Noggins

Just a little sheepishly I have to admit we have just booked a Virgin cruise.... (There, I have said it out loud now - no going back.) Last year there was an amazing offer of a 'free' cruise for 2 people for 80k virgin miles. (worth c.£800 depending on your valuation) We sent our son and wife. They had a wonderful time ( our son has cruised Crystal with us) and were amazed at the quality. Furthermore they said we'd enjoy it. Well, this year the offer is repeated and we have a 14 day TA for zero £'s in a central standard balcony room. We have cruised non luxury lines before and adjust our expectations accordingly. This one will be closely followed by our next Serenity cruise - so we might enjoy that even more now as we make up for all the 'luxuries' we will have missed on Virgin! Reviews of Virgin I have read certainly lead me to expect a different experience but I am hoping we'll find a way of extracting those parts of the Virgin product that will provide us with a perfectly satisfactory fun experience. I haven't decided whether to report daily as I did on Explora recently. The ship will certainly not be full and one other certainty thing is that we won't have any misbehaving children to contend with. (Hopefully there won't be too many misbehaving adults....) Adrian

oh - and thanks!

we were on Sirena - in a PH - when she first went to Cuba. An emotional FDR was first ashore. (and we had a fascinating tour that day - another lifelong memory made) We were also on Marina's the maiden crossing. A lovely ship, we thought at the time - but we always had a soft spot for the 'R's. EJ eclipses all of those, of course. It's in a different category. But comparisons are relevant nevertheless.

thanks, I remember it - but I have never sailed on the vista and nor has the OP which may be as well as it's a comparison with the older ships that interests me more. Vista is not on my hit list - not now we have Crystal back - and EJ, come to that!

I see you are highly versed in all things Oceania. It would be interesting to to hear your comments comparing EJ to O ships. There are some elements of EJ that reminded us of O - restaurants in particular but also 'vibe'. Have a wonderful time (and don't spend too much of it posting here!). Adrian

All our documents were on-line - including luggage labels. (not very luxury - but things do improve!) Sneakers or sandals will not get sneered at nor cause a scandal.... It sounds as if we might have a few things in common..... Seatspy (and an Explora cruise) for starters. I'm guessing there is an BA AMEX Premium Plus card and, probably, Head for Points involved in the mix too? The Concorde Room is definitely worth a visit! Looking forward to your postings (And Sid's). Adrian

Thanks Vince, inciteful as ever and with additional layers of knowledge helpfully shared. Adrian

I suppose I sort of knew it but reading the other day that Explora apparently pays 20% commission still made my eyes water. And at that level significant losses for TA's could arise if Crystal applied the awards to the commissionable fare. But what do we think about our TA's earning 20%? (and I assume Crystal pays similarly). The only way to test this, in my opinion, is to consider how I would feel if I had the choice of a net price from the cruise line (keeping the maths* simple, a fare 20% cheaper) and then how I would feel when my TA invoiced me for around 20% of my cruise cost. That could be quite a chunky invoice. And suppose I had 2/3/4 + of those invoices every year. Would I value my TA's input that much? Would their input justify those fees on a routine basis? Would I always / sometimes choose to simply book direct and take the chunky saving? I can think of other (financial product) markets in the UK where there has been a maturing from products being purely commission based to being net priced with 'agents' charging fees for their services. * yes, mathematics is, in English, a plural so that 's' on the end is essential! Adrian

Only because it has not been mentioned, I would say the main issue with the lifeboats / tenders is whether your cruise is tender port intensive. If it is bear in mind the early morning (generally) commotion and noise from the tenders being readied and lowered. A surprisingly noisy activity. Of course on the plus side, once the tenders are off for the day there is no question of any view being obstructed! Adrian

Now listen, this is getting ridiculous - how can there possibly be over 16k views of this thread? If I had realised at the outset that there would be more than, say 250, I would have taken a bit more care over it. (and if I had known it would reach such numbers I might have written to Mr Explora Journeys and tried to do an 'if we reach 15k views can I have a free cruise - or maybe a tote bag?' deal with him.) A few weeks of further reflection have confirmed that an EJ cruise is definitely for repeating. I have cast around a little for a future cruise and find it all very confusing. There are some astonishingly keen prices for a week in the Caribbean but there are also some extremely high prices in other parts of the world. To add to the confusion TA's seem to have prices all of their own and there's a rumour that at least one TA offers a significant refund on the fare once you arrive home. How odd.

Santorini has been ruined by the hordes (although I have not checked how many ships were due tomorrow). The only good way to spend the day on a Santorini stop is making it a sea day and enjoy an empty-ish ship. IMHO, of course, Nafplion is a much better stop (and is not naff). Enjoy!

You're going to have to try a bit harder than this, Heather! What you meant to say was 'will I be able to go straight to my Penthouse Suite and will our Host be there to greet us?'...... If you need a full glossary of Explora speak you only have to ask. 😎

We flew VS LHR - MIA on a 350 with the latest seat configuration (and bar) that was a totally different experience to the return VS journey from Barbados with the old 787 seat. The new seat even has a door. Well, they call it a door. 'Flap' describes it better. But in any event better than the old BA seat which is still on some of the MIA flights - notably the 380. Although even then the forward cabin on the 380 upper deck is a good option as long as you are travelling with your partner and book a pair of seats with a window. Two decent options, with the LHR Clubhouse possibly swinging the final vote for VS.

But to be fair, JB, were they ever going to say (and they don't need to - imho) 'hey guys, we got it all wrong - we're very sorry and we're going to try harder. Please bear with us whilst we adopt and listen to our first customers much better ideas and advice'.....? Who knows what they really think!

By reading random 'live reports' from that section of CC (look for the tab at the top of the page if you'd never noticed it) I discovered that people cruise in all sorts of different ways. So much so that it is actually quite addictive - and certainly eye opening!! It hasn't resulted in my having any wish to change the way we cruise......but it has made me careful not to be as judgmental as I might naturally be!