Totally new to VV - a few questions

[Bluebury]

We are totally new to Virgin, cruised several times bur with the more traditional lines. Have chosen VV following the food reviews, although I think that we will raise the average age quite a bit!

Can I ask - we received an upgrade invite, we currently have a Central Sea Terrace, is a suite worth a £1000 extra?

We have completed a form for status matching, if awarded where will we see this on the App?

This might seem silly but when the dining options open, how do you actually apply for what you want. Is it obvious or do we have to navigate and go around in circles? I cannot get my head round booking my dining time on a cruise, we usually just turn up when we want to eat. 

Anything else that we need to book in advance?

 

Thanks everyone for your help

Sharon

 

[cantgetin]

OK, if you get Blue Extras, that will show up on your account on line. You will also get an email within 7 days  of applying.  If you don't get the email, apply again!  The perks will show up on your app after boarding.

 

Only you can decide whether to bid for an upgrade. Read the suite benefits on the web page.  Basically you get a stocked bar at the beginning, a person to look after your various needs, and the ability to book dining 60 days in advance rather than 45  as well as boarding the ship first BUT you usually don't know if you get an upgrade till about a week before sailing, so you don't benefit from the 60 days.

OK...45 days before embarkation, at midnight Eastern time, you can go on the app and make dinner reservation.  If you used a good TA, they will be happy to make your reservations for you.  Yes, my TA gets up or stays up to do this.  I send her a list of where we want to eat and approximate times, and she does her best to match things up.  You can also do walk ups or wait lists after boarding, but you are better off booking something in advance and then changing it if you wish. You go to dining on the app, select the day, time, and restaurant, and it will show you what is available. You can change it at any time up to the dining time if you see something available that you like better.  I don't know if this is still possible, but on our first cruise, we had a different TA and were told to just call the VV number for shoreside sailor services and they booked dinners for us.  Most other things cannot be booked until you are on board, and many things are "walk ups" that don't require advance reservations.

The average age on VV sailings has been about 45 most years with a range of 18-90s.  On our recent cruise, the average age was 53.  That's not a lot different than Celebrity or Princess if you took out the kids.  I'm 69 and was not out of place at all.
This video is a little out of date, but most of the basics are the same.  

 

Edited September 8 by cantgetin

[Bluebury]

Thank you so much cantgetin, your answers are very helpful !! Appreciate the time that you have taken.

[CruisingWalter]

@cantgetin shared my video and I hope that food tour is helpful.

 

I don't now what time the dining comes online in Europe, but here in the U.S. it opens at about midnight eastern time 45 days prior to sailing date. The app notoriously crashes and gets 'stuck' due to the amount of people trying to book at the same time. That's the single best reason to work with a TA. They can go into the booking engine and get your reservations booked quickly for you.  

 

The bids are wholly up to you. We only bid one time on VV when we opted for an interior and we bid for a Sea Terrace.  Minimum bid and we got it.  

 

Cantgetin gave you the bulk of it, their advice is on point as always. 

[little britain]

5 hours ago, Bluebury said:

Thank you so much cantgetin, your answers are very helpful !! Appreciate the time that you have taken.

Lengthy review from a RCI perspective _ you may find parts useful

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3025676-a-pinnacle-tries-virgin/

 

[Bluebury]

Just watched the video that cantgetin posted of a review from Walter, really interesting and has made me so excited to be going on the cruise, looking forward so much to the food. Also read the thread littlebritain posted, that was also very helpful as it was interesting to read the comparison. 

 

Thank you for helping me.

[cantgetin]

You're welcome.  Walter has several VV videos if you search his channel.  I find them to be accurate, well done, and interesting.  While each of us has different experiences on the ships, he does a great job of documenting his.  Another particularly good one is his video on the restaurants and food available--again, there have been some minor menu changes since this was posted, but it is overall still accurate.

[DCGuy64]

On 9/8/2024 at 12:50 PM, CruisingWalter said:

That's the single best reason to work with a TA. They can go into the booking engine and get your reservations booked quickly for you.  

#1 reason I emailed my wonderful TA and asked him to book for us when reservations open. Also, on a related topic, I understand that brunch cannot be booked ahead of time and must be done on board. Can you confirm this?

 

5 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Walter has several VV videos if you search his channel.  I find them to be accurate, well done, and interesting.

I second this. Walter's videos are outstanding and very comprehensive!

[cantgetin]

Just now, DCGuy64 said:

#1 reason I emailed my wonderful TA and asked him to book for us when reservations open. Also, on a related topic, I understand that brunch cannot be booked ahead of time and must be done on board. Can you confirm this?

 

 

This used to be the policy.  As of at least 6 months ago, brunch can now be booked in advance on the app--exactly the same way you book dinners.  Just put in the date and time and it should show you brunch at The Wake and Razzle Dazzle.

[little britain]

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

 Also, on a related topic, I understand that brunch cannot be booked ahead of time and must be done on board. Can you confirm this?

