jon81uk

Although for a 6pm show in The Manor this evening we arrived 25 minutes before and doors had already opened with a decent number of seats still available.

As Rockstar there is priority if you arrive before doors open you go straight to the front of the line, so for most Red Room shows that means arriving 35 minutes before as doors open at 30minutes and for The Manor doors generally open 15 minutes before. Arrive before they open and there is a roped off section of queue just for Rockstars.

As it never stops outside of the Schengen area of the EU they have to charge VAT the whole time. That’s one reason the Greek Isle cruises stop in Turkey, then no VAT once in international waters.

They used to serve cold brew but that stopped about two years ago.

Usually there is slight themes to them like Heartbeat, Studio 72 etc. But again the one the other night that was just listed as club night is unusual because it’s the transatlantic.

This is unique to the transatlantic, on most other itineraries the Manor will be open every night (unless in port overnight). Whereas on a 14 night trip they know people won’t have the stamina to stay out every night. Heartbeat is on tonight which is one of my favourite club nights!

Third menu is coming in July this year for food month and will then become permanent. Not clear yet whether a menu will be removed.

Although I do think with the no reservations for shows they are getting every single seat filled, whereas before the Red Room often had a lot of empty seats despite the app saying it was “sold out”.

Sea is definitely more rocky this evening

Bit rocky today but not terrible

Generally on embarkation day most of the casual dining places like Galley stations and The Dock open at 1.30pm as soon as people board. Brunch stops at 10am. So for those doing I expect b2b you’ll need to wait til 1.30pm to get lunch.

Got Ship Eats delivered this morning and our four portions of drip coffee came in flasks with plastic cups to pour it into. The half and half was in paper cups. But also each flask does almost two cups, so the four portions is actually closer to eight coffees with milk!

Thats unusual as we’ve always had the drip coffee delivered in small flasks and only speciality coffee like americano come in paper cups. How many servings did you order?

It will appear in the schedule in the app about a week before the cruise. I don’t think it’s possible to find out earlier.

Are you sure it was book and not just add to agenda?

I expect it depends on the layout of the port and stuff like how walkable it on whether they run a shuttle or not. On VV we’ve had shuttles at Mykonos, Ibiza and Funchal (this isn’t an overnight stop).

In Ibiza we returned to the ship at 3-4am, the shuttle bus even ran all night.

I’ve done the same and used the purple one. I also only wore the blue one for the first few days for the drink party and the boarding .

those who have deep blue extras and therefore get the early boarding get a plain blue non-removable wristband to designate they have the priority boarding. This applies to anyone who has deep blue, sea blazer, rover or other. the keepsake band for sea blazer is just a keepsake.

Back on my first few VV cruises the VHS workout was always first come anyway. I was surprised last year when they wanted to scan my band!

It’s usually at The Perch (but may be in On the Rocks if bad weather). There is sangria or sparkling wine and glasses are constantly topped up so you will get plenty. Usually the solo guitarist is playing. The Splash of Romance party is the same.

You can now book brunch in the app, same as dinner. This changed about 6-12 months ago. Before that it was book onboard. I’ve already got my reservation for brunch on Monday

No it only applies to the one booking it is bought for. You can’t carry it forward even if doing B2B. Only way round it slightly would be to buy bottles and store them for the next leg of the b2b. Or you buy one for the seven night and more for the 14 night.

If you cruised twice before the end of 2023 then you get the deep blue perks until the end of 2025. At present it’s not known what will happen in 2026 and whether people will get downgraded if they haven’t done four cruises by then. oh for people who didn’t qualify in 2023 its that you get the deep blue benefits on the fifth cruise, you need four to gain them. For blue extras it’s two to gain them on the third. So for you about to do a third and if you don’t do any more, it could mean you don’t get deep blue in 2026 if they choose to downgrade.

Will be onboard this time too, our seventh Virgin voyage and second transatlantic as did the westbound in October 2022