CruisingWalter

Last thing we saw was Q4 2025 for Brilliant Lady's arrival, but it's all conjecture until they actually put her back up for sale again. We all knew the Resilient Lady was going to be cancelled because there was no way they could go through the Red Sea right now. But I was honestly surprised at this turn of events. I can't wait to see what these 10 and 11 night itineraries are!

Get with your First Mate, this is going to be an amazing Winter 2024 - 2025 season! I'm going to try to get one of those longer itineraries myself. Resilient Lady will now reposition to her new temporary home in the Caribbean from Athens, where she’ll be sailing 7, 8, 10 and 11-night voyages from San Juan, Puerto Rico — visiting St. Maarten, St. Vincent, Colombia, and Dominica — which will be available to book on February 29th. "It's Official, Resilient Lady is coming to San Juan".  

Gunbae. If you get a dinner reservation and get seated near the window for sail away, it's a nice spot. Otherwise up on Deck 16 with a glass of champagne.

The price differences between those two categories is typically nominal. $200 or less for most sailings unless the Central is about sold out.

Those could very well be port holds from when Brilliant was originally supposed to be sailing. Port slots are purchased up to 3 years (or more) in advance and since she was supposed to sailing already, spring 2025 slots in LA make sense. VV would have purchased those slots at least a few years ago. The last tentative word we got from VV was the end of 2025 for Brilliant Lady to launch. Until VV actually releases a schedule showing Brilliant in LA, I would not get too excited yet. We're supposed to see new 2025 itineraries anytime now.

Because they run the risk of catching the edge of the channel if she simply turned right. Much safer to make the 270 spin. If you watch when some of the larger ships spin in the turning basin, you'll notice they don't just spin. They tend to slide their ships away from where Scarlet sits as they make the spin, whether she's docked there or not.

Ditto to above. Leave the Bluetooth on.

That's totally true, after almost 20 years we rarely read anything anymore. 🙂 But that's one rule we've always remembered because it can bite you in the butt with the cruise line who decides to enforce it when you show up.

It's literally the first thing in Royal Caribbean's Travel Documents FAQ. "The passport must be valid for six months after the day your cruise ends...

You have to call. If you use a TA, they can take care of it for you. Another great reason to use a TA, especially those who don't charge you for their services.

You have to consider the source. I get a LOT of great cruise information via TikTok from specific sources. Once you know who the good sources are, you follow them. Some have even built incredibly successful businesses via TT as well. 🙂

My advice is to skip The Key for now, it's pretty easy to get around. On Embarkation go to the Aquadome Market instead of the Windjammer. I particularly liked the Feta Mediterranean and GNGR Asian stations. Or go back to the Surfside Eatery for some really fun comfort food. I didn't have a chance to actually eat there but my friends onboard were raving about the hot dog cheese melt. 🙂

In general most cruise lines are not enforcing check in times. VV is one of the few that still does, so you should be fine showing up early. Maybe check out of your hotel right at 11 and head over to the port.

In the U.S., if you book directly with RCI and you see that the price has gone down, you call RCI and ask them to price adjust. Remember that it has to be your specific category that has gone down. Inside, Ocean View, Balcony and Suites have many categories within them, when the prices drop, it may not affect your specific category. If you book with a travel agent, they can check very quickly if your category is eligible for a price drop and either make the change themselves or call RCI for you. No clue what happens if you book through an online clearinghouse website. As others have noted, the rules outside the U.S. may be different.

In the beginning of the embarkation process, VV lines up all guests in 'corrals' outside the terminal in accordance with your check in time. Those corrals typically start out going to 3:00p. I would not show up much before 2:30 or 3 if you have a 4:30p check in.

It's the same rule for all cruise lines. 6 months after sailing date for all cruises, yes including closed loop cruises. VV can issue an exception, but are not required to.

It was a cluster in January. It didn't automatically connect at all or offer the premium upgrade. Then when I did get the premium upgrade it took 2 days for Sailor Services to get the charge removed.

The CDC declared the national emergency over as of May 11, 2023. There is no legal requirement for social distancing or any other protective measures beyond what the cruise lines already do. You're sailing with a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated passengers along with those who have not kept up with their boosters. You're right back to where cruising was before the pandemic. What you're describing is not shocking or different in any way to our almost 20 years of cruising. If you cruise you accept that there is a risk you may get sick due to crowding or unsanitary practices of any number of guests. It's no different than flying or taking a land based vacation. We took 6 cruises over 3 months to end 2023 into 2024. The only thing we got was a cold on our very last cruise in January. We stay up to date on the boosters, we do the best we can with sanitizers and such on board. But cruising is back to normal and has been for some time.

It's YUGE compared to the pools and vibe at the Bimini Beach Club. It's more of a destination than Bimini with all the food stalls, multiple bars and that massive, massive pool. That dual level bar is 'next level' if you will. If you really enjoy good music and a party vibe, you should like the pool. No floaties like Bimini, but it's a great pool. We were not there long enough to see if the DJ gets any sort of a party vibe going but it would not surprise me. The beach is fully man made with a private lagoon so it's a very protected water area. The cabanas are MUCH better at Hideaway than those twigs at Bimini. 🙂 The standard cabanas are close to the main pool while the swim up cabanas are further away. Two completely different spaces, you're going to like Hideaway more for some things but you'll like Bimini Beach more more for other things. I would definitely give Hideaway a shot and see what you think. Thanks for the kind words!

Independent travel agents should be able to book most any cruise. If you're talking about one of those vacation specialists from the actual cruise line, no they will not be able to book Royal Caribbean cruises.

Whether it's 'lit' or not is up to you. The setting is there, the DJ is there. It's up to you whether you want to be chill or party. When we were there the pool was heated which was great on a very chilly day.

That has been typical of many of my friends and colleagues from the UK. I personally really enjoy following his exploits and he was the reason we booked a VV cruise the very first week they went on sale. I've thought about booking one of the Celebration cruises because some friends were on last year's cruise and said it was an absolute blast.

As noted above, it will be like Miami because you are going through U.S. Customs just like Miami. Your letter in the cabin will tell you where to meet and you'll be escorted off the ship as a group and when the ship is ready, you'll be the first to board the ship. If you have the same cabin, you'll leave everything in your room.

We were disappointed by shore excursions group in the past. We started using venture ashore recently and we book independently. In four cruises with VV so far we have yet to book a Shore Thing because they are rather limited. Anything we have booked on a VV cruise has been independent.

I will say that on our Scarlet Lady cruise in January (our 4th on VV) there was a noticeable difference in the quality of the crew throughout the ship. We spent 8 nights on the Valiant Lady in November and that crew was your normal VV, attentive and outgoing crew. The Scarlet crew was less responsive and less engaging at many of the public facing locations like The Galley and The Grounds Club. Our room attendant was pleasant, but the service throughout the ship was not as 'elevated' as we had received on our first 3 sailings. Maybe because it was a 4 day sailing, but the crew was noticeably on their phones much more, looking up to do the minimum and right back to their phones. Gathering in groups to chat around The Grounds Club, Social Club Diner and food stations in The Galley giving minimal attention to the guests. It was very noticeable and different from our previous experiences on VV. VV used to have some of the best crew in the industry because they were among the highest paid. I don't know if that pay scale has remained, but it used to be well known that VV's crews were among the highest paid in the mainstream cruise industry. At least on that Scarlet 4 nighter, they didn't deliver the usual VV service. I'll be curious to see what it's like on Valiant in June with our very large group for 4 nights.