it ruins it for everyone as you have (or whatever) all claiming they should be first on the ship as a "priority".

 

App - has been bad for years but is getting better every journey. Something "back of house" happened on this voyage to a lot of peoples bookings, but everyone got to eat in every place they wanted, just maybe not in the first choice of slot. 

 

Funchal - Yer getting back on the ship was an issue. The technical reason for this was the gangplank. VV explained that due to low tide, they can only have one until the level comes up, as the level 4 entry is below the portside. As soon as the ship was high enough, they deployed the second gang plank and it moved faster. A lot of people also did wait till the very end of the boarding time to head back so we did not help with that issue. 

 

Disembarkation - This was very much a mess up, half sailor's fault, half VV. A lot of people did not book slots or ignored them. This created a bottle neck to leave the ship. A fair few people also had not cleared the bill on board, so they had to step aside to guest services. This line should not have happened at all, and I am sure VV have apologies for this one-off instance which did not meet their standards.

 

Rockstars - As a rockstar we could line jump just about anything. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't. On the way back to the ship at Funchal we stood and waited with everyone else, as it seemed a bit wrong to be pulled from the line and walked to the front. For some shows people made this drama about them wanting to be over prepaired. If people followed the guidance of turning up 15 minutes before door opening, then the line would not have formed as along. But as soon as someome turns up at 30 minutes to go people stand behind, then the next show does thst 35 mins before and it grows. Madness of crowds.

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[CineGraphic]

On our 6 sailings we've always found ourselves saying how nice it is to not stand in lines most of the time.

What few lines we did see, moved quickly though.....sounds like a bad combination of one-offs.

The only times we've seen lines at the Wake are at peak dining times, and we tend to eat later when sailing,so that may have something to do with it.

[cantgetin]

I was on the same sailing and  the lines were by far the worst we've seen.  Our experience was not quite as bad as yours, but.....the new system of not making reservations for shows and some other classes, but being "first come, first served" means that you have to show up 45 minutes or so early and line up. That resulted in me not doing a lot of things that I'd done on other  sailings as I wasn't willing to stand in line.  I don't want to get dressed for VHS or Zumba only to waste 45 minutes in line than not get in.  I've read that the shows were "more full" with this system, but again, I hate it.  When I had a reservation, I knew I'd have a spot.  If I wanted a front row seat, I'd better show up early, but if I just needed to be in for a seat or activity, 10 minutes early was great.

Embarkation--showed up at our scheduled time with priority and DBE.  Due to need for wheelchair assist, were supposedly put on a list and sent to a less than great seat...but at least a bench outside.  30 minutes later, I saw the same crew member who told us that a different person was handling that now...went over and we weren't on the list.  I was politely irritated, and we were taken quickly to an area inside where there were 3 terminal workers with 3 wheelchairs just standing around.  Really?  I'd understand if all were busy, but what's the point of standing around while people are waiting for them?

Funchal--crazy lines,. but that was sort of beyond VV's control. The disembarkation was likely due to the later arrival and the late reboarding was due to the low tide....We watched from the balcony.  It moved a lot faster than we expected.
Lines for dinner reservations...guess we were lucky.  We had reservations in advance, but did wait to change things.  At dinner, never more than 2 or 3 groups in front of us.
Guest Services--if there was more than one person ahead waiting, I'd come back later.
Disembarkation was the smoothest we've ever encountered.  We had an early disembarkation and no waiting...except that all the luggage had not been unloaded yet.  I did read what you reported--that most people ignored their selected time and didn't leave till after 10 (we were at the airport long before that.)

It is the first time I've gotten off VV without another sailing booked, and I'm really not eager to book another right now.  Maybe I'm "cruised out."  Or maybe I don't want to see a "full" ship as I've seen the experience deteriorate as each of my sailings was more full than the one before.  There were MANY of really good things, but lines were not one of them.  

NOT standing in line had previously been one of the best things about VV.

Edited May 21 by cantgetin

[Cloud9 Bob]

2 hours ago, cantgetin said:

NOT standing in line had previously been one of the best things about VV.

I hope that VV is just trying different things and maybe the pendulum will swing to a more middle of the road solution when all is said and done.

Edited May 21 by Cloud9 Bob

[TrinaLC]

Weird this happened on a TA. In our experience they sail at quite a bit below capacity. 
 

We completed a TA on MSC in about the same time frame and it was probably 25% below full. 
 

 

[The_Big_M]

On 5/21/2024 at 10:28 PM, Lustate said:

For some shows people made this drama about them wanting to be over prepaired. If people followed the guidance of turning up 15 minutes before door opening, then the line would not have formed as along. But as soon as someome turns up at 30 minutes to go people stand behind, then the next show does thst 35 mins before and it grows. Madness of crowds.

 

 

 

The line is just the length of people, regardless of what time it is.

 

If the line is 100 people long at 30 min before, and 200 people long at 15 min before, it doesn't mean that it's not 200 people long at 15 min before because they've all waited at bars at 30 before and then joined on the spot at 15 to.

 

The only difference is the crowding in the halls at 30 before - but this is a function of the lack of reservations and show allocations as managed by VV, not because of the passengers. Maybe VV should open the doors earlier. Or VV should put reservations back. Or have a different design that allows overflow areas that don't cause congestion. 

 

Not a passenger fault, but a VV issue.

[jon81uk]

24 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

 

The line is just the length of people, regardless of what time it is.

 

If the line is 100 people long at 30 min before, and 200 people long at 15 min before, it doesn't mean that it's not 200 people long at 15 min before because they've all waited at bars at 30 before and then joined on the spot at 15 to.

 

The only difference is the crowding in the halls at 30 before - but this is a function of the lack of reservations and show allocations as managed by VV, not because of the passengers. Maybe VV should open the doors earlier. Or VV should put reservations back. Or have a different design that allows overflow areas that don't cause congestion. 

 

Not a passenger fault, but a VV issue.

I think doors opening 30 minutes before is plenty. It’s people choosing to line up an hour before the show despite being asked not to that makes the lines. If they arrived five minutes before doors open it wouldn’t be as much of an issue.

 

I don’t think the old reservation system worked well either, often shows were sold out in the app but maybe a third of the seats were empty when the show started.

I would probably allow one reservation for each show once per trip but also stop scanning the reservations fifteen minutes before and switch to first come at that point. So doors open 30 min minutes before for those who reserved and they make it very clear you need to be there 15 minutes before show time or the reservation is useless. Also as they have been doing now have staff in the Red Room making people move down the row and fill every available seat.

[cantgetin]

On 5/26/2024 at 10:21 AM, TrinaLC said:

Weird this happened on a TA. In our experience they sail at quite a bit below capacity. 
 

We completed a TA on MSC in about the same time frame and it was probably 25% below full. 
 

 

The April VV TA had 2348 sailors on board (capacity totally full is 2700).  It was the most full VV sailing I've been on. although I do know that some  shorter sailings have sold every available cabin.

We've been on TAs on other lines that cruised full.  People are learning that these are great cruises and good/great values.