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tbmrt

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About Me

  • Location
    Near Tampa, Florida
  • Interests
    Golf, travel, snorkeling
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    RCCL, Celebrity, NCL, Princess, MSC. Virgin Voyages
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Southern Caribbean

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3,000+ Club (3/15)

  1. Getting caught up after getting home from our cruise on March 2nd. My trip report follows. Thanks to everyone who helped me plan along the way. Trip Report – Virgin Voyages Valiant Lady 2/24 – 3/2/24 Very long….but I like to keep these reports for future reference. This trip was originally planned on the Brilliant Lady, but was changed to Valiant Lady. We had cruised on Scarlet Lady from Miami in June and loved it so we decided to book the VL from San Juan to the Southern Caribbean in February. We had 3 balcony cabins, 1 for my husband and me, 1 for our friends and 1 for my sister/daughter. We had gotten a “coupon” onboard so we received $1,050 in loot and a $600 bar tab. Some of the loot was from our travel agent. We had about $33 left on our bar tab when we disembarked and used the loot for small diamond earrings, t-shirts, etc. Since this was a port intensive cruise, we weren’t onboard all day so we never completed the $600 bar tab. (We were surprised at this because we do enjoy our drinks!) Didn’t bring the 2 bottles of wine onboard and had a total of 3 bottles of Moet since our 3 cabins booked Splash of Romance. The weather for the whole cruise was sunny and comfortable onboard and at all the ports. Highest about 82 degrees; coldest about 64. We have cruised on many cruiselines and thought the Valiant Lady rocked more than the others. Our friends agreed. Not a big deal, but you could feel it. On 2/23 we flew from Tampa to San Juan on Jet Blue. The only direct flight we could get left at 6AM so we were up very early. Jet Blue’s seats and wifi were excellent. The hotels near the Port in SJ were extremely expensive ($500 and up!) so we decided to go with an airbnb in the Rosalina/Carolina section of Puerto Rico, about a 10 min Uber to the ship. Ubers were numerous and not too expensive. The airbnb was plain, but had everything we needed and a small pool/courtyard to share with others. Check in time was 4pm, but we could leave our luggage in the office before that. We ate at a pizza place near the airbnb and the pizza was the most amazing I’ve ever eaten (I’m originally from NJ so know good pizza!) Pretty expensive though. Had breakfast at Kasalta’s near the airbnb. What a great place for breakfast. Everything from pastry to hot breakfasts, puddings, cake, etc. They had wine, sandwiches, etc as well. The coffee was terrific! On Saturday, 2/24 we ubered to the ship to drop off our luggage at 10AM, get checked in and obtain our ship’s bracelet. Had a few drinks across from the ship and went back at around 12:30…Walked into the terminal and was let on the ship around 1. My daughter was able to book shows there before getting on the ship. The rest of us could not do so. She was able to book everything we wanted. Had previously booked our dinners at midnight on the 45th day before our cruise. Our cabin steward and his assistant were very friendly and cleaned our cabin once a day. We could request towels etc on the tablet that was in the room or by calling Sailor Services on phone or chatting on the app. I found that Sailor Services was definitely the place to chat for anything you need. The shower was big enough…Not too much space in the bathroom for cosmetics, etc. though. The bed and pillows were very comfortable. Booked the thermal spa that was part of our Splash of Romance package. While it was very pretty, the one hot tub only fit 2 people, didn’t have jets and water was just warm..not hot at all. There were 2 cold pools and 1 a bit larger pool with room temperature water. The heated seats were lukewarm and not comfortable. They had 2 steam rooms and a sauna which were nice. I think paying the $200 for the Splash of Romance helps if you don’t have a very early embarkation time, but we would never do the thermal spa again. The candies they left a few times during the cruise weren’t that good. We ate at all the restaurants except Test Kitchen. My husband loved it on Scarlet Lady, but I really disliked it. So we headed to the Galley for dinner that night…The butter chicken and Beef Wellington were excellent. The Wake was a big disappointment. Steaks were very tough, lamp chops dry. Service was very slow. Did brunch and same situation. Love Extra Virgin..food and service was wonderful.Pink Agave was good and Razzle Dazzle was just okay. Most of our group didn’t care for the food at Gunbae and the server didn’t speak good English so we had no idea what we were eating. Fun playing the drinking game though. We ordered Ship Eats twice in the early morning. Came in about ½ and hour and although food/coffee were excellent, they were cold. The PJ Party was changed to The Manor. We were disappointed that it wasn’t on deck and headed to The Manor…Just overly packed so we didn’t stay long. Scarlet Night was absolutely amazing...music, dancing, watching acrobats, etc. Loved Misbehave and Carlos the Diva - best ever. Tortola - Went to Jost Van Dyke White Bay on a VV excursion. Great time with excellent painkiller drinks. We stayed on the ship in Guadeloupe. 