CruisingWalter

No cruise line rents scooters and no cruise line allows you to park a scooter in the hallway to charge. VV probably refers people to Scootaround or Special Needs Group, both of whom can provide scooter rentals. But they must fit inside your room when not in use, they cannot be left in the hallways, nor can they be left in the elevator lobbies for charging.

The ones they showed me were gel batteries. I wonder if they have gel batteries specifically for cruise ships.

The wording I've been seeing from multiple cruise lines is a requirement for a gel battery for mobility scooters. If you can, I would suggest you take a look at the Whill power chairs. We've introduced those to multiple cruise guests after we had a chance to the visit the Scootaround offices here in Orlando. They're smaller than a standard 3 or 4 wheel scooter, easy to drive with a right or left hand joystick and fit into most any stateroom door. The batteries pop out for super easy charging. The C1 can be rented for cruises and while it's smaller it does not fold up. They also have an F model that literally folds up against the wall when it's not in use. Both come with a phone app that allows you to drive the chair via the app. The primary use of this on a cruise ship would be to park the chair out of the way after you sit down and to drive it back to you when it's time to leave. Here's my visit to the offices and the two chairs. Whill is the parent company of Scootaround. https://youtu.be/HjS6qhJIRUY

The best is NCL. They alternate between One Guest Free! and 50% off Both Guests! It's the exact same offer, different words. And I'll get calls all the time, "Hey they changed the offer! Can we rebook to get the new rate?" I have to explain it's literally the same deal, bringing up the pricing so they can see it, just different wording. 🙂

VV tends to go up in price as the sail date gets closer. I've seen it go up 2 to 3x the original cruise fare in the weeks and months before sail date. Our Thanksgiving cruise last November was 3x the original cruise fare a few months before sailing. VV's best pricing tends to be the day they open up. Note that if the pricing does go down, VV does not price match like other cruise lines. You'll have to cancel your cruise and rebook. When you do that, you will lose any promotion that was attached to the original sailing and be rebooked with any current promotions. Your MNVV can be cancelled and reused one time.

I think one of the best itineraries in Europe is one you didn't list. Starry Nights in Greece and Croatia. An amazing 10 night itinerary as Croatia has become a major destination of late in Europe. https://www.virginvoyages.com/itinerary/europe/greece-croatia-cruise

Actually your TA should be contacting the First Mates dept. directly. He should have asked you to send an email detailing the situation. Then the First Mates dept would be the first contact for that TA to fix the situation. If they could not get the situation sorted, then your TA escalates the situation directly to their business development contact from VV to get the situation sorted. That's one of the advantages of using a TA, having them go directly to their contacts if the situation has to be escalated. That is a very strange situation to be sure. It does sounds like you've been put into a Circle but even there, you would not see anyone else's personal information. .

Thanks for the kind words. Every time I'm on a ladyship I get so many compliments on that particular video. And so many Sailors will tell me they tried Virgin for the first time because of that video. It's super cool.

TAs make your life so much easier to be honest. We have cruised for almost 20 years and have always used a TA. The biggest advantage is not having to call the cruise lines ourselves to do anything. They take care of it. And if we really need to take things to a higher level to get a situation taken care of, they have direct contacts at all of the cruise lines. And in the case of VV, having them take care of our dining reservations is worth their weight in gold. VV's app can make it incredibly challenging to book dining reservations when they open. So long as the booking engine is working for the TA, they can usually make your reservations pretty quickly. And our TA never charges us a dime so why wouldn't we use their expertise and connections? 🙂

They can cancel for any reason at any time. It's in section 9 of the contract. I believe 9.3.5 in VV's contract. It's in every single cruise contract on any cruise line. 300 days, 200 days, 100 days, 10 days, and even after the ship leaves port, itineraries can change for whatever reason at all. No itinerary is guaranteed, ever. If Toulon was that important to you, fly there, don't take a cruise. If any destination is so important it will ruin your cruise if it's cancelled, don't take the cruise. fly there. It's that simple. Everyone who is 'defending' the cruise line understands the cruise contract. We go into the cruise knowing the itinerary can change.

There is no audacity on anyone's part. Itinerary changes are normal in cruising. It's in the contract. Those of us who have been cruising for 20 years know exactly how all of this works. Anyone who books through a travel agent knows that your itinerary is NEVER guaranteed on a cruise ship. If Toulon is the most important thing in the world to you, fly there. Don't take a cruise. That holds true of any cruise destination on any cruise line from the cheapest to the most expensive luxury cruise. If your vacation is going to be RUINED because the ship won't stop at XYZ port, don't take a cruise. Fly there. It's not audacious to understand itinerary changes. It's understanding the cruise contract and understanding that itineraries can and will be changed.

60 days for Rockstars. 45 Days for Sailors. Since you've sailed on VV previously you should have known that your dining options were going to be slim to nil via the app booking 37 days out. All dining reservations are generally gone the day after the 45 day mark. It's great to score the 'best price available' 37 days out, but you know that booking that late on any cruise line will leave you limited options when it comes to reservations. That comes with the territory.

