Janthere

We just sailed on Valiant 8 night Eastern Caribbean. We have done lots of 7 nights on other lines and 2 5 nights on VV. I thought the 8 night was perfect! We both remarked how much more relaxed we were knowing we had so much time to enjoy everything the ship had to offer.

I am in the same situation - he likes to travel but not nearly as often as I do. Thank goodness he is cool with my solo trips! I am not sure I could be away for 25 days at a time though.

I can confirm that if you are in a suite (Rockstar or Mega) you are NOT charged the 7% fee ( sailed 3x as recently as a few weeks ago and each time have confirmed this is the case)

You won't have any issues at all. Each time we have been on we bring bags of snack foods etc with zero problems. They are looking for booze not food.

Wow that is absolutely not the norm and I am sorry to hear that has been happening - I am actually shocked that your cabin steward hasn't introduced themselves to you by now! Is there any chance you are using the red button instead of the blue one? I would definitely press the button on the tablet in the room for cabin service ASAP so this can get rectified going forward. You shouldn't have to be chasing them down to get this done that is for sure. As for the galley, do you see staffers standing around or is everyone just busy? Sometimes I think they mistake a single person as waiting for their partner and so don't approach. Also, I thought I saw that there are now signs on the tables with a little red flag that you can raise to alert the staff that you would like to order? I hope your cruise gets better soon!

The chat is pretty much useless but I have found calling them has been much better lately and is the very quickest first thing in the morning.

Just to give another data point for disembarkation times. I left the Valiant Lady on Feb 19 at 9:20 am and there was no line at all in customs. Can confirm there is still no facial recognition cameras or Global entry line and there were 2 customs officers working at the time.

If you are a Mega I would recommend not going to the Manor - go directly to your suite and contact your RS agent - he or she likely has a note by your phone with their contact info. They will come to you and review all your reservations, answer questions, make any bookings etc you may require.

I am on the Beyond now too 11196 on the magic carpet side. The creaking, popping etc is pretty much continuous. My sound machine allows me to block most of it out for sleeping but I would definitely avoid this cabin if you have any noise sensitivities.

I SO wish they had VP at the bar but it would be so frustrating when people sit there and didn't gamble. the only cruise line I have seen this on is the Celebrity Edge.

I haven't seen anyone turned away at any restaurant. Like others have said - as long as you are wearing clothes you will be fine. Its just sooo nice to not have to worry about what to wear.

I totally get and appreciate that need to be disconnected. My husband has never been able to get the app to work on his phone and has given up trying. He is quite content to be offline and just ask me what he needs to know and where he needs to be haha! Its impossible to please everyone all of the time - I just love that VV seems to be listening to their clients and taking steps to come as close as they can to pleasing the most number of people.

You can make the upgrade bid direclty. There is not a way that I am aware of to make sure both cabins are upgraded. No guaranty at all that either or both of you would be. If you upgrade into a suite yes you do get all the benefits of that suite.

With regards to the paper agendas I think large video boards in strategic places would be super helpful as an alternative. I do think people are creatures of habit so I can see why some prefer to copy to hold in their hands and review. I think it's dumb that you although you can scroll through events on your phone/app you can only Heart or favorite some of them. To me it would be super helpful if I could just shortlist ALL of what I wanted to go to or have interest in but that doesn't seem to have that functionality. We board tomorrow - our last cruise on VV was beginning of October. I will try to be more aware of any changes since then. I absolutely love VV and really hope any changes are for the better. They are such a standout in the cruising world and really hope they stay that way!

We may not have as much experience on VV as some people here (we have done 2 and leave tomorrow on our 3rd) but we absolutely love the VV experience. We have done over 30 cruises on other lines and to me the biggest difference with VV is the overall vibe on the ship. My husband doesn't have to worry if he is wearing the correct collared shirt or closed toe shoes for dinner and I don't feel like I have to dress up to avoid awkward glances from other passengers. NO ONE CARES! Picture being on a desert island where everyone is relaxed, calm and just immersing themselves in an overall wonderful experience. It is a fabulous way to vacation in our opinion.

We are boarding tomorrow for our 3rd VV cruise and have 4 more booked over the next year. We love the experience however i can see how doing 10 cruises over a relatively short period can get old. I would think that would happen no matter which line you were on? I am curious as to what would make you less "done with VV"?

The host now is Alina - we met her on Scarlet last year - she is also very nice 🙂 Actually on Virgin cruises we don't play a whole ton in the casino as there is so much other fun stuff to do. We paid for our Mega Rockstar suite.

Valiant

No I meant free play at the end of the cruise as a comp.

Haha you are his groupie 🙂 We are headed out on Virgin this weekend and can only hope for half the luck he had - wow 14 jackpots is crazy!! Good job!

Why dont you just ask for freeplay instead of all the unwanted x gear?

You hit the nail on the head with that one. I may be in the minority here but I can't stand slot pulls - participating in them or listening to them happen (but that is just me - obviously many people enjoy them so more power to them!)

I absolutely LOL'd at that last sentence. I cruised on Solstice in November and was not impressed with the host either. He seemed more interested in being the joker and center of attention than being useful at anything to players but maybe that was just my experience.

Last time we were in Mazatlan we hired a guy to drive us around and show us the points of interest. So its nice to know there is another option with Stone Island. Thank you for posting the pics - looks nice - we will check it out!

My husband just corrected me on the suite - it wasn't fully comped - the price was significantly reduced and we paid the difference.