2 in our group went on a private kayak tour and enjoyed it. Barbados – Did a catamaran tour with private company…Just 9 people on it. Food was amazing and service great…We had a wonderful time. St. Lucia – Did private speedboat excursion to Jalousie Beach. Absolutely beautiful.On our Sea Day we did Loteria bingo which we love. Lots of margaritas and fun. Also did slot pull with our FB group. Got our $ back plus just a bit. Antigua - Walked around town and came back to enjoy the ship. Left our luggage outside the doors by 10 pm. Went to brunch the next morning and then easily picked up our luggage in the terminal. Headed to a Resort Pass hotel to spend the day. Fabulous service, good food and drinks. Left the resort by Uber about 3:30 pm and headed to airport for our approximate 7:30 flight. USDA and TSA both pretty empty! Our United flights were fine (2 of us). We received a notice that our Jet Blue flight was delayed an hour. My sister told me to keep watching our email because often Jet Blue moves the flight back to its original time. Sure enough we took off just a little after the originally planned time. Got home to Tampa around 11 PM. Slept the whole flight. Although I thought most things on Valiant Lady were fine, I don’t think we will cruise with VV for awhile due to same restaurants and most shows. We enjoyed our past cruises on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, NCL and Windsurf but think we’ll stick to land vacations for awhile. We had gone to Ecuador and the Amazon a few years ago and it was wonderful.
  2. Trip report will follow, but in the meantime, thanks to everyone who was so helpful to me on this site. Thanks to you all, things went very smoothly. I would never have known so many pertinent things if it was not for your input. I passed along info from you to other cruisers who had no idea what to do in several circumstances so you helped others besides me.
  3. Is the decorating session done the same day/time as the bidding? So just 1 date/time for bidding/decorating and the second date for the race itself?
  4. Airplane mode on also? I read that was always something you do when you enter ship? Tx!
  5. I see the day it takes place on a Sunday and Friday. When would we sign up?
  6. Galaxy Note 10 plus android. Last time we cruised on VV, I set my phone to airplane mode and roaming automatically shut off. However, when I signed onto VV's wifi, I couldn't start booking. Had to see a Happenings Cast member who immediately fixed my problem. He was too busy for me to ask, but since I'm going again tomorrow, I'd like to know what I had set incorrectly. Perhaps my problem was bluetooth? Should I leave that on or off? My husband has bluetooth enabled Phonak hearing aids so I'm hoping he could leave Bluetooth on so his hearing aids will work (Phonak) without charges. Sorry I'm technically challenged I guess. Like to take a minute to thank everyone for all their help with this cruise.
  7. Did anyone take the White Beach/Jost Van Dyke excursion? Wondering where we meet the tour guide and what "adult beverages" are included.
  8. Thanks again for all your valuable info. Since you said you didn't mind questions, would like your advice on managing group bookings on embarkation day? We have SOR so will be on early (3 cabins). Most of us are looking at the same shows and daily events on same days, times. A few prefer doing a few different things. We have our restaurant resos made, but as of now (2/19...We sail 2/24) have to move 2 around. Is it better for one person to handle all restaurant changes, show and daily event bookings to avoid confusion? Any hints appreciated. Will be looking for your future cruise posts on CC. We cruise pretty often and the 2/24 will be our 2nd VV cruise, but like you, I think we're done with VV until the menus and shows change considerably.
  9. Was anyone charged a cancellation fee if they had to cancel an event like Loteria?
  10. I know there is a charge if you do not cancel an exercise class like Bungee or Yoga...How about things like Loteria, Paint N Sip, etc
  11. I guess the Festivals will come later. None showing so far. In the meantime, two things I want to clarify with this great group who always has the correct answers! There is something called Flight Night but no info as to book on board and no explanation of what this is. How does that work? I thought we'd need to book Around the World with the Diva, but that is not showing "Book Onboard". Is that correct?
  12. Does it have a liqueur in it, i.e., Grand Marnier?
  13. I have a reso for Gunbae at 8:30 and would like to change it to 8:30 to 10:30 Ship Show with dinner instead. At embarkation should I cancel my current reso at Gunbae before trying to book the Ship Show due to this time overlap? I'm afraid to cancel my Gunbae reso and then not be able to book the Ship Show with dinner.
  14. I read that the VV tours in Antigua and Tortola were good...Others not so much
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