I would not book a flight earlier than noon from Athens. You need to get there from the port and that's about an hour away. Then security lines, etc... Maybe 1p might be better.

There is no rebate. You have to have your cruise cancelled and then rebooked to get the new fare. Any promotions that were attached to your original cruise will be replaced by the new promotions. I.e. there is no longer an included bar tab.

Not it's not a disgraceful way to treat people. It's in the cruise contract of every single cruise line that the itinerary can be changed at any time, up to and including after the cruise has started. We've had multiple itineraries changed over the years. Sometimes before the cruise, sometimes after the cruise. We know that's a possibility when we book. It's part of cruising. If there are destinations that are very important to you on any cruise, don't book the cruise. Book a land vacation instead so you're sure to be able to spend time where you want to.

A great reason to use a TA. They can book the dinners for you so you don't have to deal with the app. 🙂 Hopefully within a year or so the new pier and terminal will be built making that process much better. YAAAAAAAAASSSSS!!! Carlos is THE BEST! We've sailed with her three times now and even had dinner with her one night in Gunbae. Just THE BEST! I hope you saw her one woman caberet show on the final night in On The Rocks (if she did it) That's our favorite show onboard. In my opinion the Cheeky Corner Suites are the best cabins on the entire ship. Hands down. Excellent review, thanks for sharing. I find a lot of Celebrity Cruisers enjoy Virgin Voyages and vice versa. Celebrity certainly wins in the pool department, but overall the rest of the experiences can be quite similar.

We bring a Wrinkle Relaxer onboard now. Works fantastic. Spray the clothes, hang them up, hit them again if you have some stubborn wrinkles.

VV said today this is not a tease, the 'free bar' tab promotion officially ends on March 27. Not to say it won't come back as a promo from time to time, but the ongoing Bar Tab promotion is ending on March 27. Book by March 27 to get the included Bar Tab on sailing.

The rates are decent too.

Resilient Lady Barcelona to Miami: October 27 - November 10, 2024, 14 nights Barcelona > Casablanca > Gran Canaria Las Palmas > Santa Cruz de Tenerife > Miami. San Juan to Barcelona April 12 - 26, 2025, 14 nights San Juan > Santa Cruz de Tenerife > Casablanca > Palma de Mallorca > Valencia > Barcelona

I will say we've been cruising hurricane season pretty much from our first cruise since our wedding anniversary is in Sept. Most notably leaving Miami 3 days before Hurricane Irma hit St. Thomas, one of the largest Cat 5 storms in a very long time. We simply changed itineraries and had some of the best weather ever over our 11 day cruise. We've not experienced anything close to the conditions you described except this past December during all the bad storms that came through the Caribbean. Even then, it wasn't much the ships couldn't handle. 🙂 Temps in the Caribbean don't fluctuate all that much, yes it does get hotter in the summer, but in general it's pretty temperate all year. It's the humidity and water temperature that really changes. High humidity in the summer and generally December - March for the chilliest water.

Officially, the Resilient Lady repositioning cruises still don't exist. Both publicly and in the TA sites. Itineraries will probably show up officially at some point today or tonight.

Azamara and Oceania share the same R-Class ships but Oceania has more inclusions. Celebrity has amazing ships, but they tend to be more expensive overall vs. Azamara / Oceania if you add everything in.

MNVVs do not have a Pay In Full Discount. Just because you purchased it before the PIF discount was terminated does not mean you can use it today. You simply put down a deposit on a placeholder cruise, to my knowledge the PIF does not apply to placehoders.

VV really needs to run like the boutique cruise line they are and learn from the other small cruise lines instead of emulating the large cruise lines. Oceania is a great example. They rarely run the exact same itinerary twice. They only have 6 or 7 ships so even when they spend the winter season in the Caribbean they'll run 20 sailings for a single ship but each one will be completely or slightly different. The following year you might see 1 or 2 of those itineraries repeated while the rest are altered. VV has got themselves in a rut with the same itineraries running in repeat. Especially in Miami with identical itineraries going on 4 years now, but even over in the Med. When you have over 20 ships you can run the same itineraries over and over because people can choose different ships. But when you have 1, sometimes 2 ships, you need to mix up those itineraries and offer something the rest of the cruise lines don't. Adult-only and all the inclusions will get people onboard. To keep bringing them back, you need some different itineraries to break up the rut. I'm wondering how 3 ships in the Caribbean are going to do this Winter. They're banking their entire winter season on three ships running in the same region with each one competing for the same Sailors. Someone in my social feeds noted that Resilient could have sailed a Trans Pacific from Australia to go to Los Angeles for the winter, the same thing Carnival Luminosa does each year for the Alaska season. That would have been a more interesting move in my opinion to open up the west coast of the U.S. for Hawaii, Mexican Riviera and California Coastal sailings.