WIBadgerFan

We won $250 OBC the last night on Sky in January. I wonder if the predetermined suggestion is accurate. Maybe we had not opened the door enough times to get it earlier. It was great but actually a little stressful to find the best use of the credits immediately on the last night. Not complaining 🙂

We saw the same but received an upgrade to a suite from mini-suite Monday for this same sailing. We were notified that our bid had been outbid last week, indicating that it must not be sold-out. We increased our bid slightly but it remained only a bit higher than "poor" rating.

We were just about to book a Seriously Suite before noticing the fine print on the $600 bar tab. This exclusion of Rock Star Suites is making us reconsider. This makes no sense to me. Any insight on this exclusion out there?

For sure. Everything was overcooked and rubbery. What a letdown compared to the rest of the experience. I liked the rum cake too but I wonder if it was so good only in contrast to the rubber fish and corn. Eat on the ship before going!

Completely agree, though the smallest bathroom on a ship ever to make room for empty space in the room was most frustrating. This and the tiny pool with no shade are serious issues but one does have to balance the amazing food experience. Wow, you Rock Stars must have received better service. I literally never saw my room attendant the entire cruise. That was a crazy difference from other lines. He or she did a decent job, however.

Interesting that they increased the base price. Good to know, thank you. I was able to get $100 match on $200 bar tab when I sailed with them on a 4-day in May. It seems to be a moving target. I am looking at a new booking, which is why I was surprised at the lack of confirmation of this change when trying to book on their site.

Agreed, but having just sailed on X, their wine selection for the premium package was abysmal by comparison to NCL. My local gas station has better wine options than Celebrity includes. You will never see Veuve for instance. Decoy is the best you're going to get for a red. Oh, and no wine bottles and only one drink per card. They do charge a bit less than NCL.

Wow, this is huge! As their marketing materials state, they have indeed listened to customer feedback regarding the lack of a drink package. Having sailed with them in May, it was not a huge deal to me but it was annoying since I don't sail without the deluxe drink package on other lines. Maybe they will add music that isn't techno... oh wait, that is a different feedback subject. 🙂 Has anyone been able to see any reference to the amount of credit in your booking information on their site? I see the information on the link below, but when checking out, nothing about that credit is displayed. How do we know it is applied to our sailing? By comparison, I cannot imagine their competitors missing an opportunity to remind you on every single click that you are getting this new discount. https://www.virginvoyages.com/l/cruise-discounts-2023

Right, that company had hundreds of young and ... "inexperienced" (being very kind) people who treated the ship like it was theirs alone, but many seemed to be maxing out their drink package. Maybe there was not enough staff but we thought that management could have at least reassigned staff to the busier bars. The beer and wine cart was a welcome alternative at the pool. Fortunately the ship has so many amazing venues to enjoy that it was easy enough to avoid that crowd.

Left the ship yesterday. I am curious about staffing as well, since we heard many tell us that their contract was up and they were going home today. In general, the staff was amazing, especially in the MDR. There was definitely not enough staff at the bars, especially at the pool where ONE poor bar tender was continuously trying to meet the drinks demand of a huge group that we were unlucky enough to share our cruise with.

Virgin has this with their wristband. It is AWESOME. I always have my Apple Watch and iPhone but the speed and ease of the Sailor's band is far better. I wish every line had this.

Yes, it is really annoying but thanks to helpful folks on this site who kindly answered when I asked the same question: just call. It took ten minutes at the most for me a few days ago for our sailing on Nov 3 on Silhouette.

Excellent, thank you. It does seem odd since it says that it is cheaper to upgrade in advance.

Has anyone else experienced this? I searched the boards but don't see anything. My CP shows basic drink package and internet as upgrade options even though I verified "AllIncluded NRD" on my reservation document. The premium drink package for example shows $62 and $80 for drink packages instead of $18 for the upgrade. Thanks to anyone who has some insight here!

I wish we could hear why different lines have shortages and others don't or deal with them better. These experiences on Celebrity recently sound similar to my Royal cruise in March. On Virgin in May, several wines were unavailable but the liquor selection was outstanding. Plenty of T&T, at least 4 Macallans, etc.

All true, but... the no kids thing. That's the selling point for so many of us. I'll put up with many things I don't like to not see babies in diapers in the hot tub, strollers blocking primary walkways screaming toddlers in the steakhouse, etc. Those of us with our own kids probably appreciate that the most! 🙂 Doesn't that tell us that the major lines could be successful with adults-only cruises or even separate AO lines, i.e. just make Celebrity AO. $$$ The AI resort companies almost all have AO locations. Why not cruise lines?

It was pretty hard to miss at the Pajama Party on my cruise among other instances. I guess it doesn't bother me personally but definitely a big change from more family-oriented lines.

Interesting! I guess I should try it from Southhampton instead of Miami next time! 🙂 I did hear multiple sailors comment that they didn't understand why there was not a comedian. Hopefully they implement that change on all sailings.

I may have seen at most, 10 passengers that fit the "20 somethings on daddy's money" category, however, they do need to figure out who their audience is, especially the lack of music variety. For me at least, their food and beach club crushed NCL and Royal at least. Not paying for specialty restaurants was "priceless". Oh, I'm 52 and would return to Virgin for the food and lack of children over and over. The staff in general were also refreshing, genuine and awesome, probably because they were not treated like servants. Don't stop trying to convince your friends, the pros outweigh the cons for sure.

Recently returned from a four-day in late May. Your review could have largely been written by me so thank you so much! I'm 52 but don't feel as old as VV seemed to be trying to make me feel. I did include several of those points in my review back to VV, hoping they do something about those items that can be easily fixed. The constant blaring techno music with absolutely zero genre variety especially at the crazy crowded pool deck (where there is no shade except the edges) alienates many customers. They do indeed try way too hard to be different. They need to consider that some things are not broken on other lines: reasonable pool sizes, actual performance talent (please at least get a comedian and actual bands for the public spaces). I did love the food in general, especially Wake and that amazing filet! I loved Pink Agave and was glad they didn't have Tex-Mex personally but I agree that having something like fajitas wouldn't kill them. The one reservation per restaurant was also irritating to me, especially since we had fewer than 1000 Sailors. While it's not desert, the French crueler at Wake in the morning was incredible, almost as amazing as the filet. At least one can go to Wake for breakfast every day if you want. I did enjoy the other food venues as well, especially the Mediterranean options at the Dock House where the shrimp and beef were amazing. One more food note: why was lobster non-existent except the Wake's +$ seafood tower? Maybe the perfect steak in every venue makes up for it, in fact the ribeye at Pink Agave might have been my favorite steak of the many examples. I loved the pizza options offered, especially the truffle egg, which has to be among the best pizza at sea. Agree on the lack of variety options for the Galley but the existing avocado tacos and empanadas at were fantastic. I hate buffets and the Galley even as is a far better option for me personally. I loved the balcony room technical features. I hated the tiny bathroom and wasted space in the remainder of the room. The hammock was probably my favorite part of the cruise. I agree entirely on the Bimini comments, both good and bad (that leather-textured overcooked fish was sad but the venue was incredible). So as Sid described in detail in his trip narration (thank you Sid!), the food was indeed the highlight. It will bring me back to the ship alone. I'll avoid the main pool and Duel Reality for sure next time but will repeat the Grog Walk, Scarlet Night and Pajama Party. Hopefully they can at least play some of the great vinyl options offered in the record store...the Stones and Pink Floyd would be grateful.

It shows $50 for me, not $200.