 

 

We booked brunch at the same time as our dinner reservations 

[jon81uk]

Brunch/breakfast on the departure day can only be booked onboard. All other days will have some reservations available in advance.

[DCGuy64]

15 hours ago, cantgetin said:

This used to be the policy.  As of at least 6 months ago, brunch can now be booked in advance on the app--exactly the same way you book dinners.  Just put in the date and time and it should show you brunch at The Wake and Razzle Dazzle.

Thank you, I had seen this on several YouTube reviews (which appeared to be recent i.e. within the last 3 months), so I was going based off that assumption. I understand that unlike the dinner reservations (non-Rockstars), there is no limit to how many times you can do the brunch. Is that your understanding, too? Thanks!

[Gretchendz]

Yes. You can go to the Wake or Razzle Dazzle for brunch as many times as you like. 

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

Thank you, I had seen this on several YouTube reviews (which appeared to be recent i.e. within the last 3 months), so I was going based off that assumption. I understand that unlike the dinner reservations (non-Rockstars), there is no limit to how many times you can do the brunch. Is that your understanding, too? Thanks!

No limit on brunch reservations...you can go every day.  If your cruise stops at Bimini, do not do Razzle Dazzle on Bimini day. The normal staff goes to the island and the replacement staff doesn't have their act together.  At least that was our experience.

[DCGuy64]

58 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

No limit on brunch reservations...you can go every day.  If your cruise stops at Bimini, do not do Razzle Dazzle on Bimini day. The normal staff goes to the island and the replacement staff doesn't have their act together.  At least that was our experience.

Thank you! We aren't going to Bimini, although having seen some nice videos of it, I kinda wish we were!

[Travel-and-See]

On 9/10/2024 at 9:34 AM, cantgetin said:

No limit on brunch reservations...you can go every day.  If your cruise stops at Bimini, do not do Razzle Dazzle on Bimini day. The normal staff goes to the island and the replacement staff doesn't have their act together.  At least that was our experience.

My experience as well... you only make that mistake once! 

[CruisingWalter]

On 9/9/2024 at 4:33 PM, DCGuy64 said:

I understand that brunch cannot be booked ahead of time and must be done on board. Can you confirm this?

 

Brunch absolutely can be booked in advance, just not on disembarkation day.  We do that all the time.

[TYCruise]

On 9/8/2024 at 9:50 AM, CruisingWalter said:

@cantgetin  The app notoriously crashes and gets 'stuck' due to the amount of people trying to book at the same time. . 

 

Does this "app crash" usually happen at the 60 day mark when Rockstars can book? Have you heard of any other issues with Rockstars trying to book dining?

[cantgetin]

1 minute ago, TYCruise said:

 

Does this "app crash" usually happen at the 60 day mark when Rockstars can book? Have you heard of any other issues with Rockstars trying to book dining?

Never heard of it at 60 days.  Currently there are only 70 rockstar suites, compared to over 1000 regular cabins. Still, I let my TA know what we want as a backup.  Then when the app crashes, I send a text an ask her to finish whatever I couldn't get.  That works.

Brunch can definitely be reserved in advance.  I don't know exactly when the policy changed, but it has been available to book in advance for at least 6 months.

[Tralfaz1138]

6 hours ago, TYCruise said:

Does this "app crash" usually happen at the 60 day mark when Rockstars can book? Have you heard of any other issues with Rockstars trying to book dining?

The main issue I've encountered when doing restaurant bookings as a Rockstar is that, the two times I've done it, they don't have the system set up properly on day 60.  The first time it took about 3 days before the system would let me do anything (though by then I called Virgin and had them do it).  The 2nd time I think it was just a day or so before they had it working.  I've also had mixed results with booking shore things during the "15 days earlier". The first time they actually opened up a few hours before midnight and you could book "early".  The 2nd time it took a couple of days before any shore things showed up to book.

 

As near as I can tell I've never had the app or booking process do anything weird related to people jumping on at midnight and it's never crashed on me.

[CruisingWalter]

On 9/12/2024 at 11:16 AM, TYCruise said:

 

Does this "app crash" usually happen at the 60 day mark when Rockstars can book? Have you heard of any other issues with Rockstars trying to book dining?

I've not heard of this with Rockstars, just the regular sailors at 45 days.

[jon81uk]

33 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

I've not heard of this with Rockstars, just the regular sailors at 45 days.

I’ve had the same as the above poster of reservations actually opening on the app at 57-58 days instead of 60. The prime 7-8pm slots were already taken by those who called up by that point!

[CruisingWalter]

18 hours ago, jon81uk said:

I’ve had the same as the above poster of reservations actually opening on the app at 57-58 days instead of 60. The prime 7-8pm slots were already taken by those who called up by that point!

If you are calling VV, you're already too late. Need to work with a TA who jumps in there the moment they open up. 🙂 

[cantgetin]

13 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

If you are calling VV, you're already too late. Need to work with a TA who jumps in there the moment they open up. 🙂 

And the good ones will take care of it all